On the Relationship between Money and Marriage in Pride and Prejudice 《傲慢与偏见》中金钱与婚姻的关系.doc

傲慢与偏见中金钱与婚姻的关系on the relationship between money and marriage in pride and prejudiceabstract the present paper, by the novel pride and prejudice, which is a great 19th-century realistic novel, shows jane austens opinion of marriage, from which we also can see the executive concern with money of relationship in the english society at that time. marriage, a special relationship, is also based on money. we all know that love is the basis of marriage, but at that time, in such a historical social environment, a good economic situation is necessary. in pride and prejudice jane austen describes a variety of marriage relationships and her penetrating vision tells people that the essence of bourgeois marriage is nothing but money transactions, benefit trade. the thesis is the analysis of the nature of the marriages based on jane austens ideal love marriage and points out the practical significance of the novel located.key words: marriage; money; love摘要傲慢与偏见是19世纪一部伟大的现实主义小说，作者简奥斯丁在文中通过对爱情的描写表达了对爱情的观点。在文章中我们看到了当时英国社会对经济地位的一种偏执的想法，而婚姻作为一种特殊的社会关系也是建立在经济基础之上的。我们知道，爱情是婚姻的基础，但是在当时的社会，经济在婚姻中同样扮演着很重要的角色。简奥斯丁在傲慢与偏见中, 描写了各种不同的婚姻关系, 用最透辟的眼光向人们表明, 资产阶级婚姻的实质无非是金钱交易、利益的结合。是经济、数字决定人们的生活和命运, 决定者婚姻关系。本文即是在分析资产阶级婚姻观本质的基础上探究简奥斯丁的理想婚姻观，以小说中人物婚姻的发展过程为主线, 阐述了资产阶级婚姻的实质,并指出了小说的现实意义所在。关键词： 婚姻；金钱；爱情contents1. introduction1.1 the background of austin1.2 the background of pride and prejudice2. the four marriages in pride and prejudice2.1 charlotte and collins2.2 lydia and wickham2.3 jane and mr. bingley2.4 darcy and elizabeth3. the different understandings about love and marriage in pride and prejudice3.1 the marriage based on feelings of love3.2 the marriage based on vanity and carelessness3.3 the marriage based on money or benefit3.4 the marriage based on true love4. conclusion5. 1. introduction 1.1 the background of austin jane austen (1775-1817) was born in hampshire, a country priest family located in hants, the village of kingston, sidemen in north england. she was a beautiful, talented middle class woman with extraordinary temperament and good cultivation. her six novelssense and sensibility, pride and prejudice, northanger abbey, manshifeierde manor, emma, persuasion “all describe more than marriage” (wang, 2005: 64). however, her marriage is in blank within her 42 years lifetime. going through the best time of the life, she ultimately doesnt meet the right person in her life and finally gives up her love. with these sweet and bitter experiences she writes the great work pride and prejudice.jane austen was mostly tutored at home, and irregularly at school, but she received a broader education than many women of her time. she started to write for family amusement as a child. her parents were avid readers; austens own favorite poet was cowper. her earliest-known writings date from about 1787. very shy about her writing, she wrote on small pieces of paper that she slipped under the desk plotter if anyone came into the room. in her letters she observed the daily life of her family and friends in an intimate and gossipy manner: “james danced with alethea, and cut up the turkey last night with great perseverance. you say nothing of the silk stockings; i flatter myself, therefore, that charles has not purchased any, as i cannot very well afford to pay for them; all my money is spent in buying white gloves and pink persian.” (austen in a letter to her sister cassandra in 1796)1.2 the background of pride and prejudicepride and prejudice, similar to other austen novels, is written in gentle or horacian satire. the main object of austens satire in the novel is the mercenary and the ignorance of the people, a common criticism of the 18th century. characters in the novel which best carries these qualities are:mrs. bennet, a foolish woman who talks too much and is obsessed with getting her daughters married; lydia bennet, the youngest of the bennet daughter who is devoted to a life of dancing, fashions, gossips and flirting; and mr. williams collins, the silly and conceited baboon who is completely stupify by lady catherine in every aspect of his life that he has forgotten his own morals and duty. the tone of the novel is light, satirical, and vivid.in this great book, the author deeply elaborates her point about love and marriage. therefore, in order to analyze these points of views, we should firstly start from her great work.“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 society. 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 staying at home; their roles were to deal with the family affairs, such as taking care of the children and serving for the husband.” (zhu, 1995: 34)people usually thought that women should be submissive to their husbands. the virtues of women were patient and deferent. although the status of women was low, few of them expressed dissatisfaction about their own destiny. at that time, many middle-class young women had three options: getting married; staying at home as old maids or working as the family female teachers. the income of family female teacher was very low, and the status was low as well. it was difficult for women to change or escape this status; no one would like to be a maid or being single all ones life (the current circumstance forced them to think so). therefore, in terms of young women, especially those who didnt have enough properties, to get married was the only way for them to gain respect, stability and social status. austin presented four marriages in pride and prejudice, in which she also satirized the bad phenomena, like marriage based on money and social status. through the four marriages, austin clearly showed her point of view on marriage and love.2. the four marriages and the revealed concept of love and marriage in pride and prejudicethe stories are about the ordinary lives, and the ordinary feelings. the work mainly describes four marriages. two are the main and the other two are the secondary.“darcy and elizabeths love and marriage is the main theme of this work. after undergoing many setbacks, darcys arrogance and elizabeths prejudice eventually eliminate, the lovers finally get married. the marriage of elizabeths sister jane and darcys friend bingley is another clue. they deeply love each other, but they are multiblocked, after their departure, jane misses bingley very much. the two marriages reflect another point of view in a positive way that marriage should be based on true love, which is the ideal marriage in the authors opinion. however, the marriage between charlotte and collins is an indifferent marriage; while marriage between lydia and wickham is a faulty marriage, which helps to make the plots more tortuous and richer.”(zhu, 1985: 12) 2.1 charlotte and collinsin pride and prejudice, the first part is the marriage of charlotte and collins, whose marriage is natural but indifferent. they get married without any expectation. charlotte is william lucass daughter, who is the neighbor of lizzy bennett. she is born in a poor family and very mediocre in every aspect. so she has not got married even until she is 26 years old. she may be a typical questionable girl. “however, there are 5 daughters in the bennetts, the five daughters are gradually growing up to the age for marriage. so both of the two families rival mutually, especially in the eyes of the ordinary women, such rivalry was particularly tedious.”(huang, 2007: 126)bennetts wife is especially typical; she does not give birth to a boy but five girls. the familys property couldnt be given to a daughter according to the custom at that time, and the family without a son can grant the wealth to the nephew. so one of bennett nephewscollins can inherit the family wealth. therefore, mrs. bennett has great expectations on her nephew. though the family is not so rich, collins is the only one who can inherit the whole property. for this reason, mrs. bennett feels at ease, and then she has great hope on collins and likes him. with the help of one of his relatives, collins becomes a priest. and then he goes to his uncles home, wanting to be one son-in-law of bennett. because he has heard a lot about the situation of the five daughters of his uncles family; he is coming to try his luck here. in his mind, if he could be one son-in-law of his uncles, then he could get the property of the family. at first, he suggests mrs. bennett that the 26-year old jane has captured his attention. after informed that the eldest daughter jane has a boyfriend, he thinks that the second daughter elizabeth would be an agreeable alternative. eventually, elizabeth refuses him with sharp tongue. but collins quickly finds comfort from charlotte who desires to get married and believes that the marriage is the only way for her to gain respect and also is the only ending of a woman. and then they get married as quickly as the lightning. a mediocre love, a dull marriage has been established easily. such marriage is superficial without love in it. it was a practical marriage without happiness.2.2 lydia and wickhamthe second marriage is between bennetts third daughter lydia and wickham, the son of the housekeeper of mr. darcy. at first, he is well-treated by the family and the friends. however, he comes down in the world because of his misbehavior. he gets into debt. he is a man without any responsibility. he wants to get married in order to become rich so he can change his social status. in his opinion, love is only recreation. for his purpose, he entices lydia who is young, innocent and vainglorious. “lydia, with perfect indifference, continued to express her admiration of caption carter, and her hope of seeing him in the course of the day, as he was going the next morning to london.” (austen 1813: 58) lydia hates to work hard, and is spoilt by her mother, and getting love and praise of a boy is her dream. so wickham gets her love easily. “when wickham wants to reach his aimgetting wealth by love and exalts her beauty hypocritically, she forgets who she is and feels she is the most beautiful and happiest girl in the world.”(fu, 2002: 43) their love does not get the permission from the parents, and then they elope. as lydia is young and empty-minded, she never gives love a serious and proper consideration, so when elizabeth hears the news, she believes that their love is false, wickham would not marry lydia, because she is not charming and has nothing to attract him, and he is only fond of the wealth of her family. they dont understand the real meaning of marriage; they only want to satisfy their aspirations. so we can say this is a kind of love and marriage without true love and responsibility. such a couple only wants the present happiness but not everlasting and unchanging. of course, such kind of marriage is doomed to be a tragedy.2.3 jane and mr. bingleythe third marriage is of the eldest daughter jane and mr. bingley. bingley is a friend of darcy. “mr. bingley had soon made himself acquainted with all the principal people in the room, he was lively and unreserved, danced every dance, was angry that the ball closed so early, and talked of giving one himself at netherfield. such amiable qualities must speak for themselves”. (austen 1813: 79) and jane “her look and manners were opening, cheerful and engaging as ever, but without any symptom of peculiar regard, and i remained convinced from the evening, that though she received his attentions with pleasure, she did not invite them by any participation of sentiment.” (austen 1813: 127) under the influence of mr. darcy, bingley begins to doubt janes affection to him; he leaves her without saying good-bye. later, when all the misunderstandings have been solved, he comes back to jane with darcys help. the marriage of the able man bingley and the beautiful girl-jane is ideal in most peoples eyes. of course, the couple meets many setbacks, such as the misunderstanding of darcy and bingleys selfish sister. at last, the lovers get married as the misunderstanding between elizabeth and darcy has been solved. 2.4 darcy and elizabeththe fourth marriage is the main theme of the work. that is darcy and elizabeths marriage. in the beginning, elizabeth rejects the pursuer-darcy, because she does not like him, even looks down upon him though darcy loves her very much. in elizabeths eyes, he is arrogant and unreasonable because he is rich and has high social status. realizing that, darcy begins to get rid of those bad habits quietly to meet her taste and make a good impression on her. because of darcys perfect behavior and good education, elizabeth gradually eliminates the bias on darcy. then they spontaneously fall in love. so when darcy shows his love to elizabeth again, elizabeth accepts, and they get married and have a happy family life.the marriage between darcy and elizabeth reveals the characteristics that constitute a successful marriage. one of these characteristics is that the feeling cannot be brought on by appearances, and must gradually develop between the two people as they get to know one another. in the beginning, elizabeth and darcy were distant from each other because of their prejudice. the series of events which they both experienced gave them the opportunity to understand one another and the time to reconcile their feelings for each other. thus, their mutual understanding is the foundation of their relationship and will lead them to a peaceful and lasting marriage. this relationship between elizabeth and darcy reveals the importance of getting to know ones partner before marrying. 3. the different understandings about love and marriage in pride and prejudice3.1 the marriage based on feelings of love bingley and janes marriage is based on love and rational respect. jane is the handsomest of the bennets daughters that is why she is the daughter mrs. bennet had the highest hopes for. she is humble and unassuming. in a partner, she looks for sensibility, good humor and liveliness. bingley is rather impassive. he has pleasant countenance and easy affected manner. he is easygoing and much influenced by his best friend, mr. darcy. when he proposes to jane, he does this after darcy gives his consent. they both are kind, nice, and optimistic people. they always see the bright side of things. mr. bennet thinks the couple is so nice and easy going that people might take advantage of them. we later see that the wickhams do take advantage. they spend long periods of time in their house and lydia often writes to jane asking for money.on the first ball organized by mr. bingley in the niger park, janethe eldest daughter of the bonnets is favored by the host. but the reserved personality makes her show nothing to mr. bingley, so she almost loses bingley, which also makes her feel sad and regret. for example, mrs. bennet often gives comments on the marriage in public, especially on the benefits of the marriage, which almost frightens bingley away. this good marriage based on love feelings between lovers. they both make a good impression on each other. this love is base on true feelings. 3.2 the marriage based on vanity and carelessnesslydia is impulsive, credulous and blindly following. she is so temperamental that she cries bitterly when she hears the red-coated officials would leave the local town and rejoices when some new red-coated officials come in. wickham, the man without any responsibility, wants to chase lydia mostly for fun. lydia elopes with wickham because of an impulse. they spend money without restraint, and they are unable to make ends meet. for sake of elizabeth, darcy gives them a sum of money, so they can get out of difficulties. at the same time, this swindler prepares to climb another woman for a sum of money. clearly, this couples marriage is unfortunate caused by vanity and carelessness.3.3 the marriage based on money or benefit although mrs. bennet has been described as a comedy character in the work gaining a lot of sarcasm and derision, her universally acknowledged truthall the wealthy bachelors want to marry a ladyhas been proved to be truth which proves another fact that its the wealth and the number of the wealth that decide the fate of life and marriage. (xin, 2009: 17)charlotte knows that the marriage without property would eventually end up with disappointment and suffering. when collins is rejected by elizabeth, he immediately turns to miss charlotte. although collins is a foolish priest, and he cannot gain a woman love, charlotte accepts him, because her only purpose is to get married. almost all the girls born in a poor family without good education always think marriage is the only way to get descent, although there is no true love in marriage. she selects the most reliable way by marriage, thus she would not be exposed to the cold temperatures and suffers hunger in the future. she now gets home.“charlotte is like a hunter catching a fairly plump fishcollins.” (he, 2001: 45)but if he doesnt meet a setback from elizabeth, and the encouragement of charlotte, i am afraid that he would not be so willing to propose marriage to charlotte. the man like bingley who has numerable money needs a beautiful wife,the poor man needs a wife with a huge wealth, like wickham; it was lucky for charlotte that she could gain the marriage with collins although their marriage is not happy at all.in these marriages, it is quite interesting that the women