Psychologist Robert Sternberg developed the "triangular theory of love" which defines the three components of love necessary for a "perfect" relationship as commitment, passion and intimacy (company) ( Wikipedia). “The amount of love one experiences depends on the absolute strength of these three components, and the type of love one experiences depends on the mutual strength of these three components” (Wikipedia). In Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, she features five couples who get married in all different types of love. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet have an infatuated love that fades into no love, Charlotte and Mr. Collins enter into an empty love, Lydia and Mr. Wickham fall into a wishy-washy love, Jane and Mr. Bingley focus on a shared love and Finally, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy find a consummate love for each other. Throughout the novel, Austen uses these five variations of love to employ the characters and define their future. For starters, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet love simple infatuation. This type of love is without intimacy or commitment and resides in pure passion. After the passion runs out, there is no love left. Mr. Bennet married his wife because she was very beautiful, however she turned out to be not very intelligent. He often warned his children not to do the same, just as he tells Elizabeth: "My daughter, do not let me have the pain of seeing you unable to respect your partner in life. You know not what you do" (Austen). The lack of love between her parents was also quite evident to Elizabeth. He saw that "his father, charmed by youth and beauty, and by that appearance of good humor which youth and beauty generally give, had married a woman whose feeble understanding and illiberal mind had very early... half the paper. ..... said, for attention on any other object" (Austen). The intensity of the love they cultivated for each other throughout the novel gave them the components of a consummate love. Throughout the novel, Pride and Prejudice, Austen uses five variations of Robert Sternberg's triangular love theory to describe the characters and their view of love. With Mr. and Mrs. Bennet's love as an infatuation, Charlotte and Collins as empty, Lydia and Wickham as fated, Jane and Bingley as companions, and Elizabeth and Darcy as consummated, the characters make decisions that will bind them for their future. , all because of their love intentions. Works Cited Austen, Jane. Pride and prejudice. New York: Dover, 1995. Print."Triangular Theory of Love." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 17 March 2012. Web. 22 March. 2012. .