MarriageIn Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen introduces the major thematic concept of marriage and financial wealth. Throughout the novel, Austen depicts various relationships that feature both recurring themes. Set during the Regency period, the perception of marriage revolves around a universal truth. Austen states that a single man “must need a wife.” The social stature and wealth of men were therefore of paramount importance to women. Austen, however, implies that the opposite may be more accurate: an unmarried woman, due to social limitations, needs a husband. Through this speculation, Austen recognizes that the economic pressure of social acceptance serves as the basis for a suitable marriage. Introducing the novel, Austen explains: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want. of a wife” (1). According to this statement, truth depends on what society deems acceptable. In this mindset, social acceptance is based on a single man's economic situation rather than his character. Austin goes on to describe that a man “must need a woman,” emphasizing a feeling of desire and need. Ideally, Austen condenses the ideas of want and need as the primary motives for marriage. Despite Austen's claims that a man must need a woman, it is the woman's desires that really matter. Darryl Jones relates that there is a “fundamentally economic basis” to Austen’s work, particularly in the case of women (Jones 18). Therefore, a man's good fortune must complement his wife's economic needs. This mentality, however, defines the faults of marriage, but identifies the woman's view of marriage in Austen's time. The preoccupation with marriage continues...... middle of paper ...... ch, and place in pride and prejudice." Nineteenth-Century Fiction 30.3 (1975): 367-382. Print.Jones, Darryl. “Pride and Prejudice”. Modern critical interpretations of Bloom. Pride and prejudice. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House, 2007. 93-112. Print.McMaster, Juliette. “Love and marriage”. The Jane Austen Companion, ed. J. David Grey, A. Walton Litz and Brian Southam. New York: Macmillan Editions, 1986. 286-296. Print.Marcus, Mordecai. “A major thematic pattern in Pride and Prejudice.” Nineteenth-Century Fiction 16.3 (1961): 274-279. Print. Moses, Carole. “Jane Austen and Elizabeth Bennet: The Limits of Irony.” Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal 25 (2003): 155-164. Print.Newton, Judith Lowder. “Women, power and subversion”. Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, Ed. Robert Clark. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994. 119-143. Print.