Marriage vs. rivalry and appearance vs.

prejudices

The theme of marriage is omnipresent in this book and in different forms. Readers can

distinguish between marriages already formed and future marriages. This recurrence is actually a

way of highlighting the fact that women had no other goal in life than to get married. Their lives

were determined by this event. And not only were they led by this thing which was given too

much importance, but also a struggle was created between the girls ready for marriage,

depending on their beauty, wealth and other relevant qualities at that time. In terms of

appearances and prejudices, they form a totally interesting opposite pair, and this is due to the

human characteristics that make the difference between the two concepts.

This need to be married is seen when Charlotte marries, out of spite, Mr. Collins. The

latter asked his friend to marry him but she refused. Pragmatic, Charlotte is aware of her age, her

lack of charm and the situation of her family. She regards marriage as "the only provision for

well-educated young women of small fortune" (Austen 87), and even if she does not find

happiness through her alliance, she attains at least some social success. She therefore opposes

Elizabeth, who refuses to marry a man she has no affection for and with whom she does not

imagine herself happy and fulfilled. Mrs. Bennet, however, insisted that Elizabeth agree to

marry Mr. Collins, to no avail. Her disappointment at not having placed her socially was making

her unhappy, because that was her goal in life "The business of her life was to get her daughters

married" (Austen 3). Indeed, a woman who was not married had no legal existence, and

Elizabeth's alliance with Mr. Collins would have enabled her to keep the Longbourn estate.

This is why Mrs. Bennet is tormented by the desire to marry her daughters well, even

with a bad husband. Getting married, and especially getting married well, was the only goal
attributed to women at the time. Thus, from the first lines of the novel, competition between

women is visible. When Mrs Bennet expresses her wish to marry one of her daughters to Mr

Bingley, Mr Bennet expresses his preference for Elizabeth, to which Mrs Bennet replies

negatively "Lizzy is not a bit better than the others; and I am sure she is not half so handsome as

Jane, nor half so good-humoured as Lydia" (Austen 2). It can be noticed that the rivalry between

the sisters is implicitly present and despite their attachment to each other, each is a rival to the

others. This competition between women is only the result of the limits that life has placed on

them.

Indeed, the limits of women's lives are embodied and revealed in the narrow-mindedness of

some. Mrs Bennet is the most convincing example of this, as her only concern is to marry her

daughters. So, when she learns of Mr. Bingley's arrival, she immediately sees him as a potential

husband for one of her daughters, but she cares only about his wealth and little about his identity.

The first description she gives of him is that of "a young man of large fortune from the north of

England" (Austen 1). She does not reveal her name until her husband asks her to. The redundant

words of Mrs. Bennet are that of a character of poor intelligence and uncultivated. Her daughter

Lydia looks like her, she is silly, superficial, selfish and poorly educated. Her own preoccupation

is to find a husband before her sisters, which, of course, recalls their fatal rivalry in the context of

the time. She runs away with Wickham, not caring about the dishonor she brings to her family.

These two women ended up having a bad marriage, since Mr. Bennet consoles himself for his

unhappy alliance by taking refuge in his library. As for Lydia, she heals her pain by visiting her

sisters regularly.

The author places great emphasis on these ill-matched couples and plays with oppositions.

By playing between discord and harmony, she reveals that these characters, who are not in
agreement, nevertheless agree with the society of the time. By the recurrence of the theme of

marriage and by the description of narrow-minded and unhappy female characters in their

marriages, the author describes the women of the eighteenth century, but she also criticizes their

situation, through her heroine who refuses to marry by obligation and wishes a marriage of love.

In fact, Elizabeth, who opposes the idea of conventional marriage, ends up happy, unlike the

others.

The theme of appearance was as prevalent in 18th-century English society as it is in this

work. The birth and development of feelings and social status, which are the key themes in the

novel, are closely related to appearance. The first title of the work was First Impressions. Jane

Austen thought it was adequate because it evoked the clichés of the novels that appeared in that

period that always featured love stories based on love at first sight. Pride and Prejudice is

therefore a response to these clichés. At first sight, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy do not fall in love,

but on the contrary they feel antipathy towards each other. The theme of bad judgment is thus

approached by the author. Indeed, Mr. Darcy, judging Elizabeth's appearance then thinks

something a little mean "She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me" (Austen 7).

Elizabeth, meanwhile, felt very offended, "I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified

mine" (Austen 13) and now judges Mr. Darcy proudly . Ninik Ispriyani affirms in his research

paper that "someone’s pride can cause someone else's prejudice", as it was seen in this specific

chapter.

Thus, in this novel, the appearance did not allow a rapprochement of the two characters,

but on the contrary led to the rejection of both. However, the two protagonists end up falling in

love. Elizabeth, after having read the letter of Mr. Darcy revealing to her the dishonesty of Mr.

Wickham, admits that she was stupid for not realizing it earlier "Had I been in love, I could not
have been more wretchedly blind!" (Austen 145), which is relevant, since she and Mr. Darcy are

in love with each other, but don't realize it until later, after a series of very improbable and hasty

events. The many adventures which lead the two characters to correct their impressions and their

errors of judgment are highly improbable and romanticized. Feifei Pei, Changle Fu and Xiaolin

Huang mention in their research paper that Jane Austen and Elizabeth made their readers

understand why a good marriage is based on a romantic relationship "never marry a man, whom

you don’t love, and then imagine the condition of material life after your honeymoon" (F. F. Pei

et al. 150). No relationship can be successful without trust, respect and a shared love.

The description of a world based on appearances serves the author to portray and critique

English society. One of the key places in the novel is the ball, where appearance is paramount.

Prom involves showing off and being seen. The moments of balls are capital moments in the

work, because this is where the intrigues are born. They are also the ones who allow the

characters to meet. At that time, balls had a very important social role, especially in the life of a

young girl, because they allowed to be courted in public with all honor, the first physical

connections. Its social role can be seen from the first chapter, when Mrs Bennet expresses her

wish to meet Mr Bingley at a ball. In addition, in Pride and Prejudice, these events have a strong

symbolism. Because of Mr. Darcy's refusal to dance with Elizabeth, she will judge him as

someone disdainful. It is because she agrees to dance with him in Netherfield that a break in their

mutual contempt is created. Balls also allow young girls to show off a certain facet of their

upbringing, which plays an important role in their reputation. For example, Mary makes a fool of

herself while singing at a ball. These events during which young girls tried to put themselves

forward in the hope that they would be courted also illustrate the role of foil attributed to women.

The more education a woman had, the more chances she had to find a husband.
 All in all, the four concepts are important and valid even today, but much more modified,

given that marriage is nowadays based on love, and not on material wealth. Jane Austen wrote a

very rich work, which goes through a single objective, that is marriage and which reveals all the

faults of a society.
Works Cited:

1. Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Modern Library, 1995.

2. F. F. Pei et al. "Jane Austen’s Views on Marriage in Pride and Prejudice". Advances in

Literary Study, vol. 02, no. 04, January 2014, pp.147-150.

3. Ispriyani, Ninik. "Social problems and moral values in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice".

Undergraduate thesis, Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim, 2008.