In Pride and Prejudice, love is not a necessary component of marriage. In fact, most of the marriages we see are not based on love, but instead either on lust that quickly fades or on economic necessity.
Love
Pride and Prejudice contains one of the most cherished love stories in English literature: the courtship between Darcy and Elizabeth. As in any good love story, the lovers must elude and overcome numerous stumbling blocks, beginning with the tensions caused by the lovers’ own personal qualities. Elizabeth’s pride makes her misjudge Darcy on the basis of a poor first impression, while Darcy’s prejudice against Elizabeth’s poor social standing blinds him, for a time, to her many virtues. (Of course, one could also say that Elizabeth is guilty of prejudice and Darcy of pride—the title cuts both ways.) Austen, meanwhile, poses countless smaller obstacles to the realization of the love between Elizabeth and Darcy, including Lady Catherine’s attempt to control her nephew, Miss Bingley’s snobbery, Mrs. Bennet’s idiocy, and Wickham’s deceit. In each case, anxieties about social connections, or the desire for better social connections, interfere with the workings of love. Darcy and Elizabeth’s realization of a mutual and tender love seems to imply that Austen views love as something independent of these social forces, as something that can be captured if only an individual is able to escape the warping effects of hierarchical society. Austen does sound some more realist (or, one could say, cynical) notes about love, using the character of Charlotte Lucas, who marries the buffoon Mr. Collins for his money, to demonstrate that the heart does not always dictate marriage. Yet with her central characters, Austen suggests that true love is a force separate from society and one that can conquer even the most difficult of circumstances.
Pride and Prejudice Theme of Love
In Pride and Prejudice, love is not a necessary component of marriage. In fact, most of the marriages we see are not based on love, but instead either on lust that quickly fades or on economic necessity. In this novel, romantic love is a privilege that most people have to do without and something that most people do not expect to find. At the same time, because love is a union between empathetic minds, it is shown to be a completely special emotion that is available only for intelligent, mature adults – it's the crowning achievement in the building of character.
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/pride/themes.html http://www.shmoop.com/pride-and-prejudice/love-theme.html
In Pride and Prejudice, love is not a necessary component of marriage. In fact, most of the marriages we see are not based on love, but instead either on lust that quickly fades or on economic necessity.
Love
Pride and Prejudice contains one of the most cherished love stories in English literature: the courtship between Darcy and Elizabeth. As in any good love story, the lovers must elude and overcome numerous stumbling blocks, beginning with the tensions caused by the lovers’ own personal qualities. Elizabeth’s pride makes her misjudge Darcy on the basis of a poor first impression, while Darcy’s prejudice against Elizabeth’s poor social standing blinds him, for a time, to her many virtues. (Of course, one could also say that Elizabeth is guilty of prejudice and Darcy of pride—the title cuts both ways.) Austen, meanwhile, poses countless smaller obstacles to the realization of the love between Elizabeth and Darcy, including Lady Catherine’s attempt to control her nephew, Miss Bingley’s snobbery, Mrs. Bennet’s idiocy, and Wickham’s deceit. In each case, anxieties about social connections, or the desire for better social connections, interfere with the workings of love. Darcy and Elizabeth’s realization of a mutual and tender love seems to imply that Austen views love as something independent of these social forces, as something that can be captured if only an individual is able to escape the warping effects of hierarchical society. Austen does sound some more realist (or, one could say, cynical) notes about love, using the character of Charlotte Lucas, who marries the buffoon Mr. Collins for his money, to demonstrate that the heart does not always dictate marriage. Yet with her central characters, Austen suggests that true love is a force separate from society and one that can conquer even the most difficult of circumstances.
Pride and Prejudice Theme of Love
In Pride and Prejudice, love is not a necessary component of marriage. In fact, most of the marriages we see are not based on love, but instead either on lust that quickly fades or on economic necessity. In this novel, romantic love is a privilege that most people have to do without and something that most people do not expect to find. At the same time, because love is a union between empathetic minds, it is shown to be a completely special emotion that is available only for intelligent, mature adults – it's the crowning achievement in the building of character.
nothings
