Theme of Mercenary in Pride and Prejudice
Theme of mercenary or money marriage plays a significant role to the extent that without this theme; the novel is either incomprehensible
or prosaic. Although the theme of mercenary resonates through almost
all the major characters; we cannot take it to be Austen’s view point.
She is against; not for mercenary marriages.
19th century England had some serious social problems left over
from the heyday of Royalty and Nobility. One of the most significant
of these was the tendency to marry for money. In this basic equation, a
person sought a spouse based on the dowry receivable and their
allowance. This process went both ways; a beautiful woman might be able
to snag a rich husband, or a charring handsome man could woo a rich
young girl. In these marriages, money was the only consideration. Love
was left out, with a feeling that it would develop as the years went
by. In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen comments that marriage in her
time is a financial contract, where love is strictly a matter of chance.
Lady Catherine states the fact that happiness in marriage is strictly a
matter of chance. This holds true in the conception
of marriage held in the novel. All of the marriages in the book formed
under the bonds of money rather than the bonds of love end up unhappy
or unsuccessful. The whole novel outlines attempts to dance around love
for the combination of a wealthy person with an attractive person.
Before Austen can chart the difficult process through which the heroine of Pride and Prejudice
becomes a skilled player of the marriage-gambling game, however, the
novelist must establish the association between money and marriage. She
accomplishes this throughout the book by mixing the languages of love
and economics. The novel's celebrated first sentence presents an example
of this type of punning: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a
single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife".
The line's comic effect derives primarily from the incongruity between
the lofty diction of the phrase "truth universally acknowledged" and the
baldly mercenary sentiment with which the sentence ends. The humorous
conflation of philosophic and monetary
speculation continues through the first and into the second chapter, as
Mr. Bennet misses no opportunity to amuse himself with repeated puns
that portray the arrival of the Bingley party at Netherfield as a
serendipitous investment opportunity for the families in the village.
When, for example, Mr. Bennet tells his wife that he needn't call on
Bingley, since their neighbor Mrs. Long has promised to introduce the
Bennet girls to the rich young man at an upcoming party, Mrs. Bennet
replies that Mrs. Long is a "selfish, hypocritical woman" who will do no
such thing since she has "two nieces of her own" . In that case,
replies Mr. Bennet, Mrs. Bennet herself should introduce the girls,
justifying such a breach of decorum on the sound financial principle
that he who hesitates is lost: "if we
do not venture, somebody else will; and after all Mrs. Long and her
nieces must stand their chance" . All financial ventures, from the stock market to marriage, entail an element of risk that one must expect and for which one must plan.
The first line
of Pride and Prejudice, “It is a universally acknowledged fact that a
single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife”,
sets the tone for the rest of the novel. We interpret it to mean that a
wealthy man either actively pursues a wife based on his knowledge that
no one would turn down a wealthy suitor, or attractive women
use their beauty to their advantage to attract a rich
husband. Confident in his knowledge of his own wealth and magnificence,
Darcy’s less than romantic first proposal to Elizabeth
is a good example of the first of these truths. Darcy marches into the
room, and after stating all the reasons why a wealthy man such as
himself should never marry a “socially inferior” person such as Elizabeth,
he proposes to her. He is totally confident in the knowledge that no
woman would turn down marriage to a person as rich as himself, no matter
how obnoxious he is. He seems outrightly stunned when Elizabeth refuses him. This refusal shatters his conception of reality, showing him that money is not all powerful. This is what seems to throw him head over heels in love with Elizabeth.
Mrs. Bennett is the embodiment of the second part of the rule. Her marriage was based on the principal
of financial gain, and she desires her daughters to be the same. She
was able to attract Mr. Bennett, a seemingly sensible and self
controlling man, by, “keeping her mouth shut and smiling a
lot.” Basically stated, she entered their marriage under false
pretenses. She had no real love for him, only a desire to gain
financially. Every action taken by her in the novel is directly
intended to undermine her daughters marriages, guiding them toward
financial gain. She is furious when Elizabeth
turns down Collins, as her marriage to him would mean the estate would
stay in the family. She found Darcy most disagreeable, but would have
been furious if Elizabeth had told her the she had turned Darcy's marriage proposal down.
Charlotte Lucas represents the group entirely left out of this equation. She has neither extreme beauty nor wealth. She can not even attract a husband through her wit as Elizabeth does, and so she is basically without hope for inclusion. Elizabeth is astonished when Charlotte accepts Mr. Collin’s marriage proposal, as she does not understand fully Charlottes predicament. She can not hope for a wealthy and handsome husband like Elizabeth and Jane can, as she does not have their particular assets. She can hope at best for security and a degree of comfort.
In Ch.26 we read that Wickham has switched his affections from Elizabeth to Miss King because she has suddenly acquired 10,000 pounds. In Ch.27 When Mrs.Gardiner teases Elizabeth that Wickham who till then was her admirer is "mercenary" Elizabeth
replies:"Pray, my dear aunt, what is the difference in matrimonial
affairs, between the mercenary and the prudent motive? Where does
discretion end, and avarice begin?" Money no doubt is certainly
necessary for a successful and happy marriage. But the vital question is
'how much?': In Ch.33 Col.Fitzwilliam Darcy,the younger son of an
earl, a very rich charming young man, subtly hints that he cannot marry
Elizabeth:"Our habits of expense make us too dependent, and there are
not many in my rank of life who can afford to marry without some
attention to money." to which Elizabeth playfully sugggests that his price would perhaps not be "above 50,000 pounds." In Ch.19 Collins threatens Elizabeth
to submit to his proposal by emphasizing her impoverished status:"one
thousand pounds in the 4 per cents, which will not be yours till after
your mother's decease, is all that you may ever be entitled to." The
novel is a heart rending cry for the freedom of young women from the clutches of mercenary men who toyed with their happiness : "Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance."
Mr.
Wickham's quick transferral of his affections to Miss King after she
has acquired 10,000 pounds provides important insight into his true
character. While Elizabeth
had clearly been his favorite, Wickham must have realized that her
social position gave him little chance of being able to marry her. Of
course, this knowledge did not prevent him from forming an attachment to
her in the first place. Because he paid no attention at all to Miss
King before she inherited the money, his motives for beginning to show a
preference for her must be purely mercenary. Elizabeth
does not seem to find fault with him for his actions, however, even
Mrs. Gardiner points out the purely mercenary reasons for his actions.
Having been sufficiently flattered by his preference for her and having
formed a positive judgment of him, it seems that even in the face of
such strong evidence she is unwilling to rethink her positive judgment
of him. It is ironic that while Elizabeth is unable to make excuses for
her good friend Charlotte for her choice to marry based on financial
concerns, she sees no problem in Wickham's feigning attraction to a
woman simply because her sizeable inheritance.
Elizabeth learns from Lydia
that Mr. Wickham has given up his thought of marrying Miss King also.
This and the other facts show Mr. Wickham to be an utterly unreliable
kind of man. When Elizabeth
tells Jane the true facts about Mr. Wickham, Jane too feels shocked and
says: "Wickham so very bad! It is almost past belief." Mr. Wickham
provides further evidence of his being a rascal and a villain by eloping
with Lydia. The news of Lydia's elopement with Mr. Wickham comes as a great shock to the whole Bennet family, and especially to Elizabeth. It is true that much of the blame for this elopement rests upon Lydia
herself; but Mr. Wickham cannot be exonerated. According to the
information supplied by Mr. Wickham's friend Mr. Denny, Mr. Wickham had
no intention to marry Lydia. Thus, Mr. Wickham's real purpose in running away Lydia had been only to seduce her and to satisfy his lust for her. If Mr. Wickham does marry Lydia
ultimately, it is because of the role played by Mr. Darcy in the whole
affair. Mr. Wickham states certain terms and conditions on which he is
prepared to marry Lydia;
and Mr. Darcy goes out of his way to fulfil those terms and conditions.
Of course, Mr. Bennet too has to satisfy certain conditions laid down
by Mr. Wickham, but the major role in bringing about the marriage is
that of Mr. Darcy. Mr. Wickham also reveals at this time that he had
incurred certain debts which are also now paid by Mr. Darcy. Thus, Mr.
Wickham shows himself to be a mercenary man, besides being unscrupulous
in his relations with girls.
Wickham's next victim is Lydia. It is rather difficult to explain his motives here, for Lydia
has neither money, nor beauty, nor brains. And Wickham does not love
her at all. The fact is that his gambling and his reckless extravagance
involve him in a number of undischarged debts of honour, and he is
forced to leave the neighbourhood. The elopement is brought on by the
strength of Lydia's love for him. He has absolutely no intentions of marrying her. Mrs. Gardiner's letter to Elizabeth
clearly reveals that, even after elopement, he cherishes the hope of
more effectually making his fortune by marriage in some other country.
His willingness to take Lydia
along is either a pure piece of rakishness or an attempt to blackmail
Mr. Bennet and extort as much money as possible. However, Darcy’s
intervention persuaded intervention promises him substantial immediate
relief and he is persuaded to marry Lydia.
His conduct in this episode betrays his extreme selfishness, his
mercenariness and venality, and his utter baseness and want of
principle. In pursuing his selfish aims he is thoroughly calculating -
as in the careful plan to gain Georgiana Darcy's money as well as
revenge on Darcy. In most of his pursuits he is thoroughly mercenary, as
in his pursuit of a wealthy wife and his readiness to marry Lydia when
offered enough money. His style of living is debauched: he likes
gambling to excess and drinking, and his sexual morals are weak or
non-existent. He is totally lacking in honour, and runs away from paying
gambling debts, feels no guilt about the social stigma which will
attach to Lydia after she has run away with him, and shows no intention
of marrying her. Nor on his return to Longbourn after the marriage does
he show any shame. At the end, we feel that in marrying Lydia he gets
the fate he deserves.
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