They shook hands with great cordiality; and then till her sister came down, she had to listen to all he had to say, of his own happiness, and of Jane’s perfections; and in spite of his being a lover, Elizabeth really believed all his expectations of felicity, to be rationally founded, because they had for basis the excellent understanding, and super-excellent disposition of Jane, and a general similarity of feeling and taste between her and himself.
– Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 55. Charles Bingley asks for Elizabeth’s best wishes on his engagement to Jane. Elizabeth is happy for both of them. She believes that Bingley’s hopes of their happiness together is based not just on love, but on reason also. She refers to their compatibility, shared tastes and Jane’s "super-excellent" temperment. Elizabeth has learned the lesson of the dangers of a marriage based solely on passion from the disastrous example of her young sister Lydia’s blind infatuation for Wickham. Elizabeth also doesn’t share Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s view on marriage, that it should be arranged within your class to promote the material prosperity of the families, with no regard to the individuals involved. We gain this insight into the aristocratic lady’s thinking on marriage in the next chapter in the famous battle of wills between her and Elizabeth. For Elizabeth a good marriage is best achieved with a mix of love and reason. This very considered view on love and marriage is what makes Jane Austen so much more than a simple romance novel writer. She satirizes the conventional romantic novel, exposing the risks of "love at first sight" and promoting a love that grows from a knowledge of the other’s character.
