The Inconspicuous Scorn Of The Gentry s Acquisitive...

The Inconspicuous Scorn of the Gentry’s Acquisitive Pursuit of Marriage Through strictly observing the final chapters of Pride and Prejudice, it may come across that Jane Austen’s intent was to glorify the marriages of the main characters, in what might seem like an unrealistic or unjustified way. This exaggerated scenario in which the main characters get married to the men they love, and enjoy the copious wealth of their husbands, makes it possible for a reader to jump to the conclusion that Austen wrote the novel to argue that wealth and love are tied together. Critic Mary Poovey interpreted the fairy tale ending as such, claiming that Austen’s goal was to â€Å"make propriety and romantic desire absolutely congruent.† However, taking into†¦show more content†¦Longbourn is a symbol that stands for all of the superficial and fickle regions inhabited by the high society of late eighteenth-century England. Austen defines the mindset of the charact ers that live in Longbourn with the very first sentence of the novel, with the claim that â€Å"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.† This line is so perfect for establishing the type of witty sarcasm used by the narrator to mock the society of Longbourn, and keep the story flowing comedically. This opening line, along with the novel’s first conversation between Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, brings the reader face to face with the perception of the role of marriage in the novel. The Bennets discuss the arrival the wealthy Mr. Bingley, and what immediately comes to Mrs. Bennets’ mind is her plan to marry off one of her daughters to him. Austen takes advantage of this opportunity to demonstrate the standards of Mr. Bennet, who may be the only logical compass the reader has to reference, more so than the overly-optimistic and sicklysweet narrator that Austen cleverly develops. Mr. Bennet is one of the only characters throughout Pride and Prejudice that seems to care about, or perhaps more