《傲慢与偏见》中简奥斯丁的婚姻爱情观

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摘 要

英国著名女作家简·奥斯丁在1813 年出版了她的代表作《傲慢与偏见》，这部作品反映了当时英国的乡镇社会生活。在这部作品中，简·奥斯丁通过讲述伊丽莎白和达西、夏绿蒂和柯斯林、吉英和彬格莱、丽迪亚和韦翰这四对青年男女截然不同的婚姻故事，反映了当时中产阶级妇女对婚姻的不同看法，同时也反映出简·奥斯汀自己对婚姻的看法。她强调幸福的婚姻必须建立在金钱和爱情的基础之上，不能有所偏废。她的这种实用婚姻观是与当时的时代背景、作者长期生活的英国乡间生活环境和作者个人的感情经历等因素有着重要关联且具有重要的现实意义。

关键词：简·奥斯汀；婚姻观；现实意义；傲慢与偏见

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

3. Views of Marriage in Pride and Prejudice 5

3.1 Different characters’ views of marriage in Pride and Prejudice 5

3.2 Austen’s views of marriage in Pride and Prejudice 7

4. Causes of Austen’s View on Marriage in Pride and Prejudice 9

4.1 Social background 9

4.2 Living environment 9

4.3 Personal emotional experience 10

5. Significance of Austen’s Views on Marriage 11

5.1 Realistic significance of Austen’s views on marriage 11

5.2 Limitations of Austen’s views on marriage 12

6. Conclusion 12

Works Cited 14

1. Introduction

Jane Austen (1775—1817), one of the distinguished British women writers in the nineteenth century, was born in Steventon, Hampshire, on 16 December 1775. As we all know, Jane Austen never entered a formal school, but she was well educated by reading numerous books including the serious and the popular literature in her father’s library. When she was a little child, Austen was keen on reading and writing. Later, at the age of 11 or 12, she began to write. Due to the fact that Jane Austen lived in the countryside, the people she contacted were small and middle landlords as well as priests. Owing to the tranquil and easeful living conditions, there was no grave social conflicts described in her works and she primarily depicted marriage and love between ladies and gentlemen. Besides, the plots in Austen’s work often explore the dependence of women on marriage when they pursue economic security and social position. Her works criticize the novels of sensibility in the latter half of the eighteenth century and they are part of the transition to literary realism in the nineteenth century. She has earned her acclaim among various scholars and critics due to her social commentary and realism as well as the use of biting irony. With the publications of Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816), she harvested success as a published writer. Two additional novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, were published posthumously in 1818. However, The Watsons couldn’t be finished when she was alive. Although her six full-length novels were published, they brought her little frame and moderate success during her lifetime.

Pride and Prejudice, completed in 1813 when she was 38 years old, was Jane Austen’s second novel. As everyone knows, the original title of this novel is First Impressions, which Austen started to write at the age of 21. After finishing writing, her father attempted to publish it, but the request was turned down by publishers without hesitation. Later, Austen set her mind to rewrite this novel—exchanged its form of letter into the version we know today and was first published under the title Pride and Prejudice in 1813. At that time, it instantly obtained wide popularity, even now, numerous scholars in various fields show great interest to the social background mirrored by this masterpiece. In this novel, by depicting love stories between various young men and women with distinct social status, professional knowledge and descents, Austen clarified her own viewpoints—Firstly, pride and prejudice are two common weaknesses of people in daily life and each people tend to be misled by his own subjective impression; secondly, marriage should be based on love for the marriage on the basis of money or beauty or lust is unhappy, for example, the matrimony between Charlotte and Collins as well as Lydia and Wickham.

This thesis mainly discusses the different characters’ views and Jane Austen’s opinions on marriage. Meanwhile, it also analyzes the significance and limitations of Austen’s viewpoints.

2. Literature Review

Pride and Prejudice is considered as Jane Austen’s most famous and successful novel. And in many people’s opinion it is also one of the greatest fictions written in English. It contains all the elements necessary for great literature: an attractive plot, a concise style, proper setting, and fascinating characters. Many literature critics write essays to analyze this book and the following are some of those analyses.

The most remarkable character of Austen’s work is the accurate descriptions of the details of daily life. “Miss Austen never attempts to depict a scene or a class of society to which she was not thoroughly familiar. The conversations between ladies and ladies, or between ladies and gentlemen, are given, but the scene in which men are exclusively present wasn’t described (W. F. Pollock, 25).” Austen focuses on the daily life of middle-class with humor and understanding. She observes every small matters and every ordinary person in her own life when she tries to describe them in her novel. What important for her are those little matters, “on which the daily happiness of private life depends (Emma, 128).” In her times, women’s social status was mainly determined by marriage, which is obviously reflected in Pride and Prejudice. The characters in Pride and Prejudice are all ordinary people and the dialogues and events may happen in everyone’s daily life.

Many literary critics have the same idea as W. F. Pollock, such as W.A.N. and Sir Walter Scott. “The most remarkable characteristic of Jane Austen as a novelist is her recognition of the limits of her knowledge of life and her determination which never goes beyond these limits in her books (W.A.N. 158).” In Pride and Prejudice she described the middle class with which she was familiar and the part of the country with which she was acquainted. She put her first-hand observation and experience into this novel to tell us stories about the Bennet sisters. She said “a little bit (two inches wide) of ivory, and I work on it”. We can take any dialogue from Pride and Prejudice, and you will find it’s just like talking in every normal day at that time.

“Read again, and for the third time at least, Miss Austen"s very finely written novel of "Pride and Prejudice." That young lady has a talent for describing the involvements and feelings and characters of ordinary life which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with. The big bow-wow strain I can do myself like any now going; but the delicate touch, which offer ordinary things and characters interesting, from the truth of the description and the feeling, is denied to me(Sir Walter Scott (1826)).”

“The most remarkable character of Austen’s work is the utilization of irony( Ren 2).”She said in her periodical that although many literary critics denounced Jane Austen’s works as rigid for her narrow literary vision as well as the constraint imposed by the repressed class category, her fiction works have become increasingly popular rather than declined even though more than 200 years have passed. Ren Jia believes that the reason lies in the charm of Austen’s works—that is the relaxed and humorous comedy art as well as the nuanced and satire style. Jane Austen’s marvelous comedy style and meticulous use of sarcastic tone make it possible to deepen the ideological depth. Austen’s achievements are precisely ascribed to the reason that humor runs through her works, and that irony is the keynote in her works. As the most famous art master in English literature, Jane Austen developed the ironic application into a mature satire art while practiced the satire tradition in Western literature with her sensitivity to art. In her works, the use of sarcastic tones and the irony emerged in endlessly. In the process of depicting character traits, the comedy was used to enhance the satire. Such satire art is not only utilized in certain plot arrangements and setting of scenes, but it is strongly reflected in the entire story structure. It can be said that satire is the main method in Austen’s works, and humor is the most important means to intensify satire.

“The most remarkable point in her work is the uniform quality, which needs to be observed. Let a literature be opened at any place in which there is the same refined style, the same good English, the same simplicity and truth (W. F. Pollock, 58)”. When we read Pride and Prejudice we can feel the dialogues humorous and funny and it shows Austen’s special ability in wording. The characters of Pride and Prejudice are distinctive, for example, Elizabeth is intelligent, witty and lively while Lydia is frivolous and arbitrary. Darcy is handsome and strong-minded while Collins is stupid and self-conceited. So you will find that Austen is so skillful in managing her characters.

What should be praised is the great discrimination of Miss Austen in the selection of her characters together with the skillful treatment of them. Indeed, the events are so common in daily life, and the feelings are connected with the usual joys; yet these are the very events and feelings on which the happiness or misery of most of us relies; and the field which embraces them, to the rejection of the emotional, the historical and the wonderful, is definitely large enough, as it certainly admits of the most profitable cultivation. Eventually, the novel of daily real life is that we are least easy to be tired: the most vigorous admirers with various clothing would get tired in a round of fancy balls and the return to plain clothes would be hailed with greater delight than their unexpected abandonment.

Austen’s accurate description of the details of daily is also considered as a weakness of her works, and even an objection to her. And she has been accused of writing dull stories about ordinary people, especially when her work is compared with those describing the changing times and historical events. But in Pollock’s (1860) view it is just the unique character of Austen’s work. She shows readers a real and vivid picture of her era through these small matters in people’s ordinary life. There is no grand narrative, but readers can feel it from the dialogues characters make. The description of ordinary people and life is easier to understand.

3. Views of Marriage in Pride and Prejudice

In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen described the marriage between Jane and Bingley, Charlotte and Collins, Elizabeth and Darcy, Lydia and Wickham. She also displayed several typical views on marriage and depicted four kinds of marital relations: worldly love, intellectual love, love of flesh and love of genuine emotion. Although Mrs. Bennet"s daughters have entered the besieging city of marriage, there are great differences in marital happiness in their following life.

3.1 Different characters’ views of marriage in Pride and Prejudice

3.1.1 The secular marriage between Jane Bennett and Bingley

On the surface, the combination of Jane and Bingley was a very happy marriage and conformed to the practice of gentleman and lady. It has been noticed that they two embody all the traditional virtues—Bingley was well bred, handsome as well as generous while Jane was reserved, gentle and kind as well as easy-going. The affection between the two people can be described as“love at first sight”. Much as they experienced lots of twists and turns, they finally get married. Different from “love at first sight” in traditional literature, it is the author that makes them go through a raft of sufferings and hardships. The novel was arranged in such a way that the two feelings were merged by love rather than by the handsome appearance. Such intentional arrangement—Jane Austen, the middle class, who got married with a man from a rich and powerful family, was a great breakthrough for the old tradition that a marriage between families should be of equal social rank. However, the romantic story between the two lovers was too perfect and eventually seemed to be mundane. besides, although their marriage was established on the basisi of love

3.1.2 The lust marriage between Lydia and Wickham

It can be said that the marriage between Lydia and Wickham was the result of lust. In this work, Lydia was described as a frivolous and arbitrary girl while Wickham was a dawdler and trifler. Before he ran away with Lydia, he had pursued Miss Kim and Miss Darcy for the sake of money. Then he continued to pay excessive attentions to Elizabeth. He is hypocritical, shallow, and good at making lies. Wickham fled because of the great stress of gambling debts. Their elopement was all blamed on Lydia’s stupidity. He never tended to marry Lydia. Even when he was away, he still wanted to make a fortune by climbing a family affair elsewhere. Austen hold negative attitude towards their marriage and believed that such a “love marriage” was immoral and unhappy.

3.1.3 The true love marriage between Elizabeth and Darcy

Elizabeth and Darcy are the protagonists of Pride and Prejudice. Their marriage, based on love, was both tortuous and unforgettable. Elizabeth, smart and beautiful, had a certain prejudice against Darcy as her pride was hurt to some extent by Darcy’s coldness and slight at the dance. Elizabeth and Darcy left a bad impression on the readers as they began to argue with each other at first sight. However, it was the quarrel that the two people started to understand each other, thus ultimately reaching the realm of true love. At first, Elizabeth thought Darcy was rude and arrogant while Darcy also ignored Elizabeth"s virtues due to her social class and unseemly relatives. Elizabeth was alert, straightforward, wise and brave. At the beginning, she was urged by her mother to get married. However, she had a different marriage concept from the orthodox idea—the concept is that she insisted she would talk about marriage for her true love, which revealed that she had an independent spirit. Elizabeth refused to marry someone she doesn’t like or approve of for her desire to a happy marriage. But Darcy, handsome and well-known, not only had large estates, but also owned a pretty penny. He gave people a feeling of arrogant and often misunderstood by others for his frown to dance and social activities. Nevertheless, he was actually a man of opinion. When Darcy discovered that Elizabeth was beautiful and elegant, smart and lively, he had a real love for her. Nevertheless，he decided to hold back his deep love for Elizabeth because of distinct social status and a wide gap between two families，which deepened the rude and insolent image of Darcy. Afterwards, he chose to confess his past and alter his arrogant manners. After fully understanding the personality of Darcy and the way he tried to save her little sister, Elizabeth’s prejudice against Darcy also gradually disappeared. The author showed great appreciation both to these two characters and the perfect marriage between them due to the fact that their love didn’t result from the appearance of oneself but from the gradual increase of interaction. At first, although the two people had a certain bias against each other, they changed their attitudes because of some experiences. Actually, their combination arouse from love, mutual respect and attraction. The marriage and love between this two people reflects the different marriage idea between the author and other people in that era.

3.1.4 The rational marriage between Charlotte and Collins

The marriage between Charlotte and Collins looks more respectable and rational. Considering that status and money played a leading role, the marriage between the two arouse from interest. Much as she was intelligent and good-educated, Charlotte didn"t get married at the age of 27 because her appearance was not outstanding and she had no assets. She yearned for romantic love and regarded love as the basis of marriage. However, Charlotte chose Collins with a certain property and a certain position out of consideration for age and property. Collins owned the property right of Bennett family. Though stupid and rude in behavior, he became a parish priest by virtue of his adulation to Mrs. Catherine. When Elizabeth rejected this self-conceited, stupid and flattering cousin"s proposal with a scorn attitude, Charlotte seized the chance to marry him. Through marriage, Charlotte got a yard, house, furniture and other property, as well as a life without worrying about food and clothing. Charlotte eventually chose to marry Collins after rational consideration even though this marriage was not based on emotion. Although this marriage didn’t necessarily make her happy, she gained material security and reliance.

3.2 Austen’s views of marriage in Pride and Prejudice

3.2.1 Love and respect are the starting points of marriage.

Jane Austen"s attitude towards marriage is definite. In her novel Pride and Prejudice, she repeatedly stressed that although marriage is affected by the status of money and livelihood, the starting points of marriage are mutual respect and love, which was most thoroughly reflected in Elizabeth. Elizabeth was born in the middle class of Britain, and the family did not own too much property. However, she still declined the courtship of the minister Collins, and later rejected the courtship of the noble aristocrats, Darcy, because she felt that she had no love with Collins, and for the latter Darcy, she recognized that she had not received the respect she deserved. They didn’t get married until Darcy eliminated Elizabeth’s prejudice through continuous introspection and practical actions. Jane Austen showed her views and attitude towards love through the personality of the protagonist Elizabeth. Elizabeth"s distinct personality, strong feminine self-esteem as well as the pursuit of freedom and equality fully expressed the belief that women in the new age were eager to be independent. Through the marriage between Elizabeth and Darcy, Jane Austen expressed her own opinions on marriage—the opinion was that love and mutual respect are always the starting point of marriage.

3.2.2 Money and wealth are the guarantee of marriage.

Although she expressed in Pride and Prejudice that love in marriage is essential and that respect is the basis of marriage according to the status of Britain in nineteenth Century, Austen also held the view that money and wealth are the strongest guarantee and the sufficient condition of marriage. In the nineteenth-century Britain, woman, with far lower status, no legal inheritance, fewer opportunities for education and career, had to depend on man to get strong protection both in life and economy. In the British society at that time, getting a rich and secure marriage was almost all women"s desire when they were going to get married. And women should prepare an objective dowry before getting married, therefore, many women were unable to get married at that time because of economic pinch. Wickham"s marriage with Lydia was also primarily resulted from Wickham"s acceptance of Lydia"s financial assistance. Bingley and Darcy were both noble and owned fabulous income so that they could have a happy marriage with Jane and Elizabeth. A common point among these different marriages is that a happy marriage should be anchored on economy.

3.2.3 Character plays an important role in marriage

Besides, apart from love and wealth, characters also play decisive role in marriage. For example, the marriage between Jane and Bingley, based on the two fundamental elements, was definitely tested by various difficulties because they were indecisive and lack of courage and opinion. Without the assistance from Darcy and Elizabeth, they were least likely to get married. By contrast, the marriage between Darcy and Elizabeth would be more satisfied as Darcy was brave and determined while Elizabeth was courageous and rebellious. When the prejudice was removed, they were determined to marry regardless of the pressure from others. Therefore, different people with distinct characters displayed various attitudes towards love in the face of difficulties.

4. Causes of Austen’s View on Marriage Expressed in Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen"s view of marriage is inseparable from the specific background of the period from the end of eighteenth century to the beginning of nineteenth century in Britain. At the same time, her personal living environment and experience also exert an important influence on the formation of her view on marriage.

4.1 Social background

To start with, Jane Austen’s view of marriage was dramatically influenced by the social background at that time. In the times of Austen, Britain manipulated that family property must be inherited by men and women had no property inheritance rights. After their father died, daughters would have nothing to live on. Apart from their limited dowry when they were married, they would not have any other material wealth to maintain their life or even would be swept out like rubbish by heirs. Therefore, women always competed for the so-called love with material guarantee by hook and crook such as their beauty or feminine tenderness. In order to live a more comfortable married life, money was the only standard for them to choose their spouses, and they would try their utmost to find a partner who can give them enough wealth in the future life. Pride and Prejudice showed the characteristics of marriage in that era. The large fortune of the old Bennet can only be inherited by his nephew since he only had 5 daughters and there was no legal successor in his family. The characteristics of the era made Jane Austen realistically realize that wealth was the first choice of marriage, and the most solid foundation for women to have happy marriage. At that time, the women of the middle class and petty bourgeois could not go out to work, which required women to regard marriage as the only means to make a living. As the material guarantee of marriage, wealth was also the most important criterion to measure whether a marriage is happy or not.

4.2 Living environment

Austen was born in the rural area of southern England, and lived in a pastoral family paying much attention to culture. She spent most of her life in the countryside of southern England. Her family circumstance decided that she could not dance or visit friends regularly like other rich women, and had to kill most of her time by receiving friends and reading at home. But as her father had a relatively stable economic income, she lived a comfortable as well as carefree life and had the opportunity to enjoy the happiness of life in the beautiful, picturesque English countryside with fresh air. The British social change and the European Revolution were least likely to exercise any impact on Austen"s work due to the obliterate country life. The author"s life experience determined the subject of her writing. Most of Austen"s novels described the life scenes of the gentry and the middle and small bourgeoisie as well as the daily behavior of the women that she is most familiar with. Based on her real life experience, Austen observed marriage and gave expression to her realistic view of marriage from the perspective of rural women.

4.3 Personal emotional experience

Austen"s works are mostly about love and marriage, but it does have some disagreement with her life reality, for example, she had never married for all her life. Although she had several emotional experiences, ultimately she failed to get married. The creation of the masterpiece of Pride and Prejudice is related to her emotional experience both in terms of time and content. When she wrote this novel, Austen was in love with an Irish youth who left her and returned to Ireland to marry a rich woman in the near future. It was not only a big blow to her but made her realize the significance of money in marriage. When she was 26 years old, Austen was in love with a young man in Bath. Just as she was anxious to get married, the young man suddenly died of illness. Since then, she fell into the confusion of love. Later, when a wealthy manor heir asked her to marry him, she rejected the proposal in the end. From now on, Jane Austen"s view of marriage changed unconsciously –she started to long for true love rather than a rich spouse. Thus, she chose to rewrite Pride and Prejudice to portray her ideal marriage and published it in 1813..

5. Significance of Austen’s views on Marriage

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