"Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen: The Marriages - compair and contrast the four marriages and explain which one you feel would be happiest

Essay by boob123High School, 11th gradeA, June 2006

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It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

This first sentence of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" couldn't have prepared the reader better for the rest of the novel.

Austen reveals details about her characters through the characters themselves i.e. through their dialogue and gossip to each other rather than her narrating about them. This then means the reader can pick up on the characters personalities by the way that they get on. The narrative voice is not very evident in the novel; this enables us to maintain our interest.

Mrs. Bennet is the mother of the five daughters whose main goal in life is to get them married. It is correct in assuming that she felt social and financial pressure to do so. Their house and money was left to Mr Bennet's nephew, Mr.

Collins, when he died. Therefore, Mrs. Bennet wanted her daughters to have financial stability elsewhere.

During the time period of this story there was very little social acceptance of women who were single their whole lives. Women had no power to earn money on their own without inheriting or marrying into good fortune so this meant if you were a woman during this period and wanted to do well in life you would need to get MARRIED!

During the novel a number of very different marriages take place concerning some of the daughters in the Bennet family, Elizabeth and Darcy, Jane and Bingley, Charlotte and Mr Collins and Lydia and Wickham.

I believe that Elizabeth and Darcy's marriage reveals the characteristics of a successful marriage and will be the happiest as I feel they are a good match. One of the characteristics their marriage has is that the feeling of...