论《傲慢与偏见》中的爱情观和婚姻观学位论文

Abstract

Pride and Prejudice is one of the great works of England’s great writer, Jane Austen. In this work, Jane Austen describes four different marriages in Pride and Prejudice. Through the analysis on four marriages in Pride and Prejudice, this dissertation discusses different concepts of love and marriage of four different marriages and analyses the views about love and marriage of Jane Austen. There are four different marriages with different concepts of love and marriage, and different roles have different ideas about love and marriage. In Pride and Prejudice, Some people just want to have power, status and wealth, and others only look for true love. But people need to consider the importance and cruelty of reality in marriage. Reality is ruthless, people should have clear ideas about love and marriage, and don’t be fooled by false and unreal things. The true love is the foundation of a happy marriage; if people ask for too much on power, status and wealth, they can not have true happiness on love and marriage.

Key words: Jane Austen; Pride and Prejudice; concept of love and marriage

摘要

《傲慢与偏见》是英国著名女作家简·奥斯汀的一部伟大著作。它以男女主人公的爱情纠葛为主线，描写四段不同的婚姻，展示了当时社会爱情和婚姻的状况。本文旨在分析四组人物的爱情观与婚姻观，并探讨简·奥斯汀的爱情观和婚姻观。四组不同的婚姻及不同的人物向读者展现了不同的恋爱观和婚姻观。在《傲慢与偏见》中，有人只是为了追求地位，权利和财富而结合，也有人只是为了追寻真爱。但是，人们要考虑到现实社会的残酷性。人们应对爱情观与婚姻观有清楚的认识，不要被虚伪和假情假意所蒙蔽。真正的爱情与婚姻应基于真爱；过多的追求权利，地位与金钱的爱情与婚姻是不幸福的。

关键词：简·奥斯汀；《傲慢与偏见》；爱情观与婚姻观

Table of Contents

Abstract (i)

摘要 ............................................................................................................................................................................ i i

1.Introduction (1)

2. The Introduction to Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice (2)

2.1The introduction to Jane Austen (2)

2.2The introduction to Pride and Prejudice (2)

3. The Concept of Love and Marriage in the Society and the Four Marriages (3)

3.1 The concept of Love and Marriage in the Society (3)

3.2 The four marriages in Pride and Prejudice (3)

3.2.1 Jane and Mr. Bingley’s marriage (3)

3.2.2 Lydia and Wickham's marriage (3)

3.2.3 Charlotte and Collins's marriage (4)

3.2.4 Elizabeth and Darcy's marriage (4)

4. The Different Understanding about Love and Marriage in Pride and Prejudice (6)

4.1 The combination based on love and similar interests (6)

4.2 The combination based on vanity and carelessness (6)

4.3 The combination based on money (7)

4.4 The combination based on true love (7)

5. The Inspiration about Love and Marriage from Pride and Prejudice (9)

5.1 Jane Austen's concept about love and marriage (9)

5.2 The concept of love and marriage in modern society (9)

6. Conclusion (11)

References .................................................................................................................................. 错误！未定义书签。Acknowledgements.................................................................................................................... 错误！未定义书签。

1. Introduction

In a sense, Pride and Prejudice is the story of two courtships – those between Darcy and Elizabeth and between Bingley and Jane. Within this broad structure appear other, smaller courtships: Mr. Collins’s aborted wooing of Elizabeth, followed by his successful wooing of Charlotte Lucas; Wickham’s pursuit first of Elizabeth, them of the never-seen Miss King, and finally of Lydia. Courtship therefore takes on a profound, of often unspoken, importance in the novel. Marriage is the ultimate goal; courtship constitutes the real working-out of love. Courtship becomes a sort of forge of a person’s personality, and each courtship becomes a microcosm for different sorts of love (or different ways to abuse love as a means to social advancement).

Through the Darcy-Elizabeth and Bingley-Jane marriages, Austen shows the power of love and happiness to overcome class boundaries and prejudices, thereby implying that such prejudices are hollow, unfeeling, and unproductive. “Jane Austen thinks that marriage will not be happy without love. The happy marriage should be based on the mutual respect, mutual admiration” (Zhong, 2010:8).Of course, this whole discussion of class must be made with the understanding that Austen herself is often criticized as being a classist: she doesn’t really represent anyone from the lower classes; those servants she portrays are generally happy with their lot. Austen does criticize class structure but only a limited slice of that structure. “The rational and realistic features of her love stories are also an important part in attracting her readers’ attention and interest” (Ye, 2010:12). Jane Austen sets Elizabeth and Jane as examples for the girls who want to be happy.

British female writer Virginia Woolf once said that: “Among all the greatest writers, Jane Austen is the most difficult one to be captured in the great moments” (Virginia Woolf, 1927:35). The American psychologist Dr. Arnold A. Lazarus stresses that, “happy marriage is based on similarity, not difference” (Dr. Arnold, 1978:26). And people’s marriage is based on social status and property. As Zhu Hong says: “the essence of marriage (at that time) is money dealing and beneficial integration”(Zhu, 1985:45). In Lord David Cecil’s view: “Conflict arises between dissimilar characters, and the deepest attachments are based on characters’ similarity or affinity as expressions of the same spiritual principle”(Cecil, 1959:146). Education background, possessions, remain the main reason that may influence one’s marriage. In Pride and Prejudice, there are marriages based on vanity, carelessness and wealth, we should not be controlled by these shortages in the real society, but keep our own faiths and feelings.

The concept of love and marriage in this novel gives inspiration to readers. The combination based on money, social status and power is false and unreal. This dissertation analyses four marriages in Pride and Prejudice, and discusses different concept of love and marriage.

2. The Introduction to Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice

2.1 The Introduction to Jane Austen

Jane Austen (1775-1817) was born in Hampshire, a country priest family located in Hants, the village of Kingston, Sidemen in north England. Her six novels－Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, Manshifeierde Manor, Emma, Persuasion all describe more than marriage.

During Austen’s life, however, only her immediate family knew of her auth orship of these novels. At one point, she wrote behind a door that creaked when visitors approached; this warning allowed her to hide manuscripts before anyone could enter. Though publishing anonymously prevented her from acquiring an authorial reputation, it also enabled her to preserve her privacy at a time when English society associated a female’s entrance into the public sphere with a reprehensible loss of femininity. Additionally, Austen may have sought anonymity because of the more general atmosphere of repression pervading her era.

The social milieu of Austen’s Regency England was particularly stratified, and class divisions were rooted in family connections and wealth.In Pride and Prejudice, Austen is critical of the assumptions and prejudices of upper class England. She distinguishes between internal merit (goodness of person) and external merit (rank and possessions), just like Mr. Darcy. Though she frequently satirizes snobs, she also pokes fun at the poor breeding and misbehavior of those lower on the social scale, just like Mr. Collins. Nevertheless, Austen was in many ways a realist, and the England she depicts is one in which social mobility is limited and class-consciousness is strong. “Her success is due to her unrivalled creation of plausible characters and their idiolects, her melding of emotional analysis and psychological acuity with social satire and comedy” (Janet Todd, 2006:132).

2.2 The Introduction to Pride and Prejudice

As in any good love story, the lovers, Darcy and Elizabeth must elude and overcome numerous stumbling blocks. Austen, meanwhile, poses countless smaller obstacles to the realization of the love between Elizabeth and Darcy. Through the Darcy-Elizabeth and Bingley-Jane marriages, Austen shows the power of love and happiness to overcome class boundaries and prejudices, thereby implying that such prejudices are hollow, unfeeling, and unproductive.

Pride and Prejudice depicts a society in which a woman’s reputation is of the utmost importance. A woman is expected to behave in certain ways. Stepping outside the social norms makes her vulnerable to ostracism.

In the 19th century, women have no real rights and freedom to choose and do what they want. “The central life of women was forced to be staying at home; their roles were to deal with the family affairs, such as taking care of the children and serving for the husband” (Zhu Hong, 1995: 34). Although many women dream of beautiful and romantic love and marriage, the reality forces them to give up and obey the real society.

3. The Concept of Love and Marriage in the Society and the Four Marriages

3.1 The Concept of Love and Marriage in the Society

Jane Austen(1813:1), “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” This sentence also offers a miniature sketch of the entire plot, which concerns itself with the pursuit of “single men in possession of a good fortune”by various female characters. The preoccupation with socially advantageous marriage in nineteenth-century English society manifests itself here, for in claiming that a single man “must be in want of a wife,”the narrator reveals that the reverse is also true: a single woman, whose socially prescribed options are quite limited, is in (perhaps desperate) want of a husband. “The class distinction in Britain, the economic relationships and even women’s status are exposed through the characters’ prudent choice in finding a mate” (Liu, 2010:18).

In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen deals with a comparatively affluent society. “The love making of her young people, though serious and sympathetic, is subdued by humor to the ordinary plane of emotion of which most of us live”(Wu, 1998:118).In this novel, Austen explicates clearly the true nature of marriage of the upper class—marriage of fortune and interests. With the huge topic of the nineteenth century, marriage, Austen shows us how such things matter.

3.2 The Four Marriages in Pride and Prejudice

3.2.1 Jane and Mr. Bingley’s marriage

Jane and Mr. Bingley have similar interests and characters. Jane and Mr. Bingley,they do not have complicated thoughts about love, they just look for lovers in pure way, they just want to have a happy life with lover, and they do not care about the power, status and wealth of lover. “Jane is a kind and mild girl with introverted nature…Mr. Bingley is everything that is charming, his ease and cheerfulness render him most agreeable” (Jane Austen, 1813:27).

The love and similar interests are very important for people’s marriage. But in the society of Jane Austen, women have low status; they do not have many opportunities to choose their marriages. In Pride and Prejudice, Jane is very lucky. For most of women in the time of Jane Austen, the love and marriage of Jane and Bingley is similar to the love and marriage of prince and princess. And people should know clear about each other, such as the advantages and disadvantages, because if they do not have clear idea about their lovers, they may face many difficulties after marriage. “They don’t care about the defects of their partners and even they don’t see any faults in each other.”(Jane Austen, 1813: 57) The marriage of Jane and Mr. Bingley is not practical in real society, the society of Jane Austen lived in.

3.2.2 Lydia and Wickham's marriage

To be honest, Lydia and Wickham have no idea about love. They don’t know the meaning of love.“She wants only encouragement to attach herself to any body. Sometimes one officer, sometimes another has been her favorite, as their attention raised in her opinion. Her affections have been continually fluctuating, but never without an object, while there is an officer in

Meryton, she will flirt with him; and while Meryton is with a walk of Longbourn. She will be going there forever”(Jane Austen, 1813:78). Wickham is a playboy, and he has deep eagerness about power, status and wealth, he can do anything for these. There is no true love between Lydia and Wickham, Lydia just like an innocent child and Wickham just like a cheat. So the marriage of Lydia and Wickham is based on greed.

This marriage is one without love. They don’t understand the real meaning of marriage, they only want to satisfy their aspiration. Lydia and Wickham in Pride and Prejudice, the author describes their ending in this way, “Not too long Wickham didn’t love her any more, and Lydia didn’t love him too” (Jane Austen, 1813:197). This is a kind of impromptu love and marriage without true love and responsibility. Such marriage is not everlasting.Of course, such kind of marriage is doomed to be a tragedy.

3.2.3 Charlotte and Collins's marriage

Charlotte’s choice represents many women’s attitude in the real society. “She knows that the marriage without property would eventually move toward disappointment and suffering” (Zhong, 2010:8).In the society, most of women want to marry to men who can raise a family in the future. So many people have to face the reality, and have to give up the beautiful idea about love. Charlotte knows the importance of marriage, and the ruthlessness of reality. In the society of Jane Austen lived in, women have no real rights and freedom to choose their lovers, and they just need a man who can have enough money to buy food, clothes etc.

Indeed, one can interpret Charlotte’s fate as a component of Austen’s critique of a male-dominated society that leaves unmarried women without a future. Charlotte, six years old0er than Elizabeth and lacking a fortune, is a pragmatist; she must capitalize on any opportunity that presents in order to avoid the societal scorn that accompanies old maid status. “Such marriage without love is too practical, so it is a kind of superficial marriage without happiness” (Zhong, 2010:8). Charlotte just needs a man who can support her in the past of her life, and Mr. Collins just wants to complete the mission of marriage.

3.2.4 Elizabeth and Darcy's marriage

The courtship between Darcy and Elizabeth, as in a good love story, the lovers must elude and overcome numerous stumbling blocks, beginning with the tensions caused by the lovers’own personal qualities. Elizabeth’s pride makes her misjudge Darcy on the basis of a poor first impression while Darcy’s prejudice against Elizabeth’s poor social standing blinds him, for a time to her many virtues. “Mr. Darcy’s first impression to others is not good: proud and disagreeable” (Huang, 2005: 11). When he proposes to her for instance, he dwells more on how unsuitable a match she is than on her charms, beauty, or anything else complimentary.“It is his love to Elizabeth changes him from pride into modesty and politeness” (Huang, 2005:12). Her rejection of his advances builds a kind of humility in him. Her charms are sufficient to keep him interested, fortunately, while she navigates familial and social turmoil. As she gradually comes to recognize the nobility of Darcy’s character, she realizes the error of her initial prejudice against him. “The happy marriage should be based on the mutual respect, mutual admiration” (Zhong, 2010:8).

It is the nature of Austen’s novels that romance must win out over all of the obstacles, whether social or personal, that it faces. “From Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, we can see that the love is the foundation of happy marriage” (Jiang, 2010:5). Just as love triumphs over pride in social status for Darcy, it triumphs over prejudice for Elizabeth. Elizabeth’s friends and family, thinking that she dislikes Darcy, ask her if she is marrying for love; in the end, in Austen, this question always proves most important.

4. The Different Understanding about Love and Marriage in

Pride and Prejudice

4.1 The combination based on love and similar interests

Jane and Bingley are so similar in nature and behavior that they can be described together: both are cheerful, friendly, and good-natured, always ready to think the best of others; they lack entirely the prickly egotism of Elizabeth and Darcy. “Jane is a kind and mild girl with introverted nature…Mr. Bingley is everything that is charming, his ease and cheerfulness render him most agreeable” (Jane Austen, 1813:27). Jane and Bingley exhibit the reader true love unhampered by either pride or prejudice, though in their simple goodness, they also demonstrate that such a love is mildly dull. This good marriage based on a favorite of mutual good impression and true love nearly evaporates. Fortunately, the loves get married by experiencing twists. “Their marriage is not only the choice of reason, but also the marriage with the deep base of feeling”(Guo, 2009:11).

What kind of girl is Jane? “All loveliness and goodness as she is! Her understanding excellent, her mind improved, and her manners captivating”(Jane Austen, 1813:37).Rich Bingley falls in love with poor Jane in spite of her inferior position, because he thinks Jane is a kind and mild girl.“Jane Austen thinks that Bingley and Jane have many similarities in their characters, which lead them to a successful marriage although they all lack strength in their marriage. The author also points out that Bingley and Jane married for love, not for the money, status or good looks. So the combination of them is really a blessed and happy marriage” (Zhong, 2010:8).But to some extent, the marriage of Jane and Mr. Bingley is unpractical in real society, especially in the same age of Austen. The status of Jane’s family is low in the society, Jane only has kind nature and beautiful face, but Mr. Bingley loves her very much. Mr. Bingley does not care about the background of Jane.

4.2 The combination based on vanity and carelessness

If you choose Wickham as your husband, you are asinine. But Lydia is willing to do that. Lydia is impulsive, credulous and blindly. “She is pursuing love and thinking about how to get love from a male” (Wu Jun, 2007:6). Exactly, Lydia and Wickham have some similar characters. For example, both of them have greed, but Wickham has deeper eagerness about that; and they are lazy, they don’t want to use their own ability to gain wealth, and they want to get it from others.

If Lydia became Wickham’s lover, Lydia clearly plac ed herself outside the social pale, and her disgrace threatened the entire Bennet family. Lydia’s judgment is terrible. “Her licentious words are as follows: ‘Have you seen any pleasant men? Have you had any flirting’‘Lord, how ashamed I should be of not being married before three and twenty’ (Huang, 2005:12).

“In fact, Wickham is just an old-fashioned rake and charmer the adaptable eighteenth-century type of hero now giving way to a more earnest ideal of understated emotion –the type represented by Darcy” (Ye, 2010:19). Wickham, who will do anything he can to get

enough money to raise himself into a higher station. “H e is changeable in love, because to him not love but money is important” (Huang, 2005:4).

First impression is important, but it is not the most important way for distinguishing people. Lydia is cheated by the good face of Wickham, and she ignores the moral character of Wickham. But in the society, there are many careless women. If one woman elopes with someone without permission，it will be a big shame for the woman’s family; and she will be criticized by other people in the society, especially in the same society of Jane Austen lived in. “Lydia’s ignorance and dissipation results in her elopement with Wickham. At that time she is only a girl less than sixteen” (Huang, 2005:12).From Pride and Prejudice, the readers can learn that women should have clear idea about lovers, and don’t be fooled by false and unreal things.

4.3 The combination based on money

Charlotte must capitalize on any opportunity that presents itself in order to avoid the societal scorn that accompanies old maid status. “She accepted (Mr. Collins) solely from the pure and disinterested desire of an establishment” (Ross Douthat, 2002:40).

To be honest, Charlotte and Collins are the representatives of ruthlessness in real society. Collins has been changed completely by the real society. Collins has deep eagerness for existing in the society; he is willing to abandon his true feeling. In real society, different people have different requirements about life, and different people use different ways to come true their targets. For Collins, he is a man who does not know what love is at all. His decision to marry Charlotte is only because of Elizabeth’s refusal to him. “What he needs is just a wife who helps him not be a single man any more. It is no matter of love or mutual understanding”(Bian, 2008:3).

Charlotte can not help but to obey the real society. But her destiny represents the reality of society, the society of Jane Austen lived in. “She manages to arrange one of the most reliable way by marriage, thus she would not be exposed to the cold temperatures and suffer hunger in the future. She now gets a storage room” (Wu Jun, 2007:7). There are many women who do not have freedom and opportunities to choose their true love and decide their future in the same age of Jane Austen.

4.4 The combination based on true love

Elizabeth is an idealist who will not marry solely for money, to either a fool (Collins) or a man she dislikes (Darcy, at first).

Elizabeth refuses Mr. Collins; so she gives up the right to inherit the wealth from her family. She knows the status of her family is not superior in real society. Both she and Darcy are extremely sensitive to th e social status. Different from Darcy, Elizabeth doesn’t have superiority about her family background and status. Instead, she feels deeply ashamed for her sister’s being lack of fairly education and her mother's rudeness and stupidity. Compared with her moderate and generous sister Jane, she is smarter and even more profound. She has a clean understanding about her own social status, which is due to the psychotically sedimentary deposits because she

is in an inferior position for long time. Because of this, she resists extremely against the arrogance of Darcy, and she tries her best to protect herself from being hurtled by Darcy's commanding attitude. When Mr. Darcy expresses his love to Elizabeth in the first time, Elizabeth answers,“…your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of the others; and I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world I could ever be prevailed on to marry”(Austen, 1813:172).She believes that she must make him understand that she is not woozy, which reflects her belief to deal with the emotional entanglements with Darcy, as well as her constant patter with Darcy and the prejudice on Darcy.“Darcy changes the attitude of being a rrogant, and this is the reason why Darcy win s Elizabeth’s heart and love. We can imagine that if Darcy doesn't change his mind, even if other misunderstandings have been resolved, they would not fall in love forever” (Wu Jun, 2007:11). Elizabeth changes her prejudice on Darcy, and Mr. Darcy changes his pride, both of them have the opportunities to choose true love, the most important is, and they are willing to change their Pride and Prejudice and go closer with each other.

Elizabeth once holds good feelings on Wickham, considering him to be the most agreeable man she has ever met. But facts have proved that the “first impression is not reliable, and people should spend more time on understanding. Elizabeth refuses the stupid priest Collins and challenges wealthy Darcy. But time proves that, Mr. Darcy is the right man for Elizabeth. He is aware of his own shortcomings. He accepts Elizabeth’s criticism, and faithfully corrects the shortcomings and mistakes. He is no longer arrogant and has a real love with Elizabeth.

Elizabeth has the bravery to refuse Collins and Lady de Bourgh, and has bravery to look for true love. In the society of Jane Austen lived in, the character of Elizabeth is not accepted by most of people, especially for some people who have rooted traditional ideas.

It’s uncommon for Darcy that he does not care about the status and wealth of lover. In the society of Jane Austen lived in, Mr. Darcy has high status and big wealth, it is so easy for him to marry a perfect woman. But Mr. Darcy takes different way, he chooses true love. “It is th e nature of Austen’s novels that romance must win out over all of the obstacles, whether social or personal, that it faces”(Wu Jun, 2007:11). The stories of Elizabeth and Darcy give hopes to many people, especially to women. The author, Jane Austen describes the great power of true love in Pride and Prejudice, but she knows that the happy marriage should be based on fortune, if not, the marriage is unpractical.

5. The Inspiration about Love and Marriage from Pride and

Prejudice

5.1 Jane Austen's concept about love and marriage

In the real society, especially in the same age of Austen, men have more rights and freedom to enjoy their power, status and wealth. Men have more opportunities to choose their lovers. Women can only accomplish this goal through successful marriage, which explains the ubiquity of matrimony as a goal and topic of conversation in Austen’s writing. Though young women of Austen’s day had more freedom to choose their husbands than in the early eighteenth century, practical considerations continued to limit their options.

Darcy and Elizabeth’s love story shows that, the real happy marriage is not only based on true love but also on fortune. To some extent, the combination of Jane and Bingley is unpractical in the real society. Although the marriage of Charlotte and Collins is based on power, status and wealth, it shows the reality in the society. The marriage which based on social position, power and benefit can’t bring happy life, but aimless marriage and love are impracticable.

Jane Austen is unique in her time. She has the bravery to mock the nobles’values, to criticize the traditional ideas, to disclose the wrong concept of love and marriage. She believes true love, and she never stops looking for. “Jane Austen believes that women should take marriage seriously as it is concerned with your happiness, and don’t be sloppy” (Yin, 2009:17). In the society of Jane Austen lived in, her work Pride and Prejudice gives hopes to people, especially to women. Jane Austen is a great woman. “Her standards of values about marriage set her free from the social rules to some degree and influence some of her readers on that time”(Yin, 2009:17). Austen’s concepts about love and marriage have big differences between the views of people in the same age of Austen, and her concepts about love and marriage give beautiful dream to many women.

5.2 The concept of love and marriage in modern society

In modern society, men and women have freedom on marriage. But the concepts of love and marriage have many similar points with the four marriages in Pride and Prejudice. Nowadays, most of people admit that, the marriage based on social status, power and wealth is unreal and unhappy, but if you do not consider these points, the marriage is not impracticable. “Jane Austen wishes there are less and less ‘Charlotte’ or ‘Lydia’ as the victims of the unfortunate marriage”(Yin, 2009:17). Of course, true love is very romantic in our mind. Although the stories about Charlotte and Collins, Lydia and Wickham are ruthless, the stories of them describe the reality in the real society of the same age of Jane Austen.

Nowadays, women have more rights and freedom to choose their own husbands. In China, more and more female marry in older age than the age many years ago. And some women do not want to marry. But the idea of female should marry in her life has important place in most of Chinese’s mind, especially for old men.

With the economic development of China, Chinese have more and more opportunities and

ways to learn more new and advanced things from other countries, especially some developed countries. The outlooks on world, on life and value of developed countries have affected Chinese people deeply, including the concept of love and marriage.

Marriage is very beautiful and romantic for people, especially for women. People should have clear ideas about their lovers, do not let false things cheat their minds. “Marriage is related to the life of happiness. Don’t let surface blinded the eyes”(Jane Austen, 1813:133). False decision results in big awful consequences to people.

From the four marriages in Pride and Prejudice, we know that, the marriage should not only base on true love but also base on fortune, but if people only ask for power, status or wealth in marriage, the marriage is unhappy and false.

6. Conclusion

From the four marriages in Pride and Prejudice, we can know the different concepts of love and marriage. In A usten’s great work, Pride and Prejudice, gives readers a good opportunity to research the concepts of love and marriage of the same age of Austen.

In Pride and Prejudice, there are different people with different concepts of love and marriage; and to some extent, the behaviors and languages of different roles represent characters of most of people in reality. “We a re more pleased with pictures of characters, which resemble such as are found in our own age or country” (David Hume, 1757:275). .

In Pride and Prejudice, the stories about Elizabeth and Darcy, Jane and Mr. Bingley are perfect in people’s mind, but the stories ignore the reality of the society. The stories about Lydia and Wickham, Charlotte and Collins are ruthless, but the concepts of love and marriage in the stories are true in real society. To some extent, Jane Austen describes the reality through these different roles and these stories.

Jane Austen expresses her new and special ideas about concepts of love and marriage in Pride and Prejudice which is definitely different with the views of people in the same age of Austen.In Pride and Prejudice, the marriage of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy is based on true love and fortune, “we can say that the marriage of hero and heroine is combination of idealism. The implication is clear; marriage is crucial because it is the only accessible form of self-definition for women in her society” (Ye, 2010:12).

The marriages of those four couples show that, the happy marriage should be based on true love and fortune, but if the marriage is only based on true love, it is unpractical; and if the marriage is based on fortune, power or status, it is unhappy and false.

This dissertation has some problems, for example, the research methods are not perfect and the data can’t fully reflect the different concepts of love and marriage，and the research about concepts of love and marriage in modern society, it’s not definite and comprehensive. This dissertation should pay more attention to research methods and data collection before writing. If those problems can be modified directly, that will improve the writing level of the author in the future.