Austen’s View of Marriage in Pride and Prejudice

Ⅰ. Introduction

Jane Austen (1775-1817) is often viewed as the greatest of the English women realistic novelists in the 19th century. Her greatness lies in her ability to stimulate readers to supply what is not there and expand a trifle in our mind and endow with the most enduring form of life scenes. Jane Austen wrote only six complete novels. In these novels, an assembly of characters, men and women, old and young some, but not many, children --- who are unforgettable and can become as real to the reader as his or her own friends and family is vividly described. Austen criticized comically “the overvaluation of love, the miseducation of women, the subterfuges of the marriage market, the rivalry among women for male approval, the female cult of weakness and dependence, the discrepancy between women’s private sphere and male history”(Austen 112).

In Jane Austen’s novels, innocent courting and proper marriages constitute the central strands of the story, but behind these we can see that there lurks the ulterior motive of loving an marrying for money and social position. Her heroines without any money or social rank are always placed in a desperate situation of having to lure some young and rich landlords or clergymen with comfortable livings into marrying them, either with their looks or with their wiles, or with both. This is a truthful reflection of the specific historical period of the author’s time during which people seemed to take money much more seriously than other times, especially the women awaiting their marriage.

As a realistic novelist, Jane Austen’s view of marriage expressed in her works is actually a true portrayal of the marital status in her time, especially of women of the gentry. Behind the comic plots, there was the sorrowful social reality that women’s fates were determined by their economic conditions and most of them were constrained by the so-called “accomplished lady” concept.

The paper is to analyze some cultural background of women’s marriage in Austen’s time and the economic status and property elements that influenced their marriage and thus we can obtain a further understanding of Jane Austen’s view of marriage

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Ⅱ. Contrast between Marriage in Austen’s Time and Her Novel

A. Marriage in Austen’s time

In Jane Austen’s time, there was no real way for young woman 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 highly 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 Mrs. 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 generally 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 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 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 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 that 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 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 illicit 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 only 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 “lady’s companion”. Some woman were wiling to marry just 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 financial security could only put woman into another difficult situation, in which they might suffer poverty again, and even disagreeable husbands as well.

B. Marriage in Her Novel

This is the dilemma discussed in the following exchange between the relatively impoverished sisters Emma and Elizabeth in Jane Austen’s novel. Elizabeth: “I have been at school, Emma, and know what a life they lead; you never have---- I should not like marrying a disagreeable men ----- I think I could like any good-humored man with a comfortable income ----- you are rather refined.”(Austen 79)

To Emma Watson, marrying a man she did not like is worse than anything else and she wants to be independent on her own efforts. However, Elizabeth Waston is more realistic, she sees the professional women’s difficult situation, so the thinks a comfortable income of her future husband is more important than anything else. In Price and Prejudice, the dilemma is expressed most clearly by the character Charlotte Lucas, whose pragmatic views on marriage are voiced several times in the novel:

Without thinking highly either of men or of matrimony, marriage had always been her object: it was the only honorable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want. “This preservative she had now obtained; and at the age of twenty-seven, without having ever been handsome, she felt all the good luck of it”. (Austen 98-99)

Lucas is 27, not especially beautiful according to both herself and Mrs. Bennet, and without an especially large “portion”, and so decides to marry Mr.Collins “from the pure and disinterested desire of an establishment”. However, Jane Austen does not intend to simply condemn Charlotte Lucas, who finds consolation in “her home and her housekeeping, her parish and her poultry, and all their dependent concerns”, (Austen 65) for marrying Mr.Collins, for Charlotte’s dilemma is a real one. All this shows that a poor woman at that time had no other alternative but to wait for a rich husband to support her. Jane Austen herself was unable to afford a handsome dowry, which apparently prevented one early mutual attraction from becoming anything serious. Later a fairly prosperous man proposed to her, however her becoming anything serious. Later a fairly prosperous man proposed to her, however her eagerness for spiritual happiness did not lead her to make a vulgar decision. Nevertheless, the life of an old maid could not be happy, either.

In addition to all these reasons why a woman herself might wish to be married, there could also be the family pressure on her for her to be married. In Pride and Prejudice this issue is treated comically and economically, since Mrs. Bennet is so eager to marry her daughters off to any rich young men, yet so conspicuously unsupported by her husband. But that such family pressure could be a serious matter is seen in the character Charlotte Lucas who cannot help but marry Mr. Collins. This kind of family pressure often arose from the financial pressure within the family. There were also the great attractions of the married state of the husband was rich. In Northanger, Isabella Thorpe.

According to Mr. Collins in Pride and prejudice “this young gentleman (Darcy) is blessed, in a peculiar way, with everything the heart of mortal can most desire, ----- splendid properly, noble kindred, and extensive patronage.”(Austen 279). What a happy married life a woman could enjoy if her husband is a gentleman like Darcy! And when Lydia is to be married, Mrs. Bennet’s “thoughts and her words ran wholly on those attendants of elegant nuptials. Fine muslins, new carriages, and servants” (Austen 237). And on Elizabeth’s marriage she exclaims: “What pin- money, what jewels, what carriages you will have! … A house in town! …. Ten thousand a year! … I shall go distracted!” (Austen 292). All this seems to show that happiness of marriage lies not in love but in material benefits. Yet Jane Austen expresses her unromantic opinion on all this clearly by the fact that only her silliest characters have such sentiments while Mr. Bennet says: “He is rich, to be sure, and you may have more fine clothes and fine carriages than Jane. But will they make you happy?”(Austen 290)

The seeming preoccupation with money in connection with marriage in Jane Austen’s work may mislead modern readers. While there is no lack of greed and shallow materialism on the part of some characters, sensible characters must devote serious thought to this topic, since it is rather foolhardy to marry without having a more or less guaranteed income in prospect---- as we will think of not only sustenance for life, but also social security, old age pensions, unemployment compensation, health insurance, etc. Jane Austen’s sister Cassandra was engaged for several years without being able to marry due to lack of money on the part her and her fiancé and their families. And similarly, even a sincere man but with a limited income might be deterred by financial reasons from marrying his girl. This was more or less what happened to Jane Austen herself once. Jane Austen wrote a satirical charades on the “marriage market”, where personal attractions are weighed against economic considerations. Here “ my whole” is the word to be guessed, “ my first” is its first syllable, and “my second” its second syllable: You may lie on my first on the side of a stream; and my second compose the nymph you adore; but of, when you’ve none of my whole, her esteem and affection diminish----think of her no more! The answer is “banknote”. This shows only rich women would be respected and loved.

As far as marriage was concerned, economic considerations were much more important than personal attractions. That was a kind of cruel social reality to those poor beautiful women because even their beauty could not give them more chances to obtain happy marriages.

Ⅲ.Equal Importance Between Love and Money in Marriage

A. Marriage With Both Love and Money— An Ideal Marriage

1. Elizabeth’s Marriage: With Both Love and Money

Elizabeth is her father’s favorite daughter, having inherited his wit and intelligence. “Lizzy has something more of quickness than her sisters”, he says. Like all the girls of the “genteel” class, under the influence of “the truth universally acknowledged”, Elizabeth goes to attend the dancing party held in Meryton, and is coldly treated by Darcy as result, but she used her healthy sense of humor to joke about Mr. Darcy’s rude behavior at the ball. She is deeply aware that she must find a good husband if she wants to live a better life in the future. However, her awareness does not lead her to make hasty unwise choices. On the contrary, she will watch and wait with sense and sensibility for the right chance as she desires her marriage to comprise both love and money. She is intelligent, vivacious, humorous, perceptive and quick-witted and she has strong sense of personality and dignity. She despises her mother’s dreadful mentality and unbearable vulgarity and also her younger sisters’ flirtatiousness and dissoluteness, but is never ashamed of her amiable uncle and aunt Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner just because of their profession as merchants. First, she refuses Mr. Collins’ proposal without any hesitation because she does not and will never love him, which is against her mother’s will. The first opportunity has thus slipped, while Miss Lucas becomes Mrs. Collins soon. Mrs. Bennet is so angry that she is on the verge of having a mental disorder. Then Elizabeth resolutely refuses Mr. Darcy’s proud though honest proposal. Moreover she does not knuckle under to the snobbish Miss Bingley and is neither overbore by nor cringing to Mrs. de Bourgh’s domineeringness. Elizabeth’s two refusals seem to be against her original intention. But after a careful study, we can see that these refusals just exhibit the lovable and fine qualities of Elizabeth. She is sensible enough to know that she would lose the source of livelihood after her father’s death if she couldn’t marry a rich husband. Facing such a dangerous situation, she has refused two proposals. What is her motive of doing so? I think that it is her pursuit for happiness. It is impossible for her to forget pecuniary considerations when she thinks about her marriage. At the same time, she attaches great importance to love, which is an indispensable element to a happy marriage. She once holds good feelings toward Wickham, considering him to be the most agreeable man she has ever met, but meanwhile she thinks it imprudent to fall in love with him. She says to her aunt: I will take care of myself, and of Wickham, too. He shall not be in love with me, if I can prevent it. (Austen 114) It is Elizabeth’s steadfast pursuit for spiritual agreement that makes her image brilliant in the novel.

But how shall we quantify the ratio between money and love in a marriage? Mr. Collins is too vulgar and sycophantic to match Elizabeth. And Wickham is short of not only money but also moral, although she does not know it until much later. When the handsome and rich Mr. Darcy is turned downed for the first time, Elizabeth explains this very clearly: “Why? with so evident a design of offending and insulting me, you chose to tell me that you liked me against your will, against your reason, and even against your character? Was not this some excuse for incivility, if I was uncivil? ...” (Austen 149). Elizabeth’s refusal to Darcy is to a certain degree out of her prejudice against him because she is credulous of Wickham’s with Darcy’s arrogant bearing long before. Darcy himself later says: “In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” (Austen 147). Afterwards, she feels regretful for her own bias and rashness. There is a faint pity in her painful self-condemning and complicated feelings. When she sees Darcy’s Pemberly Park, her feeling changes, for “She had never seen a place for which nature had done more, or where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste. … and at that moment. She felt that to be the mistress of Pemberly might be something!” (Austen 187). Apparently there is a sort of pleasant sensation about substance based on money subconsciously. However, such kind of sensation seems to be natural and reasonable to go with her elegant temperament. Elizabeth rejects a proud Darcy, but accepts a perfect-going Darcy. After she confesses her love for Darcy and their engagement to her elder sister, Jane asks her how long she has loved Mr. Darcy and she answers, “I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberly.” (Austen 288). Though she is joking, it is not so difficult to see her liking for money and property.

As an ordinary woman of the “genteel” class, Elizabeth may not have many brilliant and profound thoughts, even the spiritual agreement that she longs for is not of high level. However, she possesses some qualities that are quite different from other ordinary girls. They are her remarkable wisdom and indomitable spirit. She can deal with Mr. Collins’ entanglement and her mother’s interference tactully. Facing the arrogant Darcy and the snobbish Miss Bingley, she does not show any inferiority because of her own family background. Instead, she always gives them tit for tat in speech and action in order to defend her dignity. Even the imperious and despotic Mrs. de Bourgh is thoroughly refuted by Elizabeth and has to leave indignantly. She could not have had such behavior without any remarkable wisdom. What is more, Elizabeth dare do what other women of the same class dare not. A great deal of courage is needed for her to refuse the proposal by Mr. Collins and Mr. Darcy. After all she is a girl without a dowry. It is obvious that her spirit based on the full understanding of herself is against the conventional concept of family status in marriage and for the equality between the male and the female. No wonder that she is treated as the protagonist of the novel. She hopes that her marriage can be based on love and that the couple will have spiritual agreement. Such kind of spirit was very rare at that time. Although Elizabeth’s concept of equality in the family is quit different from that of the present, it will not affect our full admiration of Austen’s spirit against the feudal hierarchy and the inequality between men and women perceived by the character Elizabeth. Nevertheless, it was unlike for Austen to go beyond her class limitations when she advocated the marital equality between men and women. The most rebellious words of Elizabeth when she debates with Mrs. de Bourgh are only: “In marrying your nephew, I should not consider myself as quitting that sphere. He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman’s daughter; so far we are equal.” (Austen 247). The Bennet family belongs to the country gentry, therefore, Elizabeth can not demand the true equality without any class distinctions owing to the limits of interests of her own class. Her strongest argument to support her concept of equality is that both Darcy and she herself belong to the same class. What would she say if she belonged to a class much lower than Darcy’s? However, that does not discolor her rebellious spirit against the inequality imposed on her by the external world. Such rebellious spirit was valuable and praiseworthy when the feudal aristocracy was fairly influential and the feudal hierarchy occupied a very important place in people’s minds.

Although the equality Austen demanded had its limitations, it was much more progressive compared with the situation without any equality under the strict feudal hierarchical system and it might liberate people’s mind to some extent in many respects such as politics, economics, culture, social life, and marital problems of course, so that women could have certain rights to seek their own freedom and happiness. The finest quality of Elizabeth lies in her sense of dignity. She thinks she is equal not only to Mr. Collins but also to the young aristocrat Mr. Darcy. With such kind of confidence, she will not want to marry Mr. Collins or Mr. Darcy merely because she needs a rich husband to support the rest of her life. The most unbearable thing for her is that both of the men do not propose to her not of the love based on the equality between men and women. Maybe Elizabeth never excludes economic considerations when she deals with her own marital problems, but her refusal cannot but be regarded as a strong resistance against the prevailing practice of marriage for money at that time. Elizabeth’s first refusal to Darcy makes him realize his own pride and egotism. So when they meet at Pemberley again, Darcy becomes very courteous and quite different from what he was at the dancing party, which moves Elizabeth very much. Only then does Elizabeth realize that they are congenial in thoughts, emotions and interests. When her sister Jane asks how long she has love Mr. Darcy, she replies that “… I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley”(Austen 45). Here she not only refers to the Pemberley Park, but also means the modest and courteous. Darcy at Pemberley. That is to say, Darcy cannot win Elizabeth’s heart unless he has changed his proud manners. At first, she felt that she was not treated as an equal person when Darcy proposed to her, so she did not love him. The temptation of money and social status can not make her disregard the inequality between men and women, and by refusing the proposal she has defended her dignity and personality as well as the purity of her love. Later, with more and more understanding of Mr. Darcy, she also regrets her prejudice against him and comes to admire him. When Darcy has changed completely, she eagerly accepts his proposal. Although Elizabeth is not independent economically, it does not prevent her from influencing Darcy’s life as an equal human being and from keeping her own dignity.

2. Jane’s Marriage: Love at First Sight Based on Beauty and Fortune

Jane, the eldest daughter of the Bennet family, is a typically good-natured and gentle woman in the novel. At a dancing party in Meryton, Jane and Mr. Bingley fall in love with each other at first sight. Since Jane unites composure of temper and a uniform cheerfulness of manner with great strength of feeling, which keeps her from being impertinent, it is difficult to perceive her preference she entertains for Mr. Bingley from the first. Mrs. Bennet is so ecstatic with this aristocratic young man’s preference for her daughter that she cannot help boasting whenever she can. On some later occasions, the love between Jane and Bingley develops very smoothly. Although Jane does not reveal her happiness outwardly, it is quite obvious that she is extremely willing to seek connections with those people in the Netherfield Park, especially her marriage to Mr. Bingley. So when he leaves for London suddenly one day, Jane feels somewhat disappointed and very sad at Miss Bingley’s letter which tells her that Mr. Bingley loves Georgiana, Darcy’s sister, very much. During those days when she stays in London at Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner’s invitation, she goes to visit Miss Bingley in person in order to get some information about Mr. Bingley. She expects him to some every day, and feels extremely sad at Miss Bingley’s hypocritical show of friendship. Later, Jane does not marry Mr. Bingley until the misunderstanding between Elizabeth and Darcy has disappeared.

It seems that only their marriage involves purest love with no tint of money at all. Then why is not Bingley penniless but a “young man of large fortune”? According to Mrs. Bennet, Jane’s marriage to Bingley has the following advantages:

His being such a charming young man, and so rich, and living but three miles from them, were the first point of self-granulation; and then it was such a comfort to think how fond the two sisters were of Jane, and to be certain that they must desire the connection as much as she could do. It was, moreover, such a promising thing for her younger daughters, as Jane’s marrying so greatly must them in the way of other man; and lastly, it was so pleasant at her time of life to be able to consign her single daughters to the care of their sister, that she might not be obliged to go into company more than she liked.(Austen 80)

It is not difficult to see that the marriage of Jane and Bingley is more r less based on their good looks as they love each other at first sight. Yet Mrs. Bennet is particularly happy just because her son-in-law has a yearly income of four or five thousand pounds. So in addition to their nice appearance, their happiness owes a great deal to Bingley’s large fortune. As a woman without a dowry, Jane finds a good way out for herself by marrying Mr. Bingley, although there has been little exchange of feeling of love between them except admiration for each other

B. Marriage With neither Love nor Money —An Unhappy Marriage

1. Lydia’s Marriage: With neither Love nor Money

Far contrary to her two eldest sisters, Lydia, the youngest daughter of the Bennet family, is vain, ignorant, idle and absolutely uncontrolled and frivolous in her love affair and marriage. According to Austen,

She was a stout, well-grown girl of fifteen, with a fine complexion and good-humored countenance; a favorite with her mother, whose affection had brought her into public at an early age. She had high animal spirits, and a sort of natural self-consequence, which the attention of the officers, to whom her uncle’s good dinners and her own easy manners recommended her, had increased into assurance (Austen 37-38).

Though Lydia is the youngest daughter, she is very keen on taking part in social activities, indulging herself in flirtation with the “red coats” all the time. Naturally, the public notice of her unguarded and imprudent manner causes great disadvantage to Elizabeth and Jane, but she does not feel ashamed of her own deeds and words at all. Besides, the wild volatility, the assurance and the disdain of all restraints that mark her character affect the Bennet family’s importance and respectability in the society. In the eyes of those gentlemen and ladies, Lydia is only an uneducated flirt. Finally she elopes with the rake George Wickham, which is tactfully prepared for in the presence of Lydia herself.

In the first half of the novel, Lydia is not described in detail. After Elizabeth and Jane come home from Hunsford and London, she comes more to the fore, until she leaves for Brighton and disgraces herself by ordering a salad she cannot pay for and buying a hat she doesn’t like because she “might as well buy it as not” and because “there were two or three much uglier in the shop”, revealing the same carelessness of consequence and irresponsibility with which she elopes with Wickham. Elizabeth persuades her father to forbid the visit to Brighton, which prepares us to expect some kind of disaster.

With he help of Darcy, Wickham and Lydia get married at last. Their marriage is obviously a disgraceful and unhappy one. First their respective motive for marriage is not Out of the love for each other. Mr. Bennet’s mischievous negligence and Mrs. Bennet’s mistaken indulgence towards Lydia determine their daughter’s character and behavior:

…Lydia had wanted only encouragement to attach herself to anybody. Sometimes one officer, sometimes another, had been her favorite, as their attentions raised them in her opinion. Her affections had been continually fluctuating, but never without an object. (Austen 214)

Therefore, Lydia marries Wickham just out of her sexual desire and momentary impulse without considering her later life, forgetting that anyhow she is a poor girl. Actually Wickham has no intention of marrying Lydia before Darcy has settled everything for him. Originally, he plans to make his fortune by marrying a rich woman. As to his elopement with Lydia, he does not scruple to lay all the ill consequences on her own folly alone and he shows no sense of responsibility at all. Darcy’s help can relieve him from the embarrassing circumstances immediately, but he bargains for more if he must be required to take Lydia, until finally Darcy promises to pay all his debts, to secure him a commission and present Lydia with another thousand pounds. Second, neither Lydia nor Wickham has a solid economic base. It has been made clear at the beginning that the Bennet girls have no right to inherit their father’s property. Lydia is not an exception. Mr. Bennet can only provide one hundred pounds to Lydia every year during his life and one thousand pounds in the four per cent after his death. Wickham has not sixpence of his own at that time. From Darcy’s letter to Elizabeth we know that what Wickham deserves according to Darcy’s father will has been destroyed by his own vicious propensities and his life of idleness and dissipation. When he elopes with Lydia, he has been obliged to leave the regiment on account of some debts. He means to resign his commission immediately; and as to his future situation he can conjecture very little about it. He must go somewhere, but he does not know where, and he knows he would have nothing to live on. Such a marriage can be taken as another instance to illustrate that both true love and sufficient money are of overwhelming importance in marriage.

Austen certainly does not appreciate their marriage. She expresses her feelings towards them through the heroine Elizabeth:

How Wickham and Lydia were to be supported in tolerable independence, she could not imagine. But how little of permanent happiness could belong to a couple who were only brought together because their passions were stronger than their virtue, she could easily conjecture. (Austen 239)

2. Charlotte Lucas’s Marriage: With Money but Without Love

If Austen’s own pursuit and dream have been realized by her own “delightful creature” Elizabeth, her industrious probe of the marital problems is also embodied by other images. Take Charlotte Lucas for example. She is quite different from her best friend Elizabeth. Her parents, like the Bennet couple, can give her little fortune, and she is as sensible and intelligent as Elizabeth, but her pursuit for spiritual happiness is not as brave and strong as that of Elizabeth. So it is not surprising that her marriage is not so satisfactory. We cannot help feeling pity for her when it comes to her marriage. Charlotte perceives Mr. Collins’ pedantry sand sycophancy and stupidity when the first meet. When she accepts his proposal, she is quite clear that Mr. Collins, to be sure, was neither sensible nor agreeable; “his society was irksome, and his attachment to her must be imaginary, marriage had always been her object (Austen 98).” To Elizabeth, we know that she would rather lead a single life than marry such a foolish man. So she is shocked that her best friend should have accepted Mr. Collins proposal of marriage immediately. It is mot that Elizabeth has misjudged the ability of Charlotte, but that she has underestimated the burden on her best friend … Elizabeth knows Collins’ stupidity and Charlotte’s cleverness but she cannot imagine what burden can force Charlotte to lower herself so. Simplicity and complexity, knowledge and ignorance, they are always incompatible with each other. –Only in the marriage promoted by the economic considerations do they combine together, no matter how incompatible they are. Of course, it is impossible for Charlotte to love Collins from the bottom of her heart, but she still has to attract him on her own initiative and tempts him to propose to her because it (marriage) was the only honorable provision for a well-educated young woman of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative form want.(Austen 98-99). Such humorous and piercing description portrays the mentality of Lucas-like women position in finance and society except marrying a husband with a good fortune. Judging by Charlotte’s situation, it is more appropriate for us to consider her realistic, rather than vulgar. The heroine Elizabeth’s resistance and refusal to Mr. Collins’ proposal reflect her lovable qualities, but Charlottes’ behavior is not contemptible either. To be more exact, she seems a little bit pitiful because she accepts Mr. Collins solely out of the pure and disinterested desire for an establishment. She once says to Elizabeth:

… I am mot romantic, you know; I never was, I ask only a comfortable home; and considering Mr. Collins’ character, connections, and situation in life, I am convinced that my chance of happiness with him is as fair as most people can boast on entering the marriage state.(pp100-101)

Therefore, Charlotte seems to have found some kind of satisfaction and happiness in her marriage without any love. Elizabeth goes to Parsonage to visit them at the invitation of Miss Lucas after her marriage and finds that “her home and her housekeeping, her parish and her poultry, and all their dependent concerns, had not yet lost their charms.When Mr. Collins could be forgotten, there was really a great air of comfort throughout…” (Austen 123). It is interesting that in such a marriage based on sole and naked money-transaction the woman with property does marry a single man with a good fortune, but the husband himself has nothing to do with the enjoyment the marriage bring to her.

However, Austen does not think that handsome appearance is the only base of love or marriage. It is true that beauty has great influence on people and everybody is eager to look handsome. In Austen’s novels all the women are pursuing handsome appearance as they think it really plays a very important role in their life, which is an accurate and true reflection of Austen’s realism. But what is more valuable is that Austen thinks beauty is not a decisive element of marriage. In Sense and Sensibility, Edward is attracted by Lucy’s beauty and falls in love with her when he is nineten years old. But with more understanding of Lucy, Edward gradually transfers his love from her to Elinor, who is not as beautiful as but is more elegant than Lucy. Such change in love makes it clear that beauty is not omnipotent in love or even marriage. Undoubtedly, it is not the outward beauty but the inward mental agreement that is the critical link to two persons’ emotions, especially to the love between a man and a woman.

Ⅳ. Austen’s View of Feminine Consciousness

It is obvious from Pride and Prejudice that Austen's view of marriage is not immutable. she became more and more progressive and mature in thoughts at the end of her life compared with the beginning of her writing career. All of Austen's novels end in marriage, but it is not difficult to notice the continuous development of her theme of marriage and awakening of her feminine consciousness.

First of all, Austen's progress is reflected in the difference between the main characters of the earlier works and those of later works. Elizabeth is elegant and intelligent and pretty, but the former through marriage from a poor genteel woman without a dowry becomes an aristocratic lady depending on her husband, while the latter, on the contrary, from a true aristocratic daughter becomes a pseudo-gentry woman assisting her husband. In this sense, Elizabeth looks more like Cinderella in romance while there are more independent women's realistic features. Austen gives a more or less ironic color to her "delightful creature" Elizabeth. It is lizabeth's brightness, liveliness and dignity that make her outstanding among her sisters. However, she cannot free herself from conventionality so she goes to the dancing party and is taunted by Darcy. Although she wins her dignity afterwards through those tit-for-tat and humorous conversations, she is so blind that she easily believes Wickham's slander about Darcy. She not only severely criticizes Darcy but also refuses his proposal of marriage out of prejudice. She cannot overcome her prejudice until after reading Darcy's letter, her travel to Pemberley, her sister's elopement, etc. And her marriage based on both love and money is undoubtedly a happy one, but it is only a dream to those poor unprofessional genteel women.

Economic domination in a marriage is the subject matter of Pride and Prejudice and marriage is a one- sided process that women are forced into by the sexism of the early 19th century. The biased process and the importance of marriage for women are introduced in the first chapter of the novel.

However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on hid first entering a neighborhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of someone or other of their daughter. (Austen 5)

This implies that the man with property wants a wife and the woman is in a place to court his favor and not to turn him down. She will eagerly take the man as her claim, and for him she may fight with other women. It seems that poor women are plentiful and rich men are rare. The man with a large fortune has more freedom and option in his marriage, while the poor woman is always in a desperate situation. Here Austen wants to point out how dependent the woman is on a man in her English society. This dependence is regarded as a necessary part of her time by mentioning such facts again and again. And at the same time it is he feminist ideal that prompts her to voice powerfully women’s demand for freedom in marriage through her favorite characters

It is not difficult to find that Pride and Prejudice has a mythical prototype. i.e. , the pattern of Cinderella of the heroine's fate. Elizabeth is as attractive and lovely as Cinderella, and with very little property. Fortunately, after some complicated experiences, she has finally been married to her ideal prince. However, Cinderella, as a kind of mythical prototype and literary pattern, has been developed and improved by Austen, and acquired new implications against different value concepts. As a female writer, Austen tells stories from a feminine point of view, expressing her real feelings and giving the heroine a kind of new implication. Cinderella in this novel, Elizabeth, no longer waits for a "prince" at home prassively, instead she rejects two proposals of marriage because she thinks she is not treated as an equal. Elizabeth wants to choose a husband in the marriage market according to her own will. Elizabeth's wit and her spiritual independence are abominable to some people because she challenges the prevailing social standards.

However, it is through Elizabeth that Austen shows a brilliant image of woman, who is not only attractive in appearance but also independent and progressive in thoughts. Austen once said in her letter: “I must confess that I think Elizabeth as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print and how I shall be able to tolerate those who do not like her at least I do not know” (Austen 105) Since Austen is so satisfied with the protagonist Elizabeth, then what is her attitude toward those "perfect" ladies such as Miss Bingley and Mrs. de Bourgh? It can be easily seen from the novel that those accomplished ladies are in fact shallow-minded conformists, who treat their friends dishonestly and are selfish in marriage, although they have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, all the modern languages and possess a certain something in their air and manner or walking, tone of their voice, their address and expressions. However, their hypocritical affection and vanity only make readers feel disgusted with them. Austen exposes the perfect ladies as fakes, gossips, snobs. Compared with Elizabeth's attitude, their attitudes toward marriage make the former more lovable. The way that the perfect ladies indirectly deck out the heroine with their criticisms of Elizabeth is another method of character manipulation employed by Austen to express her feminist view of marriage. It is Austen's feminism that gives her courage to express her view of marriage which challenges the social standards of her time.

According to Virginia Woolf, women's value concept is quite different from that of men concerning life and art. When a woman sets out to wrote a novel, she will find she want to change those established value concepts through her writing----she will give seriousness to those matters which male writers feel beneath their dignity to write about, but pay little attention to those events which men attach great importance.[21] This is the most essential distinction in the creation between the male and female writers. Austen's novels are undoubtedly important opposite poles to those men-dominated literary works before her time.

Ⅴ. Conclusion

Austen's position and the importance of her works cannot be neglected in the history of English literature no matter how limited her life circle is and no matter how trivial her subject matter is. As we all know that there were a lot of novels talking about marriage at that time, but scarcely any author could be like Austen in exposing the minty-essence of women's marriage in her society. Austen's feminine consciousness in her view of marriage is quite obvious She emphasized that women's marriage should be based on the harmony of sense and sensibility, in the agreement of ideal and reality, on the equality between men and women.

By analyzing the manners and morals of women whose lives were confined to the common sitting room, with exuberant hilarity in the juvenilia and a more ironic wit in the mature fiction, Austen provides a subtle portrayal of female values, a precise examination of female grief and joy. Virginia Woolf of Austen, as "a mistress of much deeper emotion than appears upon the surface. She stimulates us to provide what is not there. What she offers is, apparently a trifle, yet is composed of something that expends in the reader's mind and endows with the enduring form of life scenes which are outwardly trivial."[23] Austen is, therefore, a perfect artist among women.

Austen is neither a historian nor a sociologist. But her novels present the modern readers with rich connotations that might be neglected by the historians or the sociologists. We can see the cultural tradition of a society and its value concept through Austen's description of the ordinary daily life. At the same time, Austen's novels tell the awakening of the feminine consciousness.

According to Professor Zhuhong, Austen is a very important writer during the development of the English realistic novels. Austen's novels bring fresh air to the literary field of the late 18th century, making those Gothic and sentimental novels pale by comparison. It is because of Austen that the realistic tradition of the 18th century and the climax of the realistic literature of the 19th century are connected. If there had been no Austen, the climax of the realistic English novels in the 19th century very likely would have been postponed or enervates. Therefore, Austen is completely worth of the laudatory tile given her by the critic----- the unique Austen

Austens View of Marriage in Pride and Prejudice