论文总字数：31734字

摘 要

本文以详读原著和核心期刊相关论文为基础，综合国内外学者对小说中女权主义的研究，通过对比女性形象的迥异，分析男性形象的颠覆和暗淡，研究人物的话语，揭示人物的性格，体现小说中的女权主义。同时通过对比不同人物婚姻形成的原因和结果来强调女权主义的重要性。启示现代女性要学会独立自主，对任何事情要有自己的看法，理智而不盲目，在遇到生活中的各种不平等时，要勇敢地维护自己的权益。同时启示女性在对待婚姻时要追求以爱情为基础的婚姻，而不是以金钱和财富作为第一选择。

关键词：女权主义；女性形象；男性形象；婚姻

Contents

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………1
2. Literature Review…………………………………………………………1

2.1 Studies on feminism at home and abroad..…….……………………………1

2.2 The definition of feminism and author’s feminist thoughts…..……..………3

3. Feminism Reflected in the Contrast of Female Images……………4

3.1 Sensible and independent female image with rebellious spirit—Elizabeth...4

3.2 Shallow and secular female images—Mrs. Bennet and Lydia……………..6

4. Feminism Reflected in Subversion and Gloom of Male Images...8

4.1 Image of man transformed by female—Darcy……………………………8

4.2 Stupid and conceited male image—Collins………………………………..9

5. Conclusion………………………………………………………………..10

Works Cited…………………………………………………………………...12

1. Introduction

Jane Austen was a famous British writer in the 19^th century when women were considered to have a low social status and were thought to be less intelligent than men. They had no autonomy in marriage and were subordinate to men. They even had no right to inherit. Instead of going out to work, they could only stay at home to be a lady till the marriageable age and then found a reliable husband to live the rest of life. They had no thoughts of their own let alone dreams. Therefore, the female images depicted in the novels at that time were just as sentimental, silent, and inferior to the male ones both physically and mentally. However, Austen disagreed, arguing that she was opposed to the idea that women were inferior to men, and that women were intelligent, insightful, and had ideas of their own. In her point of view, men and women were equal in all aspects and should be treated with the same respect. Pride and Prejudice is a full display of feminism and the author’s strong feminist ideas provide an important ideological basis for the work. In this novel, the author presents feminist consciousness not only through narrating the story from the female perspective but also through describing the words, thoughts, traits, marriages of each character. The novel displays the strong feminism by describing Elizabeth’s resistance to inequality between men and women in status, her challenge to feudal ethical code and patriarchy, and her independence on marriage, by describing other females’ ignorance and foolishness like Mrs. Bennet and Lydia, by describing Darcy’s respect towards women, his introspection and his willingness to improve himself to pursue love, and by describing other males’ arrogance and dishonesty like Wickham and Collins.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Studies on feminism at home and abroad

A number of studies have been carried out by scholars home and abroad on feminism in this novel, mainly centering on the following aspects. First is the image of heroine—Elizabeth. She is a rebellious and intelligent girl who braves to pursue her love and be true to her path, reflecting women’s pursuit of personal independence, equal right, and their feminist consciousness. Han Ling thinks that Elizabeth whose perception and judgment of the people around her are based entirely on what she says and hears is the mouthpiece of Austen. Such independent judgment ability is very valuable in the society where women are strongly dependent on men, vividly expressing Elizabeth independent female consciousness. In the novel, by comparing other females with Elizabeth, Austen seems to ridicule them for their ignorance and independence, but in fact, she mocks the male-dominated society. Elizabeth is not someone who is repressed but someone who dares to criticize the unfair society and pursue the same rights as men. Second, many scholars focus on analyzing four different marriages, including the marriage based on blindness, beauty and lust between Lydia and Wickham, the marriage based on wealth and properties between Charlotte and Collins, the marriage based on feeling and trust between Jane and Bingley, and the marriage based on removal of misunderstanding and sincere love between Elizabeth and Darcy. Among these four kinds of marriages, the author is in favor of the last two. As she advocates that marriage should be on the basis of love rather than traditional marriage mode centering on wealth, reflecting her respect for women. Take Wang Yu’s opinion for example, she writes: “the change in Elizabeth’s attitude towards Darcy’s proposal actually reflects the demand for personal independence and equal power of women represented by Elizabeth.”(Wang 62) On her perspective, their marriage based on rational choice and profound emotion embodies the real value and pursuit of marriage. When faced with strong feelings, unlike her sister Lydia who rules herself by impulse, Elizabeth remains her dignity—the power of thought and reason. When faced with the reality, unlike Charlotte who totally gives up her pursuit for love, Elizabeth braves all forces that stand in her way and bravely defends her noble and innocent love. Third, the role of money has been studied by many scholars. In Pride and Prejudice, Wealth plays an irreplaceable role in marriage. Wu Ruofang takes Collins as an example when analyzing money’s status in this novel. Collins is a rich man who believes that marriage and love are possible if money is available. As a result, he is full of hope that Elizabeth would be happy to marry him. After being refused by Elizabeth many times, he still fails to know the reason. Wu Ruofang writes: “Jane Austen tells us that money and status are important references in marriage while love is the most crucial component by comparison.”(Wu 46) Money isn’t everything and it is unfortunate for some people to view money as the most important thing when choosing someone to marry. Such view on marriage has profound meaning for us to understand love and marriage correctly today. Fourth, the resistance to secular ethics and patriarchal society in the novel has been studied many times, which is reflected in Elizabeth’s refusal of Collins’s marriage. Collins is a priest and a representative of secular ethics and patriarchy. That Elizabeth rejects him can be viewed as a revolt against secular ethics, reflecting the strong feminist consciousness. Fifth, the female perspective used in this novel has been analyzed a lot. In spite of living in an age in which women were inferior to men, Austen views men in her works from a unique female perspective. Through the ingenious design of the plot and the characterization of characters, male’s superior authority is deconstructed. The novel fully affirms women’s intelligence, wisdom and self-worth, conveys the voice of women struggling for equality, shows the theme of betraying the patriarchal society and presents the advanced female consciousness. In Yao Xiaohui’s opinion, he thinks that Pride and Prejudice push women who have long been disadvantaged and on a marginal position on the forefront. Besides, he thinks the novel describes story on female perspective, uses the narrative style of female discourse, lets women be the protagonist of various scenes and lets them dominate the discourse system of the whole story, fully displaying the strong feminist consciousness in the novel and the author’s feminist thoughts. Based on existing research findings and careful reading of original work, the paper will embody feminism in this novel through comparing huge differences of female images, analyzing subversion and gloom of males and studying words and personal traits of main characters. Meanwhile, it will highlight the importance of feminist awareness by comparing the formation reasons and outcomes of four marriages.

2.2 The definition of feminism and author’s feminist thoughts

Feminism means that men and women are equal in gender, aiming to end social inequalities such as sexism and oppression instead of advocating that women are superior to men. Feminism is the product of the development of human rights. Feminism advocates that women should be liberated, which means women can pursue the same rights with men. Therefore, when we advocate women’s emancipation, we also advocate men’s emancipation, so as to achieve equal rights for both men and women in all aspects of life, such as social status, resource allocation and social responsibility.

The novel Pride and Prejudice was created between the 18^th and 19^th century when the whole capitalist system was not perfect and many old feudal customs still existed in people’s minds. At that time, men were in a position of comparative advantage and women could only rely on men and had to submit to the will of them. Based on such a background, the vast majority of women had difficulty in obtaining the right of inheriting and using property. The only way for women to change their life was marrying rich person, however, they were lack of initiative and right to speak in family life. A case in point in this novel is the property inheritance. Since Mr. Bennet only has daughters who have no right to inherit anything, his property will be inherited only by distant relatives after he dies according to the custom. Thus, we can find that women almost lose autonomy even the right to survive and develop in the man culture-dominated society. Based on the limitations to women on economy, politics, education and marriage and so on, Jane Austen who has a strong sense of social responsibility pays close attention to the phenomenon.

Austen’s feminist thoughts emerges not only because of the impact of her life experiences but also because of her reflection on the women’s social condition. She positively confirms the feminist consciousness and actively fights for women’s independent living space and the right to speak through evaluating and writing literary works and so on. Austen believes that the intelligence of women and men should be viewed as equal and that sometimes women are more alert and rational than men in judgment and analysis. The women in her works are no longer attached to men and are individuals with personality, wisdom and courage.

3. Feminism Reflected in the Contrast of Female Images

Women with different characters and status have been carefully depicted in this novel, including sensible Elizabeth, flighty Lydia, secular Mrs. Bennet, kindly Jane, weak-spirited Kitty, and arrogant Lady Catherine and so on. Through analyzing words and typical personalities of the first three females, we can find Austen’s like of Elizabeth and her dislike of Mrs. Bennet and Lydia. Meanwhile, the author’s feminism that women are equal to men in every aspect and they should be independent and strong-minded is embodied clearly.

3.1 Sensible and independent female image with rebellious spirit—Elizabeth

Elizabeth is the most dazzling female image in the novel. Although she is not as beautiful as her sister Jane and not as talented as Mrs. Bingley, Elizabeth is the proudest daughter of her father. Being a girl who is confident, self-respecting and sensible, she dares to go after romantic love, defend her marriage, and resist secular ethics and patriarchal society. She is the representative of women with feminist consciousness. By depicting Elizabeth, feminism in this novel is reflected vividly.

Firstly, Elizabeth is independent and strong-minded in that she has her own judgment on everyone she meets. Instead of wealth and status, she judges people by observation. She thinks that Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley are very proud since they are only willing to talk to people they like and treat others coldly. Having known that Darcy refused to dance with others in ballroom and said she was not beautiful enough to attract him, she thought of him as disagreeable and arrogant. She thinks Lady Catherine is not friendly and impolite because “Whatever she said was spoken in so authoritative a tone as marked her self-importance.” (Austen 129) She thinks her two younger sisters are weal-pilled, imprudent, self-willed, and careless because they like to pursue the officers and don’t have the patience to stay home half a day.

She has rebellious spirit and isn’t afraid of dignitaries. She refused to dance with Darcy because he had refused to dance with her before and she refused his proposal for his arrogance. She dares to say her thoughts when faced with someone who has a higher status and power than her. She said to Darcy, “I have there therefore made up my mind to tell you that I do not want to dance a reel at all—and now despise me if you dare.”(Austen 42) She wasn’t afraid of Catherine when invited to have dinner since she thought Catherine only had lots of money and high status instead of extraordinary cleverness of good virtue. When Lady Catherine told Elizabeth not to be engaged to his nephew, Elizabeth firmly refused her command and told her that it has nothing to do with her. She pursues marriage that is on the basis of innocent love instead of wealth and status, so she refuses Collins’s proposal regardless of her mother’s opposition. When her friend Charlotte sacrificed her feelings and accepted Mr. Collins’s proposal for worldly advantage, she felt surprised and ashamed of such a friend. Finally, she chose to marry Darcy whom she deeply loved though there was a huge gap between them in their status and wealth.

She is very rational, unlike her two younger sisters who are prudent, and flighty, she can make right decisions even when facing strong feelings. For example, when she knew Wickham, who attracted her a lot, fell in love with Miss Marry King, her adoration disappeared. After knowing he was a liar, she hated him and refused to accept him even though he showed his wish to attract her, which was in contrast to Lydia’s behavior of running away with Wickham.

She is willing to reflect on her thoughts and braves to take action to compensate what she has said and done. For example, her prejudice of Darcy has been continually sharpened because of her believing others evaluation on him easily. But after she read the letter from Darcy and verified the truth through thinking back what happened, she felt ashamed of herself and thought of herself as blind, prejudiced and absurd. She was angry at herself when she considered how unjustly she had condemned him. She apologized to Darcy for her prejudice and expressed her love for Darcy. “Mr. Darcy, I am a very selfish creature; and, for the sake of giving relief to my own feelings, care not how much I may be wounding yours.’’(Austen 290) Finally, she accepted his proposal although Lady Catherine was strongly opposed to it. Austen‘s portrayal of Elizabeth reflects her feminist thoughts that women have the right to go after their independence and happiness. Meanwhile, she insists that women should think for themselves rather than rely on men.

3.2 Shallow and secular female images—Mrs. Bennet and Lydia

“She was a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper. The business of her life was to get her daughters married; its solace was visiting news.”(Austen 3) In the first chapter, Austen described Mrs. Bennet as such a woman. Mrs. Bennet, a classic example of most secular women at that time, is vain and narrow-minded. She views the marriage of her daughters as her most important task. She encourages these girls to take part in social events and meet men with high position so that they can spend the rest of their life happily. Through observing her behavior and words, we can find her vain, secular, noisy, flighty and foolish. For example, when Jane was invited to dine at the Netherfield Park, Mrs. Bennet let her go on horseback so that she could stay there because of the rainy day and she refused to send carriage for Jane and Elizabeth even though Elizabeth wrote home. From this, we can find she is scheming. She is noisy as she always speaks her mind loudly and freely in the public. Mrs. Bennet is very capricious and snobbish because she immediately changes her attitude towards Collins who will inherit Mr. Bennet’s property and has aroused her dislike when knowing Collins is willing to propose to Elizabeth and because she only cares about the status and wealth of daughters’ husbands rather than the happiness of them. After Lydia ran away with Wickham, she blamed everyone but herself who doted on Lydia and led to the faults of her daughter. Besides, she only cared about something of no importance rather than Lydia’s security. “And now do, when you get to town, find them out, wherever they may be; and if they are not married already, make them marry. And as for wedding clothes, do not let them wait for that….And tell my dear Lydia not to give any directions about her clothes till she has seen me, for she does not know the best warehouses.”(Austen 228) What she says is in accordance to her typical personality and can imply she is an imprudent, ignorant and fool woman. It’s not a surprise that her marriage was a failure. Mr. Bennet married her just because of her youth and beauty, and his respect for her wife had vanished forever because she is such a shallow and small-minded woman. As Austen wrote, “her ignorance and folly had contributed to his amusement.”(Austen 188) Austen uses language description to present Mrs. Bennet’s character vividly, which presents Mrs. Bennet’s vulgar thoughts as well as Austen’s dislike and sarcasm for this kind of thought.

Lydia who is young, ignorant and rude is also one of the typical representatives of secular women in England at that time. As a woman with loose morals and rude manners, she is addicted in joining in social events and meeting rich and handsome men. In her eyes, the meaning of her life is pursuing the officers and catching their attention by dressing up. For example, when knowing the regiment has left Meryton, she felt extremely heart rendering and miserable just because she wasn’t allowed by her father to follow them. She runs away with Wickham without feeling ashamed and wants her sisters to do the same with her, which vividly embodies her levity. “I only hope they may have half my good luck. They must all go Brighton. That is the place to get husbands….I dare say I shall get husbands for them before the winter is over.”(Austen 251) She shouts at Mr. Collins and interrupts him when Collins is reading, embodying her impoliteness and rudeness. In the light of her recklessness and Wickham’s meanness, their marriage is doomed to be an absurd tragedy in the end. By describing such a character, Austen expresses her sadness and irony towards women who don’t have the ability to think independently, as well as the wish that women should have their own ideas towards everything and take their life seriously.

4. Feminism Reflected in Subversion and Gloom of Male Images

Darcy and Mr. Collins are two characters with distinct and different personalities, which can be found from their attitudes towards marriage, status, wealth, women and refusal and so on. It can be observed that Darcy’s image has been transformed by female as he, who respects women and braves to pursue love regardless of disparity in status, has feminist consciousness. While Mr. Collins, who is self-centered, self-importance and self- interested, is the representative of men in patriarchal society. By depicting and comparing these two characters, Austen’s feminism that men should treat women in a respectful way is embodied clearly.

4.1 Image of man transformed by female—Darcy

Darcy is a man of high status and great wealth but he is proud and arrogant. He looks down on people from rural families, especially Elizabeth’s sisters and mother because of their impolite and flippant behavior. However, as a gentleman, Darcy is quite respectful of women and is able to keep the respectful attitudes towards women. The women he appreciates are versatile, knowledgeable and wise, which can be seen from his admiration for Elizabeth. He was attracted by Elizabeth’s beautiful eyes at the first sight and then, he loved her for her wisdom and graceful manner. Although he was refused by Elizabeth when he first proposed to her, he didn’t give up his affection for Elizabeth and reflected on himself deeply. He wrote to Elizabeth to tell her the truth, made apology to Elizabeth later for what he had said and done in order to get her forgiveness and expressed his love again. “I have been a selfish being all my life….You taught me a lesson, hard indeed at first, but most advantageous. You showed me how insufficient were all my pretensions to please a woman worthy of being pleased…. And I hoped to obtain your forgiveness, to lessen your ill-opinion, by letting you see that your reproofs had been attended to.”(Austen 293) He also made up his mind to change his shortcomings and helped her family to solve the problem by stealth. For example, at first, he looked down on her relations but he quickly changed his attitudes towards them so as to remove Elizabeth’s prejudice of him. In Pemberley, Darcy inquired after her family and asked Elizabeth to introduce her friends with the greatest politeness. He took his sister to visit Elizabeth and tried his utmost to gain the good opinion of her relations. Moreover, though he disliked Wickham who was mean and immoral, he helped him obtain a good position in the army and pay off the debts. Besides, he gave Lydia thousand pounds without telling Elizabeth. All he had done is to obtain Elizabeth’s forgiveness and win her love. He is such a good man who braves to face up to defects in his own character and take action to compensate the mistakes. Finally, he married Elizabeth and lived a happy life.

In the novel, Darcy is the most successful role Austen portrayed from my perspective since he is quite different from other males in terms of attitudes towards money, status and love. It is known to all that love was compromised when men and women chose to marry someone in 18^th and 19^th century. For nearly every man, the wealth, the status and the beauty of women were the most important factors that decided the starting of a marriage. In their eyes, women were treated as accessories and considered to be inferior to them. But Darcy is quite different form them, he respects women and pursues marriage based on true love and respect without considering status and other factors, which is reflected in his chase for Elizabeth. Having been declined by Elizabeth, he reflected on himself deeply and braved to changes his disadvantages. Thus, it can be found that Darcy is a gentleman who has strong feminist consciousness. Meanwhile, his willingness to give part of his property to Elizabeth’s sister in order to help Lydia to marry Wickham and help Elizabeth’s family get out of trouble without expecting to get reward reflects his strong sense of responsibility and commendable quality. We can find the image of Darcy is perfect and unique because it is infused with feminist thoughts and the author’s expectation for men. By designing such a character, Austen expresses her hope that men can put aside prejudice and respect women.

Stupid and conceited male image—Collins

It can be found easily that Mr. Collins depicted in this novel is a foolish, self -interested and conceited man. Austen uses such words like self-importance, humility, serious, awkward and heavy-looking and so on to describe him, which shows Austen’s dislike of him. Actually, Mr. Collins was the representative of secular ethics and patriarchy at that time. By designing such a character, Austen expresses her sarcasm towards men like him who doesn’t respect women and likes flattering rich people. For example, Mr. Collins tries to do everything carefully to flatter and satisfy Lady Catherine since she is a woman with great wealth and high rank, and he always praises her loudly in front of others, reflecting his humility. When he played cards with her, “Mr. Collins was employed in agreeing to everything her ladyship said, thanking her for every fish he won, and apologizing if he thinks he won too many.”(Austen 133) He is very conceited, which is reflected in what he says and what he does. When he is dissuaded by Elizabeth from introducing himself to Darcy, he says, “I consider myself more fitted by education and habitual study to decide on what is right than a young lady like yourself.”(Austen 79) He doesn’t respect marriage at all for he changes girl who he wants to be engaged to three times in several days and he proposes twice in three days. For him, the reasons for his getting married include three aspects. First, he thinks he, as a priest, should set an example for people. Second, he thinks marriage can make him happier. Third, he is advised to do this by Lady Catherine. He feels amazed at Elizabeth’s refusal of his proposal and points out that she is too poor to receive other offers, which is contrary to Darcy’s reaction. He is very callous and contemptible as Collins advices Mr. Bennet to abandon Lydia when knowing Lydia has run away with Wickham and feels lucky that he doesn’t marry his daughter. What he does is not in accordance with what he says. The image of Mr. Collins is gloom as it is designed to embody the author’s disgust at those arrogant, self-centered, and conceited men like him and her sarcasm for men-dominated society.

5. Conclusion

Pride and prejudice is successfully and indirectly infused with Austen’s feminist thoughts. The heroine’s spirit of fighting for equality and independence had awakened women’s feminist consciousness at that time. Through careful portrayal of different characters, Jane Austen vividly presents women’s life condition and their attitudes towards marriage in 19^th century when women were considered to be inferior to men, not only reflecting her sympathy for women, but also presenting her abhorrence of men-dominated society. Through depicting men and women’s distinct words, behaviors and marriages, Austen expresses her views on marriage and her feminist thoughts. In her point of view, marriage should be based on true love, and mutual respect rather than wealth and status, and women need to be independent and have their own judgment on everything and everybody, which has great enlightenment on people nowadays. At the same time, on the basis of analyzing the essence of bourgeois marriage, Austen deeply describes the status of women, affirms the importance of women’s independency and expresses the wish for the ideal marriage, which is still of great significance to the present society. In fact, gender inequality still exists in today’s society but the feminist consciousness embodied in this novel can encourage women to fight for their equal rights. Besides, Women are encouraged to defend their rights and interests when confronting inequality in life and are encouraged to learn to be independent. Moreover, although money is the safeguard of a happy marriage, women are advised to put love and mutual respect in the first place when choosing to marry someone rather than value the wealth most.

Works Cited

Austen, Jane. Pride and prejudice. Zhuhai: Zhuhai Publishing House, 2006.

Mei Zhixin. “On Jane Austen’s views on Marriage in Pride and Prejudice.” Overseas English 1(2013）：190-191.

Tong Wei. “Jane Austen’s Feminine Consciousness That Reflected in Pride and Prejudice.” Overseas English 13(2011): 259-261.

Wang Guangyan. “Transitive Analysis of Collins’s and Elizabeth’s Discourse in Pride and Prejudice.” Reading and Writing (Educational and Teaching Journal) 6(2010): 19-20.

Wang Yu. “Analysis of Mr. Collins Based on His Proposal and His Reaction to Refusal in Pride and Prejudice.” Overseas English 12(2017): 165-166.

Zhu Xiaoyuan and Chen Yan. “Jane Austen’s Ambivalent Feminism in Pride and Prejudice.” Overseas English 13(2013): 216-217.

邓燕林：《论傲慢与偏见中夏洛特和柯林斯的婚姻》. 南昌教育学院学报，3（2010）：

34-35.

[Deng Yanlin. “On Marriage between Charlotte and Collins in Pride and Prejudice.” Journal of Nanchang College 3(2010):34-35.]

韩玲:《傲慢与偏见中伊丽莎白的女性主体意识》. 温州职业技术学院学报，1（2007）：49-51.

[Han Ling.“The Consciousness of Female Subject of Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice.” Journal of Wenzhou Vocational and Technical College 1(2007): 49-51.]

李华英：《唠唠叨叨且又大惊小怪的班内特夫人：论傲慢与偏见中班内特夫人的

剩余内容已隐藏，请支付后下载全文，论文总字数：31734字