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1、On Jane Austen’s View of Marriage through Pride and Prejudice
Abstract: The novel Pride and Prejudice which was written in 1813 is the masterpiece of the famous English novelist Jane Austen, and it is read widely all over the world. By describing several different marriages among young women of th
2、e middle class, the novel reveals that love is the foundation for a happy marriage, which should be based on a large amount of money. It is perfect for young women to enter marriage if they will get love and money at the same time. This is Austen’s original viewpoint and marital ideal.
Marriage and
3、 love are eternal topics in our society. Among these works, Pride and Prejudice written by Jane Austen is welcomed all over the world. In this novel, Jane Austen expresses her own opinions about this problem through the description of four couples’ marriage, that is: marriage should not be determine
4、d by property and family status. It is unwise to marry without money, but it is also wrong to marry for money. The marriage settled by love is happy and ideal. Her views on marriage have great realistic significance to the modern society. This paper sums up Jane Austen’s views on ideal marriage and
5、its great realistic significance to the modern society from the analysis of four different types of marriage in the novel
Keywords: Jane Austen, love, property, marital viewpoint, marital ideal
Content
1. Introduction
2. About Jane Austen
3. Marriage in Auste
6、n’s time
4. About Pride and Prejudice
4.1 Introduction of Pride and Prejudice
4.2 The influences of Pride and Prejudice
5. Analysis of Pride and Prejudice
5.1 The marriages Based on Property or Appearances
5.1.1 The marriage of William Collins and Charlotte Lucas
5.1.2 The marriage
7、of George Wickham and Lydia Bennet
5.2 The marriage Based on Romantic Love and Understanding
5.2.1The marriage of Jane Bennet and Charles Bingley and The marriage of Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy
6. Austen’s Views of Marriage and Her Ideal Marriage
7. Conclusion
1.
8、Introduction
Love is the perpetual theme of art, so that there are countless works about love and so many writers are keen on love stories. They tried their best to create their own story, which can lead readers to get into different romantic world, to enjoy different feelings the characters bring
9、to them.
Jane Austen, an English female novelist, had six works published. In her books, love and marriage is the theme. Among all the works, Pride and Prejudice is the most outstanding representative, in which Austen described several different marriages of the middle class women. Since marriage
10、is the topic of the book, Austen had revealed her original marital viewpoint in it. In her idea love is the foundation of marriage, while property is the protection of happy marriage. She also described her marital ideal through her characters’ marriage—the romantic marriage of Elizabeth Bennet and
11、Fitzwilliam Darcy. So if readers can read the book attentively and thoroughly, they can understand Jane Austen much better.
What is marriage? Since ancient times people are exploring, but none has been to find an answer, it should be said there is no single argument. Indeed, marriage has always bee
12、n good or bad has a lot of subjective factors. Outsiders seems painful marriage the parties may feel extremely happy, let them, outsiders seem happy marriage, the parties may have made the suffering. Jane. Austin, in her "Pride and Prejudice" in the show give her marriage to demonstrate her views on
13、 marriage. Money and love in the achievements of both marital important one and should not care! However, compared to the achievements of marriage for love is more important on some!
2.About Jane Austen
Jane Austen was born in the village of Steventon, Hampshire in 1775. She was the seventh of eig
14、ht children. Her father, George, had been a Fellow of St. Johns College, Oxford and lately Rector of Steventon. Her mother, Cassandra, nee Leigh, came from an ancient family, linked to the Leighs of Stonehill. Jane and her sister, also Cassandra, were sent to school in Oxford and Southampton, before
15、 attending the Abbey School in Reading, and were encouraged to write from an early age. On her fathers retirement, in 1801, the family moved to Bath. Janes years at Bath were not happy. The family made acquaintances, but few friends. As was the custom, the sons of the family pursued careers (two of
16、Janes brothers joined the Navy), while the daughters stayed at home, awaiting marriage and involving themselves with domestic affairs. A neighbour from their Hampshire days, Harris Bigg-Wither of Manydown Park (Wootton St. Lawrence) asked Jane to marry him in the winter of 1802. Though she initially
17、 accepted, a sleepless night saw the poor man turned down the following morning.
Some time after the death of Janes father in 1805, the family left Bath to stay with Janes brother, Frank, who was stationed at the Naval Dockyard, in Southampton.
Janes brother, Edward, had been formally adopted by
18、a rich and childless relative, which led to his elevation as a country gentleman. He also owned Chawton House, Hampshire and in 1809 offered a home to his mother and sisters on the estate there. The family settled happily and it was here that Jane was to enjoy the success of the publication of her f
19、irst novel. Initially, the secret of their authorship was kept, the author being referred to only as "a lady", but later, her proud brother, Henry, let it be known and she became instantly famous.
Her last completed novel, Persuasion, was not published until after her death. By the time of its comp
20、letion, she was seriously ill and not expected to live. During the last few weeks of her life, she lived in College Street, Winchester, to be close to her physician. She died in Cassandras arms in Winchester at the age of 41（1817）. The family exercised the right, as members of a clergymans family, t
21、hat she should be buried in Winchester Cathedral.(Goldwin Smith,2004)
Today, the museum at Chawton is visited by Jane Austen admirers from across the Globe. There are many mementoes of her life on display.
3. Marriage in Austen’s time
In Jane Austen’s time, there was no real way for young woman
22、of the “genteel” class to strike out their own or be independent. Professions, universities, polities, etc., were not open to woman. Few occupations were available to them----and those few such as being a governess, i.e. a live -in teacher for the daughters or young children of a family, were not hi
23、ghly respected, and did not generally pay well or have very good working conditions. Jane Austen wrote in a letter about a governess hired brother Edward: “By this time, I suppose she is hard at it, governing away---- poor creature! I pity her. They are my nieces.”(Austen 204). And the patronizing M
24、rs. Elton in Emma is “astonished” that Emma’s former governess should be “so very lady-like…. quite the gentlewoman”, as opposed to being like a servant in the general view.
Therefore most “genteel” woman could not get money except by marrying for it or inheriting it. And since the eldest son gener
25、ally inherited the bulk of an estate as the “heir”, a woman could be an “heiress “ only when she had no brothers, Besides, only a rather small number of woman could be called professionals, who through their own efforts earned an income sufficient to make themselves independent, or had a recognized
26、career. Jane Austen herself was not really one of these few women professionals-during the last six years of her life she earned an average of a little more than 100 pounds a year by her novel –writing, but her family’s expenses were four times amount, and she did not meet with other authors or move
27、 in literary circles. And unmarried women also bad to live with their families, or with family-approved protectors----it was almost unheard for a genteel youngish and never-married female to live by herself, even if she happened to be an heiress. As Lady Catherine says in Pride and Prejudice:“Young
28、woman should always be properly guarded and attended, according to their situation in life”. (Austen 165). Even Queen Victoria had to have her mother living with her in the place in the late 1830’s before she married Albert though she and her mother actually were not even on specking terms during th
29、at period. Only in the relatively uncommon case of an orphan heiress who had already inherited, i.e. who had “come of age” and whose father and mother were both dead, could a young unmarried female set herself up as the head of a household, and even here she must hire a respectable older lady to be
30、a “companion”. Hen a young woman left without the approval of family or the relatives or family-approved friends or school where she had been staying, her act was always considered very grave----a symptom of a radical break, such as running away to marriage disapproved husband, or entering into an i
31、llicit relationship, as when Lydia leaves the Foresters to run away with Wickham in Pride and Prejudice. Therefore, a woman who did not marry could generally only look forward to living with her relatives as a “dependent”, more or less like Jane Austen’s situation. So marriage was pretty much the on
32、ly way of getting out from the under the parental roof----- unless, of course, her family could not support her, in which case she could face the unpleasant necessity of going to live with employers as a “dependant” governess or teacher, or hired “l(fā)ady’s companion”. Some woman were wiling to marry j
33、ust because marriage was the only allowed route to financial security, or to escape an uncongenial family situation.
Marriage at that time was indeed a shortcut for woman to extricate themselves from predicaments, but economic considerations should not be neglected because a marriage without financ
34、ial security could only put woman into another difficult situation, in which they might suffer poverty again, and even disagreeable husbands as well.
4.About Pride and Prejudice
4.1 Introduction of Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice, published in 1813, is Jane Austen’s earliest work, it’s ve
35、ry popular and has been read widely all over the world for nearly two hundred years. Austen began writing the novel in 1796 at the age of twenty-one, under the title First Impression. The original version of the novel was in the form of the exchange of letters. By describing different marria
36、ges in Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen expressed her view that the different ways in which the young ladies treated their marriages reflect their attitudes towards love. It mainly delineates four marriages: Elizabeth- Darcy, Jane- Bingley, Charlotte- Collins and Lydia- Wickhame. The core plot is
37、the love and marriage between Elizabeth and Darcy.
"Pride and Prejudice" in describing a variety of marriage, Jane and Bingley, Darcy and Elizabeth, Wickham and Lydia, and Charlotte Collins, pastor. Lucas ... .... Charlotte and Lydia on behalf of two extremes, the former only the pursuit of "reli
38、able storage room, the future will not be cold by the hunger": the latter is purely for sexual impulse, totally unmindful of the consequences.Charlotte has been through the marriage house, small yard, furniture and other furnishings of a comfortable small home, but ironically, in her happy life afte
39、r marriage but not the husbands status. "As long as Collins forgotten, and the rest everything is harmonious and comfortable," Lydia was a little girl confused by the rhetoric of Wickham, Wickham Living as one with no thought of the future life would be no protection.Wickham Darcy through marriage t
40、o extort at least 10,000 a property. Their married life, the authors do not describe too much, so we can not imagine life without love What is the. Marriage is based on love, no love, a rare happy marriage.
In Pride and Prejudice, we can always see country squire’s leisu-rely life with calls, wa
41、lks, picnics, conversations, parties, balls and marriages. And Austen filled her work with thoughts of marriage and her understanding of a successful marriage. She thought the marriage only for possession and social status is senseless, but also foolish to ignore those elements. Therefore, she was
42、against the fortune-oriented marriage and on the other hand, she also disapproved to take marriage as a playgame. She emphasized on the importance of an ideal marriage and considered love as the foundation of an ideal marriage
Vivid reflection of the works of the 18 th century to the early ninet
43、eenth century in conservative and block state of the British town life and ways of the world.. The society at that time if not only is picture novel attracted broad readers, the reality is, still give readers to this day with unique art enjoyment. She was the first to describe reality daily in the o
44、rdinary life ordinary grace novelist, in the British novel history up connecting link between the preceding and the role. Austins novel although subjects, narrow story quite dull, but she is good at in daily ordinary things to create the vivid characters, whether Elizabeth image and darcy that the a
45、uthor thinks deserves affirmation characters, or WeiKeHan, Collins such was the object of sarcasm, write real moving. At the same time, Austin language is a temper, she in the dialogue on exquisite humor, irony art, often in funny witty language foil characters characteristics. This kind of art inno
46、vation made her works have their own characteristics. Pride and prejudice is the magic words with the sublimation best. Feelings If say the dream of the red chamber "is the east ladylike." pride and prejudice "is the western and comely with the wind
4.2The influences of Pride and Prejudice
Even
47、today, some situations still exist in our modern society, such as the marital ideal is still the dream of a large amount of young women. Because the drive for a happy marriage is the perpetual pursuit of most people.In Englan,an agency has been investigated in 2004,in the eyes of the modern British
48、women, top 1 of “the dream man for dating” is Mr. Darcy of Pride and Prejudice. In 2005, BBC Radio4 has made a research too, which is about the literature works which had made great effect on female’s world view (especially for the marital view). Pride and Prejudice is the top1.(Wu,2005) From these
49、research we can say Pride and Prejudice have made great influences among people since it was published.
5.Analysis of Pride and Prejudice
5.1 The Marriages Based on Property or Appearances
In Pride and Prejudice, Austen described several marriages. From their different endings, we can find out Au
50、sten’s martial viewpoints and martial ideals.
5.1.1The marriage of William Collins and Charlotte Lucas
married. Her husband was the cousin of Elizabeth Bennet—William Collins, whose character was “altogether a mixture of pride and obsequiousness, self-importance and humility.”(Austen,2001:79)
Th
51、eir marriage was just protection of latter part of Charlotte’s life. She accepted him “solely from the pure and disinterested desire of an establishment.”(Austen,2001:140) All she wants was a comfortable home. As for William Collins, the reasons for marrying are: first, “a single man in possession o
52、f a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”(Austen,200 Among all the young women of the novel, Charlotte Lucas was the first one to get 1:3) This is the truth universally acknowledged. He deservedly should comply with it. Second, he thought it is a right thing to set the example for matrimony in hi
53、s parish. Third, he got advice and recommendation from his patroness.
From all the reasons above, we can realize that love never exists between this couple. Charlotte was Elizabeth’s closest friend. She was a sensible, intelligent young woman. She knew it clearly that she was at the age of twenty-
54、seven, without having ever been handsome. She also knew it very clearly that “Mr. Collins, to be sure, was neither sensible nor agreeable; his society was irksome, and his attachment to her must be imaginary. But still he would be her husband. Without thinking highly either of men or of matrimony, m
55、arriage had always been her object; it was the only honorable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasant preservative from want.”(Austen,2001:141)
Such humorous and piercing description tell readers that in Austen’s t
56、ime, many Lucas-like women had no other way to improve their social position except to marry a husband with a good fortune.(Huan,2002:30)
And how could a marriage based on sole and naked money-transaction to go forward? The author gave us answers in the following chapter when Elizabeth went to visi
57、t Charlotte after they got married.
In Parsonage, Charlotte enjoyed everything her marriage bringing to her, but her husband—Mr. Collins had nothing to do with it. He just would say something his wife might reasonably be ashamed, And Elizabeth also found that “When Mr. Collins could be forgotten,
58、 there was really a great air of comfort throughout, and by Charlotte’s evident enjoyment of it, Elizabeth supposed he must be often forgotten.”(Austen,2001:182)
5.1.2 The marriage of George Wickham and Lydia Bennet
The marriage of George Wickham and Lydia Bennet could be taken as another example
59、 to illustrate that a marriage lack of love would not be a happy one.
George Wickham, can be considered the villain of this book. From Wickham’s appearance, we can know that he was very handsome and charming, like a real gentleman, but as the development of the novel, his true colors came to light.
60、 Actually he was so depraved; he was extravagant and always in debts for gambling. He was good at speaking honeyed words, with his gentlemanlike appearance. He got attentions of many young ladies, even our intelligent lady Elizabeth, had had admiration to him.
Lydia Bennet was a stout, well-grown g
61、irl. Because of the favor with her mother, she had been brought into public at an early age. She had high animal spirits, and a sort of natural self-consequence. For Lydia, her biggest interest was to take part in ball, which would invite many young officers, and in those occasions, her easy manners
62、 help her get the favor of the officers.
The marriage of Wickham and Lydia was an exaggerated comedy. Because of the superficial love, Lydia ran away with Wickham, without thinking about the influences to act on her families. In the end, Wickham agreed to marry her, in order to receive financial he
63、lp from Mr. Darcy. After their marriage, because of extravagant life, they went into a difficult position. Wickham’s affection for Lydia soon sunk into indifference.
There marriage was a bargain for Wickham, an impulse for Lydia. In Austen’s opinion,their marriage was also a breach of duty for the
64、ir family. Because of her impulse and giddy attitude, Lydia had to taste her own bitter consequence. Soon after their marriage, their love had gone, Wickham always went to enjoy himself, and because of their extravagant behavior, Lydia had to learn to tolerate poverty. Naturally, the shameless coupl
65、e were willing to ask help from their rich sisters, and brought troubles to their family. We can get a lesson from this kind of marriage. that a marriage is not just the business of the couple, it would also affect our family and society.
5.2 The Marriages Based on Romantic Love and Understanding
66、 Jane Bennet and Elizabeth Bennet can be considered the happiest girls in the book. They are beautiful, kind and intelligent. They can marry their beloved men, and live a happy life in the end.
5.2.1The marriage of Jane Bennet and Charles Bingley and The marriage of Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy
As the second daughter of the Longborn Bennets, Elizabeth is an intelligent and sensible girl who is also self-dignified and prone to hasty judgements. She values one?s character
On Jane Austen’s View ofMarriage through Pride and Prejudice英語畢業(yè)論文
