On Jane Austens View of Marriage.docx

1、On Jane Austens View of MarriageOn Jane Austens View of Marriage. IntroductionJane Austen was one of the greatest realistic novelists in English literature in the 19th century. During the forty-two years of her life, Austen had completed six novels and left behind three fragments. In her works, Aust

2、en vividly revealed the class relationship, social customs and morals of her time by meticulously and humorously depicting the life of the rural gentry at that time. Austens careful craftsmanship has enabled her novels to be popular with readers in every generation since they were first produced. Du

3、ring the past two hundred years, Austens artistic charm has remained unchanged in spite of the change of readers literary taste. Virginia Woolf once wrote that of all great writers Jane Austen was the most difficult to catch in the act of greatness.(Woolf 15)In the twentieth century Jane Austens “gr

4、eatness” has never been challenged.Marriage of Austens time actually was a kind of foundation stone and its function was mainly the key to the connection of fortune, the decision of relation and the right of inheritance.(Wilkes 84)What it valued was to be matched for marriage. Nowadays the marriage

5、for love is different from Jane Austens time. It needs equality and freedom in any aspect. A happy marriage should be based on true love. In modern peoples view of marriage is that a marriage either for money or for lust is an unhappy one. Though property and social status play an important role in

6、marriage. It is opposed to be simply for money.According to the sociological critical approach, every literary work is closely related to the social environment, the age, the religion and the customs to which it belongs. In other words, every literary work contains much cultural content. All the wor

7、ks which do not belong to our time and our culture demand us to be involved in their time and culture when we read them, otherwise these works will become incomprehensible and meaningless to us. On the other hand, social structure, especially the economic foundation, greatly affect every literary wo

8、rk. Karl Marx thinks that literature is essentially based on the social existence and a true understanding of a literary work should proceed from the understanding of the social structure that is embodied in it. Literature is the reflection of the real social life. Part of the writers task is to sho

9、w the reality of a particular social period. Excellent literary works are always related to all kinds of social lives. As a realistic novelist, Jane Austens view of marriage expressed in her works is actually a true portrayal of the marital status in her time, especially of women of the gentry. Behi

10、nd the comic plots, there was the sorrowful social reality that womens fates were determined by their economic conditions and most of them were constrained by the so-called “accomplished lady” concept. A good analysis of Austens view of marriage will help us further understand that womens position i

11、n Austens time was very low and whether they would marry a good husband depended on their economic foundation to some degree. Besides, after the analysis, we may find out some reasons why Jane Austen did not marry all her life.This paper is to analyze the economic status and property elements that i

12、nfluenced their marriage and thus we can obtain a further understanding of Jane Austens view of marriage. Her ideal marriage was that we can not marry for money or regard marriage as a game. She advocated the marriage for both love and economic consideration with love playing the leading role. Meanw

13、hile, she also exposed that the essentials of bourgeois marriage were a deal of money and a combination of benefit under the patriarchy. Four Different Marriages in Pride and PrejudiceA . Elizabeths Marriagewith Both Love and MoneyElizabeth is her fathers favorite daughter, having inherited his wit

14、and intelligence. Mr. Darcy, an extremely wealthy aristocrat, is proud, haughty and extremely conscious of class differences at the beginning of the novel. When he first meets the Bennets, he laughs them to scorn. At the ball in Meryton, where they make the acquaintance of each other, Mr. Darcy is q

15、uickly judged as “the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world”(Austen 7) because of his reserve and unwillingness to dance with anyone outside of his own party. He is rude to quite Miss Elizabeth. When both Darcy and Elizabeth are sitting out a dance and Bingley attempts to persuade him to danc

16、e with her, Elizabeth overhears Darcys reply “She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me.”(Austen 8)Little by little, upon further acquaintance Mr. Darcy begins to take an interest in Elizabeth, attracted by her dark eyes and the “easy playfulness” of her manners and falls in love with El

17、izabeth, the second oldest of five sisters, who is lively, quick-witted, sharp-tongued, bold and intelligent. Elizabeth is good-looking, and is especially distinguished by her fine eyes. She has pride in her ability to perceive the truth of situations and of peoples characters. However, her percepti

18、ve ability fail her frequently because she is influenced by vanity and judges people rashly. In spite of her sense and good manners, she is deceived by handsome Mr. Wickham, who is quickly judged to be a perfectly good and amiable man because of his friendliness and the ease of his manners. He initi

19、ally shows a preference for Elizabeth, and she is pleased by his attentions and inclined to believe his story about Darcy. By the end of the novel she overcomes her prejudice through her dealings with Darcy. Darcy does, however, have a strong sense of honor and virtue. Elizabeths rebukes after his f

20、irst proposal to her help him to recognize his faults of pride and social prejudice. It is, in fact, precisely because Elizabeth is not so awed by his high social status as to be afraid to criticize his character that he is attracted to her. The self-knowledge acquired from Elizabeths rebukes and th

21、e desire to win Elizabeths love spur him to change and judge people more by their character than by their social class. For Elizabeth, when she begins to see that she judged Darcy completely wrongly, and she grows ashamed, concluding that she has been blind, partial, prejudiced, absurd, in spite of

22、the fact that she has always prided herself on her judgment. She realizes that vanity has been the cause of her prejudice. Elizabeth realized that her complete lack of objectivity in judging Darcy and Wickham is the result of the fact that Darcy injured her pride on her first acquaintance with him a

23、nd that Wickham flattered her by his preference for her.Austen made it clear that pride and prejudice are not really two separate problems in the novel, but that they are intimately connected. For it is Elizabeths pride that leads to her prejudice, a prejudice which is so strong that she has to read

24、 the truth. It is clear that reflection on the contents of Darcys letter have made Elizabeth change her feelings toward him considerably. When she visits Pemberley, she can not help thinking of what it would be like to be the mistress of such a beautiful house. She tells herself that she does not re

25、gret her refusal of Darcy s proposal. But the more she sees of the house and the more she learns about his amiable and generous character from his housekeeper, the less firm her resolve against him becomes. After Lydia and Wickhams elopement, Elizabeth is quite sure that Darcy will never marry her a

26、nd suffer through being Wickhams brother-in law. When she knows what Darcy has done for her family, she sees how perfect they would be for each other and would readily say yes to his previous proposal. Yet unfortunately, it is too late or at least Elizabeth thinks so. Elizabeth dose not believe that

27、 Darcys assistance to Lydia was motivated by his regard for her, but this does seems to be a very likely motivation. Anyway, Lady Catherines unexpected visit helps the couple. Ironically, Lady Catherines attempt to prevent Elizabeth and Darcys marriage only serves to give hope to Elizabeth of Darcys

28、 continued affection. In the end, Elizabeth and Darcy get married and end up happiest.Elizabeth dare do what other women of the same class dare not. A great deal of courage is needed for her to refuse the proposal by Mr. Collin and Mr. Darcy. After all she is a girl without a dowry. It is obvious th

29、at her spirit based on the full understanding of herself is against the conventional concept of family status in marriage and for the equality between the male and female. No wonder that she is treated as the protagonist of the novel. She hopes that her marriage can be based on love and that the cou

30、ple will have spiritual agreement. Such kind of spirit was very rare at that time. Although Elizabeths concept of equality in the family is quite different from that of the present, it will not after our full admiration of Austens spirit against the feudal hierarchy and the inequality between men an

31、d women perceived by the character Elizabeth. Nevertheless, it was unlikely for Austen to go beyond her class limitations when she advocated the marital equality between men and women. The most rebellious words of Elizabeth when she debates with Mrs. de Bourgh are only: “In marriage your nephew, I s

32、hould not consider myself as quitting that sphere. He is a gentlemen; I am a gentlemans daughter; so far we are equal”.(Austen 247)The Bennet family belongs to the country, gentry, therefore, Elizabeth can not demand the true equality without any class distinctions owing to the limits of interests o

33、f her own class. Her strongest argument to support her concept of equality is that both Darcy and she herself belongs to the same class. What would she say if she belongs to a class much lower than Darcys ? However, that does not discolor her rebellious spirit against the inequality imposed on her by external world. Such rebelli