Impressions of Pride and Prejudice

I’ve read a book called Pride and Prejudice written by Jane Austen during this winter holidays. Jane Austen was unmarried all her life. She was born in a mid-class family and was brought up in a comfortable environment with harmonious surroundings, so there’s not too many conflicts in her sight neither in her novel. In Pride and Prejudice she talked different ideas about love and marriage through different characters.

The novel has told an interesting story: Mr. Bennet is an English gentleman with an estate in Hertfordshire. He has five unmarried daughters but no sons while his inheritance must be inherited by a male, so Mrs. Bennet has been keen to seek husband for her daughters with great enthusiasm. One day the Bennets had a new neighbor called Bingley who was a wealthy bachelor and followed be the target of Mrs. Bennet. At a ball Bingley fell in love with Jane Bennet who’s the oldest daughter of the Bennets. Bingley’s friend Darcy also came to the ball and struck the sights, many girls liked him while he thought all of them couldn’t suit his preference, including Elizabeth. Mr. Darcy always shows others a impression of pride, having found this Elizabeth began to hate Mr. Darcy. Before long Darcy fell in love with Elizabeth Bennett(second oldest daughter in the Bennets) because of her lovely behavior, while Elizabeth is disgusted by his pride and has a prejudice about him. The official Wickham was welcomed by the villagers, and Elizabeth also took a shine to him. Wickham told Elizabeth that his father had been the steward of the Darcys. The old Darcy had regarded Wickham as his own son and showed more love to him than to Mr. Darcy. After the old Darcy died, the property should be inherited by Wickham was all deprived by Mr. Darcy, also was his pastorate. All this increased

Eli’s prejudice about Mr. Darcy. At another ball Mr. Darcy invited Elizabeth to dance with him, but Eli refused him. Eli’s elder male cousin Mr. Collin came to Hertfordshire to inherit the Bennett's property by rules, he wanted to marry with one of the Bennets. Having known that Jane was already engaged with Mr. Bingley, he asked Elizabeth to marry him but was seriously rejected. At last he proposed to Charllote who was Eli’s friend. Mr. Collins was good at flattering and he got the pastorate with the help of Lady Catherine. Once his family was invited to Rosings Garden by Lady Catherine. Elizabeth also went there with Mr. Collin and Charllote. There she met Mr. Darcy who’s Lady Catherine’s nephew. Later in a garden, Sir William told Eli about Mr. Darcy’s latest act of dissuading Mr. Bingley’s marring Jane Bennet which caused Eli’s exceedingly anger. Then Mr. Darcy came to the Collins’ and confessed his love for Elizabeth, of course he was rejected impolitely. Afterwards Mr. Darcy wrote a letter to Eli in order to remove her misunderstandings of him. Elizabeth’s uncle and aunt were also impressed by Mr. Darcy’s politeness. Gradually Eli’s prejudice of Mr. Darcy diappeared. Eventually they became couple.

The writer Jane Austen disclosed mid-class young ladies’ different ideas of marriage and love through describing the different ways in which the Bennet girls doing with their marriage problems ,and this undoubtedly shows the writer’s idea about love and marriage: it’s wrong to get married just for property, wealth and status while neither would it be without caring about those elements.Jane Austen just attached great significance to marriage through her novel by telling people that marriage should be regarded carefully cause it is not a game you could just enjoy without prudent consideration. She also wanted to deliver information that marriage should be based on real love between the lovers. The female subject Elizabeth is a mid-class girl,

and Darcy proposed to her regardless of the gap between them, but Elizabeth refused because of his pride had formed Eli’s prejudice. Cause Darcy’s pride was a suggest of status gap between he and Eli, he wouldn’t have the same thought with Eli and consequently the ideal marriage. But later Darcy’s doings especially his change of the prideful manner eliminated Eli’s misunderstandings and prejudice about him, and Eli accepted his proposal. Those two opposite attitudes reflect female’s pursue of independent personality and equality. I think Elizabeth has personality ethic which caused her independent idea about love and marriage and in consequence she earned a happy life. There’re also Eli’s sisters’ love stories served as contrasts to the female subject’s ideal marriage, such as Charlotte and Collin’s life: they do had a luxury life, but there’s no real love between them and this kind of marriage is surely a tragedy of society.

 

第二篇：Pride and Prejudice (傲慢与偏见)读后感 毕业论文 全英文

A Study of Marriages in Pride and Prejudice

Content

ChapterⅠ Introduction

ChapterⅡ Four marriages in the novel

1. Mr. Bennet’ s moral marriage

2. Fitzwilliam Darcy’s perfect marriage

3. Charles Bingley’s happy marriage

4. George Wickham’s sex-oriented marriage

Chapter Ⅲ Three Factors in Affecting a Marriage

1. Love

2. Property

3. Personality

Ⅲ. Conclusion

Abstract

The author collected a considerable amount of information of discussing the formation of four different marriages in Jane Austen’s Pride and prejudice. The paper recommended the four marriages are happy marriage, sex-oriented marriage, moral marriage and perfect marriage. It analyzes that one’s character reflects his/her marriage and attitudes towards love and social morals. The emphasis of this study lies in the forth marriage (perfect marriage) that arrived at the combination of physical life and spiritual life. Finally the author concludes that the important factors of a successful marriage are fortune, love, status and knowledge.

Keywords: marriage, love, social mores, status, fortune

1

摘要

通过收集大量的文献资料作者论述了奥斯丁《傲慢与偏见》中四种不同的婚姻形成过程，介绍了四种婚姻——,幸福婚姻，情欲婚姻，道德婚姻和完满婚姻，并且分析了一个人的性格影响着他（她）对爱情和婚姻的看法，以及社会道德对婚姻形成的制约作用。这篇论文旨在说明第四种婚姻（完满婚姻）是物质生活和精神生活的完美结合，最后作者得出：财产，地位，爱情可谓幸福的三大要素。

关键词：婚姻，爱情，社会道德观，社会地位，财产

2

ChapterⅠ. Introduction

Among all the novels written by Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice has been valued as most successful and popular masterpiece. The ladies and gentlemen in the landed gentry, the plots of this novel revolve around the intricacies of courtship and marriage between members of her class, which is great attraction to many readers. In Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, I made an analysis of those four types of marriages and came to a conclusion that the formation of four different marriage. Nearly each marriage has a different flavor; each person’s character reflects his or her marriage and their attitudes towards marriage; each marriage was reflected by the society of those days and Austen’s personal experiences. The central role, marriage, is discussed in the famous opening line of this novel.

It is truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering the neighborhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters. ( P.1 )

The first line also defines Jane’s book as a piece of literature that connects itself to the 18th century period. Pride and Prejudice is 18th century because of the emphasis on man in his social environment rather than in his individual conditions. ①

And what factors could affect a good marriage? What are the elements of marriage? In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen presents several different marriages to indicate that a happy and strong marriage takes time to build and must be based on mutual feelings, understanding, and respect; hasty marriage based on superficial qualities will not last long and will lead to unhappiness. This paper will firstly display some different marriages in the novel, such as the successful one, happy one, common one, sex-oriented one, etc. then in the third chapter, it will discuss the main factors that are made up of a successful and happy marriage. Finally, at the end of this paper, it tries to form a deeper idea of the marriage.

ChapterⅡ. Four marriages in the novel

There are several different marriages presented in this novel. These marriages contrast each other to reveal Jane Austen’s opinions and thoughts on the subject of marriage. In this paper, it shows several of these marriages through the personality analysis of men.

1.Mr.Bennet’s moral marriage

In contrast to Elizabeth, her father, Mr. Bennet, is an example of living with one’s mistakes.

“He had married a woman whose weak understanding and illiberal mind, had very early in their marriage put an end to all real affection for her. Respect, esteem and confidence, had vanished for ever; and all his views of domestic happiness were overthrown” (P.209)

Mrs. Bennet's main interest in life is to find suitable husbands for her five daughters, while Mr. Bennet would like to isolate himself from his family and find refugee in his library or in mocking his wife. Mr. Bennet also can be considered as an 3

irresponsible father because he lacks of responsibility towards his family and he encourages his younger daughters to elope with Wickham. So from every point of view, their marriage is just a common one, like hundreds of thousands couples.

2.Fitzwilliam Darcy’s perfect marriage

It is clear that Jane Austen does not believe falling in love at the first sight, before they open their love and get married, Elizabeth and Darcy have to understand and overcome their own pride and prejudice before they can appreciate each other. On their first meeting, the two major characters make a bad start. They do not fall in love at the first sight. On the contrary, the rich and handsome Darcy is too proud to lower himself, and offends the lively and intelligent girl Elizabeth. When he thinks he is rich and owns a large estate in Derbyshire, he says: “She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me.” On the other hand, Darcy is so proud of his social class that he is prejudiced against the Bennet family’s improper manner and connections to the working class (Elizabeth’s aunts and uncles). Later, after a series of events, Darcy does have a strong sense of honor and virtue, and he begins to fall in love with Elizabeth. At last, he proposes with great condescension. Thinking that Darcy dislikes her, Elizabeth dose not really notice when Darcy’s attitude toward her begins to change. Later Darcy writes a letter to Elizabeth to explain his feelings. After reading this letter, Elizabeth’s view towards him begins to change, when Darcy proposes again, Elizabeth accepts. And for their true love, the pride has been weakened and prejudice disappeared.②

3.Charles Bingley’s happy marriage

This is a parallel love story. The marriage between Jane Bennet and Bingle is also an example of successful marriage. Elizabeth’s sister Jane is the eldest in the family. Beautiful, good-tempered, sweet, amiable, and modest, she is universally well liked. She refuses to judge anyone badly. Mr. Bingley, much like Jane, is an amiable and good-tempered person. He is not concerned with class differences, and Jane’s poor family connections cannot stop him from falling in love with Jane. Jane Austen expresses her opinion of this through Elizabeth in the novel,

“Really believed all his Bingley expectations of felicity to be rationally founded, because they had for basis the excellent understanding, and super- excellent disposition of Jane, and a general similarity of feeling and taste between her and himself.” (P.308)

However, unlike Darcy and Elizabeth, there is a flaw in their relationship ― both characters are too innocent and too good-hearted to act heavily against the external force that may attempt to separate them. As to Jane, she never thinks ill for any body and she shows her warm sympathetic feelings in an easy manner. Her character is vividly showed in many parts of the novel. And no doubt that Jane’s father says, “Your tempers are by no means unlike. You are each of you so complying, that nothing will ever be resolved on; so easy, that every servant will cheat you; and so generous, that you will always exceed your income” (P.309)

4.George Wickham’s sex-oriented marriage

Obviously, Lydia and Wickham’s marriage is an example of a bad marriage. Lydia 4

Bennet, the youngest of the Bennet daughters, is devoted to a life of dancing, fashions, gossips and flirting. Wickham is an officer in the regiment stationed at Meryton. Wickham is quickly judged to be a perfectly good and amiable man because of his friendliness and the ease of his manners. However, he is mean and wicked. “A curious degree of sexual attraction often goes with a lively, unreliable disposition, which may either be somewhat superficial but perfectly well-meaning, or driven by circumstance which it has not the strength to withstand, become that of a scoundrel.” He elopes with Lydia with no intention of marrying her and is just only made to do so by Darcy’s intervention. Lydia also does not take into consideration her marriage, the personality of her husband, or the prospects of their marriage. ③Therefore, their marriage is based on appearance and youthful impulse. Once these qualities can no longer be seen by each other, and once strong relationship slowly fades away, problems rise as a result. As in the novel, Lydia and Wickham’s marriage gradually disintegrates; Lydia becomes a regular visitor at her two elder sister’s homes when” her husband was gone to enjoy himself in London or Bath”

Through their relationship, we can see they are “a couple who were only brought together because their passions were stronger than their virtue” and “affection for her soon sunk into indifference; her lasted a little longer.” In their marriage, Jane Austen shows that hasty marriage based on superficial qualities quickly wither and lead to unhappiness.④

Chapter Ⅲ. Three Factors in Affecting a Marriage

In this novel, Jane Austen, by describing seven different marriages, expressed her viewpoint. To sum up, there are three main factors that affect marriage in the eighteenth century.

1. Love

In Jane Austen's novel, the theme of love and marriage makes her as a different writer with romanticism. Once an anonymous reader comments love in this novel as follows, “Love is holding hands in the street, and marriage is holding arguments in the street. Love is a universal feeling, and it can make you happy but often it hurts, but love's only special when you give it to someone who is really worth it”.⑤

In the novel, with regard to marriage, unlike Charlotte, Elizabeth chooses to remain true love to her best by her heart and her own good sense. She believes that marriage should be based on mutual understanding and feelings. Some readers may think that Elizabeth does not really love Mr. Darcy, only Mr. Darcy loves her. It’s not quite so. Jane Austen seems to appreciate Elizabeth's feelings to Darcy because "gratitude and esteem are good foundations of affection." On the visit of Pemberley, as Elizabeth stood before the canvas, "a more gentle sensation" arises. When she met Darcy unexpectedly and walked with him, all that in her mind was "whether she was still dear to him." After Lydia's run- away, when Darcy had got the news and left the room, Elizabeth recalled their mutual experience and hoped that they could continue their mutual feelings. All these, as well as Elizabeth's later inner struggle to Darcy indicate that she really loves Darcy. Therefore, her marriage is founded on her own feelings, affection and understanding.

5

As a result, the relationship between Jane and Bingley is undoubtedly true love. Jane Austen suggests that love is an important factor to a successful marriage. Marriages that lack of true love are destined to have a bad result. In this novel, Lydia and Wickham's relationship is an unsuccessful marriage. Therefore, Jane Austen implies her theme through Jane's words, “do anything rather than marry without affection.”

2. Property

Property in a marriage is the subject matter of the whole novel, and it plays an important role in marriage at that time. In different marriage, there are mainly four types of marriage in the novel: the perfect marriage of Elizabeth and Darcy, sex-oriented marriage of Lydia and Wickham utilitarian marriage of Charlotte and Collins as well as moral marriage of Mr. Bernnet and Miss. Bernnet. All these marriages involve money. The happy marriage is partly based on property, and Lydia's marriage is especially affected by money.

In the novel, Jane Austen uses number words to suggest money. For example, Bingley has an income of between 4,000 and 5,000 pounds a year, while Darcy has an income of 10,000 pounds a year. And the women in 18th century in Britain lawfully owned nothing. The only way to financial security for many women of that time was to marry to a richer man. It seems that this novel considers marriage as a market, and the female as marketable. Charlotte is just an example in the marriage market where personal attractions are weighed against financial considerations.⑥ "Marriage had always been her object; it was the only honorable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune." According to common sense, people who regard marriage as a matter of arranging an equal alliance between families cannot at the same time see it as a romantic thing between two individuals. This is not always the case in this novel. We can find some examples of such conflict. Darcy knows that marriage with Elizabeth Bennet would not be an equal alliance from his point of view, and he spends a long time in making up his mind, but eventually he comes down on the side of romance, "In vain have I struggled, It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed!" Mr. Bennet is worried when he knows Elizabeth has accepted Darcy's Proposal, "I know your disposition. Lizzy. I know that you could be neither happy nor respectable, unless you truly esteemed your husband." ⑦

Marriage is the main subject in the novel, and there are four marriages in it. So many marriages brings us the topic to discuss--the financial considerations in marriage in eighteenth century. Throughout the novel Austen uses the sentences as follows: “Words that suggest number or money, physical size or material value. ...When moral and emotional situations are persistently expressed in economic figures, we can hardly escape the recognition that this is a novel about marriage as a market, and about the female as marketable.”

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a gentleman in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife!” This sentence clearly shows the connection between finance and marriage. A blunt restatement of this sentence might been read, “it is an acknowledged truth in our particular society that a single woman without a 6

fortune must need a husband who has one.” In the world of this novel, marriage is a market, and the young women are its merchandise. For various reasons Elizabeth and her four sisters operate under a considerable disability on the marriage market. Elizabeth, however, rejects mercenary and crude class considerations and scorns subterfuge and design; her intention is to remain true to her best self by being guided by her heart and by her good sense. In choosing (or rather accepting) a husband, she will remain true to her feelings and her considerable intelligence. Jane Austin’s point, however, is that the heart and the feelings must be educated. The course of the novel presents the education of Elizabeth’s feelings as she negotiates the marriage market. “Single women have a propensity for being poor, which is one very strong argument in favor of matrimony.” From the letter we can get a clear understanding of women’s situation in Jane Austin’s period.⑧

Let’s set up some examples to show this point. At the very beginning Mrs. Bennet regards Mr. Bingley as “A fine thing for their girls” just because he is a single man of a large fortune. On the contrary, they do not consider those men in regimentals appropriate for their daughters just because they are not rich enough to support the family. Most of the officers are younger sons in the families that they don’t have the right to inherit their fathers’ fortune. Colonel Fitzwilliam is attracted by Elizabeth but he has no intention of marrying her. The most important reason is perhaps the financial problem. As a younger son, he should be serious in his marriage. It is good for him to marry a woman with a large fortune. Even wealthy men like Mr. Darcy and Bingley are considered to marry a noble as himself, if she had a large amount of money it will be better. It clearly shows that financial problem in marriage is not only the reason women considered but as well as men. Marriage for wealth is considered very serious for some of the men.

Elizabeth’s first marriage proposal comes from Mr. Collins, who is a complete fool. His proposal lays out in the crassest terms the realities of the marriage market. Pompous, shallow, ignorant, boring and self-satisfied, Mr. Collins, in terms of his financial position and Elizabeth’s prospects, is a “good catch”. If marriage were solely a business transaction, Mr. Collins would be correct, as he lists all the economic and social considerations that lead him to disbelieve Elizabeth’s rejection of his proposal. But feelings do count, and Elizabeth is not bullied by her mother’s pressure or Mr. Collins’ practical importunities. Mr. Collins came to town to buy a wife. He first decided to choose Jane for his wife. After being hinted by Mrs. Bennet that Jane is ready to marry Mr. Bingley, he turns to Elizabeth. When Lizzy refuses him, he goes next door and chooses Charlotte Lucas as his wife. Charlotte Lucas is one of the sadder aspects in this comic novel. “Without thinking highly either of men or of matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only honorable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want.”

Charlotte Lucas’s pragmatic views on marriage are voiced several times in the novel. She is 27, not especially beautiful, and without an especially large “portion”. ⑨So she decides to marry Mr. Collin “ from the pure and disinterested desire of an 7

establishment”. Their marriage is based on money rather than on love or appearance. Therefore most “genteel” women (the women in mid-class families) could not get money except by marrying for it or inheriting it. It lies in the interest of a woman to marry a man with a fortune, or at least some good deal of money.

In Jane Austen's time, there was no real way for young women of the “gentle” classes to strike out on their own or be independent. Entailed property is usually inherited by male primogeniture, and in more or less the same way as are some titles of nobility -- i.e. by the nearest male-line descendant (son of son etc.) of the original owner of the estate or title, whose ancestry in each generation goes through the eldest son who has left living male-line descendants. Women generally inherit only if there are no male-line heirs left, and if there is more than one sister, they are all equal co-heiresses, rather than only the eldest inheriting. From the very beginning we get the information that according to the law at that time Mr.Bennet’s fortune is left for Mr.Collins, not for his five daughters. Professions, the universities, politics, etc. were not open to women in the eighteenth century. As a result, independence on woman's hand seems never occurred. Few occupations were open to them -- and those few that were (such as being a governess, which means to be a live-in teacher for the daughters of a family) not highly respected, were not well paid or did not have very good working conditions. ⑨Only a rather small number of women were what could be called professionals, who use their own efforts earned an income sufficient to make themselves independent, or had a recognized career. Generally, a woman who did not marry could only look forward to living with her relatives as a “dependant”(more or less Jane Austen's situation), so it seems that marriage is the only way of ever getting out from under the parental roof. If her family could not support her, in which case she could face the unpleasant necessity of going to live with employers as a “dependant” governess or teacher. A woman with no relations or employer was in danger of slipping off the scale of gentility altogether. And in general, becoming an “old maid” was not considered a desirable fate. Since she could not overcome the bondage, which the society had opposed on her, she had to choose a “better” way---marriage. All of these above separate the women from financial independence. Marriage is therefore a great security for a happy life since there was nothing like the social security, old age pensions or health insurances we are provided with today. Given all this, some women were willing to marry just because marriage was the only allowed route to financial security, or to escape an uncongenial family situation. It was a common practice during the author’s time for women to marry a husband to save her from spinsterhood or to gain financial security. Charlotte has no other choice than this; both the society and her own fate had decided this. She may want to marry with love or appearance but she can’t. Her decision is mostly based on her consideration of the society. It is due to rational considerations that she has made the decision.

3. Personality

In fact, personality is also a main factor affects one’s marriage. As we know, person’s attitude towards marriage could make their marriage happy or not.

In the hasty marriage of Lydia and Wickham, Lydia is foolish to given up to indolence. She is the favorite of Mrs. Bennet, because the two share much in common 8

in their characters. She lacks any sense of virtue, propriety or good-judgment, and so she sees no purpose to live beyond entertainment. Wickham is an officer in the regiment stationed at Meryton. Through Darcy's exposition of his past and through his elopement with Lydia, he deceives her and makes her to believe that he intends to marry her. As in the novel, Lydia and Wickham's marriage gradually disintegrates. Their personality leads them to an unhappy marriage. Because of their personality, they found their marriage on economic agreement. They do not have the true concept of marriage, so their marriage is doomed to fail.⑩

In the happy marriage of Elizabeth and Darcy, Jane Austen is showing one of the best characteristics that a woman can have: an unconventional free will. Elizabeth is lively, quick-witted, sharp-tongued, bold and intelligent. She chooses to remain true love to her best by her heart and her own good sense. She believes that marriage should be based on mutual understanding and feelings. While Darcy is proud, haughty and extremely conscious of class differences at the beginning of the novel. But his strong sense of honor and virtue spur him to change. He really falls in love with Elizabeth, so he recognizes his faults of pride and social prejudice, and wins Elizabeth's love. At last they have a happy marriage. Jane and Bingley’s marriage is also of this kind. Owe to their proper attitude towards their own marriage stems from their good personality; they have a happy and strong marriage.

Here, we just set up Elizabeth and Darcy’s character as an example. Elizabeth, we see, has a lot of depth to her character. Something Elizabeth prides herself on is her insight into character and what people are really like. This is shown to be correct in her thoughts on Mr Bingley's sisters.

With more quickness of observation and less pliancy of temper than her sister, and with a judgment, too, unassailed by any attention to herself, she was very little disposed to approve them.

But yet she is ashamed to be proven wrong in her thoughts on Wickham and Darcy. In this particular case, it is Jane whose thoughts are closer to the truth. This is where prejudice truly shows itself in the story, since Elizabeth is so completely blinded. She is so blinded that she will not listen to the opinion of her sister, or to the affirmation of Bingley and his sister.

Other aspects of her character match Darcy well. The most obvious being shown in their conversations, that they match each other in wit and learning. But there are also many other aspects shown in the story. Darcy commends her on not conforming to the standards of her family: But amidst your concern for the defects of your nearest relations, and your displeasure at this representation of them, let it give you consolation to consider that to have conducted yourselves so as to avoid any share of the like censure is praise no less generally bestowed on you and your eldest sister, than it is honorable to the sense and disposition of both.

While, Fitzwilliam Darcy is described as a fine, tall person, handsome features, noble man, but Darcy is a man who has to overcome pride. The first part of the story shows how dislikeable he is. This is shown plainly at the Meryton assembly: his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity; for he was discovered to be proud, to be above his company, and above being pleased. And then later when 9

he proposes to Elizabeth: “I might as well enquire,’’ replied she, “why, with so evident a design of offending and insulting me, you chose to tell me that you liked me against your will, against your reason, and even against your character?

So, we see plainly that Darcy is distinguished by his pride. But in the second part of the story we see how he begins to change. Darcy gives the reasons for this change after Elizabeth finally accepts him, that her words humbled him and taught him a lesson. ⑾

Ⅲ. Conclusion

The marriages in Pride and Prejudice thus portray and advocate patriarchy within the economic system, social standing and society as a whole. Jane Austen therefore portrays marriage as a patriarchal institution where economic, social and intellectual compatibility as well as love must be present for the relationship to succeed.

To sum up, Pride and Prejudice, like Jane Austen’ other novels, sets marriage as its primary subject. It displays a gentle but witty satire of courtship and marriage. The main part of the novel focuses on the relationship between the attractive Elizabeth and the haughty Darcy. Their marriage reveals the characteristics that make up a successful marriage. It should be founded on mutual understanding, respect, similarity in feeling and taste. In different types of marriages, Austen also indicates that personality is the most influential factor to marriage in the 18th century in Britain. Wealth is not criticized in itself, only if it is used in the wrong way. Maybe it is realistic in their day to manage to fit together the love and property of marriage, together with mutual affection and equal alliance. Personality is also an important factor. Jane Austen’s novel tells us that love is the source for happiness of marriage. And personality is the most important factors in affecting a happy marriage.

Bibliography

1. Kinsley, James and Frank W. Bradbrook, eds. Pride and Prejudice. Austen, Jane. London: Oxford University Press, 1987

2. Kern, Stephen. The Culture of Love. London: Cambridge University, 1992

3. Milligan, Ian. The English Novel. World Publishing Corp, 1987

4. Woolf, Leonard. The Economic Determination of Jane Austen. The New Statesman and Nation. 1942

5. Nash, Geoffrey. York Notes—Pride and Prejudice. Beijing: World Publishing Corpporation, 1989

6. Bush, Douglas. Mrs. Bennet and the Dark Gods: The truth about J ane Austen The Sewaneeb Review Autumn, 1956

7. Walton Street. Pride and Prejudice. Austen, Jane. Oxford University Press, 1970

8. 陈堂, 2000,《理性的光芒--＜傲慢与偏见＞与简·奥斯丁的婚姻道德观》，琼州大学报，第四期

9. 颉敬东，2000，《奥斯丁＜傲慢与偏见＞中的婚姻观，镇江师专学报，第四期

10

10. Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1995.

11. Adventures in English Literature. Orlando: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, 1985.

11