简.奥斯汀在《傲慢与偏见》中的爱情观---开题报告

Literature Review 

    Pride and Prejudice was one of the most famous works of Jane Austen, in which Austen mainly described four kinds of marriage. Charlotte’s marriage was based on money, Lydia’s marriage was based on passion, Jane’s marriage was based on affection, and Elizabeth’s marriage was based on love. At last, Austen showed her marriage view: to marry for money, status or out of passion is not proper; marriage should be based on mutual affection; on the other hand, those marriages which are based on affection but without financial consideration are also improper, for money is actually the final factor that decides whether a marriage is happy or not.

Since Pride and Prejudice was written in the 19th century, many critics have been fascinated by this novel. In China, Most researchers hold the point of view that in the 18th century of England. One of the main factors of marriage are involved assets. But this is the caused of social environment during that period of time. Another factor is the position. Which determined by the social traditional value. However , From the perfect marriages of “Pride and Prejudice”. Personal value is also vital to marriage except for asset and position. Many researchers from home and abroad analyze this work from different angles: some from the aspect of feminist criticism, some from the social environment description in the novel, and some study the contrastive irony. Also some researchers do comparative researches; they compare Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte with Pride and Prejudice. Some researchers also study the Pride and Prejudice through its marriage patterns. For example, Qiu Shuang hold the view that the marriage cases of most characters in the novel were very typical as all of the people’s matrimonial value orientation are influenced by money; most people at that time took money much more seriously. Based on Maslow’s theory of Hierarchy of Needs in Humanistic Psychology，Zhang Ping finds that love and marriages of the three couples in Pride and Prejudice present different social level of needs: The combination of Wickham and Lydia is absolutely an impulse of “Physiological Needs”; the Marriage of Collins and Charlotte is mainly to meet “Physiological Needs” and “Safety Needs”，which showed little “Love Needs”; and the process of the love and marriage of Darcy and Elizabeth’s is an combination of “Love Needs” and “Esteem Needs”, which reflects “self-actualization Needs”. Zhao Zhen Huan point out the different attitudes towards marriage for middle class women during that time based on Mrs.Bennet’s five daughters marriage arrangement. Which reflect Jane Austen’s viewpoint to real happiness marriage. The purpose of getting married based on money, position or asset is wrong. The combination of true love and money together is the most important for perfect marriage. WangYing and Li Mei find that a happy marriage need respect and love from each party. It is not born with respect but gradually formed in the life and get hope from action and self-examination. Although Jane Austin’s period has passed. Yet the eager of happy marriage is still chased by all people in modern life. The work Pride and Prejudice worth people to think that happy marriage shall based on true love but not only money.position and asset. However, without money and only love is stupid marriage. In other words. Money and love combine together is fabulous marriage. 

LuXian hold the view from “Pride and Prejudice” that this novel analyzed and described the middle class women’s situation at the time, the political position and economic relations in the marriage. they point out these phenomena and analysis directly or indirectly their view on marriage, which mentioned it is totally wrong to marry for money, but without money is also not perfect marriage. It is frankly showed that love marriage are closely associated with property and family status. in the novel, “money” plays an important role in the marriage. It is to some extent guarantee of happy marriage.

We couldn’t forget how eager Mrs. Bennet wants her daughters to get married. If you want to know why she is so crazy about these things, we must mention the situation in Britain at that time. Only the eldest son had the privilege of inheriting his father’s possessions. Younger sons and daughters who are used to luxurious lives have no choice but marry a man or woman in possession of a large fortune to continue their comfortable lives. Therefore, we can see that getting married is a way to become wealthier, particularly for women without many possessions. Jane Austen told us that money and possession determined everything, including marriage and love in her century.In Pride and Prejudice, the sister of Mr. Bingley strongly opposed her plan of marrying Jane because the Bennets are not rich enough and their social positions are much lower than them. From this point, we can see there are a lot of difficulties for a not very rich woman to marry a rich husband. The society, the relatives would not allow them to get married.

 It is known to all that in modern society, although the marriages of economic demand have decreased rapidly, the concept of “money determines everything” is still existed some people’s mind. A lot of parents try hard to interpose their children’s marriages. Education background, possessions, jobs remains the main reason that may influence one’s marriage. Marry for money is still a big problem in our society. We can’t stop thinking: can money determine everything ?Austen left this problem for us to think . The answer seems so easy but reflects big problems in our modern life. We always think which factor is the most important for marriage: money, social position. Education or Character? I think the depth of Pride and Prejudice is the reason that makes this book outstanding and classic. Today, Austen’s book still can be the main guide telling us the economic relationships both at her time and in modern time.

II Outline

Introduction

1 Background Information

1.1 Jane Austen’s Social Background

1.2 Background of the Novel

2 The Marriages in Pride and Prejudice

2.1 Charlotte’s Marriage—Marriage Based on Money

2.2 Lydia’s Marriage—Marriage Based on Passion

2.3 Jane’s Marriage —Marriage Based on Affection

2.4 Elizabeth’s Marriage—Marriage Based on Love

3 The Money in Marriage

4 Jane Austen’s Marriage View in Pride and Prejudice

Conclusion

III Bibliography

[1] Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice [M]. London: The Zodiac Press, 1978.          

[2] Qiu Shuang. Jane Austen’s Marriage Sense in Pride and Prejudice [J]. Youth Literature, 2011, (3):37-38.                                                                                       

[3] Wang Min, Zhang Lijing. The Issue of Marriage of Jane Austen—Pride and Prejudice [J]. Arts and Social Science, 2011, (5):142-143.                          

[4] Zhang Ping. Marriage in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice [J].Journal of Liao Ning Provincial College of Communications, 2004, (2):66-68.  

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[10] 王颖，李镁.重温《傲慢与偏见》——再议简·奥斯汀的理想婚姻观[J].湖北广播大学学报,2010,(11):83-83.                                                   

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