OntheRelationshipbetweenMoneyandMarriageinPrideandPrejudice傲慢与偏见中婚姻与金钱的关系

1、On the Relationship between Money and Marriage inPride and Prejudice傲慢与偏见中婚姻与金钱的关系AbstractPride and Prejudice is Jane Austens representative masterpiece, which was published in 1813 and had been known and spread all over the world. With a conservative and block state of the British town life and way

2、s of the worldin the 18th century as background, under such an environment, people pay particular attention to money; this had influenced their viewpoints on marriage to some extent. Ofcourse, money is not criticized in itself, only if it is used in the wrong way. Through discussing the four differe

3、nt marriages, this novel takes rolesmarriages as the clue and the author states her concept about love and marriage that is inseparably connected with property and social status, also including the inheritance of fortune, ethics and customs, womens social status. It demonstrates the substanceof marr

4、iage is a union of beneficiation; however, the truth is happiness marriage should base on feeling communication, mutual respects and affection. The author also told us that the marriage depends on wealth and power is unreliable. It is perfect if young people enter a marriage with love and money at t

5、he same time.Key words: Pride and Prejudice; Money; Marriage; Social status傲慢与偏见中婚姻与金钱的关系内容摘要傲慢与偏见是简奥斯汀的代表性杰作，发表于1813 年并世界上广受欢迎和流传。以18世纪保守和闭塞状态下的英国乡镇生活和世态人情为背景，在这样一种环境下， 人们对钱有特别的关注，这在某种程度上影响了他们对婚姻的观点。当然，财富本身并不是批评的对象，除非它被错误的方法利用。 作者通过讨论四对不同的婚姻和爱情，小说以角色的婚姻为线索，提出了她对爱情和婚姻的概念以及它们与社会地位和财产不可分割的联系。涵盖了财产的继承、

6、道德习俗和妇女的社会地位。它阐述了婚姻的本质是利益的联盟。然而，事实是，幸福的婚姻应该以感受沟通、 相互尊重和感情为基础。作者也告诉我们， 婚姻取决于财富和权力是不可靠的。若年轻人能在婚姻中同时收获爱情和金钱才是完美的。关键词 :傲慢与偏见；金钱；婚姻；社会地位On the Relationship between Money and Marriage inPride and PrejudiceThesis statementThe thesis aims to explore the nature of bourgeois marriage essencebasedon Jane Auste

7、ns ideal love marriage and points out the young people in modern times should set up correct views on love and marriage.OutlineIntroductionA Brief Introduction of Pride and PrejudiceJane Austens Love and Marriage ViewThe Four Marriages in Pride and PrejudiceCharlotte and CollinsLydia and WickhamJane

8、 and Mr. BingleyDarcy and ElizabethThe Different Understandings about Love and Marriage inPride andPrejudiceA. The Marriage Based on Feelings of LoveB. The Marriage Based on Vanity and CarelessnessC. The Marriage Based on Money or BenefitIV. The Influence to Modern Young People sMarriage ViewsConclu

9、sionOn the Relationship between Money and Marriage inPride and PrejudiceIntroductionA. A Brief Introduction of Pride and PrejudicePride and Prejudice was written by a distinguished British writer, who was thefirst write the novels of realism in the 19th century. It is originally drafted as “FirstImp

10、ression”in 1796, then rewritten in 1811-1812 and eventually published inearly1813. The work sets in the life of English middle class people of Jane Austenstime.She decrypted the descent life and communication in her familiar country.In this marital relationship study work, Mrs. Bennet had no other w

11、ish if her five daughters could get married as soon as possible with someone wealthy. As it write in the novel.“It is universally acknowledge that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first enterin

12、g the neighborhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding familiesthat he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.”(P. 1)When, a very rich man, Mr. Bingley, moved into Netherfield Park. Mrs. Bennet was so excited and could not help declari

13、ng publicly that she would have a daughter married soon. However, at the beginning of story, Elizabeth and Darcy didntmake a good impression on each other; on the contrary, they just seemed to be enemies.As we known, the pride and prejudice is our common weakness and wrong. Each person actually is e

14、asy to be driven by their own subjective impression, so it can easily to other people haveunright notes, and consequently the misunderstanding between each other. The roles in the novel, they have entered the marriage under siege, but the degree of happiness of marriage is different. This is because

15、 love is not the only reason for marriage, money is also related.Today, under such a market economic circumstance, many young females surroundedus are marry early just for money. They are just interested in colorful wealth life and want to change current poor situation by marrying someone. In my vie

16、w, aimless marriage and love are unpractical. The marriage bases on social position and money cantbring happiness in life, however, it is also silly not take the factors above into consideration.B. Jane Austens Love and Marriage ViewJane Austen( 16 December 1775- 18 July 1817) was an novelist who wa

17、s born in the village of Kingston, Sidemen in north English. She was a beautiful, talented middle class woman with extraordinary temperament and good cultivation, and she was primarily educated at home, benefiting from her fathers extensive library and schoolroom atmosphere created by Mr. Austen liv

18、e-in pupils. Because of her limited personal experience, Austens field of version often concentrated on the ordinary life and the association of the so-called respectable middle-class families in villages to which she was familiar with.In her opinion, during that specific historical period of the au

19、thor s time which people seemed to take money much more seriously than other times, especially the woman awaiting their marriages. They should have proper value-orientation on choosing one marriage. In the novel, the writer analyzes four marriages, we can make a conclusion about her idea on marriage

20、: marriage, property and social status are interconnected, but it does not means marriage could only depend on property and social status. She objects marriage for money and opposes the thoughtless marriage.However, her marriage is just like a blank paper in her short lifetime for 42 years.She never

21、 met someone suitable as husband, so she gives up her love eventually. With the help of the sweet and bitter feeling, she wrote the great work.This paper is to analyzed womens marriage in Austens time and the economic status and property elements that their marriage and thus we can obtain a further

22、understanding of right view of marriage.The Four Marriages in Pride and Prejudice A. Charlotte and CollinsAmong all the young people in the novel, the first marriage part is Charlotte and Collins. Charlotte is William Lucass daughter, who is the best friend of Elizabeth. Although she is well-educate

23、d girl, she does nthave much property nor as beautiful as other girls, so she has not got married even until 26 years old.In the meanwhile, one of Bennett nephew, Collins, goes to the home of his uncle, hoping to be a complement of Bennett. Because of hearing a lot about the arrangement of the five

24、golden flowers, he is thinking whether he could be one son-in-law of his uncles. He spends a long time to repay his unclesheritage at home and gets sympathy by the family. According to the custom at that time, the family s property could n tbe given to a daughter, thus Collins is the final owner of

25、Bennett family s wealth, and he also inherited his father s property and got a position in his parish as a clergyman. Therefore, he had his own house and got a quiet considerable salary. Taking above all into consideration, Mrs. Bennett felt excited that she will have another son-in-law with propert

26、y. However, his first choice, Jane, she was already in one relationship, then he aims at the second daughter Elizabeth Bennett who refuses him with sharp tongue eventually.After this refusion, Charlotte catches this opportunity and try to make Collins ”fall in love”with her. Collins finds balance an

27、d comfort from her. They satisfy their dreams for each other, so they get married as quickly as the lightning. A mediocre love, a dull marriage has been established effortlessly. Such business and superficial marriage without love is too practical. They could never gain true happiness only with mone

28、y.B. Lydia and WickhamLydia and Wickham is the second marriage in the novel. Lydia is Bennetts youngest daughter who is repeatedly described as immature, gossipy, self-involved and flirting girl. Due to her mother s pampers, she has been introduced to the public at an early age. Her biggest interest

29、 is take part in social activities, in these occasions, indulging herself in flirtation with the military officers stationed in the nearby town of Meryton. Her future husband, Wickham , the son of the housekeeper,is originally consider as a perfectly good and amiable man, becauseof his friendliness

30、and thegood manners. However, with the development of the plot, we can know that he cooks up a story and spreads it around secretly to slander Mr. Darcy s reputation, he also debts for gambling. In his mind, marriage is only one way to approach money and change social status.Therefore, when the two

31、persons meet, Wickham exalts her beauty hypocritically with honeyed words, Lydia does not disguise her admiration on him at all either, then they fall in love without hesitation. The absurd combination does not get the permission from the parents, just because of the very superficial love, without t

32、hinking about the influence on her families, silly Lydia ran away with Wickham. In fact, Wickham never thought about marry Lydia from the beginning to the end until Mr. Darcy promised pay off his debts with more than 10,000 pounds and find him a job in the army.With the above narration, it is easy t

33、o see that the marriage between Wickham and Lydia is without love and responsibility. After the curiosity-and-madly-in-love period, they back into daily life roles, Wickham s affection for Lydia soon suck into indifference, owing to her impulse and giddy attitude, Lydia had to taste her own bitter c

34、onsequence.C. Jane Bennet and Charles BingleyJane Bennet is twenty-two years old when the novel the begins, and she is eldest child in the family. Beautiful, kind, mild and lovely girl who is universally liked. At the same time, she is a little naive. In her world, everyone is good, she never see th

35、e ugly side of life. Charles Bingley, much like Jane, is twenty-two years old with about 5,000 pounds a year at the start of the novel. He was a handsome, amiable and good-tempered person. With this character, he never showed complaint. Thus people thought he was more approachable than Mr. Darcy whe

36、n they came to the ball. At the first ball at Netherfield, the two people met each other, and felt in love at the first sight. In the Janes eyes, Mr. Bingley was a lovely, sensible, good-humored young man. She adore Bingley very much and she never seen anyone who was such perfect with so many advant

37、ages and good breeding. For Mr. Bingley, he was not care about class differences or Janes poor connections, when she suffered a bad cold, he was soworried about her. His affection towards Jane was sincere and steady.However, when Mr. Bingley almost intended to propose to Jane, Mr. Darcy had a differ

38、ent viewpoint. In his mind, this is the scheme of Bennet family and Jane would not really love him. As the best friend, Mr. Bingley believed that, and they left Netherfield, departed from Jane. As for Jane, she always cherished her feelings towards him, but she never express her true feeling to anyo

39、ne. After Bingley s departure, Jane sank into great distress. For a long time, they were separatedfrom each other without knowing anything of others. But fortunately, finally they get together, although the couple meets many obstacles. When the misunderstanding was cleared up, they knew they loved e

40、ach other, Mr. Bingley came back for Jane, and proposed to her.In most peoples eyes, the marriage of Bingley and Jane is ideal, which is based on true love and mutual understanding, lead them to a happy and perfect life.D. Elizabeth Bennet and Flitzwilliam DarcyPride and Prejudice contains one of th

41、e most admirable love stories, the marriage of Elizabeth and Darcy, which is the main part of the works. Elizabeth was born in a squires family. She is intelligent, attractive, humorous and perceptive and she has strong sense of personality. Darcy is twenty-eight years old and unmarried. He is a kin

42、d-hearted, intelligent, and handsome man, but he always makes a poor impression on strangers.At the beginning, Darcy did not make a good impression on Elizabeth, because he refused to dance with Elizabeth proudly, his manner brought about her prejudice. Then, with Wickhams slander, she thought Darcy

43、 was such a proud, selfish and mean man. Moreover, when she knew the true reason that Bingley departed from Jane owing to his advise. She sank into completely disappointment. But on the other side, Mr. Darcy would not control his admiration and love, with a long time struggle, he decided to propose

44、to Elizabeth without consider her poor social standing. But she rejected him with stern words. After this failure, Darcy wrote a letter to explain the truth of those things and he began to realize that he should get rid of his proud manners, later he also helped a lot in Lydia s elopement events. Be

45、cause of Darcysgood behavior and education, Elizabeth eliminates the bias on Darcy gradually and sees the true colors of Mr. Darcy came to light. She was so regret her attitude to him. With the reunion and association, she felt in love him deeply and accepted Darcys second offer of marriage. Finally

46、, they lead a comfort and elegant family life in Pemberley.The Different Understandings about Love and Marriage inPride andPrejudiceBingley and Jane s marriage was mainly based on the true love. They felt in love with first sight. But they love did not developed very thoughtfully. Compared with othe

47、r girls, Jane was the most mind, kind and almost perfect girl in this novel. She was a introverted and traditional girl, though she was constant in her love, she lacks confidence and strength. After going through everything, she still pretended to have nothing to do with him. Jane controlled her pas

48、sion too much, which nearly consumed her felicity. We can find her weakness and obedience had been thoroughly exposed.As for Bingley, weak and easily-led character, his merit also his demerit. We can see this point from the departure from Jane. Darcy and Bingley were good friends. For so many years,

49、 they had steady friend relationship with each other although they had different character. Bingley was endeared to Darcy by the openness, easiness and ductility of his character. It is no doubt for Darcy that Bingley had the firmest reliance. From Darcy point of view, he just wanted to help his fri

50、end. So after then, he made great efforts to separate Bingley from Jane.This point can be found from his letter to Elizabeth:“ her (Jane) look and manners were open, cheerful, and engaging as ever, but without anysymptom of peculiar regard, and I remained convinced from the evenings scrutiny, that t

51、houghshereceived his attention with pleasure, she did not invite them by any participation of sentiment.(P.9）Under the influence of Mr. Darcy, he began to believe that Jane was indifferentto him instead of affection. Moreover, Mr. Bingley s two sister did not like Jane, theyhope he would choose Geor

52、giana(Darcy s sister) as his wife. So they tried their best toprevent their collection. In addition to Mr. Bingley s indecisive character, It is doomed that his future and happiness were controlled by others. They all cared the social criticism too much and never show their insides easily to the pub

53、lic easily. Luckily, with the help of Darcy and Elizabeth, their love overtop everything and got married in the end. Because of their excellent understanding and the general similarity of feeling and taste, they lived a happy life. They have so many similarities in their character, such as personal

54、attractiveness, social grace, good breeding, and a measure of good sense, which is the main factor to the successof their marriage. There are understandings, helps, and supporting between the couple and they do not care the defects of each other. However, in my opinion, marriage is a complex contrac

55、t, and both sides must have profound love to maintain the basis of the relationship. But their love is not enough deep-rooted. So we can not feel a sense of security, it seems lurk a hint of a dangerous atmosphere.It is obvious that Jane Austen does not believe in love at the first sight, before the

56、y open their love and get married, Elizabeth and Darcy have to understand and overcome their own pride and prejudice before they can appreciate each other. Elizabeth is the ideal image for woman as well as the most charismatic person in the novel. She has read many books which make her knowledgeable

57、, dignity, upbringing and perceptive. Though she has a middle-class family background, she has not been affected by the formal education belonging to those aristocratic young girls. She realized the social custom that wealth and status is connected with marriage. Her best friend s marriage is not ba

58、sed on love, but she did not lost herself and choose to be brave and pursue her own love. Gradually, Darcy was attracted by Elizabeth s extraordinary character and noble sentiment, and have deep affection to her. This is also reflects the English traditional concept of mate choice, besides outside b

59、eauty, lineage and wealth, the upper class pay attention to character and virtue, too.Mr. Darcy is always selfish and arrogant, because he has grown up in the surroundings with strong sense of power. He also has a critical look at individual, except the family members. Although every girl there is y

60、oung and lovely, he has no interest to anyone except Elizabeth. Therefore, when he first arrive in the village, hefind all the person are far away from those imagined. They do not fall in love at first sight. On the contrary, Darcy is too proud to lower himself, and offends the lively and intelligen