On Jane Austen's View Of Marriage In Pride And Prejudice

"IT IS A TRUTH universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession ofa good fortune, must be in want of a wife."Almost two centuries later, the deepimpression on readers left by the opening sentence of Pride and Prejudice has notdecreased because of their changing literary taste. As the author of Pride andPrejudice, Jane Austen was one of the famous realistic writers in English literature inthe nineteenth century. Pride and Prejudice is Austen's representative work. Duringthe forty-two years of her short life and a merry one, Austen wrote six full-lengthworks: Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park,Emma and Persuasion.There were no earthshaking events, no dreadful disasters, no sharpcontradictions and no romantic legends in Authen's novels. Time and space weresmall in her novels. She wrote how a marriageable woman could find a satisfactoryhusband. She described many kinds of love and marriage of different women. Sheexpressed her own original views of marriage in her works.In Pride and Prejudice Austen wrote four marriage types: ideal Elizabeth andDarcy, realizable Charlotte and Collins, felicitous Jane and Bingley, unhappy Lydiaand Wickham. She pointed out emphatically economic consideration is the bonds ofwedlock and love. She said marriage is not determined by property and family status;it is unwise to marry without money, but it is wrong to marry for money; the marriagesettled by love is happy and ideal.Based on Marxist social and economic theory, the thesis explicated thatAusten's view of marriage was progressive, advocated by her focus on the equalitybetween men and women. She emphasized marriage should be of equal importanceboth by love and by economic consideration but love plays the guiding role. Sherevealed the connotation of marriage. She mercilessly criticized the patriarchy and theview of marriage of her time. Her exposure is of great realistic significance to the...