【英语论文】《傲慢与偏见》中的婚姻态度（英文） .doc

The Attitude of Marriage in Pride and Prejudice: What Has Affected the Choice of Marriage?傲慢与偏见中的婚姻态度什么影响了婚姻选择？ “This is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”(Jane Austen, 2005:1) This sentence was stem from the English woman novelist Jane Austen, which was the typical of her masterpiece .Thus it brings out a classic story concerning love and marriage, which took place in England at the beginning of the 19th century.Marriage is a topic that never ends; it has gone through for a long time. However, it is still stared by the public without hesitation. The marriage and human being are closely related, but few people can place themselves outside .However, person is different from each other. It is for this reason, everyone has a different marriage. Many anthropologists and sociologists keep on research in this field. Many writers also describe the marriage in their own works. Pride and Prejudice, this famous novel, also presents it to us the different marriages, leaving us to think about the marriage. I. The Summary of Pride and PrejudicePride and Prejudice can be divided into three parts; the main story is unfolded by the Bennets family. Mr. Bennet is an England gentleman, he was living in the country, and at the same time he does not have not much of property and 2000 income of the pounds annually. In the meantime, he had five daughters, Jane, Elizabeth, kitty, Mary, Lydia. When Mrs. Bennet comes to realize that it is impossible to have a son and all their property will be inherited by a nephew, so it becomes Mr. Bennet biggest worry to find a husband with great property and social status .“However little know the feelings or views of such a man may be on his 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 some one or other of their daughter.”(Jane Austen, 2005:1) Thus, when Mrs. Bennet hears about that Netherfield in the neighborhood will move into a rich bachelor she will be very happy. What makes her exciting is that the gentleman still brings to his friend who is richer than himself. On the dancing party, a beautiful girl Jane who has a long hair, beautiful figure shows her dignity and wins the heart of Mr. Bingley. Mrs. Bennet is bloated and is laughed by Mr. Bingley. While Mr. Darcy is arrogant, in his opinion that on the whole party, expect for the Bingley Sister, dance with other woman all is to suffer mental agony .This lets everyone dislike him very much. Accidentally, Elizabeth hears about Darcy's discussion about her. “She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humor at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.” (Jane Austen, 2005:12) So she decides to leave Darcy alone.Jane goes and has a chance to visit to Bingley's family, but she is sick because of the raining in the half way, it is impossible to go home. Because of the deep sensibility between sister, Elizabeth visits to her on foot. Jane will be not willing to let her go, Elizabeth settles down. Jane recovers slowly, but Mrs. Bennet is very happy in that the two sisters have more chance to touch with the two rich gentlemen. Bingly loses his heart to Jane with time goes by, but the mistake between Darcy and Elizabeth is difficult to remove. However, Darcy has attacked by the alive and clever Elizabeth.When handsome military officer Wickham shows up, everyone is attacked by him, Elizabeth has not exception. He tells Elizabeth that his father is the secretary of Darcy's father. After Darcys father death, Darcy does not follow the testament to look after Wickham. Because of the mistake between Elizabeth and Darcy, Elizabeth believes in Wickham's words without hesitation. At this time, Collins who is the Bennet family's prospector inheritor shows up in their daily life. With the help of the Darcys aunt, he gets a profession as a priest and satisfied with his situation. For this reason, he decides to marry a lady to compensate the losses the sisters have suffered for his inherit of their property. At first, he in favor of Jane, after taking the hind from Mrs. Bennet, he makes a proposal of marriage to Elizabeth, but he is refused. At last, he makes a proposal to Elizabeths friend Charlotte successfully.At the beginning of winter and his friends leave without saying goodbye, this makes Mrs. Bennet and Jane disappoints. Jane receives a letter from Miss. Bingley; which says in the letter that Darcy's sister and Mr. Bingley find each other are suitable. Jane is unhappy. But Elizabeth thinks that there must be some other reasons. Mrs. Bennet's brother Mr. Gardenia takes Jane to London to stretch her leg, but Jane all the time has no chance to see her beloved. Elizabeth is invested by her good friend to have a visit to her new house. Suddenly, Darcy makes a proposal of marriage to Elizabeth; his pose is still very arrogant so as to refuse by Elizabeth. Because she can not forgive Darcy's arrogant to Wickham, because his prejudice breaks up Jane and Bingley. Darcy leaves in despair.In the summer, Gardenias and Elizabeth have a visit together, when they hear about Darcy is out of the house, by the way, their go to his park, while they meet with the Darcy who comes back in advance. Elizabeth finds that Darcy has changed. He is not pride anymore and does not look down on his family with low social status. What is most important, Darcy looks love her as usual. But this time, the smallest daughter Lydia elopes with Wickham. This is the shame of the family. Elizabeth goes back to do some help in hurry. In the end, Wickham gets a great deal of money and gets married with Lydia formally. The shame affair is covered .But Elizabeth does not count on Darcy to love her. From the Lydia, Elizabeth knows that it is Darcy who had been borrowed them money and in present the wedding. This makes Elizabeth to feel surprises in that she has already realized the truth between Darcy and Wickham. She begins to envisage her inter heart; she comes to realize that she still love Darcy deeply. Bingley and Darcy go back to the Netherfield Park. Bingley makes a proposal to Jane, who makes Darcy and Elizabeth go together. However, Darcys aunt does not agree with their love, while Elizabeth faces it bravely. This makes Darcy to realize that Elizabeth still love him. At the end，Elizabeth and Darcy, as well as Jane and Bingley live happily，While Mrs. Bennet is well to proud to marry three daughters.II. The Background of Pride and PrejudiceA. The Author of This NovelFrom my standpoint, a good grasp of the career of the author was a must to fully understanding a work. Jane Austin (1775-1817), the author of the novel Pride and Prejudice, was born in Steventon of Hampshire, where her father was a rector. She was the second daughter and seventh child in a family. Her father and brothers once educated in Oxford. As a result, her family took possession of a big collection of books. She was well tutored at home under the guidance of her brothers when she was very young. As Jane Austin put it in Pride and Prejudice: "we were always encouraged to read, and had all the masters that were necessary."(Jane Austen, 2005: 205) In addition to study, she could be seen in a variety of social intercourse. She kept observing and thinking in a world composed of familial and bourgeoisie background. Not only was she acclimated to such style of life, she was also familiar with and fond of it as well. She considered it to be complete, animated and with the beauty of poem. The reputed Charlotte Bront once remarked: “I would not like to stay in her small house with gentlemen and gentlewomen of her.”(刘洪涛，2004：169) This seemed to have become a typical criticism. Jane Austin was not as narrow as that, in fact, she did enjoy the bourgeoisie life and never regarded it to be narrow. Conversely, she was longing to draw a picture of it literally and to air the feeling and understanding of her own, as a result of which she achieved the masterpiece that Maugham considered to be perfect. Jane Austin's work was primarily concerned with the marriages and romance between man and woman, but the author herself who arranged marriages for the protagonists in novels never got married. Perhaps it was writing that she was enamored of. She started to write when she was young. She made the best of her time at breakfast in writing from Miss. Sun and Love and Friendliness and gradually finished the first scripts and repeatedly revised. Sense and sensibility was finished in 1795, pride and prejudice in 1796 and Northanger Abbey in 1798. She was obscure at that and failed to find any press to publish her novels. In 1809, Jane Austins family moved to Bath where she completed Mansfield Park in 1812, Emma in 1814 and Persuasion in 1816. The works sense and sensibility and pride and prejudice during the early stage of writing came to be brought out since 1811 and Emma published in 1816 received a wide range of praise. Jane Austin became a famous writer afterwards. Much to our sorrow, when she had the opportunity to begin life anew, her health began deteriorating and died in July eight, 1817. Mansfield Park and Persuasion were published in the second year of her death. If Jane Austin lived a little longer, the reputation of her novels brought her could encourage her to produce more sterling works. In her times, with the advent of French Revolution and Industrialization, the development of capitalism hit a new hit. Conversely, she did not depict the great changes taking place in her times, but rather percepted and felt from the internal part of the bourgeoisie life, and on her close examination of the marriages, she tried to build ethic ties of honesty and harmony inside the changing class. Pride and prejudice is such kind of novel that is still popular nowadays. The literary criticism William Somerset Maugham even ranks it top ten of the most popular novels in the world. (牛庸懋 蒋连杰,1986：123-124）B. The Social BackgroundNot only do we need to be well informed of a writer, more importantly, we should know the social background. Novels stem from life and go above life. To learn the social background can help us to understand better the genuine reason purposes of writers. Human entered into the period of paternity since Zeus created the huge scale of kinship. Through orthodox, order and various restrictions, paternal culture reduced women to inferior creature. Women's status was very low even in 18th and 19th centuries. Men snatched the control of economy, politics and ideology and they considered women as inferior animals and repulsed them overtly. (杨莉馨,从傲慢与偏见的结构谈简·奥斯丁的女性意识) The society with Jane Austin lived in witnessed a climax of the development of capitalism, but the feudalism was still powerful, equality between men and women was still out of reach, especially in the distribution of inheritance, men enjoyed priority. The order of the division of the property went this: from male (a lineal consanguinity) to male (a collateral consanguinity), and than to the female. (陈棠，理性的光芒-傲慢与偏见与简奥斯丁的婚姻道德观) So the ownership of the female property would see it destiny in the end. The novel Pride and Prejudice also mentioned: if one family did not have a male inheritor, their property would be only inherited by another male in the family; the only possibility for the female was to depend on this male inheritor. If the inheritor did not take them seriously, they would only wonder around the street. For this reason, finding a shelter for themselves without worrying about foot and clothes was of importance. It was in this type of social environment that brought up the truth that we have mentioned at the beginning of the passage. It was just for this piece of truth that provided the women hope and the object they were fighting for. At the same time, author advantaged of the marriage provided for the woman was that it could improve their economic and social status. After understanding the social background at time , definite the priority the female had in the property inherited and realized that the only way for the female as a social garniture was to get married , then it was easy to understand that Mrs. Bennet strongly desired to marry her daughters and the purpose of Elizabeths friends marriage as well as Mr. Darcys behavior to break up the affection between Mrs. Bennet and Mr. Bennet and Darcys aunts behavior to opposite the affection between Darcy and Elizabeth. All of those became reasonable and logical.III. The Five Marriages in This NovelWhen knows the author and the society background, lets look at the marriage in this novel. In Pride and Prejudice, there are five marriages. They are Bennets marriage, marriage of Jane and Bingley, marriage of Elizabeth and Darcy, marriage of Lydia and Wickham, marriage of Charlotte and Collins.We often say: “All happy families resemble one another; each unhappy family is its own way.” (托尔斯泰 2005:1) The persons are differences too. So every marriage has its own feature. When we begin to analyze these marriages, we can find out that the present social environment is not only factor that influences the marriages. As it is known to us, for the children, the family environment is more important than social environment. It maybe influences many aspects of children. But the main factor is the parents. Because parents are the first teachers for children, every word and behavior maybe affects their children. In this novel, we should analyze the Bennets marriage before we see other marriages.A. Bennets Marriage There do not have the intuitional depiction about Bennets marriage. But what do children see and the dialogues between Bennets show us the unhappy marriage. Everyone knows that the foundation of the marriage is to understand each other. However Mr. Bennet is so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humor, reserve, and caprice, that the experience of the three and twenty years has been insufficient to make his wife understand his character. The husband and wife should have the equal levels which is another basic condition of the marriage. In this novel, Mrs. Bennet is a woman of mean understanding little information, and uncertain temper. Her mind is less difficult to develop when she is discontented. She fancies herself nervous. The business of her life is to get her daughter married; its solace is visiting and news. For example, Mrs. Bennet demands her husband to visit Mr. Bingley. But her husband refuses her requests. She thinks that her husband who has no compassion with her poor nervous. However Mr. Bennet says: “You mistake me, my dear. I have a hight respect for your nerves. They are my old friend. I have heard you mention them with consideration these twenty years at least.”(Jane Austen,