Love in Pride and Prejudice Essay

Marriage in England in the nineteenth century is much different than it is in today’s world. Almost everyone wants to marry for love and happiness. During this period of time, beautiful women would marry a man because he is rich or the opposite. A nice looking man would marry a woman because she comes from wealth. Love is left out of these marriages. Some thought they would soon develop love along the years. Mrs. Bennet’s main priority throughout the book was to make sure here five daughters were married to a rich suitor. Money was the main concerns for her not love. Her marriage was based on the principle of monetary gain. She thought her daughters would not be able to survive if they remained unmarried. For any woman of her time marriage on any terms was often the only getaway from a miserable life of poverty. Elizabeth did not want to marry for money. She wanted to marry for love. She turned her first proposal down from Mr. Collins because she had no feelings for him. Elizabeth shows a lot of pride throughout the book. Even though her family was not of upper class, she still held her head high with pride. She is a middle class woman who wants to be treated the same by every one no matter who it is. She believes herself to be good enough for any man. When she first meets Mr. Darcy, she says that he is very attractive. Prejudice blinds her and leads to false opinions of Mr. Darcy. She overhears him say, â€Å"She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me. † Darcy is very blinded by his inferior standards. Jane Bennet and Mr. Bingley are happy when they are together. Mrs. Bennet was so sure they would marry within months. They were so shocked to hear that he had left town so suddenly. Mr. Darcy breaks them up before their relationship could get as far as marriage. He didn’t honestly believe that Jane was truly in love with his good friend Mr. Bingley. Elizabeth believes that he did this because of his prejudice for the lower class. Mr. Darcy believed that Jane was only after his money. Jane is very broken up over Mr. Bingley leaving town. They both loved one another. Mr. Darcy later writes a letter to Elizabeth, explaining the real reason why he broke them up. After reading his letter, she begins to understand the pride that Mr. Darcy has for himself. This is where she begins to have feelings for him. Her youngest sister Lydia runs away and marries Mr. Wickham. Soon Jane and Mr. Bingley reunite and he proposes to her. Elizabeth finds out that Mr. Darcy had bribed Mr. Wickham to marry her sister. She soon realizes Mr. Darcy isn’t a bad person after all. He is a great person and a romantic at heart. After his second proposal to Elizabeth she agrees to marry him, not for money but for love. Happiness does not come from a marriage based on money.