William Bingley, The Wild And Secretive Affair Between...

In â€Å"Pride and Prejudice† many types of love are represented. The calm, easy love that exists between Jane and Charles Bingley, the wild and secretive affair between Lydia and Mr. Wickham, the passionate story of how opposites attract and dislike turning into love. This paper will look at a type of relationship that is not built on love but on mutual needs and desires. For women, these marriages were either arranged by their families, usually as a way to secure land or power. The other type of marriage that a lot of women found themselves in, were not arranged by family members but, were still a result of women needing to find a husband that would provide them with financial security. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries women, had almost no rights in society. They were not permitted to own or inherit property, their education was severely limited, there was a period in which they were not permitted to divorce their husband, and when they were given this right, they were not permitted to retain guardianship over their children. Since women were not allowed to have their own property it was essential that they married men who were able to provide for them the status that they had enjoyed in their father’s home. Preferably the status they gained in marriage was greater than what they had before. The hope was that the husband would help support the woman’s mother when her father passed away. For women who did not find husbands there were limited options left to them. In