There is a link between money and relationships in Jane Austen’s work Pride and Prejudice. “It is a commonly known reality that a single man of excellent money must be in need of a woman,” says the book’s first sentence. 7 This demonstrates that wealth is only socially acceptable in this culture. Many women who were not affluent in this culture depended on finding a wealthy guy to marry. Love and joy were often ignored. When seeking for a mate, all of the couples in this book dispute whether love and happiness or money are more essential. Pride and Prejudice demonstrates that although love and happiness should be the foundation of a marriage, money must also be a consideration in order to get by in society. Charlotte Lucas’s marriage to Mr. Collins demonstrates that happiness and financial stability may not necessarily go hand in hand in a relationship. Charlotte delivers the most truthful statements about love of any of the female characters in the book. “Happiness in marriage is purely a question of luck,” she claims. Charlotte didn’t mind whether she liked Mr. Collins or not since she thinks that love becomes stronger once two people married. Mr. Collins was chosen for his wealth and the life he could offer for her. She’s demonstrating that marriage isn’t always dictated by the emotions. Elizabeth Bennet is informed by Charlotte. “I’m not a romantic… I merely ask for a pleasant house, and given Mr. Collins’s character, connections, and life status, I am certain that my chances of happiness with him are as good as most individuals can hope for when they enter the married state.
Money was as much a social currency as it was a method of trade for goods and services in the society represented in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Despite the fact that money was typically linked to social status, there remained a stigma attached to parvenus who worked hard for their riches. Money had a significant role in the society in which Pride and Prejudice, a book about manners, is situated, as a signal of an eligible bachelor, a road to gentility, or a genteel vocation. “It is a universal reality that a single guy with excellent money must be without a wife.” This passage, one of the most famous opening lines in English literature, opens Pride and Prejudice, emphasizing the centrality of marriage in the novel as well as the centrality of money in marriage (Ellingsen, Tore, and Magnus Johannesson, pg.992). Mrs. Bennet is consumed by the desire to see her five daughters, who will not inherit their father’s money, “well married,” that is, married to a wealthy man. Mrs. Bennet and her neighbors are enthralled by Mr. Bingley’s annual income of “four or five thousand pounds,” and much more so by Mr. Darcy’s annual income of 10 thousand pounds. Even the happiest couples in Pride and Prejudice have their financial worries..
Both the men in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Charlotte Bront’s Jane Eyre have high expectations. Mr. Darcy is only interested in people who are wealthy and attractive. Edward Rochester, like Mr. Darcy, is a conceited man who enjoys commanding others who are under him. They create poor first impressions on individuals who are not as wealthy as they are throughout their life. Their relatives and friends expect them to hang out with others of their rank. They both spend time with women of lesser status than they do, and despite their initial preconceptions, they both fell in love with the ladies. Despite the fact that these ladies have permanently changed the way they think, their history may prevent them from being together in the end..
Mr. Darcy is a wealthy guy who only speaks to those who are deserving of his time. When Mr. Darcy attends his friend Mr. Bingley’s ball, he scarcely dances since there aren’t many ladies of excellent looks and riches present. He enjoys seeing couples having a good time since he refuses to dance with those who are not like him. Mr. Bingley attempts to persuade Mr. Darcy to dance, but he says, “There isn’t another lady in this room with whom it wouldn’t be a punishment for me to stand up with” (Austen 13). Elizabeth overhears this remark, which makes her loathe Mr. Darcy more than anybody else. She doesn’t care if he’s a rich guy with a lot of admirers since she knows he won’t pay attention to her..
Edward, like Mr. Darcy, is a rich man. He prefers to employ others to perform his job and only speaks with people who are on par with him in terms of ability. Edward is horseback riding in the woods when he comes upon a lady. He shouts at her, telling her to “step out of the way” (Bront, Jane Eyre), without apologizing for almost running her over. Because she is nothing to him, he may simply treat her with contempt. Later, he finds that this lady, Jane, is the governess whom he had hired for Adele. Edward repeatedly criticizes Jane’s performance in many activities, such as playing the piano, remarking, “You play a bit, I see, like any other English school girl…not well” (Bront, Jane Eyre). This demonstrates that he assesses her based on her past rather than who she is now. He screams at her and tells her what to do with a flick of his fingers since he knows she will not stand up to him. Part of the reason Edward and Mr. Darcy avoid these ladies is due to what their peers think of them..
Mr. Darcy is constantly running into Elizabeth and is always around her. They are always at the same balls, at the same house when one of them is visiting, or running into each other in town. Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth are cordial to each other, but Elizabeth still sees him as a mean man. Mr. Darcy, on the other hand, is worried because every time he sees her, he learns more about her and starts to dislikes her a little bit less: “Elizabeth had been at Netherfield long enough. She attracted him more than he liked” (Austen 59). These growing feelings in Mr. Darcy make him start to respect her.
Jane, too, earns Edward’s respect because she is always helping him and making sure that he is content. Jane wakes up in the middle of the night after she hears screaming. She then realizes that the house is on fire and runs into Edwards’s room to wake him up. He quickly puts out the fire and realizes that Jane has saved his life. He trusts Jane and tells her “say nothing about this to anyone,” (Brontё, Jane Eyre) knowing that she will keep it to herself. He later gets himself in trouble and trusts Jane enough to have her help and to keep his secret. Jane helps Edward, which makes him realize that she is a woman worthy of his attention. Both Edward and Mr. Darcy deal with secrets throughout their lives.
The arrogance of Mr. Darcy is not the only thing that makes Elizabeth think that he is mean and selfish, but a secret she heard from his friend Mr. Wickham reassures her that she is right. Mr. Wickham tells Elizabeth about Mr. Darcy and how he took away Mr. Wickham’s money that was to be given to him. He makes Mr. Darcy out to be a horrible person who does not care about anyone but himself. In the beginning of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth’s relationship, Mr. Darcy proves to be nothing but this bad guy and Elizabeth believes this secret. Elizabeth cannot see past what Mr. Wickham has told her and continues to hate Mr. Darcy telling him: “I have every reason in the world to think ill of you” (Austen 186). Later on, Mr. Darcy proposes to her and she is astonished and turns him down immediately because of what she thinks she knows of him. She questions, “why…you chose to tell me that you liked me against your will, against your reason, and even against your character?” (Austen 186). During the proposal Mr. Darcy cannot say anything that will get Elizabeth to change her mind.
Edward also has a secret that temporarily destroys his relationship with Jane. Edward eventually sees passed Jane’s social status and falls in love with her. Jane has been in love with Edward longer than he has and she is ecstatic that he loves her back and they decide to get married. Edward exclaims to Adele that “I am going to marry [her] and take her to the moon and find a cave in one of the white valleys and [she] will live with us there forever” (Brontё and Jane Eyre, pg.30). On the day of their wedding, a man comes in during the ceremony and stops it, saying that Edward already has a wife. It turns out that Edward does indeed have a wife, who is actually insane, and this makes Jane refuse to marry him and she leaves him and the house behind. This secret costs Edward his marriage to a woman that he actually loves.
Both Mr. Darcy and Edward are torn between complying with their easy and privileged lives and going against the status quo and marrying the girl that they each want. It turns out that the secret Mr. Wickham has told Elizabeth is a stretch of the truth. Mr. Darcy later sends her a letter of the truth and helps out her family in a time of need. This makes Elizabeth see that Mr. Darcy does not have as much pride as she thought and falls for him. After leaving Edward, Jane comes back to him. She forgets about the secret that he kept from her and accepts that what happened in his past was not something that was a part of him now. She understands that he is a good man and they fall in love all over again.
Works Cited
Ellingsen, Tore, and Magnus Johannesson. “Pride and prejudice: The human side of incentive theory.” American economic review 98.3 (2008): 990-1008.
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. N.Y.: Bantam Dell, 2003. Print.
Brontё, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Movie. Dir. Robert Stevenson, 1944.
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