本栏目责任编辑：代影英语六级词汇
学术思潮
smalltalk>kori1The Social Background
The story of Pride and Prejudice took place in the time of the Regency in Britain.At that time,Britain was at the period of transition from the earlier stage of Capitalism to Capitalist Indus -trialization.As the development of the Capitalism and expanding of the rank of rich people,the distinction between social strata was becoming smaller and smaller,while money was getting more and more important in people's mind about social value.It is be -cau of the cure pledge in finance that the country squire so -ciety could exist strongly and solidly.
What is about the specific background of Mr.Bennet's fam -ily and their neighbors?The following passages can illustrate.
"It's a truth universally acknowledged,that a single man in posssion of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighborhood,this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families,that he is consid -ered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daugh -ters."(Volume Ⅰ,Chap.Ⅰ,p.1)
From the passage,we can e that the surrounding families who "universal"truth depends on their own daughters.They e marriage as the conquence of having "a good fortune".The fact at that time is that women legally owned nothing,property belongs to her husbands;therefore,the only way to financial -curity for married women of the time was through marriage to a richer man.Thus ，marriage is a market place where women must strive to make the best bargain they can in order to conrve or improve their status in life.
The Combination of Vulgar Collins and Mediocre Charlotte
goodluckforme2Different Marriages in Pride and Prejudice
abdomen2.1The Combination of Vulgar Collins and Mediocre Charlotte The first argument focusing on Elizabe
th analyzes her re -spon to the news that her friend Charlotte,who has agreed to marry Elizabeth's cousin,Mr.Collins,the right person who heirs Bennet's estate.Mr.Collins has also propod to Elizabeth and been refud.Charlotte explains her decision to her friend:
"…when you have had time to think it all over,I hope you will be satisfied with what I have done.I am not romantic,you know.I never was.I ask only a comfortable home;and consider -ing Mr.Collins's character,connections,and situation in life,I am convinced that my chance of happiness with him is as fair as most people can boast on entering the marriage state."
"It was a long time before she became at all reconciled to the idea of so unsuitable a match.The strangeness of Mr.Collins's making two offers of marriage within three days was nothing in comparison of his being now accepted.She had always felt that Charlotte's opinion of matrimony was not exactly like her own,but she could not have suppod it possible that,when called into action,she would have sacrificed every better feeling to worldly advantage."(Volume Ⅰ,Chap.ⅩⅫ,pp 113-4)
The views of marriage reprented here by Charlotte and Elizabeth are obviously opposite.Elizabeth's "romantic"and Charlotte's "realistic"are opposite.Elizabeth emphasizes the ne -cessity for affection as well as good circumstances;Charlotte es nothing in question on the desire 版本英文
on being well married.In her ca,the influence of material and definition of happiness con -cretely manifest in the following aspect:Firstly,Charlotte's own idea of happiness in marriage is to live comfort.It is the reason why she sacrificed every feeling to worldly advantage to marry Mr.Collins.Secondly,in the objective aspect,she is twenty-v -en,not young and less attractive than Elizabeth.She cannot af -ford to be worth.So she is fully conscious of her motives when she accepts Mr.Collins.Thus,different conceptions of marriage and different conceptions of happiness and even morality are re -vealed in different marriages.In other words,under the influence of moral and material values,the marriage game can be played in many ways according to one's character and intelligence and so on.
2.2The Combination of Dissolute Wickham and Empty -minded Lydia
Lydia is Elizabeth's youngest sister.Firstly,let's look at a passage adapted from the novel which portrays Lydia's character:
"Lydia is a stout,well -grown girl of fifteen,with a fine
冷静的英文
收稿日期：2010-04-12修回日期：2010-05-13
作者简介：杨洋，四川成都人。
The Influence of Moral and Material Values on Marriage in Pride and Prejudice
杨洋
（四川托普信息技术职业学院英语系，四川成都611743）
Abstract:The thesis aims to focus on analysis of the material and moral values on marriage in Jane Austen's time on the basis of the veral passages adapted from the novel.It endeavors to illustrate such a principle that real happiness is better in a balanced position of the moral and material values.
Key words:moral;material value;realistic;romantic marriage
中图分类号：I207
文献标识码：A
文章编号：1009-5039(2010)07-0284-02
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2010年7月
傲骨贤妻第六季
Overas English 海外英语
parkour什么意思
学术思潮
本栏目责任编辑：代影
complication and good-humored countenance;a favorite with her mother,who affection had brought her into public at an early age.She had high animal spirits,and a sort of lf-conquence,which the attentions of the officers,to whom her uncle's good dinners and her own easy manners recommended her,had in -cread into assurance."(Volume Ⅰ,Chap Ⅸ,p.39)
There are indications from the paragraph that her superficial and flirtatious character is not unlike what her mother's was at her age.Completely,she is non-moral,and has no n of re -mor or shame;on the contrary,she triumphs at her living with Wickham before marriage.As for Wickham,who are brought up and educated by Darcy's father,has acquired the taste for a life of leisure.He easily shifts his attentions from Elizabeth to Miss King,and is persuaded by the promi of money and a commis -sion in the Army.Like Lydia,he has no morality,therefore,the marriage between Lydia and him is totally immoral and it is bad on mutual worldly needs.Someone said "As one can ig -nore spiritual and moral and emotional concerns for the sake of ‘worldly advantage',so one can ignore hig
her values by merely going into impul and emotion".
英语国际音标表2.3The Combination of Decent Darcy and Sensible Eliza -beth
Elizabeth's original view of Darcy is finally overturned when her sister Lydia elopes with Wickham.In spite of Wickham's treatment of him in the past,and in spite of his dislike of Eliza -beth's family,Darcy arches for the couple,pays Wickham's debts and so ensures that he will marry Lydia and save her from social disgrace.As for Elizabeth herlf,her attitudes towards Darcy's love can be en from the following passages.The pas -sage describes her coming to realize that she thinks their mar -riage has become a possibility:
"She began now to comprehend that he was exactly the man who,in disposition and talents,would most suit her.…It was an union that must have been to the advantage of both;by her ea and liveliness,his mind might have been softened,his manners improved,and from his judgment,information,and knowledge of the world,she must have received benefit of greater importance.…An union of a different tendency,and precluding the possibili -ty of the other,was soon to be formed in their family.
How Wickham and Lydia were to be supported in tolerable independence,she could not imagine.But
how little of permanent happiness could belong to a couple who were only brought to -gether becau their passions were stronger than their virtue,she could easily conjecture."(Volume Ⅲ,Chap.Ⅵ,p.276)
The passage defines Elizabeth's view of a "happy marriage",the marriage that takes place at the end of the story rewarding Elizabeth and Darcy for their ability to change and learn.It also
ts this ideal against the "union of a different tendency"be -tween Lydia and Wickham.What is "connubial felicity"?Darcy will be "softened"by her influence,she will benefit from his wider experience.It is an image of balanced harmony,and idea we have met already in the description of Pemberley,where na -ture is complemented by taste.It is important to recognize that this balanced union is not a simple rejection of the other two versions of marriage.We have already en the power of Darcy's xual attraction to Elizabeth,and her recognition at Pemberley of the attractions of wealth,so their marriage will include both "passion"of Lydia and Wickham and realistic view of the impor -tance of financial comfort of something which,as this passage in -cidentally makes clear,Lydia and Wickham lack.Unlike Lydia and Wickham,it will control passions with virtue,and unlike Mrs.Bennet or Lydia Catherine de Bourgh,it will e wealth as a form a moral responsibility.
3Conclusion
The novel has been concerned throughout to make us judge between material and moral criteria,yet at the end the heroine was rewarded both.Wealth is not criticized in itlf,only if it is ud in the wrong way.Similarly,the plight of Charlotte Lucas makes it clear that women's choices in Jane Austen's society were verely limited,yet at the end her heroine achieves perfect happiness within society's limits.Elizabeth and Darcy have been prented throughout the novel as equal moral adversaries.As for Lydia and Wickham,they eventually lived together under the help of Darcy.The book thus becomes a study of success and failure in getting married.It is a kind of map that assigns each marriage its proper moral location.This found to lie beyond the materialistic pressures of economics,social duties and xual ap -peal.We may say that real happiness is possible only if is ratio -nal;and it is rational only as a result of the recognition of the full range of individual needs and objective moral and social worth of one's choice.
References:
[1]Jane Austen.Pride and Prejudice[M].London:Oxford Press,1873.[2]Matthew J.Essays on Jane Austen's works [M].London:Oxford Press,1986.
[3]Molar,Kenneth L.In Jane Austen's Art of Allusion[M].Nebras -ka:University of Nebraska Press,1968.
[4]安尼特·鲁宾斯坦：英国文学的伟大传统（上）——
—从莎士比亚到奥斯丁[M].上海：上海译文出版社,1998.
[5]奥斯丁.傲慢与偏见[M].王科一，译.上海：上海译文出版社,1996.
[6]朱虹.奥斯丁研究[M].北京：中国文联出版社,1985.
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