The impression of Pride and Prejudice

The book《 Pride and Prejudice》 is written by Jane Austen , a famous English writer .

I still remember the first sentence in this book .It reads :"It is a truth well known to all the world that an unmarried man in possession of a large fortune must in need of a wife ." The undertone is very clear : the foundation of the marriage at that time is not emotion but possession. Love seems to be a perpetual theme all the time .And the main story in the book Pride and Prejudice is not a exception .The writer tells us her views and attitudes about love and marriage in this book.

The novel mainly tells us a love story between Elizabath and Mr. Darcy.It is at a ball that Elizabeth meets Mr. Darcy for the first time and his pride and supercilious behaviors has left Elizabeth a terrible impression . This is the reason why Elizabeth's prejudice towards him begins .Besides this reason ,there are two other incidents strengthens Elizabeth's prejudice .The first is that Wickham speaks ill of Mr. Darcy, which makes Elizabeth thinks him is unworthy to making acquaince of.The second is that Elizabeth regards Darcy is the person who separates her sister Jane and Mr. Bingley.But with the plots developing ,Darcy has changed himself and become no longer pride ,he also helps Jane and Bingley's reunion .All these factor change Elizabeth's attitude towards Darcy. Eventually , Elizabeth and Darcy become a couple and lead a happy life from then on.

After reading this novel, I realize the author—Jane Austen’s attitudes and views towards love and marriage: is unpractical to get married just for property, wealth and social status while would it be without caring about these elements. Marriage should be based on a real love and it is not a game! You can not just enjoy it without prudent considerations. There is a gap which is called pride and prejudice between Elizabeth and Darcy , for they possess different society status and amount of property. But the ending which the author arranges that Elizabeth and Darcy break all the obstacles and become a love couple suggests that true do exist no matter how different the background ,the status is .And I think this book will arouse people’s awareness of the importance of true love in a marriage.

 

第二篇：傲慢与偏见英文版读后感

Appreciation of Pride and Prejudice

Appreciation of Pride and Prejudice

When we talk about Pride and Prejudice, the famous sentence that “It is a truth universally, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a

wife” always the first thing came up to my mind. It can be the scripture of the whole fiction. It is very interesting and with this sentence I came into the world of Jane Austen, or in the other words she came into my world, we sometimes share the same idea the different is that she use an irony way let us know the meaning of “family” ”love” and ” marriage”.

The Pride and Prejudice is a representative work of her. This fiction with social scenic style not only attracted vast readers long ago, but also brings with a unique artistic taste even by today. I always think about it how can a woman writer do such a great job. Things always have their reasons.

Jane Austen was born in Hampshire, a country priest family located in Hants, the village of Kingston, Sidemen in north England. She was a beautiful, talented middle class woman with extraordinary temperament and good cultivation. She was primarily educated at home, benefiting from her father’s extensive library and the schoolroom atmosphere created by Mr. Austen’s live-in pupils. Her closest friend was her only sister, Cassandra, almost three years her senior.

Though Austen lived a quiet life, she had unusual access to the greater world, primarily through her brothers. Francis (Frank) and Charles, officers in the Royal Navy, served on ships around the world and saw action in the Napoleonic Wars. Henry, who eventually became a clergyman like his father and his brother James, was an officer in the militia and later a banker. Austen visited Henry in London, where she attended the theater, art exhibitions, and social events and also corrected proofs of her novels. Her brother Edward was adopted by wealthy cousins, the Knights, becoming their heir and later taking their name. On extended visits to Godmersham, Edward’s estate in Kent, Austen and her sister took part in the privileged life of the landed gentry, which is reflected in all her fiction. What she experienced in her life formed her marriage, she hold the unique attitude towards her marriage. In her fiction irony is one of characteristics you can find traces everywhere.

She has vividly described four different kinds of loves and marriages by skillfully using irony and his witty and humorous language. Moreover, for the first time throughout the history of English literature, Jane Austen has completely researched and discussed about the issue of women’s circumstance and social status. She proposed and insisted that women should fight for their independent dignity and equal rights. It represents an advanced thinking of feminine consciousness.

In this great book, the author amply demonstrates her point about love and marriage. But they have great background “At that time, according to the social conditions in Britain, a good marriage for a young woman was critical. This phenomenon was closely associated with the British society and the status of women in the society. In the 19th century, women were not well respected compared with the ones in the present society. There was no equality between woman and man. Women were considered to be inferior to men in terms of intelligence and capacity. The central life of women was forced to be staying at home, their roles were to deal with the family affairs, such as taking care of the children and serving for the husband.”.

People naturally thought that women should be submissive to their husbands.

The virtues of women were patient and deferent. They must recognize their inherent inferiority to men, so they must restrict their abilities without conditions. Although the status of women was slow, few of them expressed dissatisfaction about their own destiny. At that time, many middle-class young women had three solutions: getting married; staying at home as old maids or working as the family female teachers. The income of family female teacher was very low, and the status was low as well. It was very difficult for them to change or swap out of this status, no one would like to be a maid forever, therefore, in terms of young women, especially those who don't have enough properties, to get married was the only way for them to gain respect, stability and social status.

Austin fully critiqued some bad phenomenon in her work pride and prejudice, taking some perfect points about marriage and love to demonstrate her own view on love and marriage. We can see some idea of her in the four marriages.

1. Collins and Charlotte’s Marriage

In pride and prejudice, the first part is the marriage of Charlotte and Collins, their marriage is lucky and natural. They get married without any expectation. Charlotte is William Lucas’s daughter, who is the neighbor of Lizzy Bennett. She was born of humble parentage and very mediocre in every aspect. So she has not got married even until she is 26 years old. She may be a typical questionable girl. However, there are 5 daughters in the Bennetts, the five daughters are gradually growing up to the age for marriage. So both of the two families rival mutually, especially in the eyes of the vulgar women, such rivalry was particularly tedious. Bennett’s wife was especially typical; she does not give birth to a boy but five girls. The family’s property couldn't be given to a daughter according to the custom at that time, and the family without a son can grant the wealth to the nephew. Thus, one of Bennett nephew－Collins can inherit the family wealth. Therefore, Mrs. Bennett has great expectations on her nephew. Though the family is not very rich, he is the final owner of Bonnet family's wealth. With this, Mrs. Bennett felt at ease, and then she has great hope on Collins and likes him. Catherine Collins, with the help of one of his relatives, becomes a priest. And then he goes to the home of his uncle, wanting to be home complement of Bennett. Because he has heard a lot about the arrangement of the five golden flowers of his uncle's family, he is coming to try his luck here. In his mind, if he could be one son-in-low of his uncle’s, then he could get the property of the family. He stays at home for a long time to repay his uncle's heritage and gets sympathy by the family. Informed that the eldest daughter Jane has a boyfriend, he aims at the second daughter Elizabeth Bennett in spite for his aunt’s interesting sake, Elizabeth has been tired of him. Eventually, she refuses him with sharp tongue. But Collins quickly finds comfort from Charlotte who desires to get love from a male and believes marriage is the elegant way for a girl with some education, and then they get married as quickly as the lightning. A mediocre love, a dull marriage has been established effortlessly. Such marriage without love is too practical, so it is a kind of superficial marriage without happiness.

2. Lydia and Wickham’s Marriage

The second marriage is between Bennett’s third daughter Lydia and Wickham,

the son of the housekeeper. Originally he is well-treated by the family and the friends. However, he comes down in the world because of his misbehavior. He gets into debt. So, he wants to get money and become rich and change his social status through marriage, marriage is also a way to approach the talents, he is a man without any responsibility. He does nothing except assailing a woman with obscenities. In his opinion, love is only recreation. For his purpose, he entices Lydia and gets her love easily, because she is young, innocent and vainglorious, and loves to go ease and hates to work hard, and is spoilt by her mother. Getting love and praise of a boy is her dream. So when Wickham wants to reach his aim－getting wealth by love and exalts her beauty hypocritically, she forgets who she is and feels she is the most beautiful and happiest girl in the world. Their love does not get the permission from the parents, and then they elope. When Elizabeth hears the news, she believes that their love is false, Wickham would not marry Lydia, because she is no charming and has nothing to attract him, He does not love her but the wealth of her family. The marriage is admitted on the condition of Darcy's help. Their marriage is considered to be a scandal in Bennett’s family. But Mrs. Bennet is not disgraceful to this marriage. When Collins gets the news, of course, he is very angry and reacts to the marriage to revenge his early failure of proposal to her. This marriage is one without love. They don’t the real meaning of marriage, they only want to satisfy their aspiration. So we can say this is a kind of impromptu love and marriage without true love and responsibility. Such couple only seek having had the experience but not everlasting and unchanging. Of course, such kind of marriage is doomed to be a tragedy.

3. Jane and Mr. Bingley’s Marriage

The third marriage is of the eldest daughter Jane and Mr. Bingley. Bingley is a friend of Darcy. Bingley’s sister loves Darcy very much. She wants Bingley to get married with Darcy’s sister Georgiana, because she wants to get love from Darcy by this way, which also reflects the selfishness the sister. The marriage of the able man- Bingley and the beautiful girl-Jane is ideal in most people’s eyes. Of course, the couple meets many setbacks, such as the misunderstanding of Darcy and Bingley's selfish sister. At last, the lovers get married as the misunderstanding between Elizabeth and Darcy has been solved.

4. Darcy and Elizabeth’s Marriage.

The fourth marriage is the main theme of the works. That is Darcy and Elizabeth’s marriage. At the beginning, Elizabeth rejects the pursuer-Darcy, because she does not like him, even looks down upon him though Darcy loves her very much. In Elizabeth’s eyes, he is arrogant and unreasonable because he is rich and has high social status. Realizing that, Darcy begins to get rid of those bad habits quietly to crate her taste and get good impression and love of her. Because of Darcy’s perfect behavior and good education, Elizabeth gradually eliminates the bias on Darcy. Then they spontaneously fall in love. So when Darcy’s second suitor is sent to Elizabeth, Elizabeth readily agree with, and they get married and have happy family lives.

From the four different marriages we can infer four kinds of the outlook on “life view”,” values view”,” love view”,” marriage view”.

But from this fiction I become a girl that look forward the marriage bBased on true love. And Elizabeth is the ideal image for women as well as the most charismatic person in the novel. She is Bonnet’s second daughter, an active, intelligent and smart girl. She has a middle-class family background and has not been affected by the formal education belonging to those aristocratic young girls, so she isn't good at music and painting, but she has read many books which make her knowledgeable and perceptive. The most important aspect is that she is a lady with dignity and upbringing. Darcy is a man with tall figure and good manner. He is handsome, rich and powerful. So he is the ideal husband of most girls. But he has grown up in the surroundings with strong sense of power, so he always is selfish and arrogant, and he has a critical look at each individual, except the family members., he is not concerned about anyone else, and looks down upon anyone else. Therefore, when he first arrives in the village, he finds all the persons are far away from those imagined .Although every girl there is young and lovely, he has no interest to anyone except Elizabeth. At first he doesn’t put an eye on Elizabeth. Gradually, he has to admit that Elizabeth is beautiful, distinct and popular, although he insists that Elizabeth hasn't the same social status as him. Darcy is rational because he has a strong sense of power, which agrees on the reality at that time. Although he expresses his love to Elizabeth, he couldn't help showing his arrogance, which makes Elizabeth have misconception and prejudice on Darcy. Darcy loves Elizabeth, but looks down upon her social status. He considers that he has been lowing himself and doing something against his will, personalities and even moral standard. He thinks that his marriage would certainly succeed and Elizabeth is waiting for him to propose marriage.

Therefore, even he is irresistible to the flooding feelings, and condescends to Elizabeth, he still remembers the gap between them. Clearly, the rational aspect of Darcy’s personality performs on the realities of society. When he talks about his feelings of love, he also expresses the arrogance of these feelings in details, which results in the arousing resentment of Elizabeth; she rejects his marriage proposal, and angrily accuses his insolence. The rational aspect of the heroine Elizabeth shows her clear, calm and actually stressful personality. Compared with her stupid mother, the smooth and lazy father, the shallow-minded, self-willed sister with feather head, Elizabeth is one with ideal mind. She is elegant like her sister Jane, but more intellectually superior unlike her sister being easy to be favorable. She also advises her sister to see through the stupidity and nonsense of those camouflage honest persons.

Elizabeth is unique, because she has a deep understanding of all the things around her. In fact both she and Darcy are extremely sensitive to the social status. Different from Darcy, Elizabeth doesn’t have superiority about her family background and status. Instead, she feels deeply ashamed for her sister’s being lack of fairly education and her mother's rudeness and stupidity. Compared with her moderate and generous sister Jane, she is smarter and even more profound. She has a clean understanding about her own social status, which is due to the psychotically sedimentary deposits because she is in a inferior position for long time. Because of this, she resists extremely against the arrogance of Darcy, and she tries her best to protect herself from being hurtled by Darcy's commanding attitude. She believes that she must make him understand that she is not woozy, which reflects her belief to deal with the emotional entanglements with Darcy, as well as her constant patter with Darcy and the prejudice on Darcy. It superficially seems to be shared by the traditional psychological requirement that everyone needs to be respected mutually. Mutually speaking, this is another form of expression about the awareness of status. Perhaps, to some extent, Darcy has more romantic temperament than Elizabeth, it is because he is better positioned than her. Elizabeth refuses the stupid priest Collins and challenges wealthy Darcy, all of this is actually the resistance of the prevailing marriage at that time. The ultimate failure makes Darcy wake up. He is aware of his own short-comings. He accepts Elizabeth’s criticism, and faithfully corrects the shortcomings and mistakes. He is no longer arrogant and has a real love with Elizabeth.

With the revealing of the truth, Elizabeth’s prejudice on Darcy becomes deeper. Until when Elizabeth refuses Darcy’s long love letter, she experiences the fierce shock. After undergoing a period of painful and profound thought, she could not help but to shout how despicable she is, she believes she is the excellent one in the family, she is skillful and always despises her sister’s dress. In order to satisfy her own vanity, she always treats people with an irrelevant suspicion and confusion. How shameful it is! But this shame serves her right. Even if she really falls in love with someone, she should not be so blind to meet this flunking stage. She is stupid not only in love, but in the vanity. When she first knows them two, one loves her and makes her feel happy, and the other treats her in a cold manner, which makes her angry. All these cause her prejudice and ignorance, when she encounters their affairs. She would not be able to distinguish the right and the wrong. She could be considered to be knowledgeable at last.

When we see the blame from heart, we find her shortcomings and the courage that she could face herself directly. It is her bringing that plays a role; she starts to give up the bias caused by self-esteem, truly and seriously understand Darcy. Elizabeth wouldn't believe the shameless lies about Darcy said by Han and eliminate the misunderstanding and prejudice. She finally falls in love with Darcy. When the sister asks how she would love Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth replies that she should date from the day she see the beautiful lane manor park. The statement seems to refer to the property of Darcy. Therefore, Jane doesn't want the sisters to be kidding. In addition to referring to the specific manor, she also refers the new Darcy seen in the garden. In other words, Darcy changes the attitude of being arrogant and rudest, and this is the reason why Darcy wins Elizabeth’s heart and love. We can imagine that if Darcy doesn't change his mind, even if other misunderstandings have been resolved, they would not fall in love forever.

For me the views on love and marriage only by appreciating the marriage founded on the basis of mutual understanding and true love, but also by satirizing the marriage founded on the basis of origin and desire. The marriage based on social position and money can’t bring happy life.