简奥斯汀在傲慢与偏见中的婚姻观

xxx 大大 学学 毕毕 业业 设设 计计 题题 目 目 On Jane Austen s View of Marriage in Pride and Prejudice 院 院 系 系 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 姓姓 名 名 xxxxxx 指导教师 指导教师 xxxxxx 系系 主主 任 任 xxxxxx 年年 月月 日日 哈尔滨理工大学学士学位论文 论简论简 奥斯汀在奥斯汀在 傲慢与偏见傲慢与偏见 中的婚姻观中的婚姻观 摘要摘要 傲慢与偏见 作为揭示女性婚姻类题材的巨著 表现出十九世纪的 中产阶级对待婚姻与爱情的不同态度 它反映了作者的婚姻观 这本书描 写了班纳特的女儿们对待婚姻的不同态度 在当今社会 虽然妇女的社会地位较十九世纪有了天翻地覆的变化 但她们在面临爱情和金钱的抉择时仍然有很大困惑 第一 是否拿金钱来 作为衡量标准 第二 爱情至上是否值得推崇 奥斯汀在 傲慢与偏见 中展现的理想婚姻观对现代女性这两大困惑有很大的启示作用 在这部作 品中 作者向读者展示当时社会的大众婚姻观 权利基础上的交易 金钱 和财富决定着一个女人的命运和婚姻关系 通过对 傲慢与偏见 的阅读 我们可以了解到奥斯汀的理想婚姻观 是以爱情为基础 以金钱为保障的 本文结合作者的社会背景和个人经历 通过作者对书中四对婚姻的过程及结局的描写 深入的探索作者的婚姻观 虽然奥斯汀的时代已经成为过去 但她的婚姻观在当代仍具有现实意义 指导着一批又一批的年轻人寻找幸福的婚姻 关键词 婚姻观 傲慢与偏见 爱情 财富 哈尔滨理工大学学士学位论文 I On Jane Austen s View of Marriage in Pride and prejudice Abstract As the masterpiece of female marriage theme Pride and Prejudice describing different attitudes of love and marriage in the middle class in the nineteenth century It reflects the author s view of marriage This book shows us different view of marriage of the Bennet s daughters Nowadays although women have gained higher social status compared to the nineteenth century when they are faced the choice between love and money most of them still get confused Should financial condition be the standard of spouse selection for women Or would love be enough for a happy marriage In Pride and Prejudice Austen shows the ideal marriage to the modern women which can solved the two confusions we put forward above In this book the author shows the readers the social view of marriage in that era money and wealth determine the women s fate and marriage relationship By reading Pride and Prejudice readers can understand that Austen s ideal marriage takes love as basis money as guarantee According to author s social background and personal experience this paper explores the author s view of marriage by describing the four marriages Although Austen s era is over her marriage view at present times still has 哈尔滨理工大学学士学位论文 II its practical significance guiding a group of young people when looking for a happy marriage Keywords love Pride and Prejudice marriage view wealth 哈尔滨理工大学学士学位论文 III Contents Abstract I Contents III Chapter1 Introduction 1 1 1 The background of Pride and Prejudice 1 1 2 The summary of Pride and Prejudice 2 Chapter2 Four Couples in Pride and Prejudice 3 2 1 Charlotte and Collins 3 2 2 Lydia and Wickham 4 2 3 Bingley and Jane 5 2 4 Elizabeth and Darcy the ideal condition of marriage 6 Chapter3 Jane Austen s View of Marriage 8 3 1 Austen s life and experience 8 3 2 Jane Austen s view of marriage 9 3 2 1 The foundation of a happy marriage 9 3 2 2 The guarantee of a happy marriage 10 Chapter4 On Jane Austen s View of Marriage in Pride and Prejudice 12 4 1 Honesty 12 哈尔滨理工大学学士学位论文 IV 4 2 Fate and Effort 13 4 3 Self esteem 14 Chapter 5 Conclusion 16 Acknowledgements 17 Bibliography 18 哈尔滨理工大学学士学位论文 1 Chapter1 Introduction To know the reasons Austen writes Pride and Prejudice we should know the social background first Great changes have taken place in Britain in the late eighteenth century 1 1 The background of Pride and Prejudice Before the Industrial Revolution the standard to measure treasure was your acreage The landlord is the leader of community With the further development of capitalism and the Industrial Revolution the wealth of entrepreneurs exceeded the land lord But their political status was inferior to the land lord Based on this different social hierarchy they were eager to be more powerful Therefore they demanded to reform the existing hierarchy while money was getting more and more important in people s mind At the 18th century the politics and economy were dominated by men Women were still in a low social status in society The only way to improve their social status is marriage But the development of capitalism not only brought economic development but also promoted the desire for freedom and equality Women dissatisfied to their social status so the book Pride and Prejudice emerged as the times require 哈尔滨理工大学学士学位论文 2 1 2 The summary of Pride and Prejudice Pride and Prejudice is one of Jane Austen s famous novels with an original name First Impression It shows the British women s social life at that time by describing their marriage problems The book mainly describes the marriages of Elizabeth and her sisters Just as the opening sentence of the novel says it is a truth universally admitted that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife Jane Austen 2006 1 Mr Bennet has five daughters and Elizabeth is one of them Mr Bingley is an upper people who comes from London and falls in love with Elizabeth s sister Jane who is gentle and beautiful in a dancing party At the same time his friend Darcy has a prejudice against Elizabeth Darcy thinks Elizabeth is tolerable but not handsome enough to tempt me and Elizabeth also thinks Darcy was the proudest most disagreeable man in the world Jane Austen 2006 34 Bennet s youngest daughter Lydia married with a man whose appearance is beautiful but broken inside And Elizabeth s best friend Charlotte married just for material needs Through the vivid and detailed description of different marriages Austin expresses her view of marriage To a certain extent this novel also reflects the wish of the marriage independently for women at that time 哈尔滨理工大学学士学位论文 3 Chapter2 Four Couples in Pride and Prejudice In Pride and Prejudice there are four kinds of marriages reality marriage between Collins and Charlotte sexual marriage between Wickham and Lydia traditional marriage between Bingley and Jane and ideal marriage between Darcy and Elizabeth In this part the reasons of their marriages will be analyzed 2 1 Marriage between Charlotte and Collins The first marriage is between Collins and Charlotte Collins and Charlotte do not fall in love with each other all the time So their marriage is based on utilitarianism Mr Bennet didn t have a son so his property would be inherited by Mr Collins the nephew of Mr Bennet Mr Collins decided to marry one of Mr Bennet s daughters so that the loss to them might be as little as possible and also set the example of matrimony in his parish So he offered to marry Elizabeth And after his proposal was rejected by Elizabeth his attentions were transferred for the rest of the day to Miss Charlotte Lucas who was twenty seven years old Both Mr Collins and Charlotte were pleased with the marriage Charlotte accepted him solely from the pure and disinterested desire of a marriage In her mind Collins was neither sensible nor agreeable his attachment to her must be imaginary Jane Austen 2006 76 But the marriage was the only honorable provision for well education young women of small fortune Uncertainty of giving happiness it must be a guarantee of a steady life As Charlotte knows the marriage without property will 哈尔滨理工大学学士学位论文 4 eventually move toward disappointment and suffering In this marriage money is most important than everything To some degree their marriage is a compromise to reality 2 2 Marriage between Lydia and Wickham The marriage between Bennet s youngest daughter Lydia and Wickham is superficial Lydia is the first one who got married in the five daughters She is vain ignorant and idle She has never been taught to think on serious subjects Wickham has a good appearance he had all the best part of beauty a fine countenance a good figure and very pleasing address Jane Austen 2006 68 However he is demoralization inside It is terribly shamed if a lady eloped with a man in the nineteenth century in England So when Lydia eloped with Wickham the Bennet family is in a mess And even worse they all know Wickham is not a man can be trusted and he never intended to marry Lydia at all Mr Darcy spent most time finding them and also paid off what Wickham owed So Wickham agreed to marry Lydia But when they got married Lydia was still untamed unabashed wild noisy and fearless Because of the help of Mr Darcy they got married So we know that their marriage life was difficult Wickham and Lydia s marriage is based on fortune and sex but without love They do not understand the meaning of marriage Wickham just wants to married with a girl with a fortune Lydia just cares about flirting physical attraction and an instant impulse Their marriage is based on blind passion and transitory enjoyment which is ridiculous 2 3 Marriage between Bingley and Jane The marriage of Jane and Bingley is a 哈尔滨理工大学学士学位论文 5 felicitous one They fall in love at first sight Jane is young and beautiful just like an angel Mr Bingley a single man with a good fortune his arrival is the big event for Mrs Bennet because the business of her life is to get her daughters married Moreover Mr Bingley is attractive in appearance extremely agreeable with easy unaffected modest manner Jane Austen 2006 15 As Mrs Bennet wish he fell in love with Jane almost at first sight He is progressive in the view of marriage at his time In Mr Bingley s eyes Jane is the most beautiful creature he ever beheld he never changes his love to Jane even if his sister object to their relationship But he is persuaded by Darcy therefore he given up his proposal for a while But soon he realized that he could not give up and finally is persuaded by Darcy Bingley as a member of so called superior class of male does not hold much pride and prejudice like others in his class which is very progressive at his time Jane is playing the traditional role assigned to women in this marriage There is no active action in her at all and she is always waiting Compared to Lydia s flirting and indulges in physical attraction Jane is conservative she acts properly according to the social mores and ethic standards Their marriage is a moral marriage but not an ideal one This kind of marriage looks like perfect but it is just an ideal condition of traditional marriage at that time 2 4 Marriage between Elizabeth and Darcy the ideal condition of marriage Jane Austen thinks the base of the 哈尔滨理工大学学士学位论文 6 marriage is the true love between a man and a woman Elizabeth and Darcy they ignore each other at the beginning but finally clear the atmosphere and fall in love This kind of relationship is the most ideal condition Austen expresses in Pride and Prejudice When Mr Darcy first come into the party he draw attention of the room because his appearance and his wealth But soon people find he is forbidding disagreeable countenance Elizabeth also has a prejudice against him And Wickham makes this prejudice deepen Mr Wickham who has a fine countenance a good figure and very pleasing address tells her that Darcy encroach on his possession When Elizabeth finally knows the truth there are another thing prevented their love Darcy s sense of hierarchy When Mr Bingley wants to propose to Jane Darcy believe Jane is unsuitable So when Darcy fought against judgments and family s expectation to show his love to Elizabeth he was rejected Fortunately the lovers finally get married The important reason of their marriage is efforts Mr Darcy and Elizabeth make For example in the nineteenth century in England it was terribly shame if a lady eloped with a man So when Lydia eloped with Wickham the Bennet family are out of kilter It s Darcy who pays for their wedding for Wickham s commission and for other things When Mr Bingley is shy to express his love to Jane it s Darcy who accompanies him and encourages him to express his feeling to Jane Finally Jane and Mr Bingley get married and begin new life 哈尔滨理工大学学士学位论文 7 What is the author trying to show through Elizabeth and Darcy s story Their marriage is most perfect the love of a couple is not only inspired by their appearance but also by the spiritual interaction between them Although at the beginning of their meet they have prejudice against each other they eventually change their minds and fall in love after going through a series of problems and troubles together They would prefer to admire listen to and understand each other They are the only couple in the novel getting married for love mutual understanding and living a happy life Their love and marriage show the right view of marriage I think this is what the author tries to show us 哈尔滨理工大学学士学位论文 8 Chapter3 Jane Austen s View of Marriage 3 1 Jane Austen s life and experience Jane Austen born in the village of Stevenson in Hampshire is one of the most famous nineteenth century s British women writers Although her novels focus on courtship and marriage she did not get married all her life Moreover she neither entered a formal school nor got well educated by her family She did a fair amount of reading and lived her life quietly and cheerfully Her lifelong companion and bosom friend was her only elder sister Cassandra Although both of them were not married at all lots of relatives and friends widened Austen s social experiences beyond her immediate family Jane Austen was unmarried all her life but she had to be in love with someone When she was young she had been in love with two young men but none of the two relationships could go to a happy ending A man with great fortune asked her to marry him when she was 27 years old Jane agreed However she regretted after a sleepless night And the same condition happened when she was 33 years old and the man is a clergyman Finally it was settled by leaving unsettled These experiences brought up her unique viewpoint of marriage In the late eighteenth century with the development of the Industrial Revolution the English social structure was changed The capitalists attempted to obtain more political power For this reason the conflicts between landlords and capitalists became sharper In this condition Jane Austen exerted her transitional role in English literature 哈尔滨理工大学学士学位论文 9 Jane Austen gave the novel its modern characteristic through the treatment of daily life Austen published her four works anonymously and she was widely read in her lifetime Woolf called Austen the perfect artist among women In the turbulent and transformation society at that time Pride and Prejudice could be found everywhere and women destinies were critically influenced by property and social status which played a crucial role in their selection of marriage 3 2 Jane Austen s view of marriage Jane began to be drafted at the age of 19 or 20 Her first novel Sense and Sensibility was published in 1811 Her next novel Pride and Prejudice which she defined as her own darling child received highly favorable reviews in 1813 Mansfield Park was released in 1814 then Emma in 1816 Northanger Abbey and Persuasion in 1818 All of these books are about women s marriage Her marriage view reflects in her book 3 2 1 The foundation of a happy marriage Austen has a clear location of the relation between marriage and money she puts forward quite advanced views on marriage property social status and love are interconnected Fortune and social status is not the only element of a happiness marriage In her view love is the foundation of a happy marriage love is playing the leading role in a marriage At that time women are passive in the 哈尔滨理工大学学士学位论文 10 marriage because of their social status lower than men they have to rely on their husband They want to improve the quality of life and social status through marriage But Austin thinks that marriage without love will not be happy We can see that point at all her works Her thoughts make women pay attention to their marriage rather than the benefits after they get marriage This view was advanced at that time and now still has profound social significance If a couple does not consider any substantive issues such as fortune and social status etc they do not stand on the ground However if they get married just for the need of a marriage they are also unwise A marriage without love is hard for a couple to be happy Although the author does not deny the importance of economic condition she emphasizes the crucial role of love 3 2 2 The guarantee of a happy marriage In Pride and Prejudice her heroines are ultimately married In the relationship of marriage people always give priority to marrying young and rich landlords or clergymen At that time marriage was the only honorable provision for women to improve her social recognition So money plays an important role in the marriage Austen has incisive insight into the aristocratic and bourgeois English society of her time In Pride and Prejudice the view of marriage which takes the money or social position as the first choice is criticized But it does not means that material doesn t matter in marriage There is an old saying in China that everything goes wrong for poor couple In a country the economic base decides 哈尔滨理工大学学士学位论文 11 a superstructure In a similar way money playing an important role in a family As we said above if a couple does not consider any substantive issues such as fortune and social status they are unpractical In the first words of Pride and Prejudice it shows that a single woman without money will want to marry a rich husband That is to say the economic condition is the material foundation of a happy marriage 哈尔滨理工大学学士学位论文 12 Chapter4 On Jane Austen s View of Marriage in Pride and Prejudice Elizabeth and Darcy are central figures in the novel The marriage between them is ups and downs but imprints on their heart Elizabeth and Darcy give each other such a poor first impression that at the beginning they quarrel a lot However because of quarrels they get to know each other and get the true love As we mentioned in chapter3 love is the foundation of a happy marriage After a whole train of events there was no doubt that they loved each other And Darcy is a landlord so they have guarantee of a happy marriage There are love and material between Elizabeth and Darcy and they get married From the point of themselves what makes them become the perfect couple in the book 4 1 Honesty Darcy and Elizabeth enter into the countryside ball without any good impression of each other In some sense an encounter without int