Contrasting Actions Of Couples And The Different Kinds Of...

In the novel Austen uses techniques of contrasting actions of couples leading up to ones family marriages and the different kinds of marriage and their outcomes. The family is called the Bennett’s, they have five unmarried daughters and no sons, and this proposes a problem to them because there estate is entailed to inheritance, to Mr. Collins, a family cousin. This will leave the Bennet daughters, once Mr. Bennet dies, without a home or money. Mrs. Bennet is very determined to find all her children a husband, and has a bad outlook on what a marriage should entail. We can see this in the quote in the very beginning of the novel when Mrs. Bennet states, â€Å"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good†¦show more content†¦Lydia Bennet is the youngest of the five sisters and part of the novel revolves around her shameful elopement with Mr. Wickham and the disgrace and drama it brings to her family. We see Lydia through the eyes o f her sister Elizabeth where she states â€Å"Our importance, our respectability in the world, must be affected by the wild volatility, the assurance and disdain of all restraint which mark Lydia s character.(118) Lydia is described as being incapable of listening to her oldest sisters advice because they she is too stubborn pursue her own interests. She is described as being â€Å"Vain, ignorant, idle, and absolutely uncontrolled! (p. 118). Elizabeth even warns her father if he does not start controlling Lydia soon, â€Å"she will, at sixteen, be the most determined flirt that ever made herself or her family ridiculous† (p. 118). Her family is worried that she is going to ruin her own and her family’s reputation through her inappropriate actions, through her flirtations with every officer she comes across. Austen represents Mrs. Bennet as the direct cause of Lydia’s misfortunes. Mrs. Bennet is described by Austen as, â€Å"a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper (p. 60) Mrs. Bennet fails to educate Lydia socially, and by spoiling her and encouraging her flirtatious, she contributes to the Elopement. Lydia should not be the one to bla me for her actions, Mrs. Bennet should be. Mrs. Bennet values marriage as something that concerns wealth and