Pride and Prejudice - Courtship Themes

Courtship is friendly and often ingratiating attention for the purpose of winning a favor or establishing an alliance or other relationships. Courtship is a reoccurring theme in the novel The Pride and the Prejudice. For example, Mrs. Bennet is very concerned that all her daughters will marry, Lydia eloped with Wickham, Elizabeth turned down Mr. Collins proposal, and Darcy fell in love with Elizabeth.

Have you ever wondered why people focus so much on growing up and getting married? Mrs. Bennet's main concern in life is to see that all her daughters are married, preferably to wealthy men. She doesn't even seem to care whether or not her daughters truly love the men. There are many times in the book when Mrs. Bennet tries to set her daughters up with men. For example, when Bingley first moves to Netherfield Park, Mrs. Bennet encourages Mr. Bennet to meet him and make friends with him before any of the other neighbors. Another example of Mrs. Bennet's attempts to marry off her daughters is when Jane becomes ill while at Netherfield. Mrs. Bennet encourages Jane to stay instead of coming home because she feels this will bring her closer to Bingley (Citation). Arranged marriages were not an uncommon this during this time. Although arranged marriages occur less often now, dating is still very much arranged at times. The perfect example of arranged dating is Carmel Catholic High School's Homecoming dance. Many of my friends have been set up with guys they have never even spoken a word to. They were so desperate to go to the dance; they didn't care who their date was. This directly relates to the Pride and the Prejudice. For example, Mr. Collins proposes to Charlotte Lucas who accepts his offer. Charlotte, who greatly fears being single, doesn't even truly love Mr. Collins. She does not care if her husband is foolish and vain, as long as she has a husband. Charlotte has no romantic ideas that marriage must be based on love. She tells Elizabeth, "I am not romantic you know. . . I only ask for a comfortable home."(chapter 22)

Elizabeth is a beautiful independent woman who is not about to conform to society. She is always doing the unthinkable and is constantly surprising us with her wit and intelligence. Her main goal in this book is to marry someone who she truly loves and will make her happy. This is clear when she turns Mr. Collins proposal down. In my opinion Elizabeth had every right to say no. His proposal was ridiculous. Mr. Collins never mentioned once that he loved her and that he thought they would make a good couple. In fact, he did the opposite. The whole time he talked about Lady Catherine and how she thought they would make a good match. Mr. Collins is also quite full of himself after she rejects him, telling people that it is normal for young women to be bashful and initially turn down proposals for marriage. He believes that Elizabeth really wants to marry him, which resulted in him asking her to marry him again. Elizabeth rejects Mr. Collins for a second time. After Mr. Collins talks about how Elizabeth wants to marry him, when in fact she doesn't, he really looked like an idiot. (Chapter 19) There are many times in life when we are so sure of ourselves we forget what others are actually thinking. We talk a big game but the outcome is not always as we expect. For example, the junior and senior girls play a powder puff football game each year. This year it was stated that the juniors actually had a chance at winning. This caused the juniors to talk very positively about themselves telling seniors that they might as well not even show up because we were going to embarrass them in front of the whole school. Now this is ok when you actually win, but the juniors lost! We talked the talk but never walked the walk. This made the juniors look like complete and utter fools.

Mrs. Bennet's favorite daughter Lydia is thoughtless and silly. She acts like a complete idiot and is always flirting with soldiers. For example, Lydia elopes with Wickham. This alarms the whole family because Lydia and Wickham are not married. Elizabeth is certain that Wickham will not marry Lydia because of their social status, which makes matters even worse. Elizabeth fears that Lydia knows nothing of Wickham's disgraceful past and lacks the good sense and