The Reflection of Jane Austen’s Marriage View in Pride and Prejudice.doc

简.奥斯丁的婚姻观在傲慢与偏见中的反映the reflection of jane austens marriage view in pride and prejudicecontentsabstract.1key words.1i. introduction .11.1 the background of jane austen11.2 the social background of jane austens time.31.3 the content of pride and prejudice31.4 the womens status of jane austens time.4ii. literature reviews.52.1 presentation of different couples in pride and prejudice.52.1.1 mrs. and mr. bennet.52.1.2 charlotte lucas and mr. collins.62.1.3 lydia and mr. wickham.72.1.4 jane and mr. bingley.82.1.5 elizabeth and mr. darcy.82.2 analysis of marriage in pride and prejudice9iii. conclusion.133.1 summary of jane austens marriage view in pride and prejudice.133.2 the significance of the authors matrimonial vale orientation at her time and nowadays.13references.14the reflection of jane austens marriage view in pride and prejudicethe reflection of jane austens marriageview in pride and prejudice摘要：简.奥斯丁的傲慢与偏见写于1813年， 这是她最具代表性的作品，一直以来很受欢迎，并被广泛阅读。在这篇文章里，作者是以女主人公伊丽莎白的口吻对四起姻缘的描述以及对伊丽莎白的父母的婚姻进行了描绘。本文将从以下三部分着手：第一，介绍作者生平，作品内容，作者生活的社会背景以及作者时期妇女的地位。第二，描述书中的五对婚姻并找出作者对其所持的态度，然后，详细分析五对婚姻观并归纳出简.奥斯丁的婚姻观。第三，归纳并总结简.奥斯丁的婚姻观，即幸福的婚姻应该建立在爱情的基础之上，除此之外，稳定的收入，个人魅力，相互理解，相互尊重和对家庭，个人，社会负责也应考虑在内。最后，陈述简.奥斯丁婚姻观对过去以及现在的意义。关键词：傲慢与偏见； 婚姻观； 爱情； 金钱abstract: pride and prejudice，which is the most typical work written by jane austen is a very popular novel and is read widely all over the world. it was written in 1813. in this work pride and prejudice, the author describes four marriages as well as the marriage of elizabeths parents through elizabeth, the heroines of this work. this thesis will have three steps to go. firstly, give introduction about the author, the content of pride and prejudice, and the social background of jane austens time and the status of women at jane austens time. secondly, present these five marriages as well as the attitudes of author to these five marriages and analyze these in detail. thirdly, reach the conclusion that jane austens marriage view is that the happy marriage should be on the basis of love, in addition, financial stability, physical attraction, mutual understanding, respect and the responsibility for oneself, family and society should be taken into consideration. finally, give the significance of jane austens marriage view, which impacts people in past and nowadays.key words: pride and prejudice; marriage view; love; moneyi. introduction“it is a truth universally acknowledge that a single man in possession of good fortune must be in want of a wife.” this first sentence in jane austens pride and prejudice determines the tone of the whole novel, which tells us that all the stories told in this novel are based on marriage. in this novel, the author expresses her feelings and thoughts on marriage through elizabeth, the heroines of this novel who is the typical representative of jane austen. in this novel, the author expresses her marriage view that a happy marriage should be composed of love, financial stability, physical attraction, mutual understanding, respect and responsibility.as to marriage, a man and a woman should be involved. so, what does a marriage to a man and a woman, respectively? to a man, when he makes great achievements in his career, then a wonderful marriage will of course make his success more glorious. but what does it to a woman? when we see a lot of women think marriage as a direct road to a good material life nowadays, what about women in jane austens time? in order to understand jane austens marriage view, lets first get to know something about jane austens background, the content of pride and prejudice, the social background of jane austens time and the status of women at jane austens time.1.1 the background of jane austen jane austen was born in steventon, hampshire, where her father was a rector. she was the second daughter and seventh child in a family of eight. she was brought up in an intelligent but restricted environment. her father was a fine scholar with a good library. after a few years schooling, she and her sister cassandra continued their education at home, mainly through widely reading the books and materials available, and through frequent male companionship and those interesting discussions of their brothers and those young men their father had taken at their home as students. to amuse them, the children wrote and preformed plays and charades, and even as a little girl jane was encouraged to write. jane acquired a thorough knowledge of the eighteenth century literature, including the moral philosophy of dr. johnson, the poetry of william cowper as well as the novels by richardson and henry fielding. in addition, she was much influenced by fanny burney, authoress of quite a few novels. as a young woman, jane enjoyed dancing (an activity which features frequently in her novels) and she attended balls in many of the great houses of the neighborhood. she loved the country, enjoyed long country walks, and had many hampshire friends. jane austen led a quiet, retired and uneventful life. she seldom left her home except for visiting such places like bath and southampton. after her fathers death in 1805, the family suffered financial difficulties. it was also at this time that, while on holiday in the west country jane fell in love, and when the young man died, she was deeply upset. she was never married. in 1817, this bright, attractive little woman died, quietly as she had lived, at winchester and was buried in the cathedral.jane austen started writing very early. though what she wrote was only intended for the ears of her own family, for their amusement in the sitting room in the quiet winter evenings, her genius as an artist was recognized from the very beginning. the whole family encouraged her and her father took the responsibility of arranging the publication of her novels. in 1811 came sense and sensibility, which was followed by pride and prejudice (1813) and northanger abbey (1814). written in her early period, they are noted for delightfulness, fun, humor, wit and sentimentalism. in her last three novels, the elements of burlesque gradually disappear to give place to gravity. mansfield park (1814) presents the antithesis of worldliness and unworldliness. emma (1815) gives the thought over self-deceptive vanity. and the last, persuasion (1818), is a study of manners. unfortunately, jane austens novels were not so well accepted in her lifetime, but had been steadily growing popularity, especially in the twentieth century. jane austen is now ranked among the truly great british novelists. 1.2 the social background of jane austens timethe 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. in the countryside, the aristocratic family still held great power and right that country squires were likely to fawn upon them. however, as the development of capitalism and the expansion of the rank of rich people, the distinction between social stratus was becoming smaller and smaller, while money was getting more and more important in peoples mind about social value.1.3 the content of pride and prejudice pride and prejudice is perhaps jane austens best-known novel. she began writing it in 1796, when she was twenty-one. in its original form and entitled first impressions, a publisher refused it in 1797. it was destined to meet with further refusals and wait for sixteen years before the revised version finally appeared in print in 1813. the plot of the novel evolved mainly around the bennet family. mr. and mrs. bennet had five grown-up daughters. they lived at longbourn near london. the marriage prospects of the girls were mrs. bennets chief concern in life, since under the law of the time the family estate will, on mr. bennets death, passed on to his nearest male relation. at the opening of the novel, mr. charles bingley, a rich bachelor, took netherfields park, an estate near longbourn, and brought there his friend, mr. fitzwiliam darcy. bingley fell in love with jane, the eldest bennet girl. darcy was attracted by her next sister, the lively and witty elizabeth, but offended her by his supercilious behavior. he proposed to her but was rejected. her prejudice against him increased as further misunderstandings arised. thus darcys pride was pitted against elizabeth prejudice. after many twist and turns, however, things were cleared up, and the two couples were happily united.1.4 the womens status of jane austens time jane austen herself mentioned the status of women at her time in her letter:“single women have a dreadful property for being poor, which is one very strong argument in favor of matrimony.”(jane austen, letter of march 13, 1866)in jane austens time, there was no real way for young women of the “genteel” classes to strike out on their own or be independent. profession, the universities, politics, etc. were not open to women (thus elizabeths opinion“that though this great lady (lady catherine) was not in the commission of the peace for the county, she was a most active magistrate in her own parish” is ironic, since of course no woman could be a justice of the peace or magistrate). few occupations were open to them and those few were not highly respected, and they were not generally paid well or had not very good working conditions.therefore most“genteel” women could not get money except by marrying for it or inheriting it (and since the eldest son generally inherits the bulk of a state, as the “heir”, a woman can only really be a “heiress” if she has no brothers). only a rather small number of women were what could be called professionals, who through their own efforts earned an income sufficient to make them independent, or had a recognized career.and unmarried women also had to live with their family-approved protectorsit was almost unheard of for a genteel youngish and never-married female to live by herself, even if she happened to be an heiress (lady catherine:“young women should always be properly guarded and attended, according to their situation in life”).given all these, we can see that actually womens social status was inferior in jane austens time. everyone needs something or money to live an independent and secure life, but as to a woman at that time, she could not gain an income through a respectful occupation and could not have a large heritage from her family. thus, in order to gain the security, marriage seemed to be sole way for women at jane austens time that could reach the goal (but unlike the social trend nowadays. women at that time, to some extent, had to gain their security for life while many girls nowadays choose that way voluntarily). although they had to do so, there could be different attitudes towards this, for instance, we know that jane austen who was different from others earned a living through her novels and was against the convention by remaining single. therefore we can see that the marriages in pride and prejudice are all typical ones.ii. literature reviews2.1presentation of different couples in pride and prejudicelets first turn back to the first sentence of the novel, “ it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” jane austens first sentence sets up the beginning of the novel. she states that a man, financially well off, but with no mate to accompany him to share in his wealth, is undoubtedly in search of a wife. the thread that sews together the lives of all the characters in this classic is the establishment of marriage. in pride and prejudice, jane austen mainly uses the bennet family to illustrate the good and bad reasons behind marriage. the bennet family at longbourn, has five unmarried daughters, together with their friends, neighbors, portraying the film of marriage. four couples get married in the novel, and together with mr. and mrs. bennets,. so there are altogether five couples in pride and prejudice. lets see who they are and what attitudes of jane austen to state these five couples through elizabeth.2.1.1 mrs. and mr. bennetthey are the parents of the big family. they show us opposite opinions on marriage. their marriage is not ideal. mrs. bennet, a foolish woman who talks too much. she lacks all sense of propriety and virtue and has no concern for the moral or intellectual education of her daughters. the author gives the vivid description about mrs. bennet. “she was a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper, when she was discontented, she fancied herself nervous. the business of her life was to get her daughter married; its solace was visiting and news.”(jane austen (1): 6) this is a first direct depiction of mrs. bennet in the novel; from this we can clearly see that marriage is her whole-lifes task (there is a saying, that love and marriage make a woman). she is obsessed with getting her daughters married. and in the following story, we can see how her behavior supports this. on the meanwhile, mr. bennet shows much less interest in this. “mr. bennet was so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humor, reserve, and caprice, that the experience of three and twenty years had been insufficient to make his wife understand his character.”(jane austen (1): 6). this statement tells us that mrs. bennet and mr. bennet have married so many years, but they dont understand the characters of each. they lack of mutual understanding. why they lack of mutual understanding. the most important reason is that mr. bennet marries mrs. bennet because of his wifes beauty. “her father, captivated by youth and beauty, and that appearance of good humor which youth and beauty generally give, had married a woman whose weak understanding and illiberal mind had, very early in their marriage, put an end to all real affection for her. respect, esteem, and confidence had vanished for ever; and all his views of domestic happiness were overthrown.”(jane austen (19): 269-270)from these statements, the author expresses her thoughts on their marriage through elizabeth. “elizabeth, however, had never been blind to the impropriety of her fathers behavior as a husband. she had always seen it with painand to banish from her thoughts that continual breach of conjugal obligation and decorum, which in exposing his wife to the contempt of her own children, was so highly reprehensible. but she had never felt so strong as now the disadvantages which must attend the children of so unsuitable a marriage” (jane austen (19): 270) 2.1.2 charlotte lucas and mr. collinsmr. collins who would inherit mr. bennets estate upon his death is the nephew of mr. bennet and cousin of the five unmarried girls. whats more, he is a clergyman and an extremely funny character because of his mix of obsequiousness and pride, mr. collins is fond of making long and silly speeches and stating formalities, which have absolutely no meaning in themselves. for mr. collins, speech is not a means to communicate truth but a means to say what he thinks the people around him want to hear or what will make the people around him think well of him. meanwhile, he has a good relationship with lady catherine, aunt of mr. darcy, because of his outstanding ability to flatter. he has no idea about marriage. when he hears that jane will be engaged, he proposes to elizabeth. after she refuses him, mr. collins shifts his attention to elizabeths friend charlotte lucas. whats more, he has many stupid reasons to marry. “my reasons for marrying are, first that i think it a right thing for every clergyman in easy circumstances (like myself) to set the example of matrimony in his parish. secondly, that i am convinced it will add very greatly to my happiness; and thirdly, which perhaps i ought to have mentioned earlier, that it is the particular advice and recommendation of the very noble lady whom i have the honor of calling patroness.” (jane austen (19): 121) charlotte lucas, the daughter of the lucass family, is elizabeths best friend married mr. collins at the age of 27. she is not good- looking. charlotte makes no attempt to find a husband whom she loves and esteems, but simply give in to the necessity of acquiring financial security through marriage. she said, “happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.” (jane austen (6): 25) and “i am not romantic you know, i never was. i ask only a comfortable home; and considering mr. collins character, connections, and situation in life, i am convinced that my chance of happiness is as fair as most people can boast on entering the marriage state.” (jane austen (22): 144)as we go further into the novel, we can see that the marriage of the two is a complete failure. after they married, mr. collinss most time is to work in his garden, which is one of his most respectable pleasures. they dont enjoy the time when they are together but enjoy the time when they are separated. just as elizabeth said, “when mr. collins could be forgotten, there was a great air of comfort throughout, and by charlottes evident enjoyment of it, elizabeth supposed he must be often forgotten.” (jane austen (5): 182)meanwhile, elizabeth expresses her attitude to their marriage, “charlotte the wife of mr. collins, was a most humiliating picture! and to be the pang of a friend disgracing herself and sunk in her esteem, was added the d