Pride and Prejudice: Courtship

When reading Jane Austin’s, Pride and Prejudice, I noticed that marriage and love seemed to be the driving themes in the story, but what I found most interesting was the process of courtship. Compared to now, marriage seemed to be more of a business contract than a bond between two people who love each other. The process of getting married had a lot more restrictions. One quote that stood out to me was “men has the advantage of choice, woman only the power of refusal” (ch10). This stood out to me for their rules of courtship were so strict that a woman could not court, a man could not refuse or he’d face scrutiny, and even if the girl said yes he would have to get the fathers approval. Now it feels like people are getting married whenever they want to whom ever they would like, and if it is not working are able to get divorced without being scrutinized. I also noticed that the process of courtship, depending on the couple in the novel, foreshadowed the outcome of the ones being courted.

Mr. Collins is unsuccessful in his attempts of courting Elizabeth, but is successful with Charlotte Lucas, showing how the marriage is more of a conventional, pragmatic marriage. Wickham has a similar experience, courting Elizabeth, being rejected then courting Miss King, but ends up with Lydia. I feel that courtship in the novel shows if the marriage will be one of love or one of gain. Marriage is the ultimate goal in life according to the novel, and the courtship shows how different characters pursued this goal.

I found that Mrs. Bennet seemed to be the most concerned about this, for she wanted all of her daughters to be married, but we also see her point of view on marriage. She did not seem to care in the least if her daughters loved the man they married, she just wanted to them to live a better life than she had. She sees marriage as a means to climb the social latter, to gain wealth, and to live a better life. I found this sad, but understood that marriage has evolved over time. Now, people tend to get married for love and do not weigh social status or wealth as heavily as they did in the past.