How is marriage presented in Austen's Pride and Prejudice

Austen's Pride and Prejudice engages with the subject of marriage from the very first page; by the end of the chapter, the marital ambitions of Mrs Bennet towards her daughter's are established. Yet the novel approaches marriage from an unusual and - by the standards of the era - radical perspective. The four marriages of the story - Lizzy and Darcy, Jane and Bingley, Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins, and Lydia and Mr. Wickham - challenge Recency notions of the ideal union. Lizzy and Darcy's tempestuous relationship evolves into a love match which scandelises his wealthy relatives, contextualized by Darcy's own attempts to prevent a similarly unsuitable match between Jane and Bingley. Charlotte Lucas, on the other hand, marries Mr. Collins for security. An old maid by standards of the time, her choice is shrewd and unromantic. It has also in recent years attracted the attention of feminist and queer theorists, who have examined Charlotte's character and choices through their respective frameworks. Where the former three marriages are presented as happy - or happy enough - the marriage of Lydia and Wickham is the scandalous alternative, wherein Wickham through spite manipulates a vulnerable girl into a socially disastrous end. Interestingly however it is this scandel which acts as a catalyst for the marriages of Jane and Lizzy, and it perhaps could be an indication for an underlying message of liberalism on Austen's part.