OnJaneAusten’sViewofMarriage

1、On Jane Austens View of Marriage I .Introduction Jane Austen was one of the greatest realistic novelists in English literature in the th 19th century. During the forty-two years of her life, Austen had completed six novels and left behind three fragments. In her works, Austen vividly revealed the cl

2、ass relationship, social customs and morals of her time by meticulously and humorously depicting the life of the rural gentry at that time. Austen s careful craftsmanship has enabled her novels to be popular with readers in every generation since they were first produced. During the past two hundred

3、 years, Austens artistic charm has remained unchanged in spite of the change of readers literary taste. Virginia Woolf once wrote that of all great writers Jane Austen was the most difficult to catch in the act of greatness.(Woolf 15)In the twentieth century Jane Austens “greatness”has never been ch

4、allenged. Marriage of Austens time actually was a kind of foundation stone and its function was mainly the key to the connection of fortune, the decision of relation and the right of inheritance.(Wilkes 84)What it valued was to be matched for marriage. Nowadays the marriage for love is different fro

5、m Jane Austens time. It needs equality and freedom in any aspect. A happy marriage should be based on true love. In modern peoples view of marriage is that a marriage either for money or for lust is an unhappy one. Though property and social status play an important role in marriage. It is opposed t

6、o be simply for money. According to the sociological critical approach, every literary work is closely related to the social environment, the age, the religion and the customs to which it belongs. In other words, every literary work contains much cultural content. All the works which do not belong t

7、o our time and our culture demand us to be involved in their time and culture when we read them, otherwise these works will become incomprehensible and meaningless to us. On the other hand, social structure, especially the economic foundation, greatly affect every literary work. Karl Marx thinks tha

8、t literature is essentially based on the social existence and a true understanding of a literary work should proceed from the understanding of the social structure that is embodied in it. Literature is the reflection of the real social life. Part of the writer s task is to show the reality of a part

9、icular social period. Excellent literary works are always related to all kinds of social lives. As a realistic novelist, Jane Austens view of marriage expressed in her works is actually a true portrayal of the marital status in her time, especially of women of the gentry. Behind the comic plots, the

10、re was the sorrowful social reality that women s fates were determined by their economic conditions and most of them were constrained by the so-called “accomplished lady”concept. A good analysis of Austens view of marriage will help us further understand that womens position in Austens time was very

11、 low and whether they would marry a good husband depended on their economic foundation to some degree. Besides, after the analysis, we may find out some reasons why Jane Austen did not marry all her life. This paper is to analyze the economic status and property elements that influenced their marria

12、ge and thus we can obtain a further understanding of Jane Austens view of marriage. Her ideal marriage was that we can not marry for money or regard marriage as a game. She advocated the marriage for both love and economic consideration with love playing the leading role. Meanwhile, she also exposed

13、 that the essentials of bourgeois marriage were a deal of money and a combination of benefit under the patriarchy. n . Four Different Marriages in Pride and Prejudice A . Elizabeth Msarriagewith Both Love and Money Elizabeth is her father fasvorite daughter, having inherited his wit and intelligence

14、. Mr. Darcy, an extremely wealthy aristocrat, is proud, haughty and extremely conscious of class differences at the beginning of the novel. When he first meets the Bennets, he laughs them to scorn. At the ball in Meryton, where they make the proumdeostt the acquaintance of each other, Mr. Darcy is q

15、uickly judged as disagreeable man in the world (7A)ubsetecnause of his reserve and unwillingness to dance with anyone outside of his own party. He is rude to quite Miss Elizabeth. When both Darcy and Elizabeth are sitting out a dance and Bingley attempts to persuade him to dance with her, Elizabeth

16、overhears Darcy sreply “ Sheis tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me. ” (Au8s)Lteitntle by little, upon further acquaintance Mr. Darcy begins to take an interest in Elizabeth, attracted by her dark eyes and the “ easy playfulness ” of her manners and falls in love with Elizabeth, the second

17、 oldest of five sisters, who is lively, quick-witted, sharp-tongued, bold and intelligent. Elizabeth is good-looking, and is especially distinguished by her fine eyes. She has pride in her ability to perceive the truth of situations and of people csharacters. However, her perceptive ability fail her

18、 frequently because she is influenced by vanity and judges people rashly. In spite of her sense and good manners, she is deceived by handsome Mr. Wickham, who is quickly judged to be a perfectly good and amiable man becauseof his friendliness and the ease of his manners. He initially shows a prefere

19、nce for Elizabeth, and she is pleased by his attentions and inclined to believe his story about Darcy. By the end of the novel she overcomes her prejudice through her dealings with Darcy. Darcy does, however, have a strong sense of honor and virtue. Elizabeth s rebukes after his first proposal to he

20、r help him to recognize his faults of pride and social prejudice. It is, in fact, precisely because Elizabeth is not so awed by his high social status as to be afraid to criticize his character that he is attracted to her. The self-knowledge acquired from Elizabeth s rebukaensd the desire to win Eli

21、zabeth s love spur him to change and judge people more by their character than by their social class. For Elizabeth, when she begins to see that she judged Darcy completely wrongly, and she grows ashamed, concluding that she has been blind, partial, prejudiced, absurd, in spite of the fact that she

22、has always prided herself on her judgment. She realizes that vanity has been the cause of her prejudice. Elizabeth realized that her complete lack of objectivity in judging Darcy and Wickham is the result of the fact that Darcy injured her pride on her first acquaintance with him and that Wickham fl

23、attered her by his preference for her. Austen made it clear that pride and prejudice are not really two separate problems in the novel, but that they are intimately connected. For it is Elizabeth s pride that leads to her prejudice, a prejudice which is so strong that she has to read the truth. It i

24、s clear that reflection on the contents of Darcy s letter have made Eliza change her feelings toward him considerably. When she visits Pemberley, she can not help thinking of what it would be like to be the mistress of such a beautiful house. She tells herself that she does not regret her refusal of

25、 Darcy s proposal. But the mor sees of the house and the more she learns about his amiable and generous character from his housekeeper, the less firm her resolve against him becomes. After Lydia and Wickham selopement, Elizabeth is quite sure that Darcy will never marry her and suffer through being

26、Wickham brother-in -aw. When she knows what Darcy has done for her family, she sees how perfect they would be for each other and would readily say yes to his previous proposal. Yet unfortunately, it is too late or at least Elizabeth thinks so. Elizabeth dose not believe that Darcy sistance to L ydsi

27、aaswas motivated by his regard for her, but this does seems to be a very likely motivation. Anyway, Lady Catherine unsexpected visit helps the couple. Ironically, Lady Catherine attsempt to prevent Elizabeth and Darcy msarriage only serves to give hope to Elizabeth of Darcy s continued affection. In

28、 the end, Elizabeth and Darcy get married and end up happiest. Elizabeth dare do what other women of the same class dare not. A great deal of courage is needed for her to refuse the proposal by Mr. Collin and Mr. Darcy. After all she is a girl without a dowry. It is obvious that her spirit based on

29、the full understanding of herself is against the conventional concept of family status in marriage and for the equality between the male and female. No wonder that she is treated as the protagonist of the novel. She hopes that her marriage can be based on love and that the couple will have spiritual

30、 agreement. Such kind of spirit was very rare at that time. Although Elizabeth cosncept of equality in the family is quite different from that of the present, it will not after our full admiration of Austen against the feudal hierarchy and the inequality between men and women perceived by the charac

31、ter Elizabeth. Nevertheless, it was unlikely for Austen to go beyond her class limitations when she advocated the marital equality between men and women. The most rebellious words of Elizabeth when she debates with Mrs. de Bourgh are only: “In marriage your nephew, I should not consider myself as qu

32、itting that sphere. He is a gentlemen; I am a gentlemans daughter; so far we are equa”l.(Austen 247) The Bennet family belongs to the country, gentry, therefore, Elizabeth can not demand the true equality without any class distinctions owing to the limits of interests of her own class. Her strongest

33、 argument to support her concept of equality is that both Darcy and she herself belongs to the same class. What would she say if she belongs to a class much lower than Darcy ?s However, that does not discolor her rebellious spirit against the inequality imposed on her by external world. Such rebelli

34、ous spirit was valuable and praiseworthy when the feudal aristocracy was fairly influential and hierarchy a very important place in people s minds. B. JaneMsarriageBased on Beauty, Virtue, Fortune Jane, the oldest daughter of the Bennet family, is a beautiful, good-tempered, sweet, amiable, humble a

35、nd selfless woman. Mrs. Bennet is obsessedwith the idea that he should get married to one of her daughters. Since none of her five daughters has succession, Mrs. Bennet is anxious to see one of them settle in Netherfield. Mr. Bingley is sensible, good-humored and lively with such good manners-so muc

36、h ease and with such perfect good breeding. He made a lot of money by business in the North and inherited large fortune of nearly one hundred thousand pounds from his father, moves to Netherfield in their neighborhood. In his, Jane is the most beautiful and creature he ever beheld and he could not c

37、onceive an angle more beautiful and pleasanter. His sisters disapprove of their brother s marrying Jane, for in their opinion Jane is not rich enough for Miss Bingley. Later Jane receive a Miss Bingley s le which tells her that Mr. Bingley loves Georgiana, Darcy sister very much. Jane feeled somewha

38、t disappointed and very sad. During those days when she stays in London at Mr. and Mrs.Gardiner s invitation, she went to visit Miss Bingley in person in order to get some information about Mr. Bingley She expected him to come one day and feeled extremely sad at Miss Bingley s hypocritical show of f

39、riendship. In the end, Jane did not marry Mr. Bingley until the misunderstanding between Elizabeth and Darcy had disappeared. It is obvious to see that the marriage of Jane and Bingley is more or less on their good looks as they love each other at first sight .Yet Mrs. Bennet is particularly happy a

40、nd she can to procure their marriage for the sake of Mr. Bingley income of four or five thousand pounds each year. As a woman without a dowry, Jane finds a good way out for herself by marrying Mr. Bingley, although there has been little exchange of feeling of love between them except admiration for

41、each other. Because Britain was at the period of transition from the earlier stage of Capitalism to Capitalist Industrialization. But the society developed rather slowly in the countryside. The aristocratic families and feudal hierarchies still possessed privilege and power. It was very difficult fo

42、r women of the day to get education and employment. Young women of the genteel class could not get money except by marrying for it or inheriting it. Even her family had a large fortune. She could not be the heiress. Few of them became governesses, a kind of servants.(Johnson 76) C. Lydia Msarriage w

43、ith Neither Love Nor Money Among all the Bennet sisters, Lydia, the first to get married; however, at first, she eloped with her lover, Mr. Wickham. More than anger, as a matter of fact, Mr. Bennet extremely hates the affair. Actually, Lydia is foolish and flirtatious, given up to indolence and the

44、gratification of every whim. Lydia is constantly obsessed with the officers in the regiment, and sees no purpose to life beyond entertainment and diversion. She lacks any sense of virtue, propriety or good-judgment, as seen in her elopement with Wickham and her complete lack of remorse afterward. Sh

45、e is deceived by Wickham sappearance of goodness and virtue. Wickham is quickly judged to be a perfectly good and amiable man becauseof his friendliness and the ease of his manners. His true nature begins to show itself through his attachment to Miss King for purely mercenary purposes and then throu

46、gh Darcy s exposition of his past and through his elopement with Lydia, deceiving her to believe that he intends to marry her. He will never marry a woman without some money. He only philanders with Lydia. Eventually, he marries Lydia just because Darcy pays his debts of honor, purchaseshis commissi

47、on, gives Lydia another thousand pounds. In this marriage, money plays the most important role. Miss Elizabeth also believes how little of permanent happiness couple who were only brought together becausetheir passion were stronger than their virtue. Though Lydia is the youngest daughter, she is ver

48、y keen on taking part on social activities, indulging herself in flirtation with the“ red coats ” all the time. Naturally, the public notice of her unguarded and imprudent manner cause great disadvantage to Elizabeth and Jane, but she does not feel ashamed of her own deeds and words at all. Besides,

49、 the wild volatility the assurance and the disdain of all restraints that mark her character affect the Bennet family imsportance and respectability in the society. In the eyes of those gentlemen and ladies, Lydia is only an uneducated flirt. Austen certainly does not appreciate their marriage. She

50、expressesher feelings towards them through the heroine Elizabeth how Wickham and Lydia were to be supported in tolerable independence, she could not image. But how little of permanent happiness could belong to a couple who were only brought together becausetheir passion were stronger than their virt

51、ue, she could easily conjecture.(Austen 239) D. Charlotte Lcuas Masrriage with Money but Without Love Charlotte is quite different from her best friend Elizabeth. Her parents, like the Bennet couple, can give her little fortune, and she is as sensible and intelligent as Elizabeth, but her pursuit fo

52、r spiritual happiness is not as brave and strong as that of Elizabeth. Mr. Collins is a supercilious 、 stupid man with exaggerated and obsequiousness. Mr. Collins is in line to inherit Longbourn. Mrs. Bennet sees this as a great injustice for which Mr. Collins is responsible, but Jane and Elizabeth

53、are resigned to the fact that they have no control over the inheritance laws and that Mr. Collins is not at fault for being in line to inherit their father s property. Think by marrying one of Mr. Bennet s daughter he will be able to make amends for taking their property, Mr. Collins id visiting Lon

54、bourn with the express purpose of finding a wife. The stupidity with which Mr. Collins is favored by nature, must guard his courtship from any charm that could make a woman wish for its continuance, and Miss Charlotte, who accepts him solely from the pure and disinterested desire for an establishmen

55、t. Mr. Collins to be sure is neither sensible nor agreeable, his society is irksome, and his attachment to Miss Charlotte must be imaginary. But still Collins has become Charlotte husband. It is the only honorable provision for well -educated young women with small fortune, and however uncertain of

56、giving happiness it must be their pleasantest preservative from want. In fact, they include money but no love. But Charlotte seems to have found some of satisfaction and happiness in her marriage without any love. Elizabeth goes to Parsonage to visit them at the invitation of Miss Lucas after her ma

57、rriage and finds that: “her home and her housekeeping, her parish and her poultry and all their dependent concerns, had not yet lost their charms.”(Austen 168) “When Mr.Collins could be forgotten, there was really a great air of comfort Throughout ” (Austen 123) Charlotte s pitiful fate is not cause

58、 by herself. First, the development of social economy and her own social status determine that she has no other choice but to depend on her husband to ensure food and clothing for the second half of her life. Second, another important fact is that Miss Lucas is at the age of twenty-seven, without ha

59、ving ever been beautiful. However, Austen did not think that handsome appearance is the only base of love or marriage. It is true that beauty has great influence on people and everybody is eager to look handsome. In Austen nsovels all the women are pursuing handsome appearance as they think it reall

60、y plays a very important role in their life, which is an accurate and true reflection of Austen realism. But what is more valuable is that Austen thinks beauty is not a decisive element of marriage. Based on Marxist social and economic theory, the paper explicated that Austen view of marriage was pr