Elizabeth believes marriage should be based on love, but she is also practical: she does not wish to make a financially unsound match. For example, she tells her Aunt Gardiner that she finds Wickham "the most agreeable man I ever saw," but knowing he has no money, she notes it would be better if he didn't become "really attached to me ... I see the imprudence of it." At the same time, she has a...
Elizabeth believes marriage should be based on love, but she is also practical: she does not wish to make a financially unsound match. For example, she tells her Aunt Gardiner that she finds Wickham "the most agreeable man I ever saw," but knowing he has no money, she notes it would be better if he didn't become "really attached to me ... I see the imprudence of it." At the same time, she has a strong reaction when her best friend Charlotte announces her engagement to the ridiculous Mr. Collins, calling it "impossible!" Much of the novel shows Elizabeth maturing and learning to be realistic about love, learning that it must be based both on a sensible regard for financial circumstance and propriety and on a mutual esteem that is more important than "head over heels" passion.
Elizabeth learns as she travels. When she visits Charlotte after her marriage to Mr. Collins, she realizes that the marriage is not so bad: she "had to meditate on Charlotte's degree of contentment ... and to acknowledge it was all done very well." When she visits Pemberley, her heart begins to change towards Mr. Darcy, as she sees how well he manages his estate: "I believe," she tells her father, "I must date it [falling in love with Darcy] from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley." In the end the two will marry, a match based on each overcoming both pride and prejudice, and developing not only love but a rational respect for the other.
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