Abstract：Jane Austen, one of the most remarkable women novelists in the world, has given rise to heated discussion with her sensible idea on love and marriage by her works, which shape different characters and picture their daily life. Pride and Prejudice, published in 1813, is widely considered as one of the most prestigious novels in English literature. It describes trivial matters of family life, love and marriage between British squires and ladies. Through the description of the daily talks and doings of young men and women, we can know about the status of women in the set background. In Austen’s opinion, it’s quite a mistake to get married for property and social status, however, without these conditions taken into consideration, a marriage will also turn out to be a tragedy. Through the analysis of the four marriages of the characters, it’s not hard to find that women at that period may suffer a lot and struggle hard to get a happy marriage, which is exactly what this paper is mainly about.

Key words: struggle; marriage; property; love; Pride and Prejudice

从《傲慢与偏见》中看女性在婚姻中的斗争

摘  要：简·奥斯汀，有史以来世界上最杰出的女性小说家之一，以作品中所表达出的对爱情和婚姻的敏锐见解引起了激烈的讨论。她的作品塑造了各具特色的人物形象并且描绘了他们的日常生活。出版于1813年的《傲慢与偏见》，被公认为是英国文学史上最著名的小说之一。书中讲述了英国乡绅与女士们的家庭生活，爱情与婚姻。通过对青年男女间的日常交流和行为的描写，我们能够对书中背景下女性的地位有所了解。在奥斯汀看来，为了获得财富和社会地位而结婚是相当荒谬的错误行为，但不把这些因素考虑在内的婚姻最终也只会成为一个悲剧。通过对四桩婚姻的分析，不难发现那个时代的女性若是想要得到幸福的婚姻生活，可能会遭受很多挫折并作很大斗争，而这也正是本篇论文所主要关注的。

关键词：斗争；婚姻；财富；爱情；《傲慢与偏见》

Contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Intoduction to Jane Austen 1

1.2 Introduction to Pride and Prejudice 1

2. The Characters and their Marriage 2

2.1 Elizabeth and Darcy 2

2.2 Jane and Bingley 3

2.3 Charlotte and Collins 3

2.4 Lydia and Wickham 4

3. The Female Struggles in Marriage 5

3.1 The Oppression in Pride and Prejudice 5

3.1.1 Secular Marriage View 5

3.1.2 The Class Oppression of Women 5

3.2 The Struggles against the Oppressions 6

3.2.1 The Struggle against the Subordination 6

3.2.2 The Struggle against the Class Oppression 7

4. Conclusion 8

References 9

1. Introduction

1.1 Introduction to Jane Austen

Jane Austen(1775-1817) is one of the most remarkable women novelists in the world, who has given rise to heated discussion with her sensible idea on love and marriage by her works but never been married. She seemed to own the eyes to see through everything, and was acutely aware of the nature hidden behind its veil. Born as a daughter of local rector in the village called Steventen in Hampshire, England, she was well educated by her family though she never entered a formal school. As a matter of fact, besides drawing and playing piano, all her education was to read her father’s books of both the serious and the popular literature of the day. Such a fair amount of reading helped to build up an inward world in her mind, which led to her marriage being like a blank paper through her short life of 42 years. She regarded her works as her babies and poured all her love and energy into them, which finally made the heat of her works never decreased with the changing of times.

1.2 Introduction to Pride and Prejudice

Written by Jane Austen, Pride and prejudice has never faded out from people’s eyes with young men and women’ marriage as its subjects, and the hero and heroine's love entanglement as its main line, no matter how much the interests of readers change within the nearly two centuries. The story talks about four marriage types, “ideal Elizabeth and Darcy, realizable Charlotte and Collins, felicitous Jane and Bingley and unhappy Lydia and Wickham” (王诗琳, 2016: 203). And the background is set in British society during the period from the early nineteenth century to the end of the eighteenth century. In this work, Austen criticizes the self-reliance and prejudice of the British upper class. She satirized not only the snobbery of the upper class, but also the vulgarity of the underclass.