Progress 12

Game Theory in Jane Austen’s

Pride and Prejudice: A Literature Review

For over many decades and up to now, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is the best choice for scholars to do research in marriage in late eighteenth century and nineteenth century. The purpose of this research paper is talking about game theory in women’s marriages in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

Firstly, women characters use game theory in their own marriage. Daniel J. Kruger states in her Variation In Women's Mating Strategies Depicted In The Works And Words Of Jane Austen that some women are “actively engage in flirtation and pursuit of a potential mate, and they engage in short-term relationships” (206). She uses Lydia Bennet as an example. Lydia Bennet wants to have a better life and runs away from home to pursue the solder. She is manipulating her own marriage and creates chances to attract the solder. She knows if she does nothing, she will no longer have the chance to have high social status. Secondly, the women characters in Pride and Prejudice manipulate others’ marriage. Dr. Chew in his book Jane Austen, Game Theorist states that Mrs. Bennet is manipulating her eldest daughter Jane to marry Mr. Bingley. She is trying her best to create chances for Jane because she knows if she does nothing, Jane will lose the valuable chances to have high social status.

Secondly, the literature on women’s marriages in Pride and Prejudice suggests that women regard marriages as commercial investment. Stephen Whitley argues in his book Marriage Marketplace: Marx's Theory of use and Exchange Value and the Sphere of Consumption in Jane Austen's "Emma" and "Mansfield Park" that “In describing the marriage ritual of the minor gentry and middle classes, Austen exposes the realities of the marriage economy and how, to varying degrees of effectiveness, women manipulate this economy.” Women uses use value and exchange value to evaluate men. They want to marry men who have money so that they can have relaxing life in the rest of their lives.

    Similarly, Sandra L Alagona in Revolution And Improvement In The Writings Of Jane Austin And Margaret Fuller argues that “To be a middle class white woman in early nineteenth century England and the United States meant that you lived most of your life as someone's financial dependent. (88)” The people that women depend on can be women’s father and husbands. Therefore, women always want to find wealth husbands to ensure they will have money later in their life.

However, anther literature suggests that men and women are equal in marriages in Pride and Prejudice. M. Zolfagharkhani and H. Ramezani in their book ‘Gaze' and 'Visuality' in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice claims that “he fact that Elizabeth can both desire and be desired challenges the traditional gender roles of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries because it grants her a level of equality with Darcy.” Jane Austen focuses on “female gaze” to describe the loving process of Elizabeth and Darcy. Elizabeth does not shape herself to satisfy Darcy’s desire.