Love and marriage is an important theme in "Pride and Prejudice". It is hinted at tin the ironic opening sentence, "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." All Mrs Bennet wants is to find a suitable marriage partner for her five daughters, without thinking of what the young men might want. In Mrs Bennet's opinion, the more money a sing man has, the more attractive an option he becomes. However, Jane Austen points out the dangers of marriage when it is not based on equal love.
In the time that Jane Austen was writing, it was essential for a woman to get married and Austen understood this only too well because she never married.
The novel is et in a small English country town called Meryton, but most of the action happens at Longbourne.
Jane Austen's views are portrayed through Elizabeth Bennet.
The novel is quite different when compared to other romantic novels written at the time as Austen has added some comedy, mostly in the form of irony. Most novels were written about romance but Pride and Prejudice is a romance with a difference.
The first marriage in the book is the unsatisfactory relationship between Mr and Mrs Bennet. For the twenty seven years they have been married, the main pleasure Mr Bennet gets results from teasing his slightly stupid wife, and receiving pleasure at her expense. Mrs Bennet says, "You take delight in vexing me. You have no compassion on my poor nerves".
Mrs Bennet is obsessed with the marrying off of her daughters, while Mr Bennett is always in his library, reading.
Jane Austen leaves the reader in no doubt that the Bennet's marriage does not form "a very pleasing picture of conjugal felicity or domestic comfort". Before the marriage of Mr and Mrs Bennet, Mr Bennet had been, "captivated by youth and beauty", but once these initial attractions had faded, Mrs Bennet's "weak understanding and illiberal mind had very early in their marriage put an end to all real affection for her.
