Love & Marriage

One main theme of the story Pride & Prejudice is about what most human beings find utterly important to their lives, Love & Marriage. In the story, Jane Austen reflects three different natures of marriages. Initially, marriage represents, as well as results, from love. As seen in this novel, which is one of the most “cherished love stories in English literature,” love between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy was growing gradually from the feeling of hatred and prejudice to the point of being helplessly in love. At the end of the story, their marriage flourishes and the couple lived happily ever after. This shows that happy marriage is the son of love—love that cannot be brought on by appearance but by time with the growing of mutual understanding. This nature of marriage is also true to Jane and Bingley, between whom love was strongly shared.

Besides, love is not always the reason to why people decide to get marriage, as indicated in the novel. Marriage can happen by just the reason of appearance and attractiveness. One example of this type of marriage can be one between Lydia and Wickham. Lydia fell for him and decided to elope with Wickham, whom she saw as an attractive man. This appearance-based marriage can turn out to be unhappy and disastrous. Early in the marriage, Lydia got a lot of care from her husband, but after that, their relationship grew weaker and weaker, slowly fading away. This case is also true to Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. He married her because of her quality of sexually attractiveness, not because of her intelligence or sensibility. As a result, in the story, Mr. Bennet was described as not living a very happy life, partly because he felt ashamed by his wife’s and some of his daughter’s foolishness.

Lastly, there is also a kind of marriage that is based on economics, based on money. Women, such as Charlotte Lucus, decide to have a husband as they wish to avoid spinsterhood and to gain financial security. Charlotte did not have love for Collins, but since Collins had money, house, etc, she readily took the chance and agreed to his proposal. Despite the financial security that she gained after marriage, there was a great lacking of love and happiness in the family, which was nothing but suffering.

Therefore, there are two conclusions that can be made out of this love and marriage theme discussed in the novel. First, a happy and strong marriage takes time to build and must be based on mutual feeling, understanding, and respect. Second, hasty marriages acting on impulse and based on superficial qualities will not survive and will result in inescapable unhappiness.