LOVE AND MARRIAGE IN JANE AUSTEN’S WORK—PRIDE AND PREJUDICE论简奥斯汀作品《傲慢与偏见》中的爱情与婚姻.docx

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1、LOVE AND MARRIAGE IN JANE AUSTENS WORKPRIDE AND PREJUDICE论简奥斯汀作品傲慢与偏见中的爱情与婚姻ABSTRACT Jane Austen is one of the most remarkable women novelists in the world. As an authoress in the eighteenth century in England, she had a sensible idea on love and marriage. On her whole life, she wrote six novels: No

2、rtherner Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, and Persuasion, which describes various kinds of characters and their everyday life. Pride and Prejudice, one of the well-known novels in the history of the English literature, was published in 1813. The story talks ab

3、out trivial matters of love, marriage and family life between country squires and fair ladies in Britain in the 18th century. Through the description of the daily talks and doings of young men and women, Austen pointed their characteristics. All of the characters had different experiences, and acted

4、 in different ways. However, they had a common pursuit, thats good marriage. This paper is to make an analysis of four marriages in Pride and Prejudice and discuss the deep outlook for their marriage in the light of social background at the time. In describing the characters everyday life and one ma

5、rriage after another, Austen expressed her sensible view on it clearly. In her opinion, money was essential to a marriage while the equality in social status would increase the possibility of the marriage, but what affected the marriage most were manners. According to her, it was the good manners th

6、at united the heroes and heroines. Compared with the social scene on marriage nowadays, maybe her view was so restricted. But during her time, her view was so advanced that it was not accepted widely. On summary, we can find the authors idea about marriage from the analysis: marriage, property and s

7、ocial status interconnected, but not absolutely.Key Words: Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, analysis, marriage摘 要简奥斯丁是有史以来世界上最杰出的女性小说家之一。在18世纪的英国，作为女作家的她对爱情和婚姻有着敏锐的见解。她一生创作了六部小说：诺桑觉寺,理智与情感,傲慢与偏见,曼斯菲尔德庄园,爱玛和劝导，这些作品描写了形形色色的人物及他们的生活。傲慢与偏见是英国文学历史中最著名的小说之一，出版于1813年。这部小说讲述的是18世纪英国青年绅士们和女士们之间的爱情，婚姻及家庭中的琐事

8、。通过对青年男女间的日常语言和行为的描写，简奥斯丁刻画出了鲜明的人物。所有她笔下的角色的经历和行为都不尽相同，但是却拥有一个共同的追求，那就是“成功的婚姻”。本文旨在对小说中四段婚姻的分析从而深入的讨论鉴于特殊社会背景下的婚姻实质。通过描写一场接着一场的婚姻，简奥斯丁充分表现了她对婚姻的独特看法，她认为婚姻需要一定数量的金钱，与此同时男女双方在社会地位上的平等有利于增加婚姻的可能性，但是教养是影响婚姻的一个重要因素，在她看来，拥有好的教养才使她笔下的男女主人公走在一起。但是和当今社会下的婚姻观相比，她的想法存在一定的限制性，然而早她的年代，这种观念确是十分先进的。总之，我们可以从分析中得出作者

9、的想法：婚姻，财产，社会地位是相互联系的，但它并不是全部。关键词：简奥斯丁；傲慢与偏见；分析；婚姻ivCONTENTSABSTRACT (ENGLISH).iABSTRACT (CHINESE). iiiCHAPTERI. INTRODUCTION. .1 A. A Brief Introduction to Jane Austen.1 B. A Brief Introduction to the Background of Pride and Prejudice.1 1. Social Background.1 2. Women Status.2 C. Thesis Statement.3I

10、I. DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF THE NOVEL5 A. PLOTS.51. The Mr. Bennets.5 2. Elizabeth Bennets.8 B. CHARACTERS.9 1. Charlotte. .9 2. Collins.10 3. Bingley. .10 4. Jane .10 5. Elizabeth.11III. DIFFERENT MARRIAGES IN PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.12 A. Collins and Charlotte.12 B. Wickham and Lydia.15 C. Bingley and Jan

11、e.16IV. IMPORTANT FACTORS IN A MARRIAGE.18 A. Money.18 B. Social statuses.18 C. Manners.19V. CONCLUSION.21WORKS CITED.23ACKNOELED GEMENTS. .24CHAPTER IINTRODUCTIONA. A Brief Introduction to Jane Austen Jane Austen (1775-1817) was born in Hampshire, a country priest family located in Hants, the villa

12、ge of Kingston, Sidemen in north England. She was a beautiful, talented middle class woman with extraordinary temperament and good cultivation. Her six novels-Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Northerner Abbey, Mansfield Park, Emma, Persuasion all describe more than marriage. However, her

13、marriage is like a blank paper in her 42 years real lifetime. Going through the finest time, but eventually without meeting a comfortable partner, she gives up her love. Going through the sweet and bitter feeling which helps her to write the great work Pride and Prejudice. B. A Brief Introduction to

14、 the Background of Pride and Prejudice In this great book, the author amply demonstrates her point about love and marriage. Therefore, in order to analyze these points of views, we should firstly start from her great work.1. Social Background The story of Pride and Prejudice took place in the time o

15、f the Regency in Britain. At that time, Britain was at the period of transition from the earlier stage of Capitalism to Capitalist Industrialization. In the countryside, the aristocratic family still held great power and right that country squires were likely to fawn upon them. However, as the devel

16、opment of Capitalism and the expand of the rank of rich people, the distinction between social strata was becoming smaller and smaller, while money was getting more and more important in peoples mind about social value. A western literature critic once said “even David Ricardo (a British economist)

17、had an unlikely clearer understanding about the function of money in daily life as Jane Austen.” At that time, according to the social conditions in Britain, a good marriage for a young woman was critical. This phenomenon was closely associated with the British society and the status of women in the

18、 society.2. Women Status In the 19th century, women were not well respected compared with the ones in the present society. There was no equality between woman and man. Women were considered to be inferior to men in terms of intelligence and capacity. The central life of women was forced to be stayin

19、g at home; their roles were to deal with the family affairs, such as taking care of the children and serving for the husband. People naturally thought that women should be submissive to their husbands. The virtues of women were patient and deferent. They must recognize their inherent inferiority to

20、men, so they must restrict their abilities without conditions. Although the status of women was slow, few of them expressed dissatisfaction about their own destiny. At that time, many middle-class young women had three solutions: getting married, staying at home as old maids or working as the family

21、 female teachers. The income of family female teacher was very low, and the status was low as well. It was very difficult for them to change or swap out of this status, no one would like to be a maid forever; therefore, in terms of young women, especially those who dont have enough properties, to ge

22、t married was the only way for them to gain respect, stability and social status. Austin fully analyzed some bad phenomenon in her work Pride and Prejudice, taking some perfect points about marriage and loves to demonstrate her own view on love and marriage.C. Thesis Statement Pride and Prejudice is

23、 the most enduringly popular novel written by Jane Austen. It talks about trivial matters of love, marriage and family life between country squires and fair ladies in Britain in the 18th century. The plot is very simple. That is how the young ladies choose their husbands. Someone said that “Elizabet

24、h Ben net, the protagonist of the novel, flatly rejected William Collins proposal, who is the heir of her fathers property and manor, and refused the first proposal from the extremely wealthy nobleman Fitzwilliam Darcy later,” all this makes it clear that Elizabeth “seeks no fame nor fortune, but se

25、lf-improvement and high mental outlook.” It is right. From the view point of Austen, Elizabeths marriage, who finally marries Darcy, as well as Jane-Bindleys, composing money and love, is the ideal marriage people should after. But in other marriage cases in this novel, we can see that if money and

26、love cant be held together in one marriage, love would always make a concession to money because of the special social background. After reading through the whole book, we will find that money acts as the cause of each plot and the clue of its development. It affects everybodys words and deeds, even

27、 Elizabeth Bennet. Tony Tanner once said, “Jane Austen, as well as other authors, is very clear that no feeling could be extremely pure and no motive could be definitely single. But as long as it is possible, we should make it clear that which feeling or motive plays the leading role.” CHAPTER IIDIF

28、FERENT ASPECTS OF THE NOVELA. PLOTS The first sentence of the whole novel proclaims, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” Here, “a good fortune” and “in want of” are two key phrases. In want of means, it is needed obje

29、ctively, but not subjectively. Such kind of wording makes the proposition have more objectivity of “truth”. In Pride and Prejudice, the Bennett is taken as the typical to test the “truth universally acknowledged”.1. The Mr. Bennets Mr. and Mrs. Bennet have five daughters, living at Long bourn. Mr. B

30、ennets property consists almost entirely in an estate of two thousand pounds a year, which, unfortunately for his daughters, in default of heirs male, on a distant relation. That means there will be no other guarantee for their daughters future lives, but their perspective marriages. Therefore, it i

31、s no wonder that Mrs. Ben net takes Mr. Bindley as “the rightful property” for their daughters when she hears about that he has one hundred thousand pounds property, though she has not even seen him “A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!” that

32、is the beginning of the novel. The implicit marriage mentioned here obviously concerns no feeling but only financial condition and subsistence. To those husband-hunting ladies, Mr. Bindley is an abstract signal. The most important thing is that he has “a good fortune”. So we can say, to opposite wit

33、h the proclamation at the beginning, so-called “a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” is not at all “ a truth universally acknowledged”, but only Mrs. Bennets own wishful thinking. We can also say that, as Zhu Hong pointed out, in Pride and Prejudice, the real “univ

34、ersally acknowledged” is “a woman without property must be in want of a husband with a good fortune.” We first see Mr. Darcy at the ball, he soon drew the attention of the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien, and the report, which was in general circulation within five minut

35、es after his entrance, and of his having ten thousand a year. Next is the introduction about Mr. Bindley and his two sisters. The narration above describes the British country squires life-picture from one aspect. They have enough money for loafing, and these loafers can afford big or small residenc

36、e with servants for ordering about. They take family background seriously, which is the most important factor to earn others respect, based on fortune and good-breeding. At the same time, they will not trace to its sources. In short, there does exist strict hierarchy, which is classified according t

37、o the family and tradition from the surface, but the financial income actually. Those who have the highest income will be in the highest social position, owning large residence and parks, having the nicest furniture and the most precious paintings, and the best streams for fishing. The money earned

38、by trading is despised, but it will be soon forgotten after generations. However, to avoid being looked down upon, the generation at present will always employ such kind of clever method: giving up business dealing or profession and going to countryside to settle down then nobody will know their pas

39、t. In Pride and Prejudice, we can always see country squires leisurely life with calls, walks, picnics, conversations, parties, balls and marriages. But seeing through the surface, there is a world of struggling for existence determined by economic base. The whole book is filled with digit. Mr. Benn

40、ets property consists almost entirely in an estate of two thousand pounds a year. Mrs. Bennets father leaves her four thousand pounds. Each of their five daughters can get one thousand pounds in the 4 percent after their mother dies. Mr. Bingley inherits property to the amount of nearly a hundred th

41、ousands pounds from his father and he has four or five thousand a year. Miss Bingley has a fortune of twenty thousand pounds. Mr. Darcy has ten thousand pounds a year while his sister, Georgiana has a property of thirty thousand pounds. Wickham wants to get ten thousand from Darcy; otherwise, he wil

42、l not marry Lydia even though they are in elopement. Colonel Fitzwilliam, Darcys cousin, would like to marry a woman who should have a property of at least fifty thousand pounds, since he has no inheritance as a younger son of an earl. Mr. Collins claims that he must make such an agreement for tithe

43、s as may be beneficial to himself and not offensive to his patron. Even the chimney-piece in one of Lady Catherines drawing rooms costs eight hundred pounds. Of course, the very one thing that cannot be forgotten to mention is that the estate entail of Mr. Bennet, which makes Mrs. Bennet be extreme

44、obsession. And it is the exact thing that decides the fate of their five daughters and then the story of Pride and Prejudice occurs. Except the detailed digit of money, there is another factor, which has a great influence on marriage. That is social position determined by economic condition. In the

45、story, the Bennets have some low connections. They have one uncle, Mr. Phillips, being an attorney in Meryton, and another one, Mr. Gardiner, settling in London in a respectable line of trade. As for this, Miss Bingley always makes fun of the Bennets, and Mr. Darcy once says frankly, “it must very m

46、aterially lessen their chance of marrying men of any consideration in the world.”2. Elizabeth Bennets Now let us turn to the protagonist of the novel, Elizabeth Bennets. She is intelligent, vivacious, humorous, perceptive and quick-witted, and she has a strong sense of personality and dignity. She despises