Tyela SegarMrs.BetzEnglish 1114 March 2014Pride and PrejudiceJane Austen's attitude towards marriage in the novel Pride and Prejudice reflects those in her personal life. She fell in love two different times, but her lack of wealth prevented her from being a suitable match. So, although Austen has never been married, she feels as if it were "dishonorable to enter into marriage without affection." Jane Austen's attitude towards marriage, love and money is complicated and critical, and in Pride and Prejudice she demonstrates this through her characters. The best characters marry for love but are also lucky enough to get money. The marriage between Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins proves that marriage for love is not always possible. Talking to Elizabeth about Jane's happiness with Mr. Bingley Charlotte says: "Happiness in marriage is all a matter of luck...and it is best to know as little as possible about the faults of the person with whom you will spend your life" (ch.6 page .32-33) Charlotte is saying that if you have to get married to feel comfortable then it's better to jump before you look. It's a complicated situation because you're getting married to someone you don't even know. However, some women have little choice. As much as the characters would like to marry for love, some have no other choice. As Mr. Collins says to Charlotte Jane Austen: "Without holding either married man in high regard, marriage had always been his object; it was the only honorable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and for how uncertain in giving happiness must be their most pleasant preservation from want." (p. 146) This quote describes Charlotte's complicated situation. Unfortunately she only had to have... half a card... but she's married to someone other than her brother. This is a complicated situation because Mr. Bingley is very naive and we let Darcy and his sisters all accompany him. Since they told him that Jane and he should not marry because of his wealth, he listened to them and let external factors and money get in the way of his true love for Jane. In Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice there are myriad relationships that show how the institution of marriage can be complicated yet critical when dealing with money and love. Throughout the novel we are influenced to agree with his attitude towards his contempt for society. Austen does not approve of the society's ideas of the time that women were looked down upon because they do not marry and are dependent on the male. She feels that one should marry for love and not for money, but she understands that it is not always possible.