Marriages in the book essay!

[ALC]

Hi guys,

I'm in desperate need of some help with my pride and prejudice text essay.
Here's the topic: "Which marriages does Jane Austen condemn and for which does she offer some hope of success?"

Note: I don't want people to write the essay for me, I would just like some help

Thanks, Manda

[sciencefan]

Hi guys,

I'm in desperate need of some help with my pride and prejudice text essay.
Here's the topic: "Which marriages does Jane Austen condemn and for which does she offer some hope of success?"

Note: I don't want people to write the essay for me, I would just like some help

Thanks, MandaI think most people would agree that Austen condemns the marriage of Wickham and Lydia.
In the last chapter of the book, she discusses how they never have any money, and they're always moving from place to place and mooching off of their relatives.
They don't have a settled and stable life.

I don't personally believe Austen "condemns" the marriage between Mr. Collins and Charlotte, but it's not ideal either.
Elizabeth didn't approve of the way Charlotte looked at marriage as a financial situation first.
Mr. Collins looked at it that way also.
There is a place where Charlotte explains to Elizabeth that she has just as good a chance of happiness with Mr. Collins as with anyone else.
And in those days, where arranged marriages were the norm, I believe her.

Look how Elizabeth BEGS her father not to MAKE her marry Mr. Collins.
Such bad matches happened all the time in those days, I think.

The two happiest marriages in the book are Elizabeth and Darcy, and Jane and Bingley.
The last chapter describes their happy relationships a little bit.
You might want to quote Mr. Bennett (in a different chapter) who says something about how Bingley and Jane are both so compliant that they will be cheated by their servants etc.

One thing I want to point out to you is that Austen seems to think that "similarity" makes good marriage partners.
I personally believe opposites attract because they complement each other.

On this website you can search the entire text of P & P.
It makes quote searching easy.

I wish you good success.

If you need any more help, let us know.

Oh, I just remembered, Austen condemns the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Bennett, perhaps even more harshly than Charlotte's.
Find the place where she describes how they met.

[bookworm22]

Yes. Austen kept with the term similarity in taste and in other things, according to her people had to be in the same channel, alike by mere magic or stuff wouldnt work out, like in the marriages you point out!

[peng87]

'I made up my mind to save my friend from what I considered would be a most unhappy marriage,' wrote Darcy.Should people interfere in their friends'love lives? Why, or why not?

This is my individual presentation question....who can help me?

[peng87]

Which of the four marriages in this story will be the most successful, and the least successful? Explain why you think this.

[sciencefan]

Which of the four marriages in this story will be the most successful, and the least successful? Explain why you think this.
These are the four new marriages:
Charlotte & Mr. Collins
Lydia & Wickham
Elizabeth & Darcy
Jane & Bingley

Jane Austen gives us the idea that these will be the least happy:
Charlotte & Mr. Collins and Lydia & Wickham

And these will be the most happy:
Elizabeth & Darcy and Jane & Bingley

Charlotte married for financial security. She doesn’t believe in marrying for love, since people can change. Mr. Collins married primarily for the social approval as it sets a good example in his parish and his benefactress, Lady C. asked him to do it. Personally, I don’t think this marriage is as bad as some others might think. Marriage isn’t always as rosy as they make it out to be in the movies. These two are also very similar in business-like logical temperament and I think they will find a way to get along with each other. By the end of the book, there is “an olive branch on the way”.

Lydia just wanted the social status of being a married woman even at the cost of the respectability of her family. Wickham married because he was bribed into it. He is a scoundrel. In the last chapter of the book we find they have no stability in their lives and mooch off Lydia’s sisters.

Elizabeth will not marry for financial security as we discover when she turns down Mr. Collins. She will only marry someone she can respect. She is grateful to Darcy for all he has done for her. He mortified his own pride to do all that he sacrificed for her. Darcy is attracted to Elizabeth’s “fine eyes” and then later, to her impertinence toward him.

Jane thinks Bingley is “just what a young man ought to be”. Bingley thinks Jane is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. Jane’s parents think they are similar in their easy-going temperaments and that they will be happy together.

[sciencefan]

'I made up my mind to save my friend from what I considered would be a most unhappy marriage,' wrote Darcy. Should people interfere in their friends' love lives? Why, or why not?

This is my individual presentation question....who can help me?As Darcy proved by being wrong about Jane, we cannot always be the best judge on someone else’s behalf.

There is a lot more to human relationships than we understand.
I love that line from Sleepless in Seattle:
“Love is when your subconscious is attracted to someone else’s subconscious, subconsciously.”

Darcy wasn’t coming from a place of love and care either.
He was coming from a place of pride and snobbishness since it was mostly the scandalous behavior of her family and their “low connections” that was the main turn-off.

However, I want to add that if a person is wise, they will seek the opinion of others.
If a person has a collection of friends, brothers and sisters, and their parents all telling them they are making a big mistake, perhaps it would be wise to pay attention.

[Mrs. Dalloway]

The topic of marriage is represented in the novel by four marriages: the marriage of Mr. Bingley with Jane Bennet, Mr. Darcy with Elizabeth Bennet, Wickham with Lydia Bennet, and finally, Charlotte Lucas with Mr. Collins. Other significant couple is Mrs. Bennet and Mr. Bennet. Throughout the novel these different relationships developed and led to the conclusion that most of these marriages will not succeed.

I think that the marriage of Elizabeth and Darcy may be the "perfect" one but there are some things in the novel that make me think that even this marriage wouldn't be successful at all... One of these things is that at the begining of Volume III Elizabeth thinks that "to be the mistress of Pemberley might be something" when she look at Darcy's house. May it mean that Elizabeth also thinks about money? Before that quote I thought Elizabeth doesn't care about money but why does she say that? So, I think the "perfect marriage" is not made just of pure love or understanding but for money and power.

So, If you agree that the marriage of Elizabeth and Darcy is totally perfect, you should say why and compare with the other couples.

As well as Mr. Collins, Charlotte was not in love with him. Charlotte chooses to marry him in order to survive. She is aware that marriage and happiness are not always related (as you can see in the novel because she says it in chapter VI...). I also think that the fact that Elizabeth doesn't agree with their marriage is very important. Elizabeth is the main character of the novel, so maybe the fact that she doesn't agree with the marriage may mean that they marriage won't be successful. But there are other things to consider, as for example Elizabeth went to visit Charlotte in her "new" home and the only thing she found to show Charlotte's happiness is how good is the house she lives in. Isn't it a materialistic way to define happiness?

The marriage of Bingley and Jane is not clear at all... They seem to be happy but since the first page of the novel we see that Bingley is the economic salvation of the Bennets. Besides, their relationship is controlled by others: Bingley leaved Jane because Darcy said to him and Jane accepted the fact that Bingley likes her for her beauty and her mother wants to marry them. There is no reason which can avoid thinking that Jane would have accepted Mr. Collins as a husband if he had appeared before Bingley in the novel. It is not clear that Jane loves Bingley and not marries him in order to save the economy of her family. The only function that this relationship seems to have is to introduce Elizabeth and Darcy and to contribute to the development of their relationship.

The situation that takes Lydia to marry may be a warning to her unhappiness future. Wickham and Lydia do not marry for money but physical attraction. They are not happy and they do not have money. So you can see they won't be happy. Their relationship may become the same relationship that the one of Mr Bennet and Mrs Bennet.

The indications of weakness of the other marriages lead to think that it is the perfect one and gives emphasis to the perfection of Elizabeth & Darcy's marriage. But I still think that even this marriage is not so clear... What do you think? :thumbs_up

[peng87]

Thank Mrs.Dalloway