A short answer to this question about Austen's view of
marriage is inadequate for the reason of (1) Jane Austen's ironic authorial voice in
close proximity to the narrative (as opposed to a distant authorial voice that doesn't
comment on the narrative) and for the reason that (2) Austen follows the Greek and
Renaissance mimetic theory that literature should present all aspects of the issue being
explored: i.e., all views about love and marriage. For theses two reasons, it takes
thought to sort Austen's view out from her myriad ironic comments and to settle upon
which idea(s) of love and marriage she identifies in the end of the story as the view(s)
she considers to be the most suitable.
Elizabeth might be
suspected of being the spokesperson for Austen's view of marriage, but Elizabeth goes
through some significant character development so that her views at the end of the novel
are not her views from the beginning of the novel. Jane might be
suspected of representing Austen's view but Jane comes in for well founded criticism on
points that nearly lead her to sabotage her own happiness--in fact, for a short time do
cause her to sabotage her own happiness. While it is clear that the minor female
characters (Mary, Kitty, Lydia, Miss Bingley) and the mother figures are the
representation of views that Austen does not hold with, it
is harder to see Austen's view in relation to Charlotte, since Elizabeth does come to
take a different view of Charlotte's marriage to Mr. Collins after her own
misadventures; although Austen never lets Mr. Collins off the hook of
disapproval.
Austen does make clear her view that avarice
and greed and vanity in motives of marriage are woefully wrong through characters like
Miss Bingley and Lady De Bourgh and Mr. Collins. She also clearly rejects the
unreasoned, reckless and harmful approaches to marriage of Lydia, Mary, Kitty and
Wickham.
In the end of the story, Elizabeth has learned
that infatuation, as hers for Wickham, does not make the foundation for marriage. She
has also learned that superficial knowledge of an individual cannot make the foundation
of a decision for or against marriage, as her marriage to Darcy proves. She has further
learned to take a gentler view of the needs to marry--or not marry--for independence and
self-fulfillment, as in the cases of Charlotte and Fitzwilliam. In the final result,
Elizabeth comes to agree quite well with the position presented by her Aunt Gardener,
who advocates a rational, practical approach to potential marriage partners and
marriage.
Therefore, Austen's view can be identified in
what she denounces, e.g., Lydia, Wickham, etc., and in the developed end form of whom
she presents as admirable; i.e., Elizabeth, Jane, Charlotte, Fitzwilliam, Darcy, Aunt
and Uncle Gardener, Mr. Bingley, and in the lessons Elizabeth
learns.
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