Each individual in this world surely have a dream to get married once they grow up, especially with the one they love. Even though today’s society accepts unmarried relationship where couples live together and have babies out of wedlock, in the end marriage is what they hope for as a symbol of their relationship. Clearly, marriage is a must in human’s life. This necessity influences humans to create stories that end with marriage and live happily ever after. Pride and Prejudice, written by Jane Austen, is also one of those stories that fulfils this criterion. In this novel, Jane Austen described various marriages which differ from each other. Instead of love, there are marriages that are based on appearances and wealth, full of hypocrisy. At first glance, readers might not be able to recognize what Jane Austen’s messages from this diverse marriage assortment. However with deep analysis to the entailment issue, Jane Austen’s bibliography and Elizabeth Bennet’s psychological state, there is some evidence that Jane Austen was actually criticizing the manner in which marriages took place during her time that was mainly based on one’s wealth. Even though some couples were truly in love, nothing comes first before wealth.
The first enquiry that readers should doubt is the uncertainty of the entailment created in this novel. Mimetically, the entailment is just a tool created by Jane Austen to prove that she criticized marriage. Clearly Mr. Bennet cannot hand over the Longbourn estate to any of his immediate family members because he has no male heir. The rule of the entailment stated that no one can inherit any property unless they are the gentlemen of the family. The entailment had made Mrs. Bennet desperate to get her daughters married as soon as possible so that no one from her family including herself would live in poverty when her husband dies. "The business of her life was to get her daughters married." (Austen
Bibliography: Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. United States: Oxford University Press Inc., 1980. “Jane Austen’s Biography: Life (1775 - 1817) and Family.” pemberley.com. 13 March 2009 < http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/janelife.html> ----------------------- Adam 2 Adam 3 Adam 4 Adam 5 Adam 5