Title: Marriage in Pride and Prejudice novel by Jane
Austen.
Thesis
Statement: Marriage, for any reasons is important.
Marriage (also called matrimony or wedlock) is a socially or ritually recognized union or legal
contract between spouses
that establishes rights and obligations between them, between them and their
children, and between them and their in-laws. The definition of marriage varies
according to different cultures, but it is principally an institution
in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged. In
some cultures, marriage is recommended or compulsory before pursuing any sexual
activity. When defined broadly, marriage is considered a cultural universal. People marry for many
reasons, including: legal, social, libidinal, emotional, financial, spiritual, and religious. Who
they marry may be influenced by socially
determined rules of incest, prescriptive
marriage rules, parental choice and individual desire. In many parts
of the world, marriages are arranged. This writing is mainly
going to explain more about marriage in Pride and Prejudice novel which is
written by Jane Austen.
There are four marriages that take place in the novel namely: Mr. Wickham and
Miss Lydia Bennet, Mr. Collins and Miss Charlotte Lucas, Mr. Bingley and Miss
Jane Bennet, Mr Darcy and Miss Elizabeth Bennet. The reason why marriage is
important in those days because if a woman did not find a good husband, she
would not have any income and she would be a burden on her family. In the
Bennet's case, if Elizabeth and her sisters did not
marry well, and their father died, then the entire estate would have been
passed to the closest male relation: Mr Collins. The
family would have been turned out onto the streets. In this novel, Jane Austen presents several
contrasting attitudes to marriage and there are four mainly attitudes to
marriage namely: the marriage for money, marriage for the satisfaction of
bodily desires, marriage based on the physical look and marriage for love. At
first, “marriage for money”, this attitude is presented through Mr. Collins and
Charlotte. Both men and women of Austen’s society have internalized the idea
that women are financially and socially dependent on men. It is very ridiculous
that in such a matter of marriage, he is considering only the “property” not his
own prudence whether the Bennet girl is fit for him or the marriage will be a
proper one. Lydia’s attitude to marriage is solely based on passion and
physical attraction. She elopes with Wickham. It is the basest among the
attitudes of the other characters. She is totally controlled by her bodily
desire and passion. As in the novel, Lydia and Wickham's marriage gradually
disintegrates. Lydia becomes a regular visitor at her two elder sisters’ home
and “her husband was gone to enjoy himself in London. Jane Bennet is the
eldest Bennet daughter; she is kind, considerate, intelligent, beautiful, good
with children, and, apparently, each parent's second favorite. Although she wants to marry Mr. Bennet for love, she realizes that, as the oldest daughter, it
is her responsibility to marry well, to secure the future of her younger
sisters. Not only does she think that there needs to be attraction on both
sides, she accounts for suitable temperaments as well. The relationship between
Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy in this novel is often cited as one of the
greatest love stories of all time because of the obstacles that the two have to
overcome in order to be together. When
Mr. Collins proposes to Elizabeth, he presumes that she is not in a position to
reject him, for his standing in society has made him quite an eligible husband.
Alternatively, Elizabeth clearly has a very different thought to him: “You
could not make me happy.” Actually it is Elizabeth through which Austen’s on
views on marriage are clearly expressed. As Elizabeth believes that the basis
for marriage should be happiness and love, not money. She is uncertain of the
lasting qualities of passionate love and convinced that it is not a strong
enough basis for marriage. It is based on mutual esteem, respect and gratitude,
and it arises from a clear sighted understanding of the other’s character. So,
she does not care about Collins’s wealth and thinks that their marriage would
be a bad one because they are not attracted to each other. From Darcy and
Elizabeth’s character we understand that this two people are very different,
and their relationships are “rationally founded”, based on “excellent
understanding” and “general similarity of feeling and taste.”
As we have known that marriage, for
any reason is importance. Everyone has their own reason for why they have got
married. Their reason can be possibly very different among the others. There are four different marriages in the
Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. She
explains those marriages in an interesting way. We can see that each marriage
contains different story.
The first marriage which is shown in
the novel is between Mr. Collins and Charlotte Lucas. This marriage is very
fascinating because it represents non-ideal marriage. The marriage between Mr.
Collins and Charlotte Lucas represents two things, from Mr. Collins’ side and
Charlotte’s side. From Charlotte’s side, she accepts Mr. Collins just for
financial and social status purposes.
Those reasons for marrying can also
be seen in our environment nowadays. We sometime even often see woman decides
to get married with man whom she does not love at all but he has well financial
to gain. She is afraid of being hunger and suffer if she does not get enough
financial and she can’t satisfy her desires. And also she is afraid if she has
not good social status in her society that makes them embarrassed.
It is important to consider about
our financial future, but it is more important to get peaceful and happy life.
It is impossible to get peaceful life when we are live together with someone
whom we are not love. It is important to be with someone who can share love
with us. Because financial is not the only guarantee to get a peaceful life.
Different from Charlotte’s reasons,
Mr. Collins has his own reason. He decides to get married just because of advice
from his sponsor Lady Catherine de Bourgh. He does not have good reason for
getting married. He is an absurd person. He firstly interests to Jane, but when
he knows that Jane will soon engage he move his choice to Elizabeth. And when
Elizabeth declines his proposal he chooses Charlotte as there are no other
options. The most important thing for him is that he gets married no matter who
the girl is. It is very ridiculous because marriage should be based on love and
feeling.
What happen to Mr. Collins gives us
lesson which is we should find a right woman that we love to share with then
think careful to decide to get married. And the other lesson is from Charlotte
which is that financial is important but it is not the main or the only reason.
The next marriage is between Wickham
and Lidya. Their marriage also does not based on love. Wickham is marrying
Lidya because he is offered money from Mr. Darcy. Like Charlotte, he also gets
married because of money. And Lidya wants to get married because of sexual
desire. She is young and has little experiences. She does not have good
thought. She just wants to be with the charming man especially he is a military
soldier.
We also can see this kind of
marriage nowadays. Many girls are trapped in sexual desire. They can’t control
that feeling. It gives us advice that we as a young man must learn how to
respect ourselves and to protect us with knowledge and norms that rule the
society. Don’t let this sexual desire, especially for us as a young man
controls us because we have customs and norms that we must obey.
The other kind of marriage in this novel is the
marriage between Darcy and Elizabeth. This is the main idea that Jane Austen
wanted to share with the readers. Their relationship has passed through
struggle of pride versus prejudice, the pride of Darcy and the prejudice of
Elizabeth. Love is the only one reason how they developed their relationship
compared to the others relations on the novel. They have not married simply for
social acceptance, like Charlotte and Collins marriage or for sexual desire,
like Lydia and Wickham. They are truly in love with each other. This is
something that could never be replaced with other motives of marriage. While pleasure,
money, or sexual desire can simply disappear, love lasts forever. Marriage
should make both of couple feeling happy and loved, no other purposes including
for financial purposes.
Both Darcy and Elizabeth is a union of
different aspects of characters. Darcy with his proudness and Elizabeth with
her prejudice is a kind of different personal character, but the love has built
a bridge between their different characters. People often look for a partner
who has the same characteristic with their own. This practice was happened with
the marriage of Lydia and Wickham. They had the same purpose of marriage and
what happened to their marriage give a proof that sometime same-character
marriage does not really create happiness.
While the other relationship does not really
have a happy ending, Elizabeth and Darcy marriage which contained with respect
and love makes their marriage has a happy ending in the story. Something that
cannot be compared with the other purpose of marriage.
In the end of this writing, we take a
conclusion that marriage, however in the nineteenth century is just such an
option for the women to still survive their lives. But in the other hands,
Elizabeth can deny it by portraying the honest characteristic and she chooses
to marry the man she loves most is solely based on true love and she is also
learn by her mistakes to get a perfect marriage.
Written by:
Arlantino
Oldry Ronald
Afik
Kuncoro
