傲慢与偏见毕业论文

发布时间：2021-08-08


傲慢与偏见毕业论文



存档编号

学士学位论文

Views on Marriage of Jane Austen
in Pride and Prejudice

教学学院 外国语学院 届 别 届 专 业 英 语 姓 名 学 号 指导教师 ___ 完成日期
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4.2 .In modern society ………………………………………………………...16
Chapter5 Conclusion……………………………………………………………..18

Chapter1 Introduction

1.1 Jane Austin
“Jane Austen (1775-1817 was born in Hampshire, a country priest family located in Hants, the village of Kingston, Sidemen in north England. She was a beautiful, talented middle class woman with extraordinary temperament and good cultivation.” Her six novels－Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield, Emma, Persuasion “all describe more than marriage” (Wang, 2005: 64. However, her marriage is in blank within her 42 years lifetime. Going through the best time of the life, she ultimately doesn’t meet the right person in her life and finally gives up her love. With these sweet and bitter experiences she writes the great work Pride and Prejudice.

Jane Austen was mostly tutored at home, and irregularly at school, but she received a broader education than many women of her time. She started to write for family amusement as a child. Her parents were avid readers; Austen's own favorite poet was Cowper. Her earliest-known writings date from about 1787. Very shy about her writing, she wrote on small pieces of paper that she slipped under the desk plotter if anyone came into the room. In her letters she observed the daily life of her family and friends in an intimate and gossipy manner: “James danced with Alethea, and cut up the turkey last night with great perseverance. You say nothing of the silk stockings; I flatter myself, therefore, that Charles has not purchased any, as I cannot very well afford to pay for them; all my money is spent in buying white gloves and pink persian.” (Austen in a letter to her sister Cassandra in 1796

1.2 Background of Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice, the book about commonplace things and ordinary people, is one of Jane Austen’s famous books, being the representative of

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realistic literature. In portrays, with special sensitive characteristic of female writers, the life and ideas of middle class who live in countryside. This novel makes an analysis of human nature and then stick up readers to think over social relations.

“At that time, according to the social conditions in Britain, a good marriage for a young woman was critical. This phenomenon was closely associated with the British society and the status of women in the society. In the 19th century, women were not well respected compared with the ones in the present society. There was no equality between woman and man. Women were considered to be inferior to men in terms of intelligence and capacity. 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. People at that time thought that women should be submissive to their husbands. The virtues of women were patience and deference. They must recognize their inherent inferiority to men, so they must restrict their abilities without question. Although the status of women was low, few of them expressed dissatisfaction about their own destiny. At that time, many middle-class young women had three ways out: getting married, staying at home as old maids or working as the family female teachers. The income of a family female teacher was very low, and the status was low as well. It was very difficult for them to change or swap out of this status, no one would like to be a maid forever, therefore, for young women, especially those who did not have enough properties, getting married was the only good way for them to gain respect, stability and social status.
Austen fully criticized some bad phenomena at that time in her work Pride and Prejudice and took some perfect points about marriage to demonstrate her own view on marriage.


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Chaper2 Four marriages in Pride and Prejudice
2.1 Mr. Collins and Charlotte’s Marriage
In Pride and Prejudice, the first part is the marriage of Charlotte and Collins. Charlotte is William Lucas’s daughter, who is the neighbor of Lizzy Bennett. She is born in a poor family and very mediocre in every aspect. So she has not got married even until she is 26 years old. She may be a typical questionable girl. “However, there are 5 daughters in the Bennett’s, the five daughters are gradually growing up to the age for marriage. So both of the two families rival mutually, especially in the eyes of the ordinary women, such rivalry was particularly tedious.”(Huang, 2007: 126Bennett’s wife is especially typical; she does not give birth to a boy but five girls. The family’s property couldn’t be given to a daughter according to the custom at that time, and the family without a son can grant the wealth to the nephew. So one of Bennett nephews—Collins can inherit the family wealth. Therefore, Mrs. Bennett has great expectations on her nephew. Though the family is not so rich, Collins is the only one who can inherit the whole property. For this reason, Mrs. Bennett feels at ease, and then she has great hope on Collins and likes him. With the help of one of his relatives, Collins becomes a priest. And then he goes to his uncle’s home, wanting to be one son-in-law of Bennett. Because he has heard a lot about the situation of the five daughters of his uncle’s family; he is coming to try his luck here. In his mind, if he could be one son-in-law of his uncle’s, then he could get the property of the family. At first, he suggests Mrs. Bennett that the 26-year old Jane has captured his attention. After informed that the eldest daughter Jane has a boyfriend, he thinks that the second daughter Elizabeth would be an agreeable alternative. Eventually, Elizabeth refuses him with sharp tongue. But Collins quickly finds comfort from Charlotte who
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desires to get married and believes that the marriage is the only way for her to gain respect and also is the only ending of a woman. And then they get married as quickly as the lightning.

2.2 Lydia and Wickham’s Marriage
The second marriage is between Bennett’s third daughter Lydia and Wickham, the son of the housekeeper of Mr. Darcy. At first, he is well-treated by the family and the friends. However, he comes down in the world because of his misbehavior. He gets into debt. He is a man without any responsibility. He wants to get married in order to become rich so he can change his social status. In his opinion, love is only recreation. For his purpose, he entices Lydia who is young, innocent and vainglorious. “Lydia, with perfect indifference, continued to express her admiration of Caption Carter, and her hope of seeing him in the course of the day, as he was going the next morning to London.” (Austen 1813: 58 Lydia hates to work hard, and is spoilt by her mother, and getting love and praise of a boy is her dream. So Wickham gets her love easily. “When Wickham wants to reach his aim—getting wealth by love and exalts her beauty hypocritically, she forgets who she is and feels she is the most beautiful and happiest girl in the world.”(Fu, 2002: 43 Their love does not get the permission from the parents, and then they elope. As Lydia is young and empty-minded, she never gives love a serious and proper consideration, so when Elizabeth hears the news, she believes that their love is false, Wickham would not marry Lydia, because she is not charming and has nothing to attract him, and he is only fond of the wealth of her family. Finally, with the help of Darcy, the scandal was covered and Wickham agreed to marry with Lydia .

2.3 Jane and Mr. Bingley’s Marriage
The third marriage is of the eldest daughter Jane and Mr. Bingley. Bingley is a friend of Darcy. In the assembly, Jane and Bingley fall in love with each other at first sight．Mr. Bingley believed that “She is the most beautiful creature I ever beheld!”(Austen,2001:12 After the meeting, Jane expressed to Elizabeth how much she admired him “He is just what a young
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man ought to be, sensible, good-humored, lively; and I never saw such happy manners! —so much ease, with such perfect good breeding!”(Austen,2001:15

In the following days, their favorable emotions deepened with acquaintances. They agreed in tastes and temperament. Mr. Bingley almost intended to propose to Jane. But a disjunctive change happened. His best friend—Mr. Darcy thought that this is the scheme of the Bennet family, and he did not agree Jane had special sensibilities to Mr. Bingley. Mr. Darcy indicated his viewpoint to his friend. His poor friend believed that, and then he left Netherfield, departed from Jane without saying good-bye. Their separation made Jane sink into suffering. The root of the separation is Mr. Bingley’s lack of definite view, his irresolute and hesitant personality. He did not have enough confidence in himself, he was not sure about whether Jane loved him or not. And Jane was very reserved, although she loved Bingley very much but never expressed her felling to him, even strived for it actively. This behavior let Darcy misunderstood that she had never like his friend Bingley, and Bingley also doubted Jane’s affection to him. So the misunderstanding appeared. But fortunately, finally the misunderstanding was cleared up. Mr. Bingley came back for Jane with Darcy’s help, and proposed to her. ,
2. 4 Darcy and Elizabeth’s Marriage
The fourth marriage is the main theme of the work. That is Darcy and Elizabeth’s marriage. “Elizabeth is the ideal image for women. She is Bonnet’s second daughter, an active, intelligent and smart girl. She has a middle-class family background and has not been affected by the traditional concept that most girls have. She isn’t good at music and painting, but she has read many books which make her knowledgeable and perceptive.”(Fu, 2002: 64 The most important aspect is that she is a lady with dignity and upbringing. Darcy is a man with high status and good manner. He is handsome, rich and powerful. So he is the ideal husband of most girls. But he has grown up in the surroundings with a strong sense of power, so he is always selfish and arrogant, and he has a critical look at each individual, except the family members; he is not concerned about anyone else, and looks down upon anyone else. Therefore,
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when he first arrives in the village, he finds all the persons are far away from those imagined. Although every girl there is young and lovely, he has no interest in anyone except Elizabeth. At first he doesn’t put an eye on Elizabeth. Gradually, he has to admit that Elizabeth is beautiful, distinct and popular, although he insists that Elizabeth hasn’t the same social status as he does. Darcy is rational because he has a strong sense of power, which agrees on the reality at that time. Although he expresses his love to Elizabeth, he couldn’t help showing his arrogance, which makes Elizabeth have misconception and prejudice on Darcy. Darcy loves Elizabeth, but looks down upon her social status. He considers that he has been lowing himself and doing something against his will, personalities and even moral standard. He thinks that his marriage would certainly succeed and Elizabeth is waiting for him to propose marriage. Therefore, even he is irresistible to the flooding feelings, and condescends to Elizabeth , he still remembers the gap between them. Clearly, the rational aspect of Darcy’s personality performs on the realities of society. When he talks about his feelings of love, he also expresses the arrogance of these feelings in details, which results in the arousing resentment of Elizabeth; she rejects his marriage proposal, and angrily accuses his insolence. The rational aspect of the heroine Elizabeth shows her clear, calm and actually stressful personality. “Compared with her stupid mother, the smooth and lazy father, the shallow-minded, self-willed sister with feather head, Elizabeth is one with ideal mind. She is elegant like her sister Jane, but more intellectually superior unlike her sister being easy to be favorable.”（London, 2007: 23）She also advises her sister to see through the stupidity and nonsense of those camouflage honest persons. Elizabeth is unique, because she has a deep understanding of all the things around her. In fact both she and Darcy are extremely sensitive to the 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
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status. Because of this, she resists the arrogance of Darcy, and she tries her best to protect herself from being hurt by Darcy’s commanding attitude. “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.”（Penn 2007: 15 It seems to be shared by the traditional psychological requirement that everyone needs to be respected mutually. Mutually speaking, this is another form of expression about the awareness of status. Perhaps, to some extent, Darcy has more romantic temperament than Elizabeth; it is because he is better positioned than her. Elizabeth refuses the stupid priest Collins and challenges wealthy Darcy , all of this is actually the resistance of the prevailing marriage at that time. The ultimate failure makes Darcy wake up. He is aware of his own short-comings. He accepts Elizabeth’s criticism, and faithfully corrects the shortcomings and mistakes. He is no longer arrogant and has a real love with Elizabeth. When I see the blame from heart, I find her shortcomings and courage. It is her bringing that plays a role; she starts to give up the bias caused by self-esteem, and truly and seriously understand Darcy. Elizabeth wouldn’t believe the shameless lies about Darcy said by Wickham and eliminate the misunderstanding and prejudice. She finally falls in love with Darcy. when Darcy proposed to her again ,she accepted it



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Chapter3.Views on four Marriages of Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice

3.1The marriage based on true love and mutual understanding
3.1.1. Jane and Mr. Bingley’s marriage
Bingley and Jane’s marriage is based on love and rational respect. Their marriage tells readers that love can overtop everything. Although they had misunderstood each other, Mr. Bingley had hesitated to be relative of the Bennet family ,but these problems became nothing when they knew love was between them. So they got married. Especially, Bingley and Jane had many similarities in their characters, which was the main reason to the success of their marriage. They possessed personal attractiveness and dignity, social graces, and a measure of good sense. With these similarities in character, people can understand each other easily. Most important of all, the couple with common interest can live together in a happy life. Because they understand, help and support between them. They didn’t care the defects of their partners and even they didn’t see any faults in each other. Just as the old
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saying goes, “Birds of a feather flock together, people of a mind fall into the same group.” Because of their excellent understanding and the general similarity of feeling and taste, they lived a happy life. So I can say love and understanding is the foundation of their marriage .At the same time, Mr. Bingley’s property made the effect of adding flowers to the brocade. This is the happy marriage that worth blessing, Austen would agree.

3.1.2. Darcy and Elizabeth’s marriage
The marriage of Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy is the major one Austen described, also it is Austen’s ideal．Their marriage set another example for perfect marriage. Their marriage was based on Darcy's property and their love. The composition of property and the love marriage was the two indispensable important factors. At that time when the couple lived，economic conditions and status took a significant role in marriage．They also have a great influence on Elizabeth and Darcy’s marriage．

When her sister Jane asked Elizabeth how long she had fallen in love with Darcy, she replied: "It has been coming on so gradually that I hardly know when it began, but I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberly . "(Austen, 2004:275 On the one hand, it revealed Elizabeth’s mockery. On the other hand, it also reflected her inner thoughts. It was this statement which reflected her attitude for money, marriage and life: The marriage based on no money was undesirable. So she visited Darcy’s luxurious Pember Lee Garden. After visiting the Manor, she felt that to be the Pember Lee Gardens hostess was quite good. Elizabeth and Darcy, who married for true love with a consideration of the partner’s personal merit as well as his economical and social status, had experienced from nothing to everything and finally got to the most blessed and happiest one.

Through their marriage，Jane Austen stressed the importance of the ideal of marriage, and to the feelings of both men and women as the cornerstone of the conclusion of an ideal marriage. Marriage is closely associated with property and society, however, marriage can not only be
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decided by the property and social status. An ideal marriage should be based on mutual affection and respect. She rejects the marriage based on wealth and stresses the element of emotion in a marriage.


3.2. The marriage based on money and social status
3.2.1. Collins and Charlotte’s marriage It is a universally acknowledged truth—all the wealthy bachelors want to marry a lady—has been proved to be truth which proves another fact that it’s the wealth and the number of the wealth that decide the fate of life and marriage. (Xin, 2009: 17 The marriage of William Collins and Charlotte Lucas was just protection of latter part of Charlotte’s life. “Charlotte is like a hunter catching a fairly plump fish—Collins.” (He, 2001: 45. She accepted him “solely from the pure and disinterested and of an establishment”(Austen,2001:140 All she wants was a comfortable home. After their marriage, Charlotte always felt that "If forget Mr. Collins, the inside and outside of the house is indeed a very comfortable place "

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“Such humorous and piercing description tell readers that in Austen’s time, many Lucas-like women had no other way to improve their social position except to marry a husband with a good fortune.”(Huan,2002:30
As for William Collins, the reasons for marrying are: first, “a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”(Austen,2001:3 This is the truth universally acknowledged. He deservedly should comply with it. Second, he thought it is a right thing to set the example for matrimony in his parish. Third, Lady Catherine would think that he should find a woman who can manage home very well by a small income. From all the reasons above, I can realize that love never exists between this couple . This was their marriage, which was held together through a pure relation of money and wealth. To some extend, this kind of marriages is actually a social tragedy that is concealed under the gorgeous cover.
Through describing such a marriage, Jane• Austen wanted to tell the readers a common point in British society at that time that the most critical factor in marriage is not love, but money. And her opinion about it was: In the male-dominated society, unmarried women had no future. So Jane Austen does not intend to blame Charlotte for her realistic and materialistic choice so that she does not make Elizabeth to “break with her friend on account of her marriage”(Rubinstein 348-349.But her understanding does not mean that Austen herself was willing to sacrifice real respect and affection in marriage to accept safety on such terms. In a marriage，Austen is fully aware of the importance of money and social status，and also conscious of the importance of emotional feelings. The attitude towards Charlotte’s marriage indicates that Austen prefers true love rather than material satisfaction in a marriage
3.2.2. Lydia and Wickham’s Marriage
The marriage of George Wickham and Lydia Bennet could be taken as another example to illustrate that a marriage lack of love would not be a happy one.
The marriage between Lydia and Wickham is called a scandal rather than a farce. Their marriage is led by a storm in a runaway. In the matter of elopement, the most stupid girl in the five sisters Mary published a comment
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on it, it is very ironic. “It's an unfortunate thing for Lydia, but we can also draw useful lessons form it: woman lose chastity is inevitable — short pleasure, long lament — beauty can not keep easily, the reputation is not permanent preservation — for those who prevent frivolous heterosexual, woman should treat them more serious. " Non-virgins is a irreversible behavior to unmarried woman, but Austin can still make sufficient remedy shots intervention that let Darcy to helped them, so that maintain a decent marriage of Bennett. But in fact , their marriage was a bargain for Wickham, an impulse for Lydia. In Austen’s opinion, marriage was also a breach of duty for their family. Because of her impulse and giddy attitude, Lydia had to taste her own bitter consequence. After their marriage, because of extravagant behavior, their life went into a difficult position. And Wickham’s affection for Lydia soon sunk into indifference. “his affection for her soon sunk into indifference；hers lasted a little longer；…”(Austen 331．And Austen suggests，without stating， the marriage establish in the flesh is immoral and can not be happy. From all the descriptions above, I can realize that their marriage was one without love., and it was based on lust，not based on affection. Strong passion is the main reason for their marriage．They didn’t have the real meaning of marriage. They only wanted to satisfy their aspiration. Austin say “this is a kind of impromptu marriage without true love and responsibility.” Such couples only seek the experience of marriage but not everlasting and unchanging one. Of course, such kind of marriage is doomed to be a tragedy.
Chapter4The practical importance of Jane Austen's views
4.1. At Jane Austen time As a progressive female writer, Jane Austen’s view of marriage: “it’s a mistake that in order to obtain property, money and status to get marriage, but marriage does not take into account the factors mentioned above is also a mistake” (Allen. Walter, 1958:22” in her masterpiece Pride and Prejudice obviously have progressiveness．
In Austen’s day, women had to obey men and depended on them to gain comfortable living conditions．In this sense，marriage was merely a decent way
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of survival for women．Women had few expectations of emotional feelings in their marriages．Austen，however, believes that marriage determined by economic and social status can not bring real happiness for women．Love should be a significant factor of a happy marriage．In Pride and Prejudice，Austen portrays Jane’s and Elizabeth’s marriage，which are based on true love．She definitely appreciated their marriages because they were a dream that she could not realize forever in her own life．
Elizabeth is a sensible，intelligent and self-respect young woman．Such a lady wins the heart of aristocrat Darcy．Through Elizabeth，Austen intends to indicate that women educated by traditional education system could not be attracted and satisfied with men．They should receive education to enhance their capacities of judgment．Their education degree determines their senses and insights．They may have prosperous future in marriage life as long as they receive equal education with men．


4.2 .In modern society Austen has a bit of modern spirit. Her perspective for marriage surpasses the limit of her time, so what she wanted to deliver is familiar with us living today.
“Her works have own high criticism in the 20th century and her readers are increasing as time goes by. The authoress depicted the daily life in the serene and picturesque English country, which indicates the realistic content in the romantic background. More significantly, her point wisely that reason and emotion are equally essential to happiness. ”(Sampson George
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A perfect balance is what we are tried to seek. And this view is not only realistic but also idealistic, because pure romance is unlikely to last in the real world as much as a perfect balance so hard to meet. Hence, such a combination in the autocross’s mind leaves much we can dwell on, which may be the reason why so many people are enchanted with the masterpiece during two hundred years or so.

“Austen’s era has passed, but people seeking a better marriage requirement have not changed and more intense, the view of marriage in Pride and Prejudice is not completely divorced from our actual and brings some enlightenment to the modern man. At the beginning of 2005, British BBC4 in the reader's survey also proved this point: in British society, the greatest impact in women literature and the first one is Pride and Prejudice. ” (Monaghan, David
In modem era, the status of women improves greatly．They have gotten economically independent position，and are entitled to the choice of their own husbands．Marriage is no longer a way for their survival．Instead，it becomes an important embodiment of self-realization．For many women，marriage continues to be a major goal in life．They have high expectations for marriage and want a strong and long-lasting relationship in marriage．Austen’s novels provide beneficial guidance for their husbands’ selection．Love，intelligence，economic condition，educational background as well as family background have influence on marriage match．When making a marriage choice，one should take all these elements into consideration , while love places a decisive role．After marriage，husband and wife should establish equal and mutual respect relationship．
Although Austen’s time has gone，her views on marriage have not become obsolete and they bring inspiration to modern people．The more we change，the more we stay the same．That is a very unique characteristic for Austen and her Pride and Prejudice．



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Chapter5 Conclusions By description and discussion of the four marriages in the novel, we can see that Austen gives her own matrimonial value: when people consider marriage, they should not ignore the effect of love and sentiment, although the effect of economic status is very important. Only when two persons love each other and maintain lofty morals, can they get a happy marriage. The
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marriage based on social position and money can’t bring happy life. Aimless marriage is impracticable. Austen’s views on marriage are also suitable for our real social. Money cannot buy true love, morality is very important when people are considering marriage! By description and discussion of the four marriages in the novel, we can see that Austen fully expresses her views on marriage: “marriage and property and social status are interconnected. But marriage could not only depend on the property and the social status. The happy marriage should be based on the mutual respect, mutual admiration.” She objects the marriage for money and opposes the thoughtless marriage, but stresses the importance of emotional factors. Austen’s views on marriage are also suitable for our real social.
We youth should make right marriage views to orient our lives.

Bibliography
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Pergamon. 2007:23 [11]Penn, Merlin.. Money and marriage in Pride and Prejudice. London: Longman. 2007:15 [12]简•奥斯汀，傲慢与偏见.内蒙古：内蒙古人民出版社，2002：64 [13]辛淑兰，《浅谈傲慢与偏见中伊丽莎白的婚姻选择》，廊坊：廊坊师范学院报，2009:17。 [14]王守仁, 英国文学选读. 北京：高等教育出版社
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傲慢与偏见毕业论文

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