Marriage and Jane Austen

Book Review # 120226

English > Analysis
Literature > English

An analysis of the theme of marriage in the works of Jane Austen.

2,045 words () | 0 sources | 2010 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how Jane Austen lived in a period where the ultimate function of a woman was to marry and how it is not surprising that in all of Austen's novels, there is an implicit sense that any marriage alliance, no matter how loveless or incongruous, is preferable to no marriage at all. Through an examination of some of her novels such as "Pride and Prejudice" , "Mansfield Park" and "Emma", the paper looks at how all the protagonists are under pressure to marry in order to avoid the loneliness of spinsterhood and financial independence.

From the Paper:

"Austen's novels are said to be comedies not only because they end in marriages, but also specifically because they end in socially appropriate love matches that are actually agreeable to the brides. However, in novels filled with instances of marriage such as Austen's are, there are more examples of incompatible unions of necessity than there are of felicitous ones. In a novel like Pride and Prejudice, the reader can feel satisfaction at the end when the two sisters each make socially advantageous and emotionally fulfilling alliances. At the same time, we must also remember that in the course of this novel, women such as Charlotte Lucas are forced by financial considerations to wed moronic men such as Mr. Collins. Charlotte's father, Sir Lucas, is relatively well-off, however, due to the British law of primogeniture, upon his death everything will go to his son, and any unmarried Lucas girls will be forced, like Jane Austen was herself, to live off her male sibling. "