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【Abstract】Pride and Prejudice is a very popular novel written by Jane Austen in 1813. It shows Jane Austen’s opinion of marriage. And from which we also can see the executive concern with money of relationship in the English society at that time. Marriage, a special relationship, is also based on money. We all know that love is the basis of marriage, but at that time, in such a historical environment, a good economic situation is necessary.
【Key words】marriage; money; economic relationship
【中图分类号】I106.4【文献标识码】A【文章编号】1001-4128(2011)02-0126-01
作者简介：鲍娟，蒙古族，辽宁工程技术大学外语系，讲师，硕士，主要研究方向为应用语言学。
First published in 1813, Pride and Prejudice has consistently been Jane Austen’s most popular novel. It talks about trivial matters of love, marriage and family life between country squires and fair ladies in Britain in the 18th century. The plot is very simple. That is how the young ladies choose their husbands. In the eyes of Austen, Elizabeth’s marriage is the ideal marriage people should after. But in other marriage cases in the novel, we can see that if money and love can’t be held together in one marriage, love would always make a concession to money because of the special social background. After reading through the whole novel, we find that money acts as the cause of each plot and the clue of its development. If affects everybody’s words and deeds.
Let’s come to see the three different marriages described in the novel:
1 The marriage of Collins and Charlotte
To illustrate marriage at that time depended on one’s fortune; their marriage is the exact one. Collins is a shallow, ignorant, boring, pompous clergyman, and a distant cousin of the Bennets. And some day he would inherit the property of the Bennets. He had a house and got preferable income. Only one thing he lacks is a tame wife. So when his patroness, Lady Catherine de Bough, has urged him to marry, and he always obsequiously obedient to her wishes, hastens to comply. So firstly he makes a proposal to Elizabeth, he took for granted that Elizabeth would accept it happily. When Elizabeth refuses his proposal, he almost immediately transfers his affections to Elizabeth’s best friend, Charlotte Lucas, who, twenty-seven and not pretty or lively, accepts at once his offer of marriage. To Charlotte, her chance of happiness is as fair, as most people can boast on entering the marriage state. She doesn’t think highly either of men or of matrimony, marriage has always been her objects, it is the only honorable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservation from want. Charlotte gets a family within a house, a garden, and furniture from her marriage.
2 The marriage of Bingley and Jane
Jane is the oldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bennets. Mr. Bennet’s property consists almost entirely in an estate of two thousand pounds a year, which, unfortunately for his daughters, is entailed, in default of heir male, on a distant relation. That means there will be no other guarantee for their daughters, while Mr. Bingley has one hundred thousand pounds property. It isno wonder that Mrs. Bennet takes Mr. Bingley as the “rightful property” for her daughters, though she has not even see him -“a single man of large fortune; four of five thousand a year, what a fine thing for our girls!”. The implicitly marriage mentioned here obviously concerns no feeling but only financial condition and subsistence. To those husband-hunting ladies, Mr. Bingley is an abstract signal. The most important thing is that he has a good fortune.
3 The marriage of Darcy and Elizabeth
At the beginning of the story, Darcy comes to the neighborhood of the Bennets with his friend Bingley and meets Elizabeth the first time at a party. With his proud and seemingly cold disposition, Darcy makes a bad impression on Elizabeth. Because he is a man of high status and large wealth, ten thousand pound a year, but the Bennets’ economic situation is bad, social position is low. He thinks the Bennet sisters want to marry to the rich man with high status. He slights Elizabeth and hurts her dignity by refusing to dance with her. On the other hand, Elizabeth doesn’t like Darcy either, not only because of her prejudice at the upper class, but also his pride. In their later meetings, however, Darcy begins to admire the girl, but Elizabeth, on account of her prejudice against, tries to bring down his pride. Once in a town Elizabeth makes acquaintance with Wickham, a young officer with good looks and agreeable manners, and believes his words that Darcy is a cold-blooded, selfish man, with her won suspicion about him. Later, when Darcy make an honest proposal to Elizabeth. He expresses his heart, but also his pride. His words are full of the unconscious pride, his sense of her inferiority, his feeling that he was lower in himself. This irritates Elizabeth and deepens her prejudice. So she rejects him promptly. We can say it all comes from the social standard, which bases on the people’s status and wealth. But Elizabeth seems regrets for what she said when she receives the letter from Darcy. And later, when her youngest sister Lydia has eloped with Wickham, only through the generous intervention of Darcy, who arranges to have them properly married, that the Bennet family is also to get out of the disgrace. The revelation of Darcy’s generous help further assures Elizabeth of his feeling towards herself, it is also showed the importance of money. As Elizabeth is mediating on the hopeless situation of her union with Darcy, Lady de Burgh, aunt of Darcy comes and forces Elizabeth into a promise of never consenting to marry Darcy. Out of anger and contempt for the arrogant Lady, Elizabeth refuses to promise anything. With indignation the old lady goes to her nephew, intending to give him a picture of a disrespectful, ill-mannered Elizabeth; but fortunately this enlightens Darcy about the young lady’s heart and encourages him to make a second proposal, which is finally accepted by Elizabeth. Darcy and Elizabeth dare not to have the wild wish of their love. Only the Lady’s tempting to break them up encourages them and helps to bring about their marriage. How passive of the pair youth to pursue love and happiness. It is the evitable result of the marriage concept, which in that time was based on the economic condition and affected by the family status.
Conclusion
There are a lot of novels dealing with marriage in Britain, but scarcely an author could be like Austen, exposing the money-essence of capitalism marriage system so deeply. In Pride and Prejudice, she put marriage into all kinds of social and economic relationship from beginning to end, which makes the whole novel have great practical significance. Economic domination in a marriage is the subject matter of the whole novel. In brief, it is money that determines everybody’s life and fate, especially marriage.
References
[1] 陈明瑶. 理性与情感[J]. 四川外语学院学报. 2000（1）.
[2] 范存思. 英国文学史提纲[M]. 四川人民出版社.1983
[3] 王佐良. 英国文学史 [M]. 商务印书馆.1996
【Key words】marriage; money; economic relationship
【中图分类号】I106.4【文献标识码】A【文章编号】1001-4128(2011)02-0126-01
作者简介：鲍娟，蒙古族，辽宁工程技术大学外语系，讲师，硕士，主要研究方向为应用语言学。
First published in 1813, Pride and Prejudice has consistently been Jane Austen’s most popular novel. It talks about trivial matters of love, marriage and family life between country squires and fair ladies in Britain in the 18th century. The plot is very simple. That is how the young ladies choose their husbands. In the eyes of Austen, Elizabeth’s marriage is the ideal marriage people should after. But in other marriage cases in the novel, we can see that if money and love can’t be held together in one marriage, love would always make a concession to money because of the special social background. After reading through the whole novel, we find that money acts as the cause of each plot and the clue of its development. If affects everybody’s words and deeds.
Let’s come to see the three different marriages described in the novel:
1 The marriage of Collins and Charlotte
To illustrate marriage at that time depended on one’s fortune; their marriage is the exact one. Collins is a shallow, ignorant, boring, pompous clergyman, and a distant cousin of the Bennets. And some day he would inherit the property of the Bennets. He had a house and got preferable income. Only one thing he lacks is a tame wife. So when his patroness, Lady Catherine de Bough, has urged him to marry, and he always obsequiously obedient to her wishes, hastens to comply. So firstly he makes a proposal to Elizabeth, he took for granted that Elizabeth would accept it happily. When Elizabeth refuses his proposal, he almost immediately transfers his affections to Elizabeth’s best friend, Charlotte Lucas, who, twenty-seven and not pretty or lively, accepts at once his offer of marriage. To Charlotte, her chance of happiness is as fair, as most people can boast on entering the marriage state. She doesn’t think highly either of men or of matrimony, marriage has always been her objects, it is the only honorable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservation from want. Charlotte gets a family within a house, a garden, and furniture from her marriage.
2 The marriage of Bingley and Jane
Jane is the oldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bennets. Mr. Bennet’s property consists almost entirely in an estate of two thousand pounds a year, which, unfortunately for his daughters, is entailed, in default of heir male, on a distant relation. That means there will be no other guarantee for their daughters, while Mr. Bingley has one hundred thousand pounds property. It isno wonder that Mrs. Bennet takes Mr. Bingley as the “rightful property” for her daughters, though she has not even see him -“a single man of large fortune; four of five thousand a year, what a fine thing for our girls!”. The implicitly marriage mentioned here obviously concerns no feeling but only financial condition and subsistence. To those husband-hunting ladies, Mr. Bingley is an abstract signal. The most important thing is that he has a good fortune.
3 The marriage of Darcy and Elizabeth
At the beginning of the story, Darcy comes to the neighborhood of the Bennets with his friend Bingley and meets Elizabeth the first time at a party. With his proud and seemingly cold disposition, Darcy makes a bad impression on Elizabeth. Because he is a man of high status and large wealth, ten thousand pound a year, but the Bennets’ economic situation is bad, social position is low. He thinks the Bennet sisters want to marry to the rich man with high status. He slights Elizabeth and hurts her dignity by refusing to dance with her. On the other hand, Elizabeth doesn’t like Darcy either, not only because of her prejudice at the upper class, but also his pride. In their later meetings, however, Darcy begins to admire the girl, but Elizabeth, on account of her prejudice against, tries to bring down his pride. Once in a town Elizabeth makes acquaintance with Wickham, a young officer with good looks and agreeable manners, and believes his words that Darcy is a cold-blooded, selfish man, with her won suspicion about him. Later, when Darcy make an honest proposal to Elizabeth. He expresses his heart, but also his pride. His words are full of the unconscious pride, his sense of her inferiority, his feeling that he was lower in himself. This irritates Elizabeth and deepens her prejudice. So she rejects him promptly. We can say it all comes from the social standard, which bases on the people’s status and wealth. But Elizabeth seems regrets for what she said when she receives the letter from Darcy. And later, when her youngest sister Lydia has eloped with Wickham, only through the generous intervention of Darcy, who arranges to have them properly married, that the Bennet family is also to get out of the disgrace. The revelation of Darcy’s generous help further assures Elizabeth of his feeling towards herself, it is also showed the importance of money. As Elizabeth is mediating on the hopeless situation of her union with Darcy, Lady de Burgh, aunt of Darcy comes and forces Elizabeth into a promise of never consenting to marry Darcy. Out of anger and contempt for the arrogant Lady, Elizabeth refuses to promise anything. With indignation the old lady goes to her nephew, intending to give him a picture of a disrespectful, ill-mannered Elizabeth; but fortunately this enlightens Darcy about the young lady’s heart and encourages him to make a second proposal, which is finally accepted by Elizabeth. Darcy and Elizabeth dare not to have the wild wish of their love. Only the Lady’s tempting to break them up encourages them and helps to bring about their marriage. How passive of the pair youth to pursue love and happiness. It is the evitable result of the marriage concept, which in that time was based on the economic condition and affected by the family status.
Conclusion
There are a lot of novels dealing with marriage in Britain, but scarcely an author could be like Austen, exposing the money-essence of capitalism marriage system so deeply. In Pride and Prejudice, she put marriage into all kinds of social and economic relationship from beginning to end, which makes the whole novel have great practical significance. Economic domination in a marriage is the subject matter of the whole novel. In brief, it is money that determines everybody’s life and fate, especially marriage.
References
[1] 陈明瑶. 理性与情感[J]. 四川外语学院学报. 2000（1）.
[2] 范存思. 英国文学史提纲[M]. 四川人民出版社.1983
[3] 王佐良. 英国文学史 [M]. 商务印书馆.1996