This article explains Jane Austen's thoughts on marriage during her time period by means of analyzing her novel Pride and Prejudice. The author of this article concludes that Austen wanted to demonstrate though her characters and book, "the unhappy consequences of unwise marriages." Austen contrasts the two types of marriage by means of her fictional couples and she exemplifies marriage based on wealth and marriages based on love. The correct link to article: http://search.ebscohost.com.lib.chandleraz.gov/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=MOL9610000388&site=lrc-live

The author's ( Maureen Cutajar) purpose is to explain the irony and structure of Jane Austen's view on the society of her time and to explain Austen's purpose in Pride and Prejudice in terms of the romance in the novel. Cutajar writes on how Austen describes two ways of falling in love and how those reflect on the society of the time. The two ways to fall in love that Austen writes in her novel Pride and Prejudice, is that of instant meeting (or love at first sight) and the love that develops slowly over time as is the case with Elizabeth and Darcy. What Cutajar concludes then is that, "Nevertheless, it seems that the 'rational' choice is not based on how quickly one falls in love but rather on what grounds" (Cutajar). Also, according to Cutajar, she concludes that, "Love therefore is not enough on its own and does not lead to happiness if it goes against the social system" (Cutajar). As for my own thoughts, I am interested in Austen's views on society, especially pertaining to marriage and the social "norm" at the time, especially because Austen's novels mainly reflect the idea of society and marriage. It is also interesting to compare the norm when it comes to marriage then and now and see how they differ or relate.

Purpose: The author shows how Lady Bertram's pet Pug is a symbol of society and the role of Women at the time. She argues that Austen demonstrates the indolence and growing modernization of society and its roles by means of the lapdog ever so present throughout the novel (although a subtle presence). Evidence: "she [Austen] also subtly highlights most of the revolutionary issues of the day: women's nature and place, social class, nationalism and the Empire, Darwinian physiognomy, religion and morality, urbanization, and slavery." "She shows Lady Bertram treating her pug like a baby, always in her lap or in her arms…much as a young mother spends her afternoons watching a toddler." "All this, added to the failures of Lady Bertram's children, serves to illustrate the moral that a woman's duty is to mother her children not to waste her time with pets." "Katherine McDonogh's argument that pet dogs in the French Revolution were shown to be superior to kennel dogs, in being pedigreed and therefore elite, and to symbolize the idle and dissolute aristocracy." "Yet the pug also symbolizes the decadence and laziness of the idle rich." "Beth Dixon points out that women being connected to animals in literature shows that women are bodily, natural, and emotional, therefore closer to being animals themselves than men are." "the pug, while an understandable presence, still evokes and symbolizes the evils of modernity which it has been adopted to alleviate" "it also reprimands traditional culture for keeping women like her daughters Maria and Julia repressed to the point where they erupt in rebellion against strictures of all kinds, especially those prescribing lives as human lapdogs for themselves." Thoughts: I agree with the arguments presented in this criticism and I also find it interesting that such a subtle thing as a lapdog can have so much to say about Austen's purpose or at least one of her purposes to Mansfield Park.