The theme of marriage is prevalent in Jane Austen’s Persuasion and William Shakespeare’s, The Tempest. It is well known that the marriage between the heroine and the hero occurs in almost every novel by Jane Austen. William Shakespeare does not focus on marriage as much, but the theme of marriage is still involved in his plays. Jane Austen tries to break the norm that marriage is a means of gaining property or a way to become financially stable, by having the hero and heroine fall in love. The Tempest however, uses marriage as a means to gain some sort of property. Two have completely different views on marriage, but the main characters get exactly what they want in the end.

Jane Austen in her novels focuses on love and marriage. Jane Austen believes that if one is to get married it should be out love and not be forced. There are several marriages or married people in Persuasion; Anne and Captain Wentworth, Mary Elliot and Charles Musgrove’s, Admiral Croft and Mrs. Croft. All of these have their own purpose or reasons behind them, but the most important is by far the marriage between Anne and Captain Wentworth.

Anne and Captain Wentworth were going to get married seven years prior, but at the time Wentworth was not in the high class of society. This was the major decider in the original marriage.Since then, Wentworth built up his reputation and rose in the rigid class structure, the marriage was possible, at least in the eyes of Sir Walter Elliot. Either way the feelings they had for each other did not change. Anne would have married Wentworth, but had to reject Wentworth the first time because of her father. It should be noted that Auerbach points out that the “marriage between Louisa and Benwick is more than a mechanical contrivance to free Wentworth for Anne Elliot.” (112) Louisa is Charles Musgrove’s sister and is head over heels for Wentworth because of her deep affection for the navy. There is not a doubt in my mind that Wentworth would have married her if he was not still in love with Anne. According to Rzpeka, “to “be of use,” to find active “employment which” will “carr[y] her out of herself,” is what Anne Elliot seeks in her marriage to Frederick Wentworth.” (113) If Anne married someone else, she would not have been happy, and probably would have felt useless. With Wentworth, she loves him, and probably feels like she has some sort of purpose. One can only assume, because this Persuasion ends with the engagement/marriage of our heroine and hero.

William Hayley discusses “old maids” and “widows” in his satirical essay, A Philosophical, historical, and Moral essay on Old Maids. An old maid is a single woman who is not yet married. A widow is obviously someone who was married and her husband died. Old maids according to Hayley are make great wives because they will love you like crazy. He writes, “Her affection is a portable microscope, which magnifies in a stupendous manner all the attractive merits and powers of pleasuring, however inconsiderable they may be, in the favorite creature upon whom she gazes.” (193) Anne could be portrayed is an old maid in the technical manner. She is considered already too old to marry anyone. The love she has for Wentworth is impressive. To still have feelings for someone for over seven years, is impressive, then to marry them is like a dream come true. The widow according to Hayley is “an experienced and a skillful angler, who has acquired patience to wait for the favorable minute, and with rapidity to strike in the very instant when the fish has fairly risen to the hook.” (193) The widow knows the way around a man’s heart and is an experienced lover. What every man wants right? Anne can be viewed as widow. She waited for the perfect moment to reconnect with Wentworth. Anne really is the best of both worlds. She is an old maid because she can love deeply and does for Wentworth, and is a widow because she waited for the perfect moment to reconnect with Wentworth.

Anne could have married Mr. Elliot, but she would not have been happy with him. Mr. Elliot’s sole intention was to acquire Kellynch Hall. He could care less about the marriage with Anne. If he was to acquire Kellynch Hall, he would become a “Sir” and be part of the high class in England. Marriage for Mr. Elliot was just a means to reach the upper echelons of society.

Charles Musgrove is in the same boat as Mr. Elliot, except he successfully married up into a high class, but married Elizabeth Elliot, Anne’s sister. Charles appears to be a nice guy, but Elizabeth is hysterical, and slightly crazy. Charles married into a high class, but married someone he does not truly love.

Admiral Croft and Mrs. Croft are the first happy couple in Persuasion, according to Nina Auerbach. The other characters to seem to show any sort of happiness in their marriages. This could because they do not have any financial troubles and they do not show any signs of regret of marrying each other. They are genuinely happy together, which is not seen to be the case with the other married couples in Persuasion other than our heroine, Anne, and our hero, Wentworth.  CJ Rzpeka mentions that marriage is portrayed as a way to let women into male dominated roles. We see this with Mrs. Croft. In the novel, it says that Mrs. Croft is better at driving or steering boats. Rzpeka also mentions that marriage is a way to connect two separate worlds; home and work. (107) Little did Austen know that over the next century or so this would become a reality with women being in the work force, like for example the military. Anne and Wentworth, one can assume, through their marriage join the world of the “home” with the world of the “work”.

In Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the marriage is fixed. Miranda falls in love for the first male she has seen other than Caliban and her father, Prospero. She would not marry Caliban because he tried to rape her, and in every portrayal of Caliban, it appears that he is some sort of monster. Prospero sees this marriage as an opportunity for him to acquire his dukedom for the second time, and to continue his linage. Elliot Visconsi in his essay titled, Viculum Fidei: The Tempest and the Law of Allegiance, writes, “Prospero and Miranda are reintegrated into civil society on favorable terms, their injuries remedied and their foes rebuked without bloodshed.” Through the marriage between Miranda and Ferdinand, Prospero gets exactly what he wanted, his dukedom and his reintegration into society. He does not care if Miranda and Ferdinand truly love each other. I do not believe that Miranda and Ferdinand actually do love each other considering that they only knew each other for three hours. Prospero all along wanted to go back to the main land with a legitimate reason, the marriage of Ferdinand and his daughter.

Persuasion and The Tempest have two different points of view of what marriage is for. In Persuasion there are marriages that happen across the board, but many of them follow the typical 19^th / 18^th century way of marriage which is portrayed as marrying to gain something. If it is either for land or inheritance, like Mr. Elliot, or to move up the ranks in a very rigid class system, like Mr. Elliot again and Charles Musgrove. Captain Wentworth one could argue marries into a high class, but he earned his stripes and managed to make his way up the social order through the navy. Persuasion tries to break the norm of 19^th/18^th century marriage with the marriage of Anne and Wentworth. The Tempest solidifies the 18^th/19^th century marriage ideals.

Also, according to Auerbach marriage in The Tempest and Persuasion is way to make sure you do not lose anything. For example, the loss of Kellynch Hall would be detrimental to Sir Walter Elliot, but to Mr. Elliot, Anne’s cousin, it would be a way for him to get into the upper ranks of society. In The Tempest, for Prospero if Miranda and Ferdinand did not marry he would have no chance of acquiring his dukedom again.

In today’s society we view marriage very similar to how Jane Austen perceived it in her stories. The 21^st possibly 20^th century view point of marriage I believe is to marry someone you truly love. I have seen this first hand with my sister and my now brother-in-law. I see it continually with my mother and father. Anyways, in today’s society we hardly ever see fixed marriages or marriages meant to inherit something or go up in class structure. Not to say it does not happen, it is just a rarity to see the reason why two people married each other was to benefit one person. Marriages today are based around having a long lasting marriage and maybe to start a family. If one starts a family, the parents hope for the betterment and success of their children.