What is the relationship between love and marriage in Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’?

Jane Austen as a female writer in the late 18th and early 19th century was innovative for her modern outlook on what the relationship between love and marriage should be. Austen creates a satire of Mrs Bennet who is preoccupied with arranging her five daughter’s marriages and epitomises the traditional expectation that women of middle to upper class would marry primarily to maintain or improve their social standing and secure financial stability. However, through Mr Wickham’s devious negotiations for a dowry before marrying Lydia, and in Charlotte’s blatant lack of affection for Mr Collins, Austen offers a serious comment on how unsatisfactory a loveless marriage can be.
The novel’s protagonist, Elizabeth Bennet, is the figurehead for Austen’s modern vision of middle-upper class marriage based on love, not external social concerns. Elizabeth’s refusal of extremely attractive marriage proposals in her mother’s eyes, of Mr Collins who can secure her family home, and the extremely wealthy Mr Darcy, Elizabeth proves her dedication to the principle of love as central to a happy marriage. Hence, only when her love for Mr Darcy has been realised, as she overcomes her prejudices of him as a proud cold man when he offers her and her family great aid, does she accept his second marriage proposal.