Satire In Pride And Prejudice Marriage Analysis

Pride and Prejudice is a 19th century novel written by Jane Austen. In this novel, satire is the main tool used to convey Austen’s views on society, and what is flawed about it. The novel uses that satire to convey points about how certain things in society should be changed, or gotten rid of, especially with marriage. Austen satirizes typical marriage tropes present circa 1800 by exposing the issues that come with marriage based on wealth, happiness, and exclusive benefit. Social class was a large factor in many things in the 19th century. It affected what jobs a person would have, where some people may live, and especially who married who. In Chapter 21, we learn that Bingley is going to London, and will not be returning. So, this means that the relationship between Bingley and Jane is over. Jane is

Far earlier in the novel, in Chapter 6, there is a dialogue with Charlotte Bingley, where she expresses her views on marriage. The key phrase she says is “Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other or ever so similar beforehand, it does not advance their felicity in the least” (Austen 23). She basically says that marriage isn’t necessarily happy, or because of happiness. In fact, it is entirely random whether or not the couple will be happy at all, and if the two people even like each other to begin with. In that time, marriages, much of the time, would either be pre-arranged or, even more often, have nothing to do with how much the husband and wife loved each other. If a couple got married, there was usually some kind of property or stature to go along with it. Even with all of that, Charlotte says, it doesn’t make the couple happier in any way. The husband or wife could be wealthy, very high class, or any other trait, but it still would not necessarily matter if they did not like each other in the first