论文-论《傲慢与偏见》中简奥斯汀的婚姻观

On Jane Auste n’s Attitude toward Marriage in Pride and Prejudice

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Date: Nov. 24th, 2010

On Jane Auste n’s Attitude toward Marriage in Pride and Prejudice

I.Introduction

Jane Austen was a British woman writer. And Pride and Prejudice is the most popular novel of her. It talks about matters of love, marriage and family life between country squires and fair ladies in Britain in 18th century. In the novel, Jane Austen used ironic narration to illustrate marriage attitude at that time. She narrated to us four couple of young people, Jane and Bingley, Elizabeth and Darcy, Lydia and Wickham, charlotte and Collins. From them, we can see four different views of marriage. Through the analysis of this novel, we can know Jane Auste n’s ideal marriage, that is a certain economic condition is guarantee to maintain a happy family and love is the foundation of a happy marriage, rational and serious attitude towards the matrimonial issue. Nowadays, Austen’s attitude still can affect the person’s views of marriage. People will not get married blind. They should consider many factors that it will influence their marriage. Matrimonial is a very important thing in everyone’s life. It is a social issue, not just a game. A great marriage is a basis of a happy life in the future. So, we must treat it more rational and carefully.

II.Analysis of A uthor’s Attitude between Money and Marriage Money and marriage are very important aspects in our life, so we should balance them as possible as we can. There are three aspects as follows:

2.1. The brief introduction of Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice was written by Jane Austen. The brief content of this novel is that Mr. Bonnets have five daughters. Mrs. Bonnet is a man who makes great efforts to marry off her daughters. Elizabeth is the second daughter of Mr. Bonnet. She meets Mr. Darcy at a dancing ball. At the first sight, Elizabeth think he is a proud man who seems always feel superior. And she has a dad impression for him. But after a series of events, which they both experienced, gave them the opportunity to understand each other and reconcile their feeling. Thus, their mutual understanding is

the foundation of their relationship and will lead them to a lasting marriage. In the novel, there also have other three different marriages. That is the combination of Collins and Charlotte, and it results in a despicable marriage; the combination of Lydia and Wickham, and it results in a sex-oriented marriage; the combination of Bingley and Jane results a happy marriage. These four marriages show the different views of people.

2.2. The social background of Pride and Prejudice

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”(Austen, 1991) Act ually, this sentence can be said like this, a single woman must be in want of a husband with a good fortune. From this sentence, we can know that how important the marriage is. But the words reflect the most important information: at that time, a person got married was to improve their social status and to obtain more property.

2.3. Maintaining a balance of money and marriage

In Pride and Prejudice, money seems to play an important role in marriage. They thought that without money, marriage would become more and more fragile. In a word, in marriage, just like the words in Northanger Abbey, another book of Jane Austen, no matter how to say in the tale, we cannot have money. (Austen, 1991) In my opinion, the most important foundation of marriage is truth love. Without love, letting alone marriage. Therefore, how to keep balance on money and marriage is a task for us. Different person have different idea. For me, money and love are the basic elements of marriage, we should not ignore them.

III.Factors that Affect Marriage

In our life, matrimonial issue is inevitable thing. Moreover, we know that marriage is an important thing everyone. I think there are many things influencing marriage, such as social status, money, love and so on. There are two points to illustrate this.

3.1. The basis of marriage

Before married, there are many preconditions. Such as, love, economic basis,

families and so on. Love is a romantic word for everyone. Nevertheless, in Pride and Prejudice, the writer described two types of marriages. These belong to the two couples. First is Charlotte and Collins. Charlotte is Elizabeth’s close friend. She is a twenty-seven year old woman. In the novel, Jane Austen wrote. “I am not romantic you know, I never was. I ask only a comfortable home.”(Austen, 1991) authors satirized in Elizabeth’s words “Mr. Collins is a silly, narrow-minded, concerted, you know he is, as well as I do. In addition, you must feel, as well as I do, that a woman who marries him, cannot have proper way of thinking. (Austen, 1991) Their combination is wrong. And just asking for a comfortable home will not happy in the future life.

3.2. Factors that affect marriage

There are many factors can influence marriage. Some people will split up with their girl or boy friend in order to money or property. And some are for different characters. Different personality has different behavior and thought. So if they have a distinctive character, you must consider the marriage carefully. And there are also have the factor about family. In pride and prejudice, Darcy’s aunt Mrs. Christine, is a traditional old lady. She wants to threaten Elizabeth, but failed. So, I think family is important element in marriage.

IV.How to Treat Marriage in Modern Society

Marriage is an old topic. How to get a happy marriage is hard task. In modern society, more and more people pursue the material life, and true love may fade out. Some one married is just to finish a work. With the development of the society and economy, many people will not have so many times to love, so they begin to join the blind date. It is decreased time to understand each other, thus, after married, more and more problems occurred. As far as I concerned, matrimonial is also a career that we should use our intelligence.

V.Conclusion

This paper states that the marriage attitude in Pride and Prejudice. Through the analysis of this novel, we get an important conclusion about marriage. There are three

points. First, a happy matrimonial should based on truth love. Without love as a basis and back, marriage will become immoral and unhappy. Second, within love, marriage also needs economic support. Without money and property, marriage will not happy. In one word, a happy marriage must base on social reality. It should be the perfect combination of money and love. (1110words)

References

Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice. Beijing. 1991

简·奥斯汀.诺桑觉寺.上海：上海译文出版社，1991

冷惠玲，吴晓燕.论奥斯汀的实用婚姻观.烟台大学学报（哲学社会科学版），2002 吴伟仁.英国文学史及选读.北京：外语教学与研究出版社，1988