Marriage in Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice is written by Jane Austen with the purpose of positioning us, as the readers, to share her attitudes on the importance of marriage. Austen had extremely radical views for her time. She believed that marriage should not occur on the grounds of superficial feelings, pressures to marry, or wealth and social status. The author believed that one should only marry for love. Austen uses characters as literary devices to show the readers the juxtapositioning between relationships who have married for love and relationships which have married for alternative reasons. By influencing the readers to believe that marriage should only be for love we begin to realize that it is this, and only this, which can enable the characters of the novel to be happy.
Elizabeth Bennet is a literary device used by Jane Austen to represent her values and attitudes on the importance of marrying for love. We often see the world through Elizabeth¹s eyes and we are positioned to empathize with her opinion on the absurdity of marrying for reasons other than love. Elizabeth is a free-spirited individual who differs substantially from the other female characters of the novel. Elizabeth refuses to be wed to a man to whom she does not love. Elizabeth, although often guilty of prejudice attitudes, always acknowledges and learns from her mistakes. She is a heroine.

The marriage between Darcy and Elizabeth reveals the characteristics which constitutes a successful marriage. One of these characteristics is that love cannot be brought on by appearances, and must gradually develop between the two people as they get to know one another. Darcy¹s immediate opinion of Elizabeth is that she is ³tolerable but not handsome enough to tempt me² (pg 13). Mr Darcy was not remotely attracted to Elizabeth and yet when he learns of her true personality he admits that ³My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you² (pg 157). From Darcy not being remotely tempted by Elizabeth he grows so passionate for her that he believes his love is strong enough to spend the rest of his life with her. This proves that he does not love her for his physical desires towards her but instead, he loves her for her personality. The relationship between the two characters reveals Austen¹s values on love not being centered around beauty or immediate attraction but rather, knowing the personality of your partner before you devote your life to them. Darcy and Elizabeth are amongst the few characters within the novel that marry for love. They are also among the few characters who find happiness. Austen represented her beliefs on the importance of marrying for love through Darcy and Elizabeth and uses the Darcy-Elizabeth relationship to prove to the audience that happiness in marriage can only be achieved if the couple feel love for one another.