Why does Jane Austen think that people should marry?

Answer 1

Attitudes toward marriage have changed a lot in the last two centuries.

In Jane Austen's time marriage was the main goal in life for most young unmarried women. Women had few other opportunities. With very few exceptions, women did not have jobs outside the home.

When a woman married, all their possessions passed legally into the control of their husbands.

Divorce was nearly impossible for any but the strictest reasons, many of which had some sort of legal culpability associated with them, so a divorce might mean someone was subject to punishment.

Ordinary people very much looked down on anyone who was involved with in a relationship outside marriage. They were out of society, as we can see from the attitude of the Bertrams toward Maria in Mansfield Park. She left her husband for another man, and would not be permitted to return to her parents' home again.

Children born outside marriage were often not acknowledged, even if they were provided for, as in the case of Harriet Smith in Emma.

Answer 2

Marriage was a central issue in all of Jane Austen's novels. An important point she makes repeatedly and explicitly in the novels, is that a woman should not marry without affection.

In Jane Austen's society, which was middle class and lesser gentry, women could not normally inherit estates, could not find meaningful employment, could not advance without marriage, could decline without marriage, were ridiculed if they were unmarried and poor, and often became dependent on relatives as they were older. Furthermore, if they had any wealth, they became targets for predatory fortune hunters (which appear in all her novels except Mansfield Park). And young women, by marrying well, formed attachments that could improve the lots of their sisters. So it was the duty of a young woman to marry well, if she could, and a tragedy if she could not. So women were stuck - unless they had a lot of money, they had to marry well. There was no other choice.

Things were so bad, in fact, that men were judged in large part according to their incomes in pounds per year and women according to the numerical value of their dowries.

These things were all quite clear in her novels. But underlying the novels is a single central fact never made explicit in them: the United Kingdom was in a series of protracted wars, and during the course of these wars about a quarter of the young men were lost - about a quarter of all women would have to go unmarried. This fact did not need to be considered by readers at the time. But now it is something we need to remind ourselves of as we read Jane Austen. Unless the women had a lot of money, they had to marry well, they had no other choice. But a quarter of them would never have that opportunity.

These novels had an impact on the way people looked at marriage and women's rights.

Answer 3

The full question is:

What best summarizes Elizabeth's view of marriage in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen?

Choices:

• Elizabeth is not interested in getting married for any reason
• Elizabeth believes that a marriage should be based on love
• Elizabeth is convinced that having a marriage that is based on love is impossible
• Elizabeth knows that a marriage should be based on love but is also willing to accept financial security as the main reason to get married

Elizabeth believes that a marriage should be based on love.

Answer 4

Jane Austen believed that marriage was important for social stability and financial security, especially for women. In her novels, she explores themes of love, companionship, and mutual respect within marriage as the ideal path for personal happiness and fulfillment. Austen also used marriage as a means to critique the societal norms and expectations of her time.

Answer 5

Jane Austen is in favor of marriages where people are of more or less equal rank, but insists that they have affection at the very least, and at best real love.