《傲慢与偏见》中女性角色的爱情观文献综述
2020-05-15 22:02:26
1. Introduction 1.1 Research background Jane Austen (1775-1817) was one of the greatest English novelists. She was born in Steventon, Hampshire and the first 25years of her life were spent here. Austen#8217;s father was a well-educated rector, and she was mostly tutored at home and by him. Throughout her whole life, writing makes up most of her time. Although her life was short-lived, the contribution she made to the literature world was tremendous and unforgettable. In 1811, Jane Austen published her first novel which named Sense and Sensibility, then followed Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1815) and Persuasion (1818). In Austen#8217;s writing, she advocated women to live a glorious and dependent life with the help of marriage, but she herself was unmarried in her whole life. Virginia Woolf appreciated Austen as "the most perfect artist among women". As the circumstance Jane Austen lived, most of her literal works had a common limit#8212;the main plots moved round the love affairs of country gentlemen#8217;s daughters. And to some degree, the perspectives of feudalism can be revealed from her works. Jane Austen#8217;s works differed from the prevalent fake romanticism at that time; they inherited and carried forward the excellent realism at the 18th century in England. Pride and Prejudice is a novel of manners written by Jane Austen, which was firstly published in 1813. It describes the clash between Elizabeth Benet, an intelligent beautiful woman who comes from the country and Fitzwilliam Darcy, a rich but conceited city man. It has been engendered numerous adaptations, such as films, televisions and theatres. And the most notable television version is the popular 1995 version by BBC. It was praised by the famous British novelist and dramatist Maugham as one of the world's ten major novels. Maugham believes that Jane Austin has a profound insight and rich emotion; her humor makes her observation more pertinent and powerful, but it also adds vitality to her emotion. At the very beginning of the novel, the author announces that "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife", which sets a motif of love and marriage for the whole book. It turns out that rather than the man being in want of a wife, the woman is in want of a husband who is "in possession of good fortune". Charlotte Lucas, Lydia Bennet, Jane Bennet and Elizabeth Bennet get married to men who are sufficiently appropriate for each of them. Marriage becomes an economic rather than social activity. In the case of Charlotte, the seeming success of the marriage lies in the comfortable economy of their household. The relationship of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet serves to illustrate all that a marriage relationship should not be. Elizabeth and Darcy marry each other on equal terms after breaking each other's 'pride' and 'prejudice' and Austen clearly leaves the reader with the impression that the two will be the happiest. By comparing the marriages in a way that distinguishes the attractive matches from the socially inferior ones, Austen asserts the importance of marriage and the terms in which an agreeable marriage should take place. 1.2 Need for the study Pride and Prejudice is Jane Austen's earliest finished work. She has got down to writing since 1796. It was formerly given the name of "First Impressions", and was regarded as Austin's most representative work. Through the description of marital problems, it shows the picture of British#8217;s social picture. For a long time, critics have mostly focused their attention on the life of the author herself instead of paying attention to the view of marriage and her attitude towards feminism in the novel. No matter in which country, view of marriage is always a hot issue among the society. At 18th century, conventional marriage in England concerns two important factors#8212;property, which is closely related to the social conditions and status, which often decides the marriage. Austen's work style can be summarized as relaxed and humorous, at the same time; her plots are full of comedy conflict. The novel were developed by the social communication, daily dialogue to mirror the moral standard of the family and the society, which contributed to Austen#8217;s works deemed as popular books for a long time. Even though, her works were likened to "two inches as ivory", the prevailing social attitudes were reflected by day-to-day conversations of the rich who came from the country. Use humorous language to satirize the mercenary and van phenomenon. Sneer at the contemptible ridiculous weakness of the ridicule stupid, selfish, snobbish and blind confidence through comedy scenes. Many critics took the novel's title as a starting point when analyze the major themes of Pride and Prejudice; however, Robert Fox cautions against reading too much into the title because commercial factors may have played a role in its selection. "After the success of Sense and Sensibility, nothing would have seemed more natural than to bring out another novel of the same author using again the formula of antithesis and alliteration for the title. It should be pointed out that the qualities of the title are not exclusively assigned to one or the other of the protagonists; both Elizabeth and Darcy display pride and prejudice." The title is very likely taken from a passage in Fanny Burney's popular 1782 novel Cecilia, a novel Austen is known to have admired. 2. Literature review 2.1 Previous studies on Emma In Pride and Prejudice, the author put forth effort to portray several different relationships of love and marriage, expounding the unique love and marriage concept, that is, the ideal marriage should be a complex of emotion, substance, morality and wisdom. The story follows the main character, Elizabeth Bennet, as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education, and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of the British Regency. Elizabeth is the second of five daughters of a country gentleman, Mr. Bennet, living in Longbourn. Set in England in the early 19th century, Pride and Prejudice tells the story of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet's five unmarried daughters after the rich and eligible Mr. Bingley and his status-conscious friend, Mr. Darcy, have moved into their neighborhood. While Bingley takes an immediate liking to the eldest Bennet daughter, Jane, Darcy is disdainful of local society and repeatedly clashes with the Bennets' lively second daughter, Elizabeth. Pride and Prejudice retains a fascination for modern readers, continuing near the top of lists of "most loved books". It has become one of the most popular novels in English literature, selling over 20 million copies, and receives considerable attention from literary scholars. Modern interest in the book has resulted in a number of dramatic adaptations and an abundance of novels and stories imitating Austen's memorable characters or themes. Previously, some research has been done about the marriage in Pride and Prejudice. For example, Xie Ren cheng from Shanghai International Studies University wrote his master thesis which titled "Jane Austen#8217;s View of Marriage in Pride and Prejudice". The author pointed out that Austen#8217;s realistic view towards marriage still of certain importance and value in today#8217;s society by analyzing several relationships of marriages based on scanning the novel. The author affirmed the feminism Jane Austen put forward in the novel and did some research on feminism on that time. 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A Story Without Love: On Pride and Prejudice From the Feminism Perspective .Cross-Cultural Communication, 2015, Vol.11 (2), pp.88-90 11.谢仁程,Jane Austen#8217;s View of Marriage in Pride and Prejudice