Marriage, Community and Austen – Part 2

In the novel Pride and Prejudice Mrs. Bennet’s attitude toward marriage can be taken to be representative of her community’s, though not the author’s – the language used to describe Mrs. Bennet is clearly one of criticism (see previous post).

But perhaps we cannot totally blame Mrs. Bennet to have such a view of marriage, since that seemed the best and sometimes only option for a girl in that society. A girl with little fortune and no connections seemed to have few choices open to her, as is the case with Charlotte Lucas who, despite being a sensible and intelligent girl, accepts to marry a man who her friend for very good reasons refused. On a personal level, Mr. Collins is “a conceited, pompous, narrow-minded, silly man”, yet on a social level he fares better: he is the rector of a parish, he has a parsonage, connections and Lady Catherine de Bourgh as his patroness. So he can provide for Charlotte all that she could look for in a husband: someone to give her “a comfortable home” and security, which is probably the most important reason for her to want to marry such a man. What Austen is trying to show here is less a criticism on Charlotte’s character than on the society of 19th century England. A society which provides little security and almost no chance of happiness for women outside marriage and which makes its members give up their personal feelings in favour of worldly advantage.