Outline
Thesis: Marriage does not mean the act of uncontrolled passion but a complex engagement between the marrying couple and society.
I. Introduction
II. The analysis of Elizabeth’s character
III. Elizabeth’s views about marriage
A. The most realistic marriage—Charlotte’s marriage
B. The most ridiculous marriage—Lydia’s marriage
C. The most happy marriage—Jane’s marriage
D. The most admirable marriage—Elizabeth’s marriage
IV. Conclusion
Abstract
Pride and Prejudice is a very popular novel by Jane Austen and it was read widely all over the world. This novel is written in 1813. We main agronomic characters of the marriage as a typical cases in books, how to influence their marriage value orientation of money. Some people may realize that marriage can provide opportunities of class mobility and financial support; money and class are thus closely connected in their decision of marital partners.If marriage is a castle, but the hero and heroine is like Darcy and Elizabeth such person, so, even a not pleasing to begin their mutual see each other bias, and ultimately willing to be trapped in such a city. The power of love is great, it can let a hate in human love change, can let you cast prejudice, and re-know and accept a person.
Key words: Pride and Prejudice money value orientation marriage view
内容提要
《傲慢与偏见》是简奥斯丁一本在全世界都被广泛传颂的小说,写于1813年,我们可以通过这本小说将婚姻分为几种典型并且分析这几种婚姻观的价值取向。有些人认为婚姻是用来创造机会去提高自己的社会地位和获得金钱支撑,金钱与社会地位是他们选择伴侣时考虑的最密切联系的东西。婚姻是一座城,男女主角达西和伊丽莎白那样的人却愿意完全摒除偏见与傲慢心甘情愿地进入这座城,所以爱情的力量是伟大的,可以让人丢掉傲慢与偏见去重新认识并且接受一个人。本文主要透过分析女主人共伊丽莎白对于几段婚姻的看法来分析这本书的婚姻观。通过对伊丽莎白的性格分析来帮助我们解读者个性格独立而又睿智的女主角从而可以更加透彻的了解作者的作品。
关键词:傲慢与偏见 钱 价值取向 婚姻 观点
I. Introduction
After reading this book,I searched the Internet and found something about the author Jane Austen. Her novels were witty, warm and ironic portraits of the privileged classes of 18th- and 19th-century England. Her best-known works are Emma (1815), Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Sense and Sensibility (1811).
The main object of Jane's satire in the novel is the mercenary and the ignorance of the people, a common criticism of the 18th century.The first sentence in this novel is impressive.It reads: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."[Sun 83] The undertone is very clear: the foundation of the marriage at that time is not love but possession.
The main story of the novel happens between Elizabeth Bennet and Darcy. Although, it seems that, they haven’t attracted anyone’s eyes. I mean that nobody has thought that love will exist between they two. Because almost everyone has heart of the complaint from their mouths about the other. So it is not surprise to see the father become so amazed when Lizzy says that she loves Darcy. But what’s the reason? What stopped them from getting together at first? It’s pride and prejudice. We all know that at the first ball, when Lizzy asked Mr Darcy to have a dance. He refused. He didn’t think that anyone at the village can deserve him. After this, Lizzy promised not to pay attention to him any more because of his pride.
There are other two things that make the impression of the hero worse.One is that she thinks it’s he that had separated her sister and her lover. The second is that she heard of something bad ,fabricated by Wickham who has antinomies with Darcy. These make the feeling of prejudice stronger and stronger.
At last, when everything comes to light Lizzy regretted. She found that she had misunderstood him. And Darcy had although changed.He made an offer of marriage to her again and was accepted. No pride and no prejudice are between them.
The novel also reflected the author oneself's marriage view: It is wrong to marry for the property, money and position. She emphasizes the importance of the ideal marriage, and regard men and women's emotion as the foundation stone which concludes the ideal marriage .
In modern society, a lot of parents try to interfere their children's marriages. Education background, jobs and possessions may influence one’s marriage. Marry for money is still a bog problem.I want to say"can money determine everything?I believe that true love is the most important thing".
Just because Pride and Prejudice, I have a profound thinking about marriage. The writer uses intelligent words to depict a few different marriages in the book, each of which reflects people's attitudes toward marriage in that time. We can comprehend the essence of Jane,and Bingley’s marriage, Elizabeth and Darcy’s marriage , Lydia and Wickham’s marriage and Charlotte and Collins’s marriage through Elizabeth’s views. Through the wise heroine, we see marriage description. To marry for wealth and beauty is wrong. This kind of marriage cannot retain long-term happiness, and truly happy marriage is based on love and sense.
Elizabeth Bennet was a 20-year-old girl, and the protagonist of the story. She is her father's favourite and inherits his intelligence and wit. She is generally regarded as one of the most enduring and popular female protagonists in English literature.
II. The analysis of Elizabeth’s character
Elizabeth Bennet is a person worthy of our imitation. She is a model because she is different from all the other characters, except Darcy, and because she does not adhere rigidly to the standards set forth by society, she is self-reliant and independent. Elizabeth rejects Mr. Collin's proposal because she does not think that marriage was boring, nor does she believe in marriage of convenience. When Mr. Collins says arrogantly to Elizabeth, she politely refused him. Unlike Charlotte Lucas, Elizabeth would never violate her principle and her integrity and throw away her talents by marrying Mr. Collins, a conceited, narrow-minded, and pompous fool. Elizabeth looks nature because she puts her trust in her own perceptions and impressions. On the other hand, she is not ready to rebel against society. She does not totally disregard social proprietary. She has good manners; her slight breach of decorum walking alone to Nether field Park is justified by her genuine concern for her sister who is ill. She has good manners. When Lady Catherine criticizes Elizabeth skill of playing piano, she can have good manners to keep polite.
Elizabeth demonstrates that she has great restraint even under tremendous pressure. Elizabeth realizes that she must take responsibility for her own education because she can not look to either of her parents for advice, and she must ultimately depend on her own experiences,instincts, and judgments. Her self-reliant attitude causes her to think of herself as to be independent, but her views are distorted because she also regards herself as above normal social relationship. Elizabeth is unconscious that she suffers from pride. She does not realize the inherent dangers of her error.
According to Darcy, Elizabeth's defects are her willful tendency to misunderstand others. She embraces stubbornly her own quick perceptions about the people around her as true and accurate. The flaws in her character are revealed by her prejudices. Elizabeth's initial prejudices against Darcy are rooted in the pride of her own quick perception, and her distorted perception of reality. Elizabeth believes that Darcy is bad, so she naturally gives Wickham the benefit of the doubt when he told her about Darcy's breach of agreement without hearing Darcy's side of the story. Elizabeth is disposed to think badly of Darcy because of his ungentlemanly behaviour, but she thinks well of Mr. Wickham because his charm, his smoother facade, and his sharper wit endears him to everyone. Her prejudice renders her incapable of judging the merits of Darcy.
On the surface, Elizabeth is just ordinary. She is attractive but not beautiful; she is endowed with certain graces and talents, but not unusually gifted, she is appealing without being exquisite. In the end, she wins everything: the prince, the castle, the happiness, and the esteem. Elizabeth will find happiness because she learns to recognize her faults, but characters like Lady Catherine and Ms. Bingley will never find happiness because they do not learn from experience. Elizabeth becomes more of a lady than Lady Catherine. Lady Catherine's defeat was brought about by her arrogance. Her display of egotism not only fail to dissuade Elizabeth from marrying Darcy, but led Darcy to propose the second time; Lady Catherine's disdainful act makes Darcy realize that Elizabeth still has some feelings for him. On the other hand, Ms. Bingley possesses self-defeating cunning, Jane will also never find enduring happiness.
Elizabeth's blindness of her faults was opened by Darcy's letter. She learns to judge others more accurately and not be blinded by first impressions. Elizabeth realizes that whenever she discusses Darcy's faults, she unconsciously touches upon her own. Elizabeth's confession that she was guilty of prejudices based on her own judgment tells us that she is superior to the other characters, such as Lady Catherine, Ms. Bingley, Mrs. Bennet, Mr. Collins, Lydia, and Wickham, but above all that she is human. She also realizes that people cannot be judged based solely by their appearance, and that character evaluations must also take into account the substance behind a person's appearance. Elizabeth becomes a rational creature speaking the truth from her heart. Without neither family wealth nor wisdom to aid her, Elizabeth's success is a attribute to her inner strength. Darcy in the beginning is snobbish and proud.
III. Elizabeth’s views about her sisters’ and friend’s marriage
A.The most realistic marriage — Charlotte’s marriage
Charlotte's Elizabeth's best friend, but they have different choices on marriage."Although Charlotte is a well-educated girl but she doesn't have much property.She isn't as beautiful as other girls. She realize that marriage isn't equal with happiness, but it is inherently like a safe to a woman"(Sun 83). To get financial guarantees of security, opportunity really rare, we must cache it quickly,it is almost irrelevant about what kind of person the man was"(Zhu 78). And Charlotte is different from Elizabeth.She has no wealth.She is unremarkable, but she is smart. She thinks it is a chance about whether marriage life will be happiness or not. As an already 27 years old woman, her choice of marriage is entirely out of realistic consideration. When she first met Collins, she saw his folly, and when he asked her to marry him, she also clearly know "Collins's certainly not a reasonable person, and do not let people like". But she still accepts the proposal, for "marriage has been her goal, as to find that kind of guy, married life is less concerned about how wel