Pride and Prejudice introduces Mrs. Bennet, who looks forward to the arrival of the rich, young man, Mr. Bingley, who will hopefully marry one of her five daughters. During the ball, Mr. Bingley shows great affection to Jane Bennet, whereas Mr. Darcy now holds the reputation of a wealthy yet selfish and prideful gentleman. As Jane and Bingley's relationship rises upwards, Caroline Bingley shows extreme hatred and jealousy towards the Bennets. Later, Mr. Darcy finds himself falling for Elizabeth Bennet, although she despises him for various reasons: he prevented her sister, Jane, and Mr. Bingley from seeing each other, breaking their relationship; George Wickham, Mr. Darcy's former friend, had said that he stole Wickham's inherited money from his father's master, late Mr. Darcy. However, it is soon discovered from his apological letter that Mr. Darcy had only tried separating Bingley and Jane as he thought it unsuitable for his friend to get attached to the Bennet family with its lack of wealth. George Wickham is also found to be lying and spent all his inheritance partying. Meanwhile, Mr. Collins becomes engaged to Elizabeth's best friend, Charlotte; Jane and Mr. Bingley happily reunite and marry; Wickham ends up married to Lydia Bennet, an unalert and naive girl; whereas Elizabeth accepts Mr. Darcy's proposal.
Social status and class were extremely important in the Regency era, which led to social boundaries and limitations. Social status consists of the upper, middle, and lower classes; this categorization limits people within their own class. People from the upper class were wealthy and had a high reputation in their society, while people from the lower or middle classes had to work hard to climb up and gain more social status. Social climbers are people who ascend from a lower class to a higher class through different methods. Jane, Elizabeth, and Charlotte all ascended in social class through marriage; the Bingleys climbed to the higher class by working hard in business; Miss King and Mr. Collins both moved up a level through inheritance. However, social climbers are normally uncommon in society; most people stay in the same class in which they were born, such as the Darcy family, the De Bourgh family, and George Wickham. Most people from the upper class try to maintain their status and hopefully combine their wealth through marriage. Lady Catherine wanted Mr. Darcy to get engaged to her daughter, Anne De Bourgh, and the Bingley sisters wanted Mr. Bingley to get married to Miss Georgiana Darcy. People create regulations and bridges throughout the different classes to either maintain their status or ascend in social class.
Marriage is the easiest method for social climbers to ascend to a higher social class and status. In the Regency era, normal marriages are within a certain social class; abnormal marriages involve two different classes. Although there are many abnormal marriages in Pride and Prejudice, these relationships are normally more uncommon in the society. In the novel, Charlotte purposefully lured Mr. Collins to marry her, as she knew that her engagement with him would let her climb the social ladder and receive wealth. Moreover, she could also promise herself a good future when she grows older; her family was poor, so she knew an unmarried child would be a burden to them. In another perspective, Collins was the only person who might have accepted Charlotte, as he didn’t care much about appearance or love. Although they didn’t marry only to climb the social hierarchy, the two eldest Bennet sisters also ascended in social status after marrying Mr Bingley and Mr Darcy, respectively. On the other hand, people’s social reputation can also fall dramatically if they make a bad choice in marriage. For example, Lydia’s naive engagement to Wickham not only harmed her own reputation but also her whole family’s. Wickham’s greed and Lydia’s over-confidence only make things worse. In the novel, people are also shown to secretly mock Lydia and the Bennet family for her engagement to Wickham, which could be taken advantage of to prevent Jane and Elizabeth’s marriages as well. In social structure and reputation, marriage can impact one’s social reputation in different ways.
Love and its appearance in marriage are thereby greatly affected by the importance of social status and class in a relationship. As people have developed new perspectives on marriage, pure love has declined and is seen to be unstable. In the novel, all marriages are concerned with either wealth and status or tolerance and respect, as well as love. Lydia and Wickham’s marriage is supported by money and Lydia’s naive love; Charlotte and Collins’ marriage is supported by social status and reputation; Jane and Bingley, and Elizabeth and Darcy’s marriages are supported by tolerance, understanding, respect, and love. Although pure love isn’t stable anymore, love is still extremely important in a relationship. Even though Darcy was a wealthy man, Elizabeth rejected him the first time because she hated him and knew that if she accepted it, she might live a dull life like Charlotte. However, Darcy loved Elizabeth enough to be willing to propose a second time, where Elizabeth had a renewed and better impression on him, and finally accepted. Charlotte and Collins’ engagement, however, is wiped from any signs of love. To most people, this type of marriage would be intolerable, but since Charlotte knew that Collins was the only man who would marry her, she accepted her dull yet stable future. Although love is important in marriage, pure love isn’t stable and a relationship could break easily without the necessary support of other factors.
The manners and accomplishments of ladies and gentlemen, of which good performance was essential in the Victorian era, can largely impact the future of certain people. In many eras, one’s manners are greatly dedicated to one’s later relationships and future. The novel Pride and Prejudice is known to be a novel of manners, and formerly named “First Impressions”. Within the novel, different characters possess a different set of manners, which affects their time ahead. Mrs. Bennet is shown to have an immature, irrational, and overly emotional personality, which doesn’t help her daughter’s chances of marrying at all. Although Mr. Bennet is more intuitive than his wife, he is still an eccentric and sarcastic man. Mr. Collins, on the other hand, is overly confident and self-conceited about his social status, which leads to his reputation falling deeper than ever. Darcy is one of the more sensible and mature gentlemen in the novel, shown at the near end of the story plot. Although prideful and sometimes unfriendly, he is intelligent, generous, polite, and gentlemanly in the right situations. Lady Catherine, much like Collins, is extremely arrogant and bossy. She possesses a good manner for a wealthy lady like her, but she can’t find a way to have a normal, friendly conversation without yelling out commands and orders now and then. People’s futures and following relationships are greatly affected by their manners and personalities.
In the Victorian era, people had high expectations for women and ladies, as their only, or most important use was to marry a wealthy, good gentleman. The role of females in the earlier periods had high requests and were expected to make good use of themselves and their advantages. In Pride and Prejudice, ladies were expected to be ladylike and gentlemen gentlemanly; there was social value on the different genders. All ladies, according to Mr. Darcy, are only said to be accomplished if she has “a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages, to deserve the word; and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half-deserved.” As women were to be housewives when they grew up, they were all expected to marry a good, wealthy, young man. Charlotte, for example, decided to marry Collins not only for social wealth but also to give her family less of a burden, since her family was poor and had many children to take care of. Women and ladies are highly expected and requested to have many accomplishments and good manners.
In Pride and Prejudice, many different marriages centering different social classes and characters are introduced, such as the engagements between Jane and Bingley, Elizabeth and Darcy, Lydia and Wickham, and Charlotte and Collins. Most, if not all, marriages and relationships are connected to one’s social wealth, class, status, and reputation. Many people use marriage to gain social status and wealth, much like Charlotte, Mr. Collins, Wickham, and Lady Catherine. Pride and Prejudice, formerly named “First Impressions” is a book of manners; in the novel, people’s futures and relationships are impacted by their manners, personality, and accomplishments. The Bennet parents, Mr. Collins, Mr. Darcy, and Lady Catherine De Bourgh are all examples of people with distinct manners and different lives. Especially in the Victorian Era, people had high expectations of women to become good housewives and help their families. Moreover, ladies should act like ladies, just as much as gentlemen act like gentlemen, which is much emphasized by Mr. Darcy.
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