Pride and Prejudice: Blog Response #3

What should marriage be based on? Appearance? Social status? Stability? Love? Jane Austen explores this topic through her novel Pride and Prejudice by managing to include all types of marriages. Her criticism towards marriage based on superficiality leads her to conclude that marriage should be based on love. There are seven different marriages presented in the novel. Excluding the Gardiner and the Lucas, the remaining five marriages contrasts each other to reveal Austen’s opinions and thoughts on the subject of marriage.

The marriage between Darcy and Elizabeth reveals the characteristics, which constitutes a successful marriage. One of these characteristics is that the feeling cannot be brought on by appearances, and must gradually develop between the two people as they get to know one another. In the beginning, Elizabeth and Darcy were distant from each other because of their prejudice. The series of events, which they both experienced, gave them the opportunity to understand one another and the time to reconcile their feelings for each other. Thus, their mutual understanding is the foundation of their relationship and led them to a peaceful and lasting marriage. This relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy reveals the importance of getting to know one’s partner before marrying.

The marriage between Jane Bennet and Bingley is also an example of successful marriage. Jane Austen, through Elizabeth, expresses her opinion of this in the novel: "....really believed all his [Bingley] expectations of felicity, to be rationally founded, because they had for basis the excellent understanding, and super-excellent disposition of Jane, and a general similarity of feeling and taste between her and himself"(55). However, unlike Darcy and Elizabeth, there is a flaw in their relationship. The flaw is that both characters are too gullible and too good-hearted to ever act strongly against external forces that may attempt to separate them: "You [Jane and Bingley] are each of you so complying, that nothing will ever be resolved on; so easy, that every servant will cheat you; and so generous, that you will always exceed your income" (55).

Obviously, Lydia and Wickham’s marriage is an example of a bad marriage. Their marriage was based on appearances, good looks, and youthful vivacity. Once these qualities can no longer be seen by each other, the once strong relationship will slowly fade away. As in the novel, Lydia and Wickham’s marriage gradually disintegrates; Lydia becomes a regular visitor at her two elder sister’s homes when "her husband was gone to enjoy himself in London or Bath." Through their relationship, Jane Austen shows that hasty marriage based on superficial qualities quickly cools and leads to unhappiness.

Although little is told of how Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Bennet got together, it can be inferred by their conversions that their relationship was similar to that of Lydia and Wickham - Mr. Bennet had married a woman he found sexually attractive without realizing she was an unintelligent woman. Mrs. Bennet’s favoritism towards Lydia and her comments on how she was once as energetic as Lydia reveals this similarity. Mr. Bennet’s comment on Wickham being his favorite son-in-law reinforces this parallelism. The effect of the relationships was that Mr. Bennet would isolate himself from his family; he found refugee in his library or in mocking his wife. Mr. Bennet’s self-realization at the end of the novel, where he discovers that his lack of attention towards his family had led his family to develop the way they are, was too late to save his family. He is Jane Austen’s example of a weak father. In these two latter relationships, Austen shows that it is necessary to use good judgment to select a spouse; otherwise the two people will lose respect for each other.

The last example of a marriage is of a different nature than the ones mentioned above. The marriage between Mr. Collins and Charlotte is based on economics rather than on love or appearance. It was a common practice during Austen’s time for women to marry a husband to save herself from spinsterhood or to gain financial security. However, Jane Austen viewed this as a type of prostitution and disapproved of it. In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen dramatizes this form of women inequality and show that women who submits themselves to this type of marriage will have to suffer in tormenting silence as Charlotte does, "When Mr. Collins said any thing of which his wife might reasonably be ashamed, which certainly was not unseldom, she [Elizabeth] would involuntarily turned her eye on Charlotte. Once or twice she could discern a faint blush; but in general Charlotte wisely did not hear” (28).

In Pride and Prejudice, Jane has denounced the elements of marriage and society that she found distasteful. The five marriages mentioned above contribute to the theme that a happy and strong marriage takes time to build and must be based on mutual feeling, understanding, and respect. Hasty marriages acting on impulse, and based on superficial qualities will not survive and will lead to inevitable unhappiness.

Pride and Prejudice: Blog Response #2

Jane Austen, the author of Pride and Prejudice, definitely has a unique way of writing. She uses a light, satirical tone throughout the novel to express her opinion on the mercenary and the ignorance of people concerning social status. Although she does some obvious mockery through characters such as Mrs. Bennet, Mr. Collins, and Lydia, the one that caught my eye was the first sentence of the novel: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." Already by the first sentence, Austen accomplished introducing the subject of the novel. In this statement, she has cleverly done three things: she has declared that the main subject of the novel will be courtship and marriage, she has established the humorous tone of the novel by taking a simple subject to elaborate and to speak intelligently of, and she has prepared the reader for a chase in the novel of either a husband in search of a wife, or a woman in pursuit of a husband. The first line also defines Jane’s book as a piece of literature that connects itself to the 18^th century period. Pride and Prejudice is associated with the 18^th century because of the emphasis on man in his social environment rather than in his individual conditions. The use of satire and wit, a common form of 18^th century literature, also contributes to label the book as 18^th century. However, because Jane Austen had allowed personal feelings of the characters to be expressed in her work, she can also be classified as Romantic. In the figure of Elizabeth, Jane Austen shows passion attempting to find a valid mode of existence in society. Passion and reasons also comes together in the novel to show that they are complementary of marriage.

*The connection between the novel and the time when it was written was first brought up during the Literature Circle.

Pride and Prejudice: Blog Response #1

The Great Gatsby and Pride and Prejudice share some common themes – most prominent are the role of social class and materialism. Meanwhile, these two elements are also factors that affect the main characters’ consideration for their marriages. For example, Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice is afraid of being gossiped by others of marrying a higher class and Mr. Darcy is afraid of degrading himself by marrying someone from a lower class. Likewise, Daisy in the Great Gatsby married Tom just because he is relatively affluent. These characters illustrate the importance of keeping sublime status of nobility by avoiding intermarriage with commoners and by having a comfortable life with abundant wealth in the past.

 In both novels, one can see how a society is ruled by wealth and power. People strived to attach to the dignitaries to gain more benefits and Mrs. Bennet is no exception. She is interested in letting one of her daughters marry Mr. Bingley just because she had heard he is wealthy despite the fact that she knows nothing about his character. 

                  “What is his name?”                “Bingley.”“Is he married or single?”              “Oh! single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!”               “How so? How can it affect them?”“My dear Mr. Bennet,” replied his wife, “how can you be so tiresome! You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them.” (p.6, Pride and Prejudice)

 This not only reflects Mrs. Bennet’s desire to marry her girls for money, but the importance of wealth and stability in a society in general. Mrs. Bennet is just one of the many characters in the novel who wants her children to improve their social status or to simply give others the impression that they are from a high society.

 In order to meet Mr. Bingley, they went to the Netherfield Ball. It is a social event that both nobilities and middle class participated. Mrs. Bennet forced her daughters to participate to meet gentlemen. It is an only way for women to speak to men they want to know in the conservative society. 

“The evening altogether passed off pleasantly to the whole family. Mrs. Bennet had seen her eldest daughter much admired by the Netherfield party. Mr. Bingley had danced with her twice, and she had been distinguished by his sisters. Jane was as much gratified by this as her mother could be, though in a quieter way. Elizabeth felt Jane’s pleasure." (p.13, Pride and Prejudice) 

Mrs. Bennet is happy that Jane is admired by Mr. Bingley who is well off because she thinks Mr.Bingley is possibly going to marry Jane such that Mrs. Bennet relieves on Jane’s life. A good marriage can decide a woman‘s life. Whether it will be prosperous or suffering depends on their husbands as women rarely work at that time. 

 In the Great Gatsby, the vogue of marrying to the wealth exists too. Daisy’s marriage is a perfect example. She is reluctant to marry Tom. Tom acts as her safe path to keep her honor and quality of life because he is rich. 

               “She began to cry – she cried and cried. I rushed out and found her mother’s maid, and we locked the door and got her into a cold bath. She wouldn’t let go of the letter. She took it into the tub with her and squeezed it up into a wet ball, and only let me leave it in the soap-dish when she saw that it was coming to pieces like snow." (p.76, Great Gatsby) 

She is drunk because she is unhappy and confused. She reveals herself on indecision on the wedding day when she sees the letter from poor Gatsby. She is still in love with Gatsby. Her heart is separated into two parts: a part tempting her to follow her strong feeling to Gatsby, another part urging her to be realistic by marrying Tom to keep superior social and financial status. At last she chose the later action. This reflects that Daisy is in love with money more than Gatsby.

While Daisy gives up Gatsby due to his poverty, even when Gatsby becomes very wealthy, he is still being disdained. 

                "I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife. Well, if that’s the idea you can count me out […] Nowadays people begin by sneering at family life and family institutions, and next they’ll throw everything overboard and have intermarriage between black and white.”(p.130, Great Gastby) 

It is so sarcastic when Tom looks down upon Gatsby because of his impoverishment and class, not of having a relationship with his wife. This indicates that he cares more his high status than his wife. Daisy is just a complement and a performance tool in his rich life. Wealthy people get the most beautiful and ascendant women. He also describes discriminately the difference of classes as the difference between races, which demonstrates the solid concept of aristocracy dominance in the wealthy world. Gatsby’s new money earned from the New World is regarded as nothing. He gains no reputation or power, such that he is called Mr. Nobody.

 While Great Gatsby and Pride and Prejudice have common themes, their settings were completely different. Great Gatsby is based on the US during the Roaring Twenties. There was a crash between conventional middle class and the rising of newly rich people who are motivated by the American dream. People strived to improve their lives by creating possibilities through hardship and fortune. They had more financial freedom such as earning money from the stock market and buying on credit. Pre-war values like hypocrisy and utilitarianism were overlooked. On the other hand, Pride and Prejudice is based on the old feudal society. There was clear class gradation. People from the lower class could hardly climb the social ladder. This formed a vicious cycle of poverty for the large population of the poor. One’s social status depended on the number of lands one had.