1、ContentsAbstract.1I. Introduction.1II. Four Marriages in Pride and Prejudice.21. Collins and Charlottes Marriage-marriage based on money or benefit.22. Lydia and Wickhams Marriage-marriage based on vanity and carelessness.33. Jane and Mr. Bingleys Marriage-marriage based on same interests.44. Darcy
2、and Elizabeths Marriage-marriage based on true love.4III. Influence of Austins Marriage Concept on Marriage Today.61. Womans social status in Austins age and Austins marriage concept.62. Womans social status and the marriage concept today.9IV. Conclusion.10Bibliography.11Acknowledgments.11指导教师评语（主要评
3、价论文的工作量、试验数据的可靠性、论文的主要内容与特点、写作水平等）：论文的工作量：试验数据的可靠性：论文的主要内容与特点、写作水平： 签 名： 年 月 日答辩委员会评语及论文成绩（主要评价论文的性质、难度、质量、综合训练、答辩情况、不足等。评定论文成绩）：论文的性质、难度、质量：学生的综合训练、答辩情况、不足等：论文成绩：主任委员签名： 年 月 日Marriages in Pride and Prejudice Abstract: Pride and Prejudice is Austins great work. Through the discussion of the differen
4、t marriages, she perfectly reflected the relation between money and marriage at her time and gave the people in her works vivid characters. Moreover, she portrayed some reasons for the different marriage concept held by people at that time, in which the low social status of women is the most strikin
5、g one. Austin thinks that marriage merely for property, money and status is absolutely wrong, but marriage without economic factors is silly. In a word, she is against the marriage for money. She regards love between two people as the basis of an ideal marriage, which breaks the traditional marriage
6、 concept and influences peoples idea of marriage nowadays. Key words: Pride and Prejudice; marriage; loveI. Introduction“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 cl
7、ass woman with extraordinary temperament and good cultivation. Her six novels-Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, Manshifeierde Manor, Emma, Persuasion all describe more than marriage.” (Wang Shouren, 2005, 64) However, her marriage is like a blank paper in her 42 years rea
8、l lifetime. Going through the finest time, but eventually without meeting a comfortable partner, she gives up her love. Going through the sweet and bitter feeling which helps her to write the great work Pride and Prejudice.“At that time, according to the social conditions in Britain, a good marriage
9、 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 considere
10、d to be inferior to men in terms of intelligence and capacity. The central life of women was forced to stay 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, 1997, 34)People naturally thought that women should be s
11、ubmissive to their husbands. The virtues of women were patient and deferent. They must recognize their inherent inferiority to men, so they must restrict their abilities without conditions. Although the status of women was low, few of them expressed dissatisfaction about their own destiny. At that t
12、ime, many middle-class young women had three solutions: getting married; staying at home as old maids or working as the family female teachers. The income of 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 on
13、e would like to be a maid forever, therefore, in terms of young women, especially those who dont have enough properties, to get married was the only way for them to gain respect, stability and social status. This idea forms the basis of womens marriage concept at that time.This novel takes young peo
14、ples marriage as the thread and it covers the inheritance of fortune, womens social status, ethics and customs. Being the masterpiece of Jane Austen, it comes to the extensive favor of literary lovers and experts at the same time. This paper makes an analysis of four marriages in Pride and Prejudice
15、 and discusses the influence of Austins marriage concept on present marriage.II. Four Marriages in Pride and Prejudice1. Collins and Charlottes marriage-marriage based on money or benefitThe first part of Pride and Prejudice tells the marriage of Charlotte and Collins, which is lucky and natural. Th
16、ey get married without any expectation. Charlotte is William Lucass daughter, who is the neighbor of Lizzy Bennett. She was born of humble parentage 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 ar
17、e 5 daughters in the Bennetts, 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 vulgar women, such rivalry was particularly tedious. Bennetts wife was especially typical; she does not give birth to a boy bu
18、t five girls. The familys property couldnt 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. Thus, one of Bennett nephew-Collins can inherit the family wealth. Therefore, Mrs. Bennett has great expectations on her nephew. Th
19、ough the family is not very rich, he is the final owner of Bonnet familys wealth. Mrs. Bennett felt at ease about this, and she has great hope on Collins and likes him. Catherine Collins, with the help of one of his relatives, becomes a priest. And then he goes to the home of his uncle, wanting to b
20、e home complement of Bennett. Because he has heard a lot about the arrangement of the five golden flowers of his uncles family, he is coming to try his luck here. In his mind, if he could be one son-in-low of his uncles, then he could get the property of the family. He stays at home for a long time
21、to repay his uncles heritage and gets sympathy by the family. Informed that the eldest daughter Jane has a boyfriend, he aims at the second daughter Elizabeth Bennett in spite for his aunts interesting sake, Elizabeth has been tired of him. Eventually, she refuses him with sharp tongue. But Collins
22、quickly finds comfort from Charlotte who desires to get love from a male and believes marriage is the elegant way for a girl with some education. Charlotte knows that the marriage without property would eventually move toward disappointment and suffering. Even if the couple loves each other deeply a
23、t first, when Collins, known as a social climber, is rejected by Elizabeth, he immediately turns to fall in love with Miss Charlotte. Although Collins is an inborn fool, his love could not move the heart of a woman, Charlotte accepts him, because her purpose is to get married. Almost all the girls b
24、orn in a poor family without good education always regard marriage as the only decent way, although marriage might not necessarily bring happiness to them. She manages to arrange one of the most reliable way by marriage, thus she would not be exposed to the cold temperatures and suffer hunger in the
25、 future. She now gets a storage room. Then they get married as quickly as the lightening. Charlotte is like a rodman catching a fairly plump fish-Collins. But if he doesnt meet a setback from Elizabeth, and the encouragement of Charlotte, I am afraid that he would not be so willing to propose marria
26、ge to Charlotte. The man like Bingley who has fairly numerable money need a beautiful wife, the poor man needs a wife with a huge wealth, like Wickham; It was lucky for Charlotte that she could gain the marriage with Collins although their marriage is not happy at all. A mediocre love, a dull marria
27、ge has been established effortlessly. Such marriage without love is too practical, so it is a kind of superficial marriage without happiness.In these marriages, it was quite interesting that the women without property really get married with those rich bachelors. However, the happiness brought by ma
28、rriage to them has not accompanied the husband. In marriage, money is very important. Austin objects such marriage simply based on money. Collins is the heir of Bonnet family; he doesnt know what love is. He would state some of the inappropriate remarks at any time. Charlotte gets married for money.
29、 Eventually she gets nothing more than a rich man, though she has economic security. She doesnt care about her husbands accompanying and love. She encourages him to clean up the garden more. She sets his living-room in the small house absent of even a small number of sunshine. When her husband makes
30、 gaffe in front of their friends, she ignores and turns a deaf ear. Such arrangement for the story is a perfect irony for “the truth universally acknowledged” at the beginning of the novel. The author expresses great sympathy to the tragic fate of the women at that time and those who had to marry be
31、cause of economic restraints by the description of the marriage of Charlotte.2. Lydia and Wickhams marriage-marriage based on vanity and carelessnessThe second marriage is between Bennetts third daughter Lydia and Wickham, the son of the housekeeper. Originally he is well-treated by the family and t
32、he friends. However, he comes down in the world because of his misbehavior. He gets into debt. So he wants to get money and become rich and change his social status through marriage, which is a way to approach the talents. He is a man without any responsibility. He does nothing except assailing a wo
33、man with obscenities. In his opinion, love is only recreation. For his purpose, he entices Lydia and gets her love easily, because she is young, innocent and vainglorious, and loves to go ease and hates to work hard, and is spoilt by her mother. Getting love and praise of a boy is her dream. So when
34、 Wickham wants to reach his aim-getting wealth by love, he exalts her beauty hypocritically. Lydia, impulsive, credulous and blindly following, she forgets who she is and feels she is the most beautiful and happiest girl in the world. Their love does not get the permission from the parents, and then
35、 they elope. They spend money without restraint, and they are unable to make ends meet. When Elizabeth hears the news, she believes that their love is false, Wickham would not marry Lydia, because she is no charming and has nothing to attract him, He does not love her but the wealth of her family. T
36、he marriage is admitted on the condition of Darcys help. For sake of Elizabeth, Darcy gave them a sum of money to let them get out of difficulties. At the same time, this swindler prepares to climb another woman for a sum of money. Their marriage is considered to be a scandal in Bennetts family. But
37、 Mrs. Bennet is not disgraceful to this marriage. When Collins gets the news, of course, he is very angry and reacts to the marriage to revenge his early failure of proposal to her. This marriage is one without love. They dont know the real meaning of marriage. They only want to satisfy their aspira
38、tion. So we can say this is a kind of impromptu love and marriage without true love and responsibility which is doomed to be a tragedy.3. Jane and Mr. Bingleys marriage-marriage based on same interestsThe third marriage is one of the eldest daughter Jane and Mr. Bingley. Bingley is a friend of Darcy
39、. His sister loves Darcy very much and she expects Bingley to get married with Darcys sister Georgiana, because she wants to get love from Darcy in this way, which also reflects her selfishness. The marriage of the able man-Bingley and the beautiful girl-Jane is ideal in most peoples eyes. Bolobbyis
40、t, a politician, at the end of the 18th century, said that upbringing was more important than law, because it could promote moral, help to realize moral or ruin moral. Thus it could be concluded that upbringing played very important role in life at that time. On the first ball organized by Mr. Bingl
41、ey in the Niger Park, Jane-the eldest daughter of the Bonnets is favored by the host. But the reserved personality and the standardized qualities make her conceal her true feelings, so she almost loses Bingley, which is also caused by her nest-of-kins lap sad conducts. For example, Mrs. Bennet often
42、 gives comments on the marriage in public, especially the benefits of the marriage, which almost frightens Bingley away. This good marriage based on a favorite of mutual good impression and true love. Fortunately with the misunderstandings between Elizabeth and Darcy solved, the lovers get married a
43、fter so many setbacks.4. Darcy and Elizabeths marriage-marriage based on true loveThe fourth marriage is the main theme of the works. That is Darcy and Elizabeths marriage. Elizabeth is the ideal image for women as well as the most charismatic person in the novel. She is Bonnets second daughter, an
44、active, intelligent and smart girl. She has a middle-class family background and has not been affected by the formal education belonging to those aristocratic young girls, so she isnt good at music and painting, but she has read many books which make her knowledgeable and perceptive. The most important aspect is that she is a lady with dignity and upbringing. Darcy is a man with tall figure 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 strong sense of power, so he alw
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