《傲慢与偏见》中的婚姻（英文） .doc

傲慢与偏见中的婚姻（英文） Marriages in Pride and Prejudice傲慢与偏见中的婚姻Thesis This paper intends to give a short summary to the seven marriages in Pride and Prejudice and to discuss three main factors that affect marriage in the eighteenth century It concludes that a happy and strong marriage must be based on mutual feelings understanding and respect Love is the source for the happiness of marriageKeywords Marriage Love Property Personality摘要 本文对傲慢与偏见中的七起婚姻进行了简单概述 并讨论了十八世纪对婚姻影响的三个主要因素通过复述和讨论表明了作者的婚姻观快乐坚实的婚姻必须建立在婚姻双方共同的感受 理解和尊重的基础之上爱情是婚姻幸福的根源关键词婚姻 爱情 财富 个性OutlineIntroduction Seven Marriages in the NovelElizabeth and DarcyJane and BingleyLydia and WickhamCharlotte Lucas and CollinsMr and Mrs Bennetthe Gardiners the Lucases Factors Affecting a Marriage Most1 Love2 Property3 Personality Conclusion论文提纲介绍小说中七种婚姻的简单概述伊丽莎白与达西的婚姻吉英与彬格莱的婚姻丽蒂亚和韦克翰的婚姻夏绿蒂和柯林斯的婚婚班纳特太太和先生的婚姻加笛纳太太和先生的婚姻卢卡斯太太和先生的婚姻 影响婚姻最主要的几个因素1 爱情2 财富3 个性 结论IntroductionJane Austen 17751818 is one of the greatest and best loving novelists in English literature and one of the most important writers in the English realistic novels Pride and Prejudice published in 1813 is considered her masterpiece that marked as one of the best novels in English literature In this novel Austen describes a narrow range of society a quiet wealthy middle class circle in country surroundings that she knew from her own experience Austen tells us a story that follows the love of Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwillan Darcy both of whom are romantic and intelligent For a long time they are forced to give up their personal pride and prejudice before they can enter into a happy marriage together And at the end of this story they constitute a successful marriage But Pride and Prejudice reveals more than Elizabeth and Darcys love story The central role marriage is discussed in the famous opening line of this novel It is truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want a wife However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering the 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 daughters P1 Stephen Kern states that "the sweeping public aspect of Austens confident generalization and the vigorous forward movement of her sentence underscored the ineluctability of the truth in her time That there can be no desirable goal for love other than marriage" Kern Stephen 1992 366 Ian Milligan believes that the famous opening sentence "almost wearily sets out the terms of the conventional bargain to be struck between the parties involved" Milligan Ian 1987 81 He also says that "sexual need and sexual attractiveness are brought into balance with the need for financial security and social position It is taken for granted that the men and women concerned will belong to a well-defined spectrum of society" Milligan Ian 1987 81 Woolf holds the similar opinion that" it is remarkable to what an extent the plots and characters are dominated by questions of money" Woolf Leonard 1942 39 And what factors could affect a good marriage What are the elements of marriage In Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen presents seven different marriages to indicate that a happy and strong marriage takes time to build and must be based on mutual feelings understanding and respect hasty marriage based on superficial qualities will not last long and will lead to unhappiness This paper intends to look into seven marriages in the novel and to discuss three main factors that affect marriage in the eighteenth century At the end of this paper it tries to form a deeper idea of the marriage Seven Marriages in the NovelThere are seven different marriages presented in this novel These seven marriages contrast each other to reveal Jane Austens opinions and thoughts on the subject of marriage1 Elizabeth and DarcyIt is clear that Jane Austen does not believe falling in love at the first sight and she writes about the difficulties two people have to overcome before they open their love and get married Elizabeth and Darcy have to understand and overcome their own pride and prejudice before they can appreciate each other On their first meeting the two major characters make a bad start They do not fall in love at the first sight On the contrary the rich and handsome Darcy is too proud to lower himself and offends the lively and intelligent girl Elizabeth When he thinks he is rich and owns a large estate in Derbyshire he says "She is tolerable but not handsome enough to tempt me" P8 At the same time Elizabeth dislikes him and his arrogant manner and class-based pride This dislike is increased by the rumor given to her by George Wickham an officer in the regiment stationed at Meryton He suffers the unjust treatment at Darcys hands Later when Darcy effectively breaks up Bingley from her loving sister Jane the prejudice of Elizabeth is further strengthened On the other hand Darcy is so proud of his social class that he is prejudiced against the Bennet familys improper manner and connections to the working class Elizabeths aunts and uncles Later after a series of events Darcy does have a strong sense of honor and virtue and he begins to fall in love with Elizabeth At last he proposes with great condescension Thinking that Darcy dislikes her Elizabeth dose not really notice when Darcys attitude toward her begins to change In fact her prejudice blinds her to the reality of his developing passion for her Elizabeth angrily refuses Darcy who is so sad Later Darcy writes a letter to Elizabeth to explain his feelings After reading this letter Elizabeths view towards him begins to change and she realizes that she has badly misunderstood some of his behavior Her feelings change even more when she knows Darcy has played an important role in settling the affairs of her run-away sister Lydia When Darcy proposes again Elizabeth accepts And for their true love the pride has been weakened and prejudice disappearedThe marriage between Darcy and Elizabeth reveals the importance of getting to know each other before their marriage The series of events they both experienced gave them the opportunity to understand each other and the time to build their mutual understanding Thus we can find a significant factor to a successful marriage love cannot be brought on by appearances and it must be fostered gradually between two people as they get to know each other It indicates that a happy and strong marriage takes time to build and must be based on mutual feelings understanding and respect 2 Jane and BingleyThis is a parallel love story The marriage between Jane Bennet and Bingle is also an example of successful marriage Elizabeths sister Jane is the eldest in the family Beautiful good-tempered sweet amiable and modest she is universally well-liked She refuses to judge anyone badly Mr Bingley much like Jane is an amiable and good-tempered person He is not concerned with class differences and Janes poor family connections cannot stop him from falling in love with Jane Jane Austen expresses her opinion of this through Elizabeth in the novel"Really believed all his Bingley expectations of felicity to be rationally founded because they had for basis the excellent understanding and super- excellent disposition of Jane and a general similarity of feeling and taste between her and himself" P308 However unlike Darcy and Elizabeth there is a flaw in their relationship both characters are too innocent and too good-hearted to act heavily against the external force that may attempt to separate them Bingley is too easily influenced For example under the influence of Mr Darcy Bingley begins to doubt Janes affection to him and he leaves her without saying good-bye Later when all misunderstanding is explained he comes back to Jane at Darcys assistance Bingleys indecisive character determines that his happiness is controlled by others As to Jane she never thinks ill for any body and she shows her warm sympathetic feelings in an easy manner Her character is vividly showed in many parts of the novel And no doubt that Janes father says "Your tempers are by no means unlike You are each of you so complying that nothing will ever be resolved on so easy that every servant will cheat you and so generous that you will always exceed your income" P309 This type of marriage is based on good foundations They are attracted at once and have the chance to have similar easy dispositions Just like Darcy and Elizabeths marriage they enjoy their mutual feelings and understanding And they also list the necessary qualities for a good marriage according their marriage Understanding each others character good disposition of the partners similarity in feeling and taste and also a lot of money3 Lydia and WickhamObviously Lydia and Wickhams marriage is an example of a bad marriage Lydia Bennet the youngest of the Bennet daughters is devoted to a life of dancing fashions gossips and flirting Wickham is an officer in the regiment stationed at Meryton Wickham is quickly judged to be a perfectly good and amiable man because of his friendliness and the ease of his manners However he is mean and wicked "A curious degree of sexual attraction often goes with a lively unreliable disposition which may either be somewhat superficial but perfectly well-meaning or driven by circumstance which it has not the strength to withstand become that of a scoundrel" Douglas Bush 1956 591 He elopes with Lydia with no intention of marrying her and is just only made to do so by Darcys intervention Lydia also does not take into consideration her marriage the personality of her husband or the prospects of their marriage Therefore their marriage is based on appearance and youthful impulse Once these qualities can no longer be seen by each other and once strong relationship slowly fades away problems rise as a result As in the novel Lydia and Wickhams marriage gradually disintegrates Lydia becomes a regular visitor at her two elder sisters homes when" her husband was gone to enjoy himself in London or Bath" P344 Through their relationship we can see they are "a couple who were only brought together because their passions were stronger than their virtue" and "affection for her soon sunk into indifference her lasted a little longer" Nash Geoffrey 1989 61 In their marriage Jane Austen shows that hasty marriage based on superficial qualities quickly withers and leads to unhappiness4 Charlotte Lucas and CollinsThe marriage between Mr Collins and Charlotte is based on money rather than on love or appearance It was a common practice for women to marry a husband to save themselves from singleness or to gain financial security in 19th century England Charlotte who is twenty-seven and plain-looking is scared of being an" old maid" so she does not have a high view of marriage She tells Elizabeth "Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance" P19 and she has few hopes of happiness in marriage She marries for security and social status only" I ask only a comfortable home and considering MrCollins character connections and situation in life" P113 Collins is a silly shallow self-satisfied and awkward person He wants a wife only because its time for him to settle and Lady Catherine has advised him to marry His feelings are totally not real Elizabeth is most disappointed because she knows Charlotte could not be really happy with such a husbandIn this novel Jane Austen writes this type of marriage to show that women who submit themselves to this type of marriage will have to suffer in sad silence as Charlotte does" When MrCollins said any thing of which his wife might reasonably be ashamed which certainly was not un seldomOnce or twice she could discern a faint blush but in general Charlotte wisely did not hear" P139 Charlotte is a sad casualty of the marriage market Such hasty marriage would surly lead to unhappiness5 Mr and Mrs BennetIn contrast to Elizabeth her father Mr Bennet is an example of living with ones mistakes Mr Bennet had married a woman he found sexually attractive without realizing she was an unintelligent woman When he was courting Mrs Bennet her beauty blinded him from her silliness Consequently"he had married a woman whose weak understanding and illiberal mind had very early in their marriage put an end to all real affection for her Respect esteem and confidence had vanished for ever and all his views of domestic happiness were overthrown " P209 Mrs Bennets main interest in life is to find suitable husbands for her five daughters while Mr Bennet would like to isolate himself from his family and find refugee in his library or in mocking his wife Mr Bennet also can be considered as an irresponsible father because he lacks of attention towards his family and he encourages his younger daughters to elope with Wickham So from every point of view their marriage is a failure By this example Austen shows that "it is necessary to use good judgment to select a spouse otherwise the two people will lose respect for each other" Walton Street1970186 6 The Gardiners The Gardiners are the family with whom the Bennets are particularly close Jane Austen doesnt present a detailed description of their marriage life merely mentioning their characters Mr Gandiner is" a sensible gentleman- like man greatly superior to his sister Mrs Bennet as well by nature as education" P125 He earns his money by working and he puts himself in a lower social class than the people who live off the interest of their land In this novel Mr Gardiner is one of those people whom Austen describes as a natural aristocrat and whom Darcy comes to like after he overcomes his class prejudice Mrs Gardiner is "an amiable intelligent elegant woman and a great favorite with all her Longbourn niece" P125 In this novel Mrs Gardiner acts a mother to Elizabeth and Jane and her notion of marriage greatly affects Elizabeths mind She helps them much on marriage And also she attempts to help Lydia see why her elopement with Wickham was wrong even if Lydia is completely beyond reason In this novel the primary role of the couple is to show Darcy that Elizabeth has some sensible relatives Their marriage also shows necessary qualities for a good marriage7 The LucasesSir William Lucas has risen by trade and been knighted" by nature inoffensive friendly and obliging" P14 He is a friend of the Bennet family Although he is civil his conversation is limited to empty observations and descriptions of his presentation while Lady Lucas "was a very good kind of woman not too clever to be valuable neighbor to Mrs Bennet" P14 She enjoys her short-lived triumph when Charlotte marries Mr Collins and "she can thus consider about the possibility to be the mistress of Longbourn" Nash 19