Mrs Bennet Marriage

In her book Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen plays an authority figure for the 19th century concept of marriage. Through the character of Mrs. Bennet, Austen gives the reader an insight to the motives behind marriage in this time period. As Mrs. Bennet reveals her feelings towards her daughters’ marriages, money, security, and the role of women during this century take center stage as the purposes of these marriages. Social status and wealth were two crucial prerequisites that determined who a woman would spend the rest of her life with. Very few marriages of the 19th century were built off of love, which made these marriages unique and turned this book into a heart-wrenching story. Through her book, Jane Austen defines what marriage was …show more content…
Getting married was the one role that women were pressured to fill. Mrs. Bennet is the one who sets everything into motion by urging her daughters to get married as soon as possible. The first marriage that takes form is the one between Jane and Mr. Bingley. When Mr. Bingley arrives in town and she finds out he is single, Mrs. Bennet implores Mr. Bennet to go visit him and put in a good word for one of her daughters. She says “A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!” (Austen 3) In just one short quote, the reader sees what Mrs. Bennet’s true motives are for marrying off her daughters. She hasn’t even met Mr. Bingley, but she is already made up her mind that he is a perfect man for one of her daughters. To the reader, this might seem quite hasty. But in the 19th century, this …show more content…
The main way for a woman to secure her life comfortably was through a marriage. In the book, the reader can sense the urgency Mrs. Bennet places on marrying off her daughters. Mrs. Bennet and the younger Bennet sisters exclaimed how Jane and Elizabeth were “old” in the beginning of the book, which wasn’t far from the truth in that century. Jane and Elizabeth were both in their early twenties and they felt the insistence of their mother to have them married. Darcy was seven years older than Elizabeth when he was married, but he wasn’t even in a rush to find a wife. No matter what class or social status a woman was, they really only had one option. However, men had many options, and each class had their own duty. If a woman did not get married, it was very tough for her to sustain a life of her own. Men could hire servants around the house in place of a wife, but women could not get jobs and earn money like they did. The purpose of marriage was more about women finding someone they could depend on for the rest of their life. They needed men to provide for them and support