Money and Marriage——the Matrimonial Value Orientation in Pride and Prejudice1.doc

金钱与婚姻-傲慢与偏见中婚姻价值取向money and marriagethe matrimonial value orientation in pride and prejudicecontentsabstract.1key words.1i. introduction2ii. about the novel and the author.2iii. the formation of three different marriages in austens novel pride and prejudice .31. utilitarian marriage.31)the story of collins and charlottes marriage3 2)the marriage of no passions and little affection but successful43)social background behind marriage.42. moral marriage. .51) the story of bingley and janes marriage.52) the marriage of genuine affection, esteem, shown as a real marriage but not an ideal one. 53) their marriage fit austens ideal of happiness.63. perfect marriage. .61)the story of darcy and elizabeths marriage.62)the marriage with affection, esteem and passion, shown as perfect, real and happy couple. .73)elizabeths bravery and true love.84)social backgrounds behind their marriage8iv. conclusion. .9 references.9abstract: prideandprejudice is averypopularnovelwrittenbyjaneaustenwhich is read widely allovertheworld.as one of the most famous novelist, jane austen is one of the writers that english learners must be familiar with in english literature. in her works, she mainly talks about love and marriage, which are seriously influenced by peoples wealth and status. that specific history time decided that people at that time took money much more seriously, even on their marriage. in her most popular work, pride and prejudice, jane austen shows her own opinions on the marriage. so in my essay, i will show the different views on the people and talk about how money influences their matrimonial value orientation.key words: pride and prejudice, money, matrimonial value orientation, marriage 摘 要: 简奥斯丁的傲慢与偏见写于1813年，一直以来很受欢迎，并被广泛阅读。特定的历史时代决定了那个时候的人们对金钱特别看重，影响波及婚姻观念。在这篇文章里面，简奥斯丁对婚姻提出了她自己的观点。所以，在我的论文中，我会对书中呈现的婚姻进行分析，证实金钱体现人物的婚姻价值取向。 关键字: 傲慢与偏见; 金钱; 价值观; 婚姻i. introduction pride and prejudice is 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. john richetti said, “elizabeth bennet, the protagonist of the novel, flatly rejected william collins proposal, who is the heir of her fathers property and manor, refused the first proposal from the extremely wealthy nobleman fitzwilliam darcy. all of these make it clear that elizabeth seek no fame nor fortune, but self-improvement and high mental outlook.” (the eighteenth century novel, 112) its right. from the view point of austen, elizabeths marriage, who finally marries darcy, as well as jane and bingleys, composed money and love, and is the ideal marriage people should pursue. but in other marriage cases in this novel, we can see that if money and 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 elizabeth bennet. tony tanner once said that jane austen was 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 played the leading role.ii. about the novel and the authorpride and prejudice is the most popular novel written by jane austen. she occupies an important position between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and has been popular with people around the world. early in the nineteenth century, she got many peoples attention to her works and a lot of writers have given her their reviews on her works, such as woolf, henry james. nowadays, austen has become not just an author, but a “figure”, a writer avidly claimed by readers lay and academic, by critics of different stripes and school. among her works, pride and prejudice is the most popular one as her masterpiece. marilyn butler(janeausten,1963)said that “elizabeth bennet, 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 self-improvement and high mental outlook”. (janeausten, 1963)but in other marriage cases in this novel, we can see that if money and 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 elizabeth bennet. so in my essay, i will talk about how money influenced their matrimonial value orientation in her famous novel pride and prejudice.the story of pride and prejudice took place in the time of the regency in britain. at that time, britain was at the period of transition from the earlier stage of capitalism to capitalist industrialization. however, as the development of capitalism and the stretch of rich peoples rank, 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 henry cater once said that: “ever david ricardo (a british of economist) had an unlikely clear understanding about the function of money in daily life as jane austen had” (british literature, 1983)jane austen was born in 1765. the social status of the family was not like the bennents in pride and prejudice. it was wealthy but it did not have the nobility or pride of the upper classes. since feminism was alive and well in the time she was alive，the novels about young womens courtship and marriage were jane austens favorite reading. she wrote three novels before she was twenty-five, although she did not manage to publish them till later. her literary career depended to some extent upon the other women novelist of her time who created and sustained a market for domestic fiction by women and whose attitude towards writing like austens own became increasingly professional. some contemporary readers may find the world she described, in which peoples chief concern was obtaining advantageous marriages. in her era options were limited, and both women and men often married for financial considerations. part of austens prominent reputations rests on how well she integrated observations on the human condition with a convincing love story.iii. the formation of three different marriages in austens novel pride and prejudice1. utilitarian marriage 1) the story of collins and charlottes marriage. the first marriage presented before us is the marriage of collins and charlotte. to begin with, collins made up his mind to marry one of the daughters of mr. bennet as a way of reconciliation with longhorn family. when mrs. bennet hints that jane may soon be engaged, he fixes his attention on elizabeth. soon he first failed to propose to elizabeth. having been refused by elizabeth, mr. collins never fell sad at all. by the encouragement of charlotte, mr. collins throws himself at her feet.2) the marriage of no passions and little affection but successful why collins and charlotte marry in such a short period of time? there are several reasons of collins and charlotte respectively. first of all, lets look at collins attitudes towards marriage. he concluded reasons for marriage: first, it is right for a clergyman to set example of matrimony. second, the marriage will add to his happiness. third, lady catherine believes that he find the very noble lady whom he honor of calling patroness. (austen, 64) charlotte marries for the sake of marriage but she pretends to be happy. “i ask only a comfortable home and i am convinced that my chance of happiness with him is as fair as most people can boast on entering the marriage state.”(austen, 70) we can also see her attitudes towards love and marriage from her words: “happiness marriage is entirely a matter of chance.” (austen, 75) charlottes believe that it is better not to known ones husband too well foreshadows her “practical” marriage. the combating of collins and charlotte only come from their insistent mentality of marriage. collins wants a marriage, which can have the honor of calling patroness. but charlotte only needs a husband and a comfortable house. that is her idea of marriage, which accounts for her quick marriage with collins. they all dont need love. so they turn their utilitarian marriage come true.3) social background behind marriage (1) entail system reflected collins social statuscollins, a parody of a serious cleric, serves as a vehicle for criticism of the practice of entail. he would inherit the estate of longbourn, the property of mr.bennet of everything. in england: “an entail was a legal device used to prevent a landed property from being broken up, and/or from descending in a female line. this is a logical extension of the then-prevalent practice of leaving the bulk of ones wealth (particularly real estate) to ones eldest son or heir,” (pride and prejudice, 10) so he will acquire much money after the death of mr. bennet. (2) the importance of status in social lifecollins functions as another example of austens criticism of snobbery. he differs, however, from miss. bingley and lady de bourgh in that he is not snobbish because of his own rank; rather, he is snobbish by association. he is a man who believes wholeheartedly in class; even though he gains only the second helpings and in order to get lady bourgh, rather than feel embarrassment at his behavior, he believes so strongly in the value conferred upon person by class that he is full of self-importance, because he was a noble-woman as his patroness.(3) austens attitudes towards marriagecharlotte, lacking a fortune, is a pragmatist; she must capitalize on any opportunity that presents itself in order to avoid the social scorn that accompanies old maid status. as austen says of charlotte, she accepted mr. collins solely from the pure and disinterested desire of an establishment.2. moral marriage1) the story of bingley and janes marriagefirst at netherfield, jane began to make acquaintance of bingley and fall in love with jane at their first ball and their romance flourishes quietly and steadily. when their romance went smoothly, his sudden departure nearly ended his happy love. darcy thought that bingleys attachment to jane was obvious, however he saw jane liked bingley, but he did not believe her to be in love, and therefore liable to be injured except in a worldly sense by bingleys withdrawal. so bingley began to doubt janes affection to him, he left her without saying good-bye. later, when all misunderstanding clarified he came back to jane at darcys assistance.2) the marriage of genuine affection, esteem, shown as a real marriage but not an ideal onethe opening sentence of pride and prejudice: “it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” (austen, 113) immediately establishes the centrality of advantageous marriage, a fundamental social value of regency england. the arrival of mr. bingley is the event that sets the novel in motion because it creates the prospect of a marriage of wealth and good connection for eager bennet girls. it is declarative and hopeful claim that a wealthy man must be looking for a wife, the real truth of such matters; a single woman must be in wait of a husband, especially a wealthy one. austen emphasizes the matter of entailment in order to create a sense of urgency about the search for a husband. jane isnt an exception of course. when she meets bingley, she was attracted by his appearance and his status. “wealthy bingleys purchase of netherfield, an estate near the bennets, serves as the impetus for the novel. he is a genial, well-intentional gentleman, whose easygoing nature contrasts with darcys initially discourteous demeanor. he is blissfully uncaring about class differences.” (jane austen. pride and prejudice, 2003)jane and bingley engage in a courtship that occupies a central place in the novel. they first meet at the ball in meryton and enjoy an immediate mutual attraction. they are spoken of as a potential couple throughout the book. indeed, they are so similar in nature and behavior that they can be described together: both are cheerful, friendly, and good-natured, always ready to think the best of others. “jane and bingley exhibit to the reader true love unhampered by either pride or prejudice, though in their simple goodness, they also demonstrate that such a love is mildly dull.” 3) their marriage fit austens ideal of happinessausten emphasizes the matter of entailment in order to create a sense of urgency about search for a husband. though jane is the eldest child in a fairly well off family, her status as a woman precludes her from enjoying the success her father has experienced. when her father dies the estate will turn over to mr. collins, the oldest male relative. “the mention of entailment stresses not just the value society places on making a good marriage but also the way that the structures of society make a good marriage a prerequisite for a good life. austen thus offers commentary on the plight of woman. through both law and prescribed gender roles. austens society leaves woman few options for the advancement or betterment of their situations.” it is the nature of austens novels that romance must win out over all of the obstacles, whether social or personal, that it faces “in the end, in austen, despite the undeniably relevant social issues of class, money and practicality, this question always proves most important.” (edward copeland and juliet mcmasmer, jane austen) of course jane and bingley were married for the sake of love. 3. perfect marriage1) the story of darcy and elizabeths marriagemr. darcy is less pleased with the evening and haughtily refuses to dance with elizabeth in the first ball in netherfield, which makes everyone view him as arrogant and obnoxious. at social functions over weeks, however, mr. darcy finds himself increasingly attracted by elizabeth charm and intelligence. mr. bennets invited collins visiting elizabeths household, mr. collins is quite enthralled by the bennet girls. shortly after his arrival, he makes a proposal of marriage to elizabeth. she turns him down, wounding his pride. one day darcy makes a shocking proposal of marriage, which elizabeth quickly refuse. there were three things elizabeth seriously holds against darcy: she thought he had spoiled janes chances with bingley; that he had done this because he despised the social position of the family, and that he had ruined wickhams career without due cause. darcy leaves her but shortly there after delivers a letter to clear the air. this letter causes elizabeth to reevaluate her feelings about darcy. after hearing lydia has eloped with wickham. darcy helps bennet to pay off wickham. after the marriage of lydia, lady catherine comes to stop elizabeth marring darcy. elizabeth spiritedly refuses. later, elizabeth and darcy go out walking together and he tells her that his feelings have not altered since the spring. she tenderly accepts his proposal. they do not get married for anyones wish, or for convenience. they are a perfect match for each other.2) the marriage with affection, esteem and passion, shown as perfect, real and happy couple. the son of a wealthy, well-established family and the master of the great estate of pemberley, darcy is elizabeths male counterpart. the narrator relates elizabeths point of view of events more often than darcys, so elizabeth often seems a more sympathetic figure. the reader eventually realizes, however, that darcy is her ideal match. intelligent and forthright, he too has a tendency to judge too hastily and harshly, and his high birth and wealth make him overly conscious of his social status. indeed, his haughtiness makes him initially bungle his courtship. her rejection of his advances builds a kind of humility in him. darcy demonstrates his continued devotion to elizabeth, in spite of his distaste for her low connections, when he rescues lydia and the entire bennet family from disgrace, and when he goes against the wishes of his haughty aunt, lady catherine de bourgh, by continuing to pursue elizabeth. darcy proves himself worthy of elizabeth, and she ends up repenting her earlier, overly harsh judgment of him. the second daughter in the bennet family, and the most intelligent and quick-witted elizabeth is the protagonist of pride and prejudice and one of the most well known female character in english literature. her admirable qualities are numerous-she is lovely, clever, and, in a novel defined by dialogue, she converses as brilliantly as anyone. her honesty, virtue, and lively wit enable her to rise above the nonsense and bad behavior that pervade her class-bound and often spiteful society. nevertheless, her sharp tongue and tendency to make hasty judgments often leads her astray; pride and prejudice is essentially the story of how she overcomes all obstaclesincluding their own