Jane Austen's View Of Marriage

Interestingly, the theme of love can also be seen to help portray the societies of Jane Austen and E. M. Forster view of marriage. Jane Austen has love between hero and heroine as the center of most of her novels. Although Anne Elliot and her true love, Captain Wentworth, do wind up being together it is not until Captain Wentworth is rich, well connected, and highly respected that he marries Anne. Restating, that Jane Austen’s society views marriage as one that should be economically based. In A Room With A View, the theme of love shows the reader that the love between Lucy and George did not have to wait until George became wealthy and important. The reader now knows that the society of E. M. Forster believes that marriage should be about
M. Forster’s societies’s view family? In Persuasion, family ruled everything. Family determined whom people would be friends with, where people lived, what people ate, and it even effected what people talked about. It also can determine whom one would marry because who every one marries effects the status of the whole family. This is seen when Marry Musgrove, Anne’s sister is talking about why her sister in law, Henrietta, should not marry Charles Hayter because he is not equal to Henrietta. “I cannot think him at all a fit match for Henrietta; and considering the alliances which the Musgroves have made, she has no right to throw herself away. I do not think any young woman has a right to make a choice that may be disagreeable and inconvenient to the principal part of her family,” (Austen, p. 70). With this quote, the reader can discern that family is a microcosm of the society. The early 19th century society viewed families as a whole; there really wasn't much individualism. Relationships, as a theme goes hand and hand with how the society of Persuasion viewed families. Someone in the early 19th century could not have a relationship with a person that is lower class then them. The previous quote illustrates this but also evidence of this is seen when Anne is looked down upon and eventually persuaded not to marry Captain Wentworth, who at the time being was bellow her in
M. Forster’s A Room With View, family does not play as big of a role in ones life. Lucy Honeychurch and the Emerson’s are a good example how the society now views families. Since the plot of the novel is about Lucy finding who she really is, it tells the reader that there is much more individualism in families now. Even though she is slightly looked down upon by the snobby upperclass people, it is becoming much more accepted not to be restricted by ones family. Cleverly, E. M. Forster uses the Emerson’s, who represent an alternative vision of society where individualism is valued above conformity, as the ones who instill their beliefs in Lucy. By bringing those beliefs back to England, Lucy shows the reader that the old view of families and relationships is ending. The Emerson’s believed that with individualism follows freedom and happiness. Mr. Emerson always wanted Lucy to have freedom to do what she was lead by. Like when he realized that she loved his son George saying, “You have all you want, Miss Honeychurch: you are going to marry the man you love. Do not go out of George’s life saying he is abominable” (Forster, p. 197) he knew he had to help her to follow the desires she had. Even though George and Lucy upset many people by choosing to marry, they gain happiness, and readers can feel assured that by having chosen her own path, Lucy will have a free life with the man she loves. “Youth enwrapped them; the song of Phaethon announced passion