Discretion and Avarice

"Pray, my dear aunt, what is the difference in matrimonial affairs, between the mercenary and the prudent motive? Where does discretion end, and avarice begin? Last Christmas you were afraid of his marrying me, because it would be imprudent; and now, because he is trying to get a girl with only ten thousand pounds, you want to find out that he is mercenary." (Austen 147).

Here Austen picks up on and mocks an absurdity of her society and the way it lives. In this book, as during Austen's lifetime, the women with little money, like the Bennetts, are trying hard to find themselves husbands who could well support them. But Elizabeth here asks, when do we know if we've gone too far? Where is the line between wanting to be comfortable in a marriage and being purely avaricious? Elizabeth says that, in Wickham's case, and by her aunt's standards, perhaps the line is very thin. When Wickham is interested in Elizabeth's hand, her aunt does not think it prudent, for neither have very much money. However, when he goes after a girl with a little more money, though not much more, she is quick to think him mercenary. Perhaps in those days, the line really was that thin.