论《傲慢与偏见》中的爱情观和婚姻观.doc

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

ii
Table of Contents

ABSTRACT I
摘 要 II
1.INTRODUCTION 1
2. THE INTRODUCTION TO JANE AUSTEN AND PRIDE AND PREJUDICE 2
2.1 The introduction to Jane Austen 2
2.2 The 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 12
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 13

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 authorship 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 real