Pride & Prejudice: Marriage

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others, only thirty percent of women married. It was no use to the women of this time to wait for their parents to die so ultimately they had to buy themselves a husband. Women inherited only through their husbands so they were practically born poor, and stayed poor, and lived well only by their husband's favor. That is why the state of marriage fell upon the responsibility of the female in the choice of her husband. This freedom of the English girl in courtship astonished many contemporary observers from other countries because to them marriages between reputable young people were usually arranged. This was done usually without any reference to the desires and wishes of the two people. Austen uses this novel and its characters to refute all previous views of marriage such as these and show society that marriage should be a unique moment of adventure, a time in a young girl's life where her destiny lay not in her family's hands but in her ...

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