The Harmony Between Feminine Consciousness And Masculine Voice In Austen's Pride And Prejudice

Jane Austen, a British novelist, writes six classical, worldwide popular novels. She tells the female experience from a feminine perspective, proposes feminist consciousness by depicting a series of woman issues. The heroines in her works are brand new at that time. So some critics comment her from the feminist perspective and confirm her progressiveness. However, Austen does not and cannot become a destroyer of her age due to the limitation of her time; instead, she shows an open submission and hidden resistance to the patriarchal system, which are reflected in her harmonious thought in her novel. This thesis intends to prove her complexity by studying her idea of harmony between feminine consciousness and masculine voice in her excellent novel Pride and Prejudice.This thesis aims to analyze the demonstrations and causes of Austen's feminine consciousness and masculine voice through textual analysis and to reveal her viewpoint of the harmony.The introductory chapter is about Jane Austen's personal experiences and its influence on her literature creation. And also this part serves as a general review of Austen research at home and abroad, and shows the aim and methods of this thesis and the influence of Austen's works.The second chapter makes a review of feminist criticism on Jane Austen and her novels. And at the same time it summarizes Austen's ideology composed of conservativeness and progressiveness and explores the social factors influencing the formation of her thought.The third chapter reveals Austen's harmonious thought through analyzing Pride and Prejudice. Different from the women of her age, the figure of Elizabeth reflects not only her rebellious spirit but her belief that rational and intellectual abilities are as desirable in the woman as in the man. These qualities are rare in the traditional women characters. But it does not mean Elizabeth deviates from the standard of the virtuous women of her age. She is rewarded the traditional morality to women and can well perform their traditional roles in her self examination and tender rationalism. In addition, sense and sensibility are a perpetual, interdependent and mutually repelling theme in Austen's works. They both are a contradictory, interdependent and interwoven complex. The complement balance between Darcy and Elizabeth comes to the result that they get the happy marriage at the end of the story. The hero and heroine's contradictory personalities mingle into a harmonious balance after months of interacting on each other.Chapter four reveals the causes of Austen's feminine consciousness and masculine voice from education and her contemporary cultural environment.At last, the thesis analyzes Austen's view of marriage of both feelings and money. Through the molding of Elizabeth, she expresses her viewpoints of marriage. She maintains that marriage should be on the basis of love, and women should take both material interest and their own feelings into consideration. In a word, they should maintain the balance between money and feelings.