Questioning women's status in the Victorian age:Marriage in Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice

This work aims at investigating, in general, the situation of women in the Victorian age and the more specifically the marriage in the Victorian age and how the women were approaching marriage. There were many reasons behind conducting marriage by women in the Victorian age, for example, many women were conducting marriage because their social status was not good or they had a poor family therefore they were relying on marriage to secure their future, while there were many others trying to do marriage just to get economically some interests or money. In this study we have chosen two novels to explain more clearly the conditions women were experiencing at the time, our first novel is Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. In Pride and prejudice Jane shows multiple-marriages and the reasons stand behind each marriage. Jane clearly comments about each of these marriages and reveals her preferred marriage and she encourages women to conduct companion marriage because he sees as the most successful marriage. The Second novel is Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. Charlotte in this novel shows the social class differences and the attempts women were making to reach their independence. Keywords: women, the Victorian age, Marriage in Pride and Prejudice, Marriage and control in Jane Eyre