On Jane Austen's View of Marriage in Pride and Prejudice
written by Zhu Mengxian
Abstract: Jane Austen's masterpiece Pride and Prejudice fully embodies her view of marriage. In the following, a brief review is given about her views on marriage by analysing several related articles.
Key words: Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice views of marriage
Introduction: Jane Austen humorously described different kinds of marriage relations in Pride and Prejudice. Until today, this novel is still very popular among many readers and arouses people's observation and unlimited thinking of marriage.
Review: It has been pointed out that Jane holds the view that love and marriage are associated with but not totally lie on the property and social status, the marriage which is based on the love is a true happy marriage. There are many articles to support this view. For example, one of researchers thought marriage and property and social status are interconnected, but marriage could not only depend on the property and the social status based on researching the four young couples' marriages in this novel which can be categorized into two groups according to their different marriage foundation, Simply one just like Charlotte — Collins and Lydia — Wickham is called unhappy marriage. The other one like Elizabeth —Darcy and Jane —Bingley is the opposite. “ She believed that marriage just for money was wrong, but marriage of no money was stupid.”
On the other hand, some papers have reported that Jane attaches great importance to ideal marriage and regards the feelings between men and women as the cornerstone of the ideal marriage. Austen fully expresses her views on love and marriage only by appreciating the marriage founded on the basis of mutual admiration, understanding and mutual respect. In Tang Chunhua’s paper, she considered that “ She believed that a husband not only need have certain number of family property but also must respect women, and at the same time there must be mutual understanding between them.” It happens that there is a similar case, Yu Hongen pointed out that Jane stresses that character is important than appearance in a marriage. “Austen believes that the person’s character is more important than appearance in the matter of a happy marriage.”“They have common in character and mutual appreciation, it is the most solid foundation that they can go into the marriage hall and toward a rational happiness.”
At the same time, it emphasizes the independence and dignity of women on the marital problems.
Conclusion: During her time, Jane's view was so advanced that it was not accepted widely. Until today, it still has important influence. Austen’s views on marriage and love are also suitable for our real social. We youth should make right marriage and love views to orient our lives. There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people’s eyes. In a word, we can find her idea about marriage from the analysis, marriage, property and social status interconnected, but not absolutely.
References
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[2] 汤春华.分析《傲慢与偏见》中的爱情观和婚姻观【M】.2010.4
[3] 杨茜雯.论简-奥斯汀作品《傲慢与偏见》中的爱情与婚姻【M】.2009.5
[4] 于红恩.论《傲慢与偏见》的爱情观与婚姻观【M】.2012.2。