Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

"Pride and Prejudice follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet, the second of five daughters of a country gentleman, as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England."

+  The novel is set in the fictional town of Meryton, Herefordshire, near London, in early 19th century England.
+  The novel is narrated through free indirect discourse, which means that the events of the novel are filtered through Elizabeth's perception.

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

From the very beginning, love is seen as secondary to marriage; the security found in upholding societal norms is the most important thing. As Charlotte says, "Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance."

"'I have been used to consider poetry as the food of love,' said Mr Darcy.

'Of a fine, stout, healthy love it may. Everything nourishes what is strong already. But if it be only a slight, thin sort of inclination, I am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away.'"

Elizabeth takes an immensely pragmatic view of love and marriage, in stark contrast to the romantic ideals of her sisters. Her opinions could be based on her parent's ill-matched relationship, in which the "experience of three and twenty years had been insufficient to make [Mrs Darcy] understand [her husband's] character".  

"'Bingley likes your sister undoubtedly; but he may never do more than like her, if she does not help him on.'"

Though men are still dominant in society, they are treated by the women as though they do not know their own minds. The way they presume to orchestrate the men's feeling, like their lives are a game could be considered a curious reflection of courtly love, when more thought is put into achieving the object of desire than the 'happily ever after'.