1、相 沟 通 学 生 毕 业 论 文专 业 名 称： 英语 ： 010113328698 准 考 证 号 码指 导 老 师： ： 学 生 姓 名论 文 题 目 Jane Austens Outlook on Marriage 评 语：评分 指导老师签名 论文答辩评价：答辩评定成绩及答辩老师签名：学生联系电话： 1xx604xx3xx Jane Austens Outlook on Marriage12 秋 英语Abstract：Everyone eager to get a happy marriage.To the deconstruction of marriage ,is a quite
2、remarkable features in Jane Austens novel. Pride and prejudice is Jane Austins great work, discussing the different marriages and love. In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen comments that marriage in her time is a financial contract, where love is strictly a matter of chance. A perfect marriage meant
3、having it all - love and money. She rejects the marriage based on wealth and stresses the element of emotion in a marriage. As this did not happen often in reality, her novels appeased with happy endings. In her another distinguish work, Sense and Sensibility .She insisted her view on marriage.Love
4、is the basis when you operating a marriage,meanwhile,sensibility and rationality are equally important.At last but not least,Jane Austen tells us that the happy marriage demands us keep a right marital viewpoint at any time, make a balance between sense and sensibility and business heartedly. Then l
5、ife will be happy. Keywords:Jane Austen;marital viewpoint;Pride and Prejudice;sense and sensibility ;marriage;loveJane Austens Outlook on Marriage. IntroductionJane Austen (1775-1817) is the greatest English women in writing the realistic novelists in the 19th century. Her greatness lies in her abil
6、ity to stimulate readers to supply what is love and the view of marriage form our life scenes. Jane Austen wrote only six complete novels. In these novels, an assembly of characters, men and women, old and young some, but not many, Austen criticized comically “the overvaluation of love, the miseduca
7、tion of women, the subterfuges of the marriage market, the rivalry among women for male approval, the female cult of weakness and dependence, the discrepancy between womens private sphere and male history”.In Jane Austens novels, innocent courting and proper marriages constitute the central strands
8、of the story, but behind these we can see that there hides the ulterior motive of loving an marrying for money and social position. This is a truthful reflection of the specific historical period of the authors time during which people seemed to take money much more seriously than other times, espec
9、ially the women awaiting their marriage. As a realistic novelist, Jane Austens view of marriage expressed in her works .For example,Pride and Prejudice, Sence and Sencibility.The paper is to analyze some cultural background of womens marriage in Austens time and the economic status and property elem
10、ents that influenced their marriage and thus we can obtain a further understanding of Jane Austens view of marriage.The background1. The Background of that time19th century England had serious social problems from the heyday of Royalty and Nobility. One of the most significant of these was the tende
11、ncy to marry for money. A person sought a partner based on the dowry receivable and their allowance. This process went both ways: a beautiful woman might be able to snag a rich husband, or a charring and handsome man could woo a rich young girl. In these marriages, money was the only consideration.
12、Love was left out, with the thought that it would develop as the years went by. 2. The Background of Jane AustenJane Austen was born at Steventon on December 16, 1775, the youngest of seven children. She received her educationscanty enough, by modern standardsat home. Besides the usual elementary su
13、bjects, she learned French and some Italian, sang a little, and became an expert needle-woman. Her reading extended little beyond the literature of the eighteenth century, and within that period she seems to have cared most for the novels of Richardson and Miss Burney, and the poems of Cowper and Cr
14、abbe. Dr. Johnson, too, she admired, and later was delighted with both the poetry and prose of Scott. The first twenty-five years of her life she spent at Steventon; in 1801 she moved with her family to Bath, then a great center of fashion; after the death of her father in 1805, she lived with her m
15、other and sister, first at Southampton and then at Chawton; finally she took lodgings at Winchester to be near a doctor, and there she died on July 18, 1817, and was buried in the cathedral. Apart from a few visits to friends in London and elsewhere, and the vague report of a love affair with a gent
16、leman who died suddenly, there is little else to chronicle in this quiet and uneventful life.But quiet and uneventful though her life was, it yet supplied her with material for half a dozen novels as perfect of their kind as any in the language. While still a young girl she had experimented with var
17、ious styles of writing, and when she completed Pride and Prejudice at the age of twenty-two, it was clear that she had found her appropriate form. This novel, which in many respects she never surpassed, was followed a year later by Northanger Abbey, a satire on the Gothic romances then in vogue; and
18、 in 1809 she finished Sense and Sensibility, begun a dozen years before. So far she had not succeeded in having any of her works printed; but in 1811 Sense and Sensibility“appeared in London and won enough recognition to make easy the publication of the others. Success gave stimulus, and between 181
19、1 and 1816, she completed Mansfield Park, Emma, and Persuasion. The last of these and Northanger Abbey were published posthumously. The most remarkable characteristic of Jane Austen as a novelist is her recognition of the limits of her knowledge of life and her determination never to go beyond these
20、 limits in her books. She describes her own class, in the part of the country with which she was acquainted; and both the types of character and the events are such as she knew from first-hand observation and experience.3. Literature Review“It is truth universally acknowledge that a single man in po
21、ssession of good fortune must be in want of a wife.” This first sentence in Pride and Prejudice determines the tone of the whole novel, which tells us that all the stories told are based on marriage. Sense and Sensibility was the first novel Jane Austen published. Though she initially called it Elin
22、or and Marianne, Austen jettisoned both the title and the epistolary mode in which it was originally written, but kept the essential theme: the necessity of finding a workable middle ground between passion and reason. Marriage of Austens time actually was a kind of foundation stone and its function
23、was mainly the key to the connection of fortune, the decision of relation and the right of inheritance. (Wilkes 84) What it valued was to be matched for marriage. Nowadays the marriage for love is different from Jane Austens time. It needs equality and freedom in any aspect. A happy marriage should
24、be based on true love. In modern peoples view of marriage is that a marriage either for money or for lust is an unhappy one, though property and social status play an important role in marriage. It is opposed to be simply for money and she insisted that there should be a balance between sense and se
25、nsibility in the marriage. Her ideal marriage was that we can not marry for money or regard marriage as a game. She advocated the marriage for both love and economic consideration with love playing the leading role. Meanwhile, she also exposed that the essentials of bourgeois marriage were a deal of
26、 money and a combination of benefit under the patriarchy.In Sense and Sensibility, Jane reveals that marriage is based on love, but just romantic love is not enough in marriage, for people need money to support their lives. On the other hand, money plays an important role in marriage. In her opinion
27、, it is the combination of love and money that can be perfect and bring people real happiness. Jane Austens sensible view on marriage is closely related to womens low social status at that time and her own love experience. In her eyes, it is not ethical that people marry for the status purely, and r
28、egard the marriage as a deal. At that time, the entire Europe was experiencing a big transformation; the young people have to receive the infection from the revolutionary. They turn a deaf ear to the prejudice from the tradition, and pursue ideal love.In Pride and Prejudice, all theses marriages ref
29、lect peoples life and fate of that time. They reflect the society of the day. The other young couples marriages in the book are only comparison to Elizabeth and Darcys marriage. It indicates their brave behavior that they dare to look down upon common customs-everything is decided by love and money;
30、 Tony Tanner once said: Jane Austen, as well as other authors, is very clear that no feeling could be extremely pure and no motive could be definitely single. But as long as it is possible, we should make it clear that which feeling or motive plays the leading role.Jane Austenviewpoints on marriage
31、as reflected in Sense and Sensibility1. Summary of Sense and SensibilitySense and Sensibility was published in 1811,which was the first published novell and one of the representative novels to show Austens view on marriage. The story revoled around the Dashwood sisters,Elinor and marianne.linor is s
32、ensible and rational,while Marianne is romantic and emotional.The sisters have met a lot of difficulties on marriage.Finally,they both have happy and successul marriage.Nineteen-year-old Elinor and seventeen-year-old Marianne Dashwood are sisiter,one prudent,the other romantic.At first,their father
33、was dead and left little money orstatus,and move with their mother and youngest sister to a humble cottage on the Devonshire estate of a rich relation Sir Jhon Middleton. Here Morianne is soon swept off her feet by the handsome,dashing Willoughby, while Elonor quietly nurses her preference for Edwar
34、d Ferrars,a sensile but strangely melancholic young man whose affections towards herself is quiet and unassuming,so it makes her struggle to understand. Meanwhile Colonel Brandon,a serious man of thirty-five,is evidently much attracted to Marrianne ,though his grave manner cannot compete with Willou
35、ghbys charm.Things go wrong for both sisters when self-serving Lucy confides Elinor that she has been scretly engaged to Edward foe four years,and Willoughby suddenly leaves the neighbourhood without explanation.The conduct of the sisters is contrasted Elinor keeping her misery to herself while Mari
36、anne indulging herself in strong grief an yean to Willoughby.Then the scene moves to London, where the sisters are guests of Mrs.Jennings, the vulgar but kindly mother-in-law of Sir Jhon.In the highly artificial world of London society ,Mariannes open pursuit of Willoughby can only lead to more hear
37、tbreak for herself as he spurns her and becomes engaged to an heiress. Lucys sister Nancy betrays her secret, where upon Edwards snobbish, domineering mother cuts his allwance and he decides to become ordainced. Colonel Brandon kindly offers him to clope. Meanwhile Marianne falls a seriously ill tho
38、ugh self-neglect. Edward is now free to propose to his true love Elinor and before too long a recovered and chastened Marianne, freely agree to become the wife of worthy Colonel Brandon.2. Different characteristics between two sistersReasonable Elinor falls in love with a gentleman already engaged.
39、When Marianne likes to read and express her feelings, Elinor prefers to draw and design and be silent of his desires. Elinor is kind and can keep clam when problems arised In the novel, When she is injured, she can try her best to control her feeling in order to let her mother and her sister not kno
40、ws the truth. With the sober judgment and special view, she knows low to control her feelings. “ I could not be happy with a man whose taste did not in every point-coincide with my own. He must enter into all my feelings; the same with books, the same music must charm us both.”Elinor said.However, h
41、er sister Marianne has a completely different attitude towards love. When she meets Willoughby, she cant help falling in love with him at the first sight who is a handsome man. When he comes, Marianne pays much attention to him; she believes in first sight and passionate love, a meeting of tastes an
42、d minds; she trusts her feelings to guide her conduct. When she knows that Willoughby will part from her, she is in deep sorrow. Later the social and psychological dangers of showing feelings are excruciatingly dramatized as Marianne insists on claiming intimacy with Willoughby in a crowded ballroom
43、. Marianne doesnt believe he will cheat her.3. Austens view of marriage on Sense and SensibilityIn Sense an Sensibility , Austen creates two vividly characters: Elinor is sensible while Marianne is emotional . Elinor finds her match in Edward Ferrars, a gentleman with whom she falls quickly, complet
44、ely, albeit quietly in love. The relationship between Elinor and Edward contains both elements that must be present to have a good marriage in Austens view. They are most certainly in love with each other and they also struggle through Edwards engagement to Lucy Steele together. Edward and Elinor al
45、so have quite, sensibile personalities that complement each other quite well, which is a nice finishing touch on their marriage. Meanwhile Marianne eventually marries Colonel Brandon, a man who she does not see in a romantic light until the very end of the novel, though he falls in love with her ear
46、ly on. First, Marianne throws herself into a passionate romance with Willoughby and is set on marrying him. Though they both love each other, Willoughby realizes that the marriage will not work and decides to marry for money rather than for love. Marianne is heartbroken, but finds consolation in Col
47、onel Brandon, later resulting in their marriage.The actor reveals to us through the sisters different attitudes toward love that attachment without sense is not reliable. Here Austen is criticizing peoples sheer value on marriage like Mrs.Ferrars s, but Elinor and Marianne are not meant to be critic
48、ized by the author, cspecially the prudence and rationality Elinor shows is just what the auther appreciates and advocates. Judging form this,their apprehension to some extent reveals the authors view .Lacking money will affect the well-being of ones marriage.Jane Austen was truly one of the excelle
49、nt novelists in English literature.The reason why her works can be prevailing throughout the world after more than twenty decades is owing to people in the modern time are also eager to the perfect marriage,which unifies the elements of love ,morality and money Austin proposed for.Sense and Sensibility can be said a
