| Pride and Prejudice coursework; Since my printer isn't working | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 6 2008, 08:11 AM (205 Views) | |
| Calum | Mar 6 2008, 08:11 AM Post #1 |
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“Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance” - Charlotte Lucas. With references to marriages in Pride and Prejudice, discuss how far you agree with this statement. ‘Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance’ - so says Charlotte Lucas when discussing her decision to wed Mr Collins. However, is this really the case, and do the marriages in Pride and Prejudice concur with this statement? Firstly, it must be remembered that the novel was published in the nineteenth century. Society at this time had different morals and values than today’s society. Today, around one in three marriages end in divorce. It has become common place in modern day society. However, in Jane Austen’s time, divorce was frowned upon in society, so it was very rarely practiced. Therefore when you agreed to marry someone, you really were agreeing to spend the rest of your life with them. Furthermore, in Austen’s society, the estate of a gentleman was usually entailed to his nearest male relative, meaning that if he had no sons, his daughters were left with very little money. As a result of this, “caring” mothers such as Mrs Bennet would put all her efforts into arranging marriages for her daughters, preferably to ’single men in possession of a good fortune’. Today, it is rare to see a parent playing such an instrumental role in marriages, and therefore more marriages take place because of love and fewer because of chance. Baring this in mind, how do we judge ‘happiness in marriage’? It is often difficult to state what is a happy marriage and what isn’t. Today it’s easy to say ‘a successful marriage is one which lasts a certain length of time’, but as mentioned, in a society without divorce this is much more difficult to judge. Throughout the novel, different characters have differing opinions and varying standards on how to judge the relative success of a marriage, and therefore all the marriages in the novel tend to take place for different reasons. It is obvious, then, that said marriages are likely to have different consequences and when the marriages that take place are assessed closely, this proves to be true. Charlotte Lucas believes that ‘happiness in marriage is…a matter of chance’, and indeed chance is the main factor behind her marriage to Mr Collins. He comes to Merryton with the intention of leaving with a wife and it is only when he fails to secure Lizzy that his sights turn to Charlotte. Although she isn’t in love with Mr Collins, she sees herself marrying him as the ‘prudent’ option - “Charlotte’s kindness…was nothing less than to secure her from any return of Mr Collins’ addresses by attracting them towards herself’. She is actually willing to listen attentively to what Mr Collins says, thereby showing him more respect than the majority of characters in the novel. At first Elizabeth puts this down to her kindness, but she soon realises that Charlotte sees him as a potential marriage partner. Charlotte isn’t interested in whether or not Mr Collins loves her, she only desires the “establishment of marriage”. In stark contrast, Lizzy jokes that she will most likely end up “an old maid” because of her fussiness in choosing a man she would wish to wed. There is a big difference in attitude between Charlotte, who is desperate for marriage and would marry a man she didn’t have any real feelings for, and Elizabeth, who would be quite content to live by herself for the rest of her life unless she really loved the man who proposed to her. We later see Charlotte living with Mr Collins, and it is apparent that they are not very happy whilst in each other’s company. When Lizzy arrives at the Parsonage, Charlotte welcomes her “with the liveliest pleasure”. This shows that Charlotte is evidently delighted for someone else to spend time with. It also seems obvious that Charlotte is embarrassed by her husband occasionally, however she tries to cover it up - ‘once or twice she could discern a faint blush’. She enjoys showing her friends around the house without Mr Collins there. Austen states that : ‘When Mr Collins could be forgotten, there was really a great air of enjoyment throughout, and by Charlotte’s evident enjoyment of it, Elizabeth supposed he must be often forgotten’ In my opinion this quote sums up their marriage. Charlotte is content to live with Mr Collins but doesn’t wish to spend a great deal of time with him, and he feels the same way in return. A marriage of this sort could be described as ‘prudent’, but by no means happy. If happiness in marriage is indeed a matter of chance, then chance has let Charlotte down in this case. Mrs Bennet’s policy is marriage at all costs, and she believes that one is happier being married to almost anyone than not being married at all. She doesn’t much care who her daughters marry or in what circumstances. This is why she is so frustrated when Elizabeth refuses Mr Collins’ proposal, even vowing “I will never see her again”. She also assures Mr Collins that “Lizzy shall be brought to reason”. In reality, Lizzy marrying Mr Collins would have been extremely unreasonable - marriage for the sake of marriage, and Lizzy’s reasons for turning him down are very reasonable: “You could not make me happy, and I am convinced that I am the last woman in the world who would make you so…I thank you again and again for the honour you have done me in your proposals, but to accept them is absolutely impossible. My feelings in every respect forbid it”. Elizabeth’s statement shows that she has very different views in comparison to her mother. She is very calm and intelligible, yet Mrs Bennet is so blinded by her hast to get all of her daughters married that she fails to recognise that Lizzy made the only sensible decision, which was to reject Mr Collins’ offer. Mrs Bennet is so keen on expressing her views that her foolishness does only just affect the thoughts of her daughters; additionally it affects her relationship with her husband. It is made very clear to us from the beginning of the novel that Mr and Mrs Bennet do not have a good relationship. According to descriptions of the two Austen makes in the first chapter; “Mr Bennet was so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, reserve, and caprice, that the experience of three and twenty years had been insufficient to make his wife understand his character. Her mind was less difficult to develope. She was a woman of mean understanding, little information and uncertain temper. When she was discontented she fancied herself nervous”. From these character descriptions alone we can tell that the two are unlikely to be the happiest of couples. He seems intelligent and quick witted while she is over opinionated and self centred. As the quote indicates, despite the fact that they have been married for twenty three years, she still does not fully understand his character. This would imply that the two do not spend much time together on a daily basis. Another point to make about them is that they have a relationship with many ups and downs. Even seemingly small actions by Mr Bennet can change his wife’s opinion of him entirely. A good example of this is when he visits Mr Bingley without his wife’s knowledge. She tells him he has ‘no compassion on my poor nerves’, yet when he breaks the news of his visit to him, she refers to him as ‘an excellent father’. Whilst Elizabeth and Mr Darcy do have their ups and downs when they first meet, for the time after she accepts her proposal they have no such disagreements. Despite the fact that Elizabeth and Mrs Bennet differ so much, her younger sister Lydia is very similar in character to her mother. Lydia is extremely naïve and believes that it’s easy to find a husband simply by flirting with enough men. This explains why she’s so obsessed with the militia, and indicates why Lizzy and Jane are ‘embarrassed’ by her. Like her mother, Lydia desires marriage more than anything else - ‘I should like to be married before any of you, and then I would chaperon you about to all the balls’ - she doesn’t want to be married because of love, but for trivial factors like chaperoning her older sisters and feeling superior to them. Elizabeth mentions her ‘complete’ man in the early chapters - ‘sensible, good humoured, lively, well bred and handsome’. The only one of these factors Lydia cares about is the last, and that is why ultimately she ends up disgracing her family. Lydia’s ’misery is extreme’ when she hears the militia are leaving for Brighton, but is delighted to find out she can go too - another character flaw she shares with her mother; becoming overly depressed when things don’t go her way and all too happy when they do. According to Jane Austen: “In Lydia’s imagination, a visit to Brighton comprised every possibility of earthly happiness. She saw herself the object of attention, to tens and to scores of them (officers) at present unknown…she saw herself seated beneath a tent, tenderly flirting with at least six officers at once”. This quote is meant to show how naïve Lydia actually is and how wrong her judgements can be, much like Mrs Bennet, but very unlike Elizabeth, who in fact attempts to persuade her father into forbidding Lydia from going. It is because of this naivety and foolishness that she Lydia gets drawn in by Wickham. When the Bennets finally see her and Wickham together, it is clear that “Wickham’s affection for Lydia…was not equal to Lydia’s for him”. Lydia is not marrying him for love, but to prevent her family suffering further embarrassment. Lydia is probably the only character in the novel who would be judged the same by society today as in Jane Austen’s time: both would find her behaviour ill advised and unacceptable. Elizabeth’s marriage to Mr Darcy is the unique marriage in the novel. It is the marriage which takes place primarily for love. It is a love which has overcome the obstacles put before their relationship - namely Elizabeth’s prejudice and Mr Darcy’s pride. When they realise that they love each other, they get on much better together than any other marriage partners in the novel. The fact that Elizabeth originally refuses Mr Darcy’s offers shows that she marries him by choice; not by chance, like Charlotte, because she’s forced to, like Lydia, or for the sake of getting married, like her mother. “The happiness which this reply produced was such as he had probably never felt before” - this tells us that Elizabeth accepting his second proposal has made Darcy the happiest he could ever be and really illustrates his love for her. Elizabeth says ‘we shall be the happiest couple in the world’ - even in Jane Austen’s time, happiness was allied with love. In conclusion, I believe that chance does play a part in the happiness of marriages, but it is difficult to be truly happy in the state of marriage if love does not exist in the first place. |
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7:27 PM Jul 11