摘 要

1. Introduction 1

1.1  Background of the research 1

1.2  Literature review 2

1.3 Need for the study 4

2. The Theory on Beauty of Human Nature 6

2.1 Definition 6

2.2 Special character 6

3. Beauty of Human Nature in Sense and Sensibility 8

3.1 Beauty of belief 8

3.1.1 Women's view: equality between men and women 8

3.1.2 View of marriage: fortune isn’t a determining factor 9

3.2 Beauty of kinship 9

3.2.1 Sisterhood 10

3.2.2 Motherhood 11

3.3 Beauty of Humanity 12

3.3.1 Harmonious neighborhood 13

3.3.2 Friendship 14

3.4 Beauty of romance 14

3.4.1 Elinor's love 15

3.4.2 Marianne’s love 15

4. Conclusion 17

4.1 Summary 17

4.2 Limitations 18

4.3 Implications 18

References 20

Acknowledgments 21

Abstract

Jane Austen is a brilliant and strange star in the history of English literature, who is adept at describing the sincerity and love between men and women living in the British squire's family. These seemingly simple and boring themes come alive in Austen's works, and Austen's novels have become a hot topic for two centuries and a focus of criticism.

This paper attempts to explore the beauty of human nature in Austen's first published novel, Sense and Sensibility on the theoretical basis of the beauty of human nature. The beauty of human nature is the most gorgeous expression of the attribute of humanity, which includes the development of the mainstream culture of the whole society and also respects the natural attribute of human being. This paper will analyze from the perspectives of humanity, kinship, love and so on. Then considering the living environment and historical background at that time, the author determined to divide several main parts into neighborhood and friendship, motherhood and sisterhood, as well as the Elinor and Marianne’s love. Finally, it was concluded that Sense and Sensibility not only embodies Jane Austen's idea of human beauty, but also expresses her longing and yearning for the beauty of human nature in the patriarchal society.

As previous studies on Jane Austen's works are mostly focused on the female perspective, marriage view and other sides, this paper may have some deficiencies and limitations in some aspects. However, the writer of this thesis still expexct that this research can give some ideas for studies on similar issues in the future.

Keywords: beauty of human nature, Sense and Sensibility, comparative analysis

中文摘要

简·奥斯汀是英国文学史上一朵奇葩,其作品大多是以当时的士绅阶层为主要的描写对象，三四户人家的家庭、感情生活是她得心应手的好材料。尽管创作主题相对简单和单一，但简·奥斯汀塑造人物的能力和作品的深度不得不令人叹服。因此，奥斯丁的作品能够经久不衰，成为永恒的经典和评论界的焦点。

本文以人类美的思想为理论支撑，试图用奥斯汀首部正式出版的小说“理智与情感”来探索作品中的人性美。人性美是指人的属性最美的表达，它既包括了社会主流文化的发扬，又尊重人的自然属性，其根本特点是寻求审美标准与伦理标准的统一，是塑造人性的完整与和谐，是以道德价值为中心，建立真善美的统一。本文将从人情、亲情以及恋情等方向去分析，随后又结合当时的历史环境和背景，将几个方向细分为邻里关系和友情、母爱和姐妹情谊，以及埃诺莉和玛丽安的爱情等方面运用对比的方法去深入分析，从而得出了相应的结论，即《理智与情感》体现了简奥斯丁的人性美思想，也表达了她在男权社会的环境下对人性美的追求与渴望。

由于前人对于简奥斯丁作品的研究大多集中于女性视角和婚姻观等方面，所以本文在一些方面可能存在不足和局限性，但本文作者仍希望本研究对未来相似问题的研究能有提供一定的思路。

关键词：人性美，《理智与情感》，对比分析法

Introduction

1.1  Background of the research

Jane Austen becomes well-known all over the world for a composition called Pride and Prejudice, but what this paper will discuss about is the work she created when she was 21, Sense and Sensibility. Her narrative footage is fixed in the small family affairs of English manor life. Prom, dinner, walking and playing are almost all part of her work. What she described in her novel is very similar to her life experience. She couldn’t adapt to life in London. She loved the country, her hometown,everything and no matter they are prosperous or not. Jane has always created her composition from the perspective of women, and the meticulous description of women's psychology often touches the hearts of female readers and her works always focus on the ancient themes of love and marriage in an open state, to highlight the significance of personal education to martial happiness, happy life more enlightened female readers. Although completing only six compositions in the whole life, she is considered to have the same position as Shakespeare in the field of the literature of England; she was also regarded as one of the greatest novelist of her generation. And Sense and Sensibility is a distinguished one.

The industrial revolution in Britain changed the way of production and raised the economy, but it did not change people's minds. The criterion of judging the social position of women, which signifies the reform and progress, has not fully altered. At that time, women were unlikely to make a difference out of marriage. Social historians point out that women at that time could not have the same opportunities for education and work as they are now. Only a handful of wealthy families can hire a governess for their daughters or send them to boarding schools for a few years. There are three professions open to women: stage, teacher, and maid. The work of platform was full of danger; the teachers were not respected and the maid’s life was tragic. As a result, marriage has become a shortcut for many women to change poverty. Invisibly, marriage determines women’s social and economic status. The thesis mainly discuss about beauty of human nature shown by characters in Sense and Sensibility concretely and how these characteristics is embody in the work.

1.2  Literature review

In terms of the study of Austen's works in Chinese academic circles, the 1990s was a watershed. Before that, the study of Austen's works was few and narrow in scope, and then the number surged. Chinese scholars have further abandoned the prejudice of Jane and affirmed the value of Jane in the literary creation. The feminist literary criticism and Jane's research of art of in this period are the application of the new criticism method. What’s more, in the 1990s, an increasing number of Austen’s novels were retranslated, including Sense and Sensibility. The research direction of Chinese scholars on this work can be divided into the following aspects.

First of all, since all of her works are about marriage. Many scholars started from the view of marriage. For instance, a paper named The Rationality of Women's View on Love in Sense and Sensiblity (2012) in Anhui literature. The author of this article came to the conclusion that women should be more rational and independent in love through analyzing outcome of Elinor and Marianne's love. More significantly, women should deny and fight with unfair treatment to them in society.

Secondly, more and more researchers applied feminist literary criticism and their thoughts mainly focus on the exploration and writing of female consciousness. Through careful study, Guo Ruiping and Li Junjie explored the ecological feminism thought reflected by Austen in this work. Then, they published their views on eco-feminism in the Journal of Hebei University. The paper, named Transcendence and Originality--On Jane Austen’s Ecofeminism(2012), exposed that the charm of Austen depends on her capability to show innovative and creative ideas in her novels.

In order to make a more accurate analysis of the beauty of human nature in this work, I have read many papers about the work as well as doing a lot of work in aesthetics. Du Zhendong published the paper named A Comparison of the Aesthetic Expression of the Concord between China and the West(2008) to discuss the different views on aesthetics and aesthetic expression of Chinese and western people. It is widely acknowledged that beauty of human nature belongs to aesthetics. Therefore, it gives me a more accurate grasp of the beauty of human nature, especially western aesthetics. However, there’s little to be heard about Jane Austen’s view of the “taste”. In fact, the argument of the “taste” between Elinor and Marianne is not an isolated aesthetic issue. In the novel, the argument seems short-lived, but it reflects Austin's reflection on the 18th-century British Sentimentalism. This argument is also closely related to the issue of “mental cultivation”, which was of great concern to British society at the time. He Chang wrote an article named “the dispute of taste” among Marianne and Elinor(2016), which was segmented into three sections. The writer analyzed the taste of two sister respectively and then probed into the cultural deep meaning behind the view of the “taste”.

In abroad, there exist few comments and critics because her novels were not in line with mainstream literary. Even in this way, this phenomenon wouldn’t affect people’s worship of her. Henry James regard her, Shakespeare, Cervantes and Henry Fielding as the fine painter of life. In modern times, the researches on the author and her novels has been deeply developed. Since possessing different political beliefs and viewpoints, scholars comprehend and study her novels from completely different perspectives, such as feminism, conservation, homosexuality and anti-feminism.

The majority of researches on Jane Austen and her novel still focused on love and marriage. For example, a theisi named How Jane Austen Uses Marriage to Get What She Wants(2011) on the Journal of Undergraduate Research mentioned that marriage was considered as a market for business and wealth or good looks was viewed as merchandise. She concluded that Jane Austen’s novel is the fusion of romance and criticism. Every reader of her novel enjoyed romantic love and learned a indelible lesson. At the same time, I referred to an article written by Chinese author, which also centered around love and matrimony. The paper named A Brief Study of Jane Austen’s Point of View on Marriage (2010) suggest that a good marriage is based on true love and mutual understanding. Meanwhile, the writer analyzes Austen’s attitude towards marriage, money and class through studying this work carefully. Therefore, I could analyze beauty of human nature indicated by leading characters when they handle with marriage and money, etc.