janePride and Prejudice is one of the most popular novels of Jane Austen due to its multi-dimensional versatility of themes. Jane Austen is an accomplished artist within her limited range, she handles characters, dialogues, events and plot-construction with an exquisite mastery, weaving and interweaving all main elements of novel into one. She is too profound in plumbing the psychological depths of her characters and in delineating the basic principles of human conduct. On her two inches of ivory, Jane Austen carves with a miniature delicacy to present a polished and refined work of art. As George Saintsbury comments: “But she showed once for all the capabilities of the very commonest and most ordinary life, if sufficiently observed and selected, and combined with due art, to furnish forth prose fiction not merely that would pass, but that should be of the absolutely first quality as literature. She is the mother of the English nineteenth century novel, as Scotte is the father of it” (George Saintsbury, 1894).

The opening sentence of Pride and Prejudice demonstrates the basic theme of love and marriage in her all novels, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” (Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 1). It is a comically ironic statement implying that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be the target of all unmarried women about him who are looking for husbands. The entire story of the novel revolves around these fundamental themes of marriage, courtship, parenthood and pride and prejudices. This transpires the delineation of characters of marriageable daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, main heroes, Bingley, Darcy, Wickham, Charlotte-Collin etc. marriage was a significant social concern in Jane Austen’s time and she was fully conscious of the disadvantages of being single or bachelor as she wrote a letter to Fanny Knight, “Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor….which is one very strong argument in favor of matrimony” (Jane Austen’s Letters, 1817).

  In the novel, Charlotte Lucas tries to justify her marriage with Mr. Collin by giving argumentative reasons to Elizabeth, “I am not romantic you know, I never was, I ask only a comfortable home, and considering Mr. Collin’ character, connections and situation in life, I am convinced that my chance of happiness with him is as fair, as most people can boast on entering the marriage state” (Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 22). These dialogues interpret her personal life, how she had to face financial challenges after her father’s retirement and ultimate death. Jane Austen exposes the universal truths of our societies how marriage is a prime object and honorable provision for well-educated and young women of small fortune and while it may not have provided happiness, but it would at least have protected them from want. The only option for single or bachelor women in Jane Austen’s time was to care for someone else’s children as Jane Austen herself did; as there were no outlets for women in industry, business, commerce and education (Literature Network, 2008).

The novels of Jane Austen, especially Pride and Prejudice dramatize the economic inequality of women, showing how women had to marry undesirable mates in order to gain some financial security. Jane Austen describes Charlotte’ home as neat and comfortable: “ It was rather small, but well built and convenient; and everything was fitted up and arranged with a neatness and consistency of which Elizabeth gave Charlotte all the credit. When Mr. Collins could be forgotten, there was really an air of great comfort throughout, and by Charlotte’s evident enjoyment of it, Elizabeth supposed he must be often forgotten” (Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 28). Jane Austen deplores upon such bad marriage, contracted by Mr. Collins and Charlotte Lucas as Charlotte is willing to destroy her own life by linking herself to a pompous ass to full her need of financial security in the life. Here Jane Austen condemns such a marriage, based on mere calculations, without love and without compatibility of mind and temperament (Sparknotes, 2008).

Mrs. Bennet with five marriageable daughters has fond hopes of arranging a match between the eligible suitor Charles Bingley and any one of her daughters. As Elizabeth remarks sarcastically about Jane’s sickness, “If Jane should die, it would be comfort to know that it was all in pursuit of Mr. Bingley” (Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 7). After the customary introductory visits, there is the occasion of the ball from which proceeds the Jane-Bingley love affair as well as the story of Elizabeth’s prejudice and Darcy’ pride which keeps them apart initially until they come closer gradually and eventually marry at the end (Literature Network, 2008). Jane Austen reveals that the marriage of Darcy and Elizabeth whenever it takes place will be an example of true wedded bliss, since from her “his manners would be improved ” and from him Elizabeth could drive “judgment, information and knowledge of the world” (Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 50).

Underlying the theme of marriage and love in Pride and Prejudice , there is a larger theme of distinguishing appearance from reality. Jane Austen upheld the marriage of true minds based on mutual understanding, love and respect as the ideal marriage (Sparknotes, 2008). The coming together of the true minds depends upon their knowledge of themselves and each other. Elizabeth’s prejudices vanishes at once and she realizes that Darcy is exactly, “the man who, in disposition and talents, would most suit her” (Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 50) while Darcy expresses his feelings of likeness for Elizabeth by saying that bad opinion of Elizabeth, “was only when I first know her, for it is many months since I have considered her as one of the handsomest women in my acquaintance” (Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 45). Thus the theme of marriage is exemplified in Pride and Prejudice . Beginning with the arrival of Bingley and Darcy, both single men “in possession of a good fortune” the novel traces the courtship of Jane-Bingley and Elizabeth-Darcy through various misunderstandings and hindrances, both external and internal before they are happily married in the end (Sparknotes, 2008). As Elizabeth replies at Jane’s surprise about her marriage with Darcy, “There can be no doubt that. It is settled between us already that we are to be the happiest couple in the world” (Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 50).

The runaway marriage of Lydia-Wickham is based on mere superficial qualities as sex, appearance, good looks and youthful liveliness. The passion between the unprincipled rake, Wickham and the flighty Lydia is bound to cool and in their unhappy conjugal life, mutual toleration is the nearest approach to affection that can be expected. Jane Austen narrates the scene of arrival of Lydia-Wickham after their elopement, Elizabeth may be “disgusted, and even Mrs. Bennet……..shocked” but “Lydia was Lydia still, untamed, unabashed, wild, noisy, and fearless” (Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 51). The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet is also another example of a bad marriage and the couples are not attracted to each other physically too like Lydia-Wickham. Even at this late stage, Mrs. Bennet is similar to Lydia in her silliness and shallowness. The Bennet marriage ends in mutual forbearance. Mr. Bennet is in general retreat and isolation, and Mrs. Bennet is a completely disorganized woman (Literature Network, 2008). When Mr. Bennet tells Elizabeth, “My child, let me not have the grief of seeing you unable to respect your partner in life” (Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 59) …. he refers actually to what is lacking in his marriage. Pride and Prejudice traces the unhappy marriages of Charlotte and Collins based on prudence and economic necessity, and Lydia-Wickham based on merely passion, and marriage of the Bennett’s devoid of mutual respect. Thus, it is true that the chief preoccupation of Jane Austen’s heroines is getting married and life is a matrimonial game as women in her times had no other option of business or profession open to them (Literature Network, 2008).

Even love is to be interpreted in the novel as less an individual act than a social act. It occurs at the will of the society, according to its laws and it will affect all the members of the society. Society is a web of personal relations, most readily seen in the network of relationships inside the family. Love and marriage are first of all important to members of the immediate families, but their influence spreads out like ripples in pond to touch distant members of the family, and finally the society itself. The elopement of Lydia-Wickham, passionate and irresponsible is an example of how others lives may be ruined by the selfish acts of the individual. Had the marriage not been immediately arranged by the members and close friends of the families concerned (Mr. Gardinar for the Bennets, and Darcy for Wickham), the happiness of Jane and Elizabeth would have been permanently jeopardized. As Mary Lascelles describes the main plot of the novel in the following words, “This pattern is formed by diverging and converging lines, by the movement of two people who are impelled apart until they reach the climax of mutual hostility and therefore bend their courses towards the mutual understanding and amity” (Lascelles, 1939)

According to Jack Daglish, parenthood is an important theme in Pride and Prejudice, tracing out the significance of upbringing in the formation of the characters in the novel. The family of the Bennets is victimized by irresponsibility, negligence, proper guidance of the parents, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet who fail to guide their daughters how to lead an honorable life. The character of Jane and Elizabeth is positively drawn by novelist on the basis of their individualistic prudence and sense of understanding. Mary affects learning as a compensation for being the only plain daughter in the family and her erudition is accompanied by a total lack of commonsense. Lydia and Kitty lacking in character and intelligence have been encourage in folly by the indifference of their father and self-indulgence of their mother (Literature Network, 2008). The whole family has to face embarrassments due to inadequate education of the parents as Mr. Bennet admits after shameful act of elopement of Lydia with Wickham, “wherever you and Jane are known, you must be respected and valued and you will not appear to less advantage for having a couple of or I may say three very silly sisters. We shall have no peace at Longbourn if Lydia does not go to Brighton” (Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 41).

The theme of parenthood is not limited to the Bennet family. Darcy is also a part of his parent’s wrong education to him as he tells Elizabeth, “As a child I was taught what was right; but I was not taught to correct my temper. I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit……I was spoiled by my parents who, though good in themselves, allowed, encouraged almost taught me to be selfish and overbearing……to care none beyond y own family circles, to think meanly of all the rest of the world, to wish at least to think meanly of their sense and worth compared with my own” (Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 58).

According to David Cecil, Jane Austen’s limitations stemmed from her choice of themes and he admits, “This nature of her talent imposed a third limitation on her, it made her unable to express impulsive emotion directly. She surveyed her creatures with too detached an irony for her to identify herself with them sufficiently to voice their unthinking gushes of feeling” (Cecil, 1936). It is true that family gossips, drawing room chats, tete-a-tete, balls, marriage proposals and country walks are the materials with which Jane Austen works. These materials are apparently trivial, but the ultimate impression she creates is profound because there is much psychological interest in her novels as Virginia Woolf suggests. Andrew. H. Wright remarks about her Excellency and competency in the following words, “ She develops themes of the broadest significance, the novels go beyond social record, beneath the didactic, to moral concern, perplexity and commitment…Her novels may be read as broad allegories in which, sense and sensibility, pride and prejudice, and a number of other virtues and defects are set forth and commented upon” (Wright, 1972).