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An Analysis of Women’s Social Status at Bourgeois Times fro
An Analysis of Women’s Social Status at Bourgeois Times from Marriage in Pride and Prejudice
Abstract
The opening sentence of Pride and Prejudice left the deep impression on readers almost two centuries ago. As the author of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen was one of the famous realistic writers in English literature in the nineteenth century. In Pride and Prejudice Austen wrote four marriage types: ideal Elizabeth and Darcy, realizable Charlotte and Collins, felicitous Jane and Bingley, unhappy Lydia and Wickham. She pointed out emphatically economic consideration is the bonds of wedlock and love. She said marriage is not determined by property and family status; it is unwise to marry without money, but it is wrong to marry for money; the marriage settled by love is happy and ideal.
The thesis made an interpretation of women’s social status from perspectives of marriage in the period when Pride and Prejudice is set. In the novel, Austen emphasized marriage should be of equal importance both by love and by economic consideration but love plays the guiding role. From the described marriages, the essential of bourgeois marriage system intensively, Austen expressed that it's combination of pecuniary bargaining and benefits. In that time, marriage to women has nothing to do with feeling; it is definitely a problem of economy and survival due to the financial dependence.
Key Words: Pride and Prejudice; views of marriage; social status;
1. Introduction
Jane Austen was a British woman writer. One of Jane's most remarkable traits was her observation of human character and nature. And Pride and Prejudice has won her the highest reputation. The original version of the novel was written in 1796-1797 under the title “First Impressions”, and was in the form of an exchange of letters.It mainly describes the development of the relationship between Elizabeth Bennet, an intelligent young woman and the daughter of a country gentleman, and Fitzwilliam Darcy, a rich and haughty aristocratic landowner. The title ”Pride and Prejudice'” refers (among other things) to the ways in which Elizabeth and Darcy first view each other.
In this novel, Jane Austen conveyed her objection to the marriage only for money and status as well as the marriage without consideration for the same background, which was totally odd at the time. She advocated the marriage for both love and economic consideration with love playing the leading role. Meanwhile, she also exposed that the essentials of bourgeois marriage are a deal of money and a combination of benefit under the patriarchy. The style of Pride and Prejudice is well ahead of the other novels of the time and it has a kind of fairly deep power of art. The selected language, wisdom and humor fully reflect women’s attitudes toward marriage and their social status at that time.
2. The marriages in Pride and Prejudice
In Pride and Prejudice, Austen wrote many kinds of love and marriage of the genteel-class woman. She mainly depicted four marriage types: the marriage of Elizabeth and Darcy is based on love and fortune; the marriage of Jane and Bingley possesses beauty, virtue and fortune; the marriage of Lydia and Wickham wants both sex and money; the marriage of Charlotte and Collins is rolling in wealth but no love.
All these marriages reflect people's life and fate of that time. The other young couples' marriages in the book are only comparison to Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy's ideal marriage. It indicates their brave behavior that they dare to look down upon common customs-everything is decided by money; it highly praises that they have a correct knowledge of themselves and a sense of understanding the world around. It is considered that only this couple that attract each other by their own moral character and talent will get a happy ending.
3. Interpretation of women’s social status from marriages in Pride and Prejudice
3.1 The purposes of marriages in Pride and Prejudice
In Austen's fiction, the ultimate felicity of a woman is rooted in a happy marriage, hence marriage is always the focus of the author's attention, which is indicated at the beginning of the novel Pride and Prejudice, "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." (Austen, 12) 論文網(wǎng)在線
In fact, the truth is just the opposite -- a lady without a good fortune must be in want of a husband. In this sense, Mrs. Bennet must be admitted as the wisest person on this problem -- "The business of her life was to get her daughters married" (Austen, 22) -- as in the 18th century, getting married was "the only provision for well-educated young women of small fortune" (Austen, 257) to gain financial security and decent life in the long future, otherwise they would either live in misery as a spinster or a governess, both of which were the objects of mockery and discrimination in society.
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