The Attitude of Modern Women Towards Life from
Pride and Prejudice
Applicant: QI Li
Supervisor: JIANG He zhou
Faculty: College of Foreign Languages
Jishou University
May 2 th, 2010
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Abstract
Pride and Prejudice has always been regarded as one of the most classic love stories in British literature. The protagonist of this masterpiece Elizabeth, her sisters and friend‘s marriages have always been the topic of its critics, audiences and readers. In regard of their marriage there had been many disputes. Some hold the point of view that their marriage helped them to know more about life and made them know how to pursue happy life, while others think that they were trying to keep away from poverty by marriage. This article attempts to keep apart from the sights about marriages and help readers analyze this novel from the perspective of feminism to shed some new light on it. This thesis also tries to reveal the outlook of modern women towards life through analysis of the protagonist of Pride and Prejudice—Elizabeth and her sisters and friends‘ different attitudes in several aspects toward life. The main points of this article are focused on some of the main female characters‘ attitudes towards marriage and marriage life, family and family life, and attitudes towards money and education, and also the positive attitudes towards difficulties .And the most important one is the positive attitude of modern women towards life and their courage when they face difficulties and the challenges of reality.
Keywords：
Female Independent Life Attitude Difficulty Pride and Prejudice
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摘 要
《傲慢与偏见》历来都被认为是英国文学史上经典的爱情小说之一。这部闻名遐迩的小说的主人公伊丽莎白以及其姐妹和朋友的婚姻始终是评论家、观众及读者评论、争议的对象。关于她们的婚姻，人们众说纷纭，争议颇多。有人认为是婚姻让她们更加懂得了生活，并懂得了如何去追求幸福生活；也有人认为她们只是在单纯的追求以婚姻来摆脱自己的困境。这篇论文主要试图撇开大众的婚姻意识说法，从女性主义角度解读《傲慢与偏见》并赋予其新的观点。同时也试图通过对《傲慢与偏见》的主人公伊丽莎白及其姐妹和朋友对待生活的几个不同态度的分析，来揭示现代女性对待生活的态度。本文的出发点主要是文章中的几位具有代表性的女性对待婚姻和婚姻生活,家庭和家庭生活，以及物质和精神生活的态度；和她们面对困难时所表现出来的积极态度以及所表现出来的现代女性对待生活对态度和面对困难时的积极乐观的态度和敢于面对和接受现实的挑战，不怕艰难的勇气。
关键词:
女性 独立 生活态度 困难 傲慢与偏见
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Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1
1. Author and Her Novel:A General Review ................................................................. 2
1. 1.The Author ....................................................................................................... 3
1. 2.The Novel ......................................................................................................... 4
2. Women‘s Attitudes Towards Life Reflected in the Novel .......................................... 4
2.1. Towards Marriage and Marriage Life .............................................................. 5
2. 1.1. Towards Marriage ................................................................................. 6
2. 1.2. Towards Marriage Life.......................................................................... 8
2. 2. Towards Family and Family Life .................................................................. 10
2.2.1. As a Mother .......................................................................................... 10
2.2.2. As a Labor ............................................................................................ 11
2.3. Towards Difficulties and Difficult Life .......................................................... 12
2.3.1. Facing Difficulties................................................................................ 12
2.3.2. Facing Difficult Life ............................................................................ 13
3. Women‘s Attitudes Towards Life Enlightened from the Novel ............................... 14
3. 1. Towards Money ............................................................................................. 15
3. 2.Towards Education ......................................................................................... 17
Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 18
Bibliography ................................................................................................................ 20
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Introduction
―Pride and Prejudice‖ has always been studied at home and broad. There always have some different analysis of several aspects about women. At home, Chen Yanling and Liu likun have studied the women‘s consciousness in Austen‘s novel. In 2008 Xiong Yanfei in Jiangxi Lantian College has done a detailed analysis about the small theme created in ―Pride and Prejudice‖. Song Wei and Jiang Lian in the Foreign Language College of Yan Shan University have studied the manifestation of female in ―Pride and Prejudice‖. The artist charm of Austen‘s works not only to see broad thing from small thing, but also detailed the ordinary lives and the ordinary people in vivid and dramatic in simple and humorous way. (Chen Yanling、Liu Likun, 2007:107-108) The Well known British writer and critiques T．T．Kemble said that, ―Jane Austen was a comedy artist‖, and he believes that she is the second only to Shakespeare in pure comedy artist. (T．T．Kemble, 1968:120) Thomas Make Lai, the famous British historian, poet and political commentator in nineteenth century, said that: I believe that the readers have found out that ―Pride and Prejudice‖ is the masterpiece of Austen‘s works; I think their assessment is fair. The reason that make a work become famous was not the praises of critics、the study of professors and been used as textbooks in school , but to make all readers get fun and get educated by reading this work. ―In my own mind, Pride and Prejudice was the most satisfactory work in all novels‖. Kemble‘s opinion not only stands for the scholars and experts‘ comments, but also the voice of readers around this world. (Zhu Hong, 1986:105)
This article attempts to find out some women‘s new attitudes towards life from ―Pride and Prejudice‖. At the same time, after analysis of the main female characters‘ attitudes towards life, such as Elizabeth, Jane and Elizabeth‘s best friend Charlotte, finally find out modern women‘s attitudes towards life. The attitudes towards life are reflected in the following three points: firstly, the attitude toward labor act; secondly, attitude toward the international relationships between people; thirdly, the use and 1
evaluation of one‘s value in life. In the 21st century, modern women‘s attitudes towards family life, love life and marriage life have changed a lot. This article attempts to analysis modern women‘s attitudes towards family life, love life and marriage life by studying ―Pride and Prejudice‖. Elizabeth was not only the charming female character in ―Pride and Prejudice‖, also the most famous female character in 19th century‘s novels.（Guo Zhengnan，2001：101) Her intelligent, witty, self-confidence and self-esteem were the same as the writer‘s. Her lucky love and perfect marriage was Austin‘s dream and also most women‘s dream.（Zhang Run.Zhao Shuli,2008:5）Through the study of Elizabeth‘s character and her modern women‘s attitudes towards life, we can find out modern women‘s attitudes towards life in this world. This article consists of five parts:the first part is the introduction consists of five critics‘ comments and opinions; and the second part is a general review about the author and her novel; the third part is the detailed analysis of women‘s attitudes towards life that reflected in ―Pride and Prejudice‖; last but not the least, the fouth part is about modern women‘s attitudes towards life enlightened from ―Pride and Prejudice‖; and the last part is the conclusion of this article.
1. Author and Her Novel:A General Review
According to ―Concise Encyclopaedia Britannica‖, the statement, Jane ? Austen was ―the first realistic portrayal of everyday life, ordinary people in ordinary novelist. Her work reflected the life of the British middle-class family life comedy, showing the ?family‘ literary possibilities. She explored many young ladies fall in love and get married from the process of self-discovery. This focus on analysis of the character and the relationship between the heroine and social practices, that made her novel get rid of the eighteenth century tradition and close to modern life. It is this modern, coupled with her wit and humor, realism and compassion, her elegant prose and accurate story structure, made her novel keep long-term attraction to readers.‖
Austen written her first novel ―first impression‖ in the age of 21, and she did not 2
get the chance to publish it. Ten years later, she rewritten ―first impression‖ and changed its name called ―Pride and Prejudice‖, finaly get published. ―Pride and Prejudice‖ is the early works of Jane Austen, written in her hometown Steventon.
1. 1.The Author
Jane Austen was born at Steven ton，Hampshire，in 1775，the daughter of a clergyman. At the age of nine she was sent to school with her elder sister Cassandra，who was her lifelong friend and confidante，but largely taught by her father. She began to write for recreation while still in her teens. In 1801 the family moved to Bath，the scene of so many episode in her books and，after the death of her father in 1805，to Southampton and then to the village of Chaw ton，near Alton in Hampshire. Here she lived uneventfully until May 1817，when the family moved to Winchester seeking skilled medical attention for her i11 health，but she died two months later. She is buried in Winchester Cathedral.
Austen‘s satirical art not only showed in some comedy characters and comedy plot treatment, but integrated the concept of irony in the whole story, and let reality to laugh at pepole‘s subjective fantacy. The leading man Darcy in ―Pride and Prejudice‖ initially accounted that the Bennett family have so many negative family backgrands, the daughters of Bennett family would difficultly getting married. But contrarily he married Elizabeth at last. The leading woman Elizabeth in ―Pride and Prejudice‖,was at the same situation, she has sweared never to marry Darcy, but finally she brcomed Mrs. Darcy. Mrs. Bennett, whom the most ridiculous ―fool‖ in the novel, the first sentence in the novel finally been proved to be the most correct words. She said: ―It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife‖. This alternative between ridiculous and ―truth‖ although was far away beyond general sense of right and wrong, but it correctly reflects the author‘s deep thinking of life.
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1. 2.The Novel
Feminism became a recognized movement in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but it didn‘t affect the lives of many women until the twentieth century. ―Pride and Prejudice”, by Jane Austen, is one brilliant example of this. The female characters in this book had little money, and few family connections. They faced serious social restrictions, and, because of unwritten social rules, spent most of their time in the company of other women. There were also social expectations for upper class women, concerning everything from dress to language.
The main subject of ―Pride and Prejudice” is marriage in an acquisitive society. The plot of the novel is driven by its examination and satire of the difficulties to be faced by any eligible female in pursuit of a husband. Austen mainly concentrates on the relationship of Elizabeth and Darcy, keeping the relationships of Jane and Bindley, Charlotte and Collins, and Wick ham and Lydia in the background.
2. Women’s Attitudes Towards Life Reflected in the Novel
Time went back to the 19th century in Britain, conditions were fairly terrible, but there was a young and great woman fighting against these difficulties, and she firmly lived though life and finally got happiness. This paper would like to analyze modern females‘ attitudes toward life from the respect of marriage and marriage life, family and family life, women‘s careers and their educational level through the female character of ―Pride and Prejudice‖ --- Elizabeth. There had always been many disputes as to who should be responsible for women‘s happy life, and it has become the focus topic in today‘s society. The traditional viewpoints hold that man should account for women‘s happy life. A successful man can give a woman what she wants. Another point of view is that the society should be responsible for women‘s happy life and every class of the society should pay more attention to women‘s happy life. In this respect, women are regarded as a weaker group. But another fact also deserves people‘s attention that women are sometimes lowered down by themselves; they are 4
likely to rely on men. Today we advocate that there should not be gender discrimination, women should be responsible for their own happy life.
2.1. Towards Marriage and Marriage Life
Long time ago, women had no right to choose their spouse, their marriage was determined by their parents, they must follow the man they married, no matter how bad and evil he was. However, today we own an equal era, in which woman can choose what kind of man she loves and decide how to live a happy life. Marriage is considered to be one of the most important things in women‘s life. Some even think that by marrying rich man can one gains happiness. However happy life is usually given by oneself but not by marriage or by others.
In Austen‘s time, because of women‘s economic was depende upon man，it results in woman‘s submissive attitudes sometimes even horrified feelings towards their husbands. But Elizabeth does retort what Darcy says. She says :―I never saw such a woman. I never saw such capacity, taste，and elegance，as you describe，united.‖ (Austen34) this response shows Elizabeth‘s challenge of the judging standards of ―perfect lady‖ and her rebellion. It also shows her independence and strong-willed behavior. It expresses ?Elizabeth‘s Power‘ is the power which is against the patriarchal society and that produces the inequality between males and females.
Comparing to other females，neither Elizabeth is much qualified self-defense nor even her unintended influence over Darcy establish her as the powerful character she is. The most profound source of ?Elizabeth‘s Power‘ is her ability to turn her critical vision upon herself upon her own unthinking vulnerability to male approval. It is at this point in the novel that Elizabeth establishes what we could call real female power.
If the Process of gaining self-reproach by knowing males is the path from outside to the inner world, the process of self-criticizing of the women is not only the way to self-reproach but the way from the inner world to outside. By comparing with other females, Austen mocks the other females and eulogizes Elizabeth superficially，but in fact she is criticizing the patriarchal society.
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Thus the construction of the consciousness of female subject is built through the two paths: one is the process of self-reproach through knowing and criticizing others–the males: and the other is the process of owing and criticizing the society from owing and criticizing the other females. Combining the two paths is criticizing the males and the patriarchal society and self-criticizing. With the consciousness of female subject, Elizabeth realizes her self-realization. And it is Elizabeth‘s self-realization that makes Elizabeth marry Darcy.
However, many modern females are not aware of what a happy marriage can bring to them. Even some enchanting, successful, rich and high-brow women choose another unusual way of life which broke their heart, demolished their family, destroyed their profession, even their whole life. Even so, they are not conscious of this. To take Tang Jie—one of the earliest millionaires in Nan Jing city as an example, she was very successful in her fashion profession in her early years. She possessed her own company and a large number of money swarmed into her account. With the growing of money and promoting of social status, she began to feel ashamed of her low-brow husband; their nice marriage came into an end. The middle-aged woman Tang Jie went into such a way that she can never go back. She fell in love with a man, who was 12 years younger than her and was cheated by him, and then she again fell in love with another man who was 14 years younger than her, and again she was hurt by this man and was stabbed by him. She didn‘t believe love any longer, she became crazy for comforting by drugs, which later destroyed her whole life. The drug made her poor, she began to smuggle drug. This is one of those women who have money and all the luxurious goods; after all, she is unhappy and owns a tragic life. Modern women often lay stress on how to make money, but neglect what is more important in one? s life. Therefore we modern women should attach great importance to happiness but not money only.
2. 1.1. Towards Marriage
Whether women can live a happy life or not is totally dependent on themself. 6
Women love beautiful things constitutionally and they always pay much attention to their appearance, so some women will blame god and men why they don‘t have good-looking and give themselves up as hopeless. One may not be charming, but one may be lovely; one can have good temper or one can dress up oneself. Beauty is not unique; it doesn‘t only refer to the beautiful face or slim figure. There are many things that are more enchanting than the charming face. Some women will be indignant with their husbands for their disloyalty to them in their marriage life. They are not to blame their husbands or scold or cry, instead, women should check themselves first. Suppose a woman is elegant, moral, capable…her husband will not betray her.
To take Elizabeth as an instance, firstly, Elizabeth has strength in her romantic love. She looks for a real love in regardless of financial security or social status. Elizabeth herself has to overcome her prejudice against Darcy - an upper-class gentleman to love her. We can just say that she is the representatives for typical British woman in the nineteenth century who want to demonstrate her freedom. In seeking for a true love, which is not regarded as an important issue in her conventional society.
Secondly, the character of Elizabeth shows her significant feature in strongly dealing with the obstacles to protect her love. In this novel, Elizabeth has to encounter the disagreement of Lady Catherine De Bough on the love between Mr. Darcy (her nephew) and Elizabeth. Her confrontation with Lady Catherine shows clearly that her determined and independent viewpoint on her love: ―I am only determined to do what in my opinion will bring me happiness, without reference to you‖. In fact, Elizabeth is self-conscious about the inferiority of her family‘s social position, but she seems so strong to protect her true love against the interference of the external force.
Thirdly, Elizabeth‘s strong character leads her to a happy marriage at the end. This woman who devotes herself to her truly romantic love can find the true meaning of her live. So, meaningful a true love is! Elizabeth learns from her true love the experience of removing her hasty misjudgments about the other. That means her character improves much more in a good way.
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2. 1.2. Towards Marriage Life
―Pride and Prejudice‖ was a classic novel on marriage, the author begins with the said:―It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife‖. This sentence not only determined the scope of the novel‘s theme, but also pointed out that money, power, and status‘ decisive role in marriage. The author used a lot words to descript the characters‘ choices between each other‘s economic conditions, social status, and even relatives‘ considerations before they decided to love and get married in the story. After got the new neighbor Mr. Bindley‘s basic information , Mrs. Bonnet fairly to missing an excellent opportunity to marry a daughter, while the other neighbors also thinks so, from their thoughts we can see that this idea should be universal at that time. At that time the middle class young women generally have three choices: get married, stay at home and getting old as well as to be family teachers. While the income of family teachers were not enough, social status was low, it was very difficult for them to get the opportunity to change and get rid of their situations in ―Pride and Prejudice‖.
Elizabeth‘s friend Charlotte getting married conceited stupid, vulgar Collins in a lightning way , and her sense of satisfaction in this marriage was to find a ―reliable storage room‖ to let her far away from hungry and frozen. This marriage highlights the importance of economy in marriage, and more precisely, the marital dependences on marriage relationships.
In Austin‘s works, the female characters always following these characteristics: the heroine in the material, family background, social stations and individual aspects are all at a disadvantage stations, but they have the outstanding spirit qualities. It is precisely because of their outstanding spirit qualities, which makes the heroine realized their dreams in the situation that almost impossible to overcome, and got a beautiful ending that love and wealth were both received.
Elizabeth in ―Pride and Prejudice‖ was just like that characters. In material life, although the Bennett family was in middle class, their life was rich, but because of their distant relative Collins will inheritance their house, poverty has become a 8
potential threat to the family. As parents, Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Bonnet were not working very well, especially the mother Mrs. Bennett. Although she anxious for her daughters‘ marriages, but she had not set a good example for her daughters and could not giving them the right guidance. In opponent, because of her poor education and moody feelings, she often speaking undated words and making undated actions, which not only embarrassed herself, but also her two excellent daughters Jane and Elizabeth. Although the father Mr. Bonnet was funny, but because he tired of family life, he did not pay much attention on his daughters‘ education. When the ignorant little daughter Lydia selfishly wants to go out with the officers, the father did not block her. Finally Lydia elopement with Wick ham and make the family shame for that. In such a family, Elizabeth is difficult to fully trust her parents or get some valuable suggestions when she was making choices on marriage. Although Elizabeth and Darcy were at the same situation, but the long formed concept made the rakes more and more complex, so that their disparity become more and more clear. Landowners were on the top status, clearly, Darcy was more superior to Elizabeth in the social at that time.
The impact of these adverse factors made Elizabeth‘s attitude was very sensitive to others, and thus the formation of judgments of others and finally leading to her initial prejudice against Darcy and easily believe Wick ham. Although there have many negative factors that were very unfavorable to Elizabeth, but she has good virtues which was enough to offset all these negative factors. Her intelligence and humorous soon catches Darcy‘s attention, and made him had to admit that she has the unique ―sharp-eyed observation‖ and ―judgment‖ that were not found on other women; her thoughtful kindness deeply touched Darcy, she trek for mails in muddy only because she worried about her sister Jane, her ruddy complexion increasingly also attracted Darcy's love; but the most aspect that attracted Darcy was her self-respect and self-esteem. When Darcy asks for the first courtship, Darcy believes that their gap between statuses will be making Elizabeth a big shock, surprise and flatterer, and she will naturally accept him. When he expressed his love to Elizabeth, he unscrupulously concerns his worries and sacrifices on their marriage. But Darcy‘s explanation seriously hurt Elizabeth‘s self-esteem, so she firmly refused Darcy‘s courtship, and 9
bravely criticized Darcy‘s arrogances. At last, Elizabeth‘s self-esteem won Darcy‘s respect, and make him recognized that only when they were equality on the spirit, that they can create a happy love. Then Darcy changed his words and behavior, when he once again appears in front of Elizabeth, she sow a new Darcy who was different from the Darcy when she was sow at last marriage proposal. In the face of Mrs. Catherine‘s rudeness criticize on the rumors about Darcy‘s marriage, Elizabeth bearing with dignity, said: ―He (Darcy) is a gentleman, I am a gentleman‘s daughter, and at this point we are equal‖. Elizabeth‘s spirit was not pursuit the material interest to give up the pursuit of love made Darcy more recognized Elizabeth‘s noble character. Finally, Elizabeth and Darcy have a happy marriage, and obtained happiness.
2. 2. Towards Family and Family Life
As one of the essential social institution in human history, the family probably arose because of the need for adults to devote a great amount of time to childrearing. Human infant must, for a large portion of their lives than for any other species, be cared for and taught by adults. And in the family rearing, women became the center of the family. It is better for women in the traditional family to stay at home and not to work outside.
2.2.1. As a Mother
What a woman needs to do is to take good care of the child, to educate the child and to protect the child from going astray. But women in this century or the century before have much more things to do in a family. They are responsible for the security of a family, the happiness of a family. Besides, women have to work outside no matter how tough the work is. Women are burden with so much works. They serve not only as a good mother but also a virtuous mother. If they do something bad to their children or do some things that make their family members unsatisfied there will be much disputes which maybe one day or the other become the emotive gap among the family members.
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As a mother, Mrs. Bonnet tries all kinds of methods to get her daughters marry a rich man because she thinks that only when her daughters are married to rich men can they get happiness . The business of her life is to get her daughters married. And her solace is visiting and news. But in fact, the more eager Mrs. Bonnet is to marry off her daughters, the more distantly she will repel the very suitors whom she tries to attract for her daughters.
In the novel, Mrs. Bonnet is an extremely poor model of mother because of her indulging in vulgar publicity. For example，she insists on Jane riding horse instead of taking carriage so that Jane might be ill and stay longer in Northfield Park. Her original attempt is to make more opportunity to let Bindley know more about Jane and admire her more so that he can propose to her. But when Jane is ill and she visits Jane in Nether field Park with her two younger daughters，what she does and says tends to backfire to what she expects. But in fact, for a truly mother, who do not want her daughter have a happy life?
2.2.2. As a Labor
Throughout the human history, we have depended heavily on the family to provide both social order and economic success. Families have provided for the survival and development of children, for the emotional and physical health of adults, for the special care of the sick, injured, handicapped, and elderly, and for the reinforcement of social values. But today families in every corner of this world are facing growing problems. So the divorce rate increases sharply and parents increasingly decide to forgo marriage, with the consequence that a sizable number of children are being raised in single parent household, apart from other relatives. Large numbers of married women gave up the roles of full—time mother and housewife to go into the labor market, while the activities of their former role have not been fully replaced. Another problems is that the focus of many families is shifting away from childrearing to the psychological well—being and self—development of their adult members. But what is the attitude of modern females toward these problems brought 11
about by family?
In spite of the prevailing idea that woman is intellectually inferior to man by nature, Jane Austen in her Pride and Prejudice by Elizabeth shows that women are at least as intelligent and capable as men.
2.3. Towards Difficulties and Difficult Life
In common person‘s mind, women are inclined to make complaints, blame or disturb others. Nevertheless, many women know well how to treat themselves and treat themselves well. Helen Keller was such an excellent woman. She was blind and deaf when she was only 19 months old, one can imagine such misery that her world became totally dark and silent after transient period of brightness. She can not hear the euphonious music of birds, she can not hear any sound of this wonderful world, and she can not see the nice flowers… All that she touched or met is darkness and tranquility. In spite of that, she did not resent the world, but with a gratitude heart, she wrote the masterpiece ―Three Days to See”, in which she described what she would do in the three days. She faced the difficult situation with amazing fortitude. Finally she enjoyed the light of life in darkness and also sowed the seed of kindness in every corner of the world. Above that, lots of modern females know how to live and enjoy a happy life, but few of them know how to face difficulties.
2.3.1. Facing Difficulties
Women are often disturbed by trifling things and troubles around them and because of these trifles they become intolerant, pessimistic. In fact, a set of methods can help women jump from these trifles and free themselves from such pressure. Only the one who has the ability to deal with the forthcoming difficulties can live a relaxed life. In Pride and Prejudice, the protagonist Elizabeth was such an optimistic person; Elizabeth has been with the ―new female‖ qualities, and when she was in the pursuit of personal goals and marriage happiness, she haven‘t complianed about the traditional concepts blindly, but rather expressed her own thoughts bravely, and 12
determined to change her own life. We can say that her ―prejudice‖ to Darcy was exactly the resistance against the British Feudal hereditary aristocracy‘deep-rooted pride, when Darcy‘s aunt, Mrs. de Boer took the reason that Darcy‘s relatives will be looked down upon her because of her poor birth and family status.
When she was forced to give up her love for Darcy, Elizabeth said: ―I just made a determination that I will do as what I think that I could get happiness. It is not your biasness and anyone‘s that have no connection with me‖. Elizabeth‘s attitude towards marriage is rational, independent, and she exactly said out her own views of marriage and Laugh at these woman who took marriage as their life-support, and also criticized the lightly marriage. This is her resistance against the feudal marriage system, family status and a series of feudal habits. It reflects Elizabeth‘s demands for personality independence, freedom and optimistic and positive attitude towards life.
2.3.2. Facing Difficult Life
In fact, only when modern females know how to extend gratitude to others and praise others sincerely can they truly enjoy their life. For example, one can gain great reward by helping others; one can get happiness by sharing others‘ happiness…―There is joy in self-forgetfulness. So I try to make the light in others‘eyes my sun, the music in others‘ears my symphony; the smile on others‘ lips my happiness.‖ Helen Keller wrote such sentences in her Three days to see to express her gratitude towards this world. When one understands the real implication of gratitude, he or she will know that there are so many persons in this world loving him or her or deserving their love. Then he or she would be the happiest one in the world.
Take Elizabeth as an example. Elizabeth, in the pursuit of love and marriage, firmly believes that: the status of women and men should be equal, and the first concept of a happy marriage can only be established on the basis of a profound love. Darcy was tall, handsome, rich, and had elegant manners,who was the ideal husband of most ladies, so he thought himself sure of success of Elizabeth‘s suitors. On the one hand, he talked a fond Sweetie, but on the other hand he is said to have a lot of 13
arrogance, then, ―he felt that she came from humble, feeling her own accommodation, while the family-related obstacles, often made his insights and his heart's desire can not be compatible with the coexistence of ......‖ For such a confession, Elizabeth is of course unacceptable, and expressed anger to this arrogance: ―... ... According to the common sense of human, grateful heart should be there, if I really feel grateful, I must express my gratitude to you. Unfortunately, I do not feel that way. I have never been uncommon for your flattering, not to mention flattering very reluctantly......‖. For Elizabeth, Darcy‘s marriage proposal is an insult to her, so she rejected Darcy‘s proposal of marriage. In fact, precisely because of Elizabeth‘s pursuit of love, marriage, equality and freedom, she won Darcy‘s heart.
3. Women’s Attitudes Towards Life Enlightened from the Novel
Women have their own thoughts and ideal, and at this point, women should be independent in every field, especially, in economy, politics, and social status. At the beginning of the 21st century, with the developing of the world‘s economy, and the betterment of people‘s material and cultural life, more and more people hold diverse ideas about money. What‘s people‘s attitude toward spiritual and material life? Is to pursue luxury life or to struggle hard to enhance the cultural level of oneself ? As we know, in today‘s society the competition in all walks of life is becoming more and more fierce, consequently, some persons gain money unscrupulously. To make money, they betray their flesh and sell their soul. In the commodity society, money is one of the most important and indispensable things. A popular saying goes like this: Money is not everything, but you can do nothing without money. In order to live better, it is time for women to be independent in economy, but not always to believe that marrying a rich man means living a better and happier life, there are many things that money can not give.
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3. 1. Towards Money
Nowadays, more and more people realized the facts that money can buy marriage but not family, money can buy bed but not sweet sleep, money can buy flattery but not people‘s respect, money can buy foods but not appetite, money can buy partner but not friend, money can buy a wife but not love, money can buy music but not feeling. Beyond that, to have a job of one‘s own is an intelligent choice of woman. No matter how excellent and successful one‘s husband is, one had better keep a job which can bring her a sum of money and some enjoyment. Furthermore, life can still be wonderful without enough money. The eldest daughter, Jane is instantly drawn to Bindley, and he seems equally attracted to her. Jane is portrayed as gentle, unselfish, and very mannerly. Elizabeth is also well mannered, but possesses a very sharp wit and refuses to be intimidated by anyone. Inclined to be protective of Jane and her family, she nonetheless recognizes the faults of her parents and other sisters. At the assembly, because of a shortage of men who dance, Elizabeth is left sitting. She overhears Bindley encouraging Darcy to dance, suggesting that he ask Elizabeth. Darcy curtly replies that ―she is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humor at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men‖. Elizabeth though insulted, refused to give Darcy‘s comment any weight, instead telling the story to all her friends and ridiculing his pretentious behavior. Such kind of spirit and courage is really worth admiring of modern women. There are a great number of such kinds of person in this world including some disabled person. For an instance, the South African swimmer Natalie due Trot, 19 years old, had her left leg amputated at the knee after an accident on her scooter in February 2001. She was back to the pool three months later, and in the August 2002 she won golden metals in the 50-meter and 100-meter disabled freestyle events at the Manchester Commonwealth Games, breaking two world records. She was awarded the title of Outstanding Athlete of the Games. Her goal is to enter as an able-bodied swimmer in the 2004 Olympics in Athens. She was afraid that others would feel sorry for her, so every time when some one came to see her, she will display her amputated leg so that 15
the relatives had no chance to say, ? I‘m sorry ‘. We can imagine what kind of dismay she suffered, but what kind of courage she had to accept the fact. She chose to stand up like common persons, she is sound in spirit and she is one of the bravest women of this century. To face such kind of woman, modern women had no excuse not to be diligent, they should avail themselves of every chance to improve their ability. In the past, women do not have real freedom; she has to do what her husband asked her to do. However, with the development of economy and science as well as the improvement of the law, the social status of women has been improved a lot. From the year when the women‘s movement broke out to today, women have really won their freedom. They can do what they want to do within the permission of the law, they can go to the society if they like. Occupations and professions, schools, clubs, associations, and governmental positions that were by tradition or law previously reserved for men only are now open to women. Women are found in increasing numbers among lawyers, judges, physicians, and elected officials. In the year 1981 American President Ronald Reagan appointed the first woman, Sandra Day O‘ Connor, to assume office in the Supreme Court. In 1983 the first American women astronaut, Sally Ride, was included in the crew of a space shuttle. Now more and more females are carrying out space shuttle missions. From these examples we know clearly that women are the very master of their own destiny. Whenever women come across difficulties or what kind of unhappiness they meet, they will not sit still and wait for their men to dissolve these difficulties.
In ―Pride and Prejudice”, women have not been so respected. No equality between men and women, women are considered inferior in intelligence and ability to man the center of women‘s lives, families, and their role is in charge of household chores. People naturally think that women should obey their husbands, women‘s virtue is patience and humble, they must recognize themselves as inherently better than men, we must limit himself has any capacity. Although the status of women so low, but few expressed dissatisfaction with his own fate. At that time a number of middle-class young women have three choices: get married, stay at home to do an old maid, as well as domestic female teachers. Household income of female teachers in 16
small, low social status, it is difficult to have the opportunity to change or get rid of this status; an old maid, even now, no one is willing to do. Therefore, young women, in particular, how much property is not young women, marriage is that they are respected, stability and social status of the only way out.
Women in nowadays know how to pursue their ideal, more and more women want to be rich and famous, so many of them choose a shortcut to be famous. From the year 2004, thousands of girls are reaching for fame in the hot TV show—―Super Girl‖, which is like the American Idol. It seems that people like do as the pop idols do, which will sometimes make people forget the reality. But some do succeed. There were some fans traveling from one place to another to pursue their idols. It was also reported that some 10,000 girls quit their classes to take part in the ―Super Girl‖ competitions. ―Dreaming of fame overnight is common among Chinese youngsters. The pursuit of superficial success and vanity has become a big social problem‖. said Lu Yulin, professor and dean of the youth research department in China Youth University of Political Science. There were lots of middle-aged and senior aged women coming to the auditions. Is becoming famous really so important or does the laziness stimulate people to be crazy about fame? No one knows. In today‘s society when the youngsters are busy in searching for fame, some other women are searching for infamy. It is well known that fame is really a good thing. It can draw people‘s attention and generate money. But in these days, infamy can do that as well. Or, maybe, it can even do better. The ideal of being famous is not a bad thing, maybe every woman in her young age has had such ideals, but if one wants to be famous and rich overnight, that is really a bad thing. Fame is not eternal. One day, no matter how beautiful he or she is, history will forget it. If one wants to be rich, to be outstanding, to be highlighted, one should be great, as the famous politicians do.
3. 2.Towards Education
In the past, in Chinese traditional family, women were not allowed to receive education or take exams as men did. At the same time, seldom did women in other 17
countries have the chance to receive education. Or even if they had such chance, some of them would refuse to accept education. But nowadays, even one is born into a noble family, one must study. With the development of science and technology, people realized that they need more knowledges, especially women. They have to master lots of knowledges so that they can not be washed out by the society, and have some room to stand in this competitive society. However, majoring in one field is not enough for women. In the past, it was good for women to be stupid in some professional field. Now the society is in a good needing of talented person, so women should grasp every chance to enrich themselves in every possible field. They had better know something more, and continue to study in any place, at any time. As the old saying goes: It is never too old for people to learn. Lack of political knowledge is another heavy problem burdened on women. They know little about current affairs and important events that taking place in the world which they live in. Accordingly, they will be in a mess as the danger comes. They do not know how to deal with the danger, they can not accept the fact that danger had come. As a modern woman, one should always adapt oneself to the changes and accept the new ideas and receive more education. (Here ?education‘ does not only refer to receive education in university but also in society and daily life.) Only by doing like this can women be competitive and have a stable social status in the society. Finally, I believe they can own real happiness. Conclusion
In a sense, Austen has a bit of modern spirit. Her perspective for love and marriage surpasses the limit of her time, so what she wanted to deliver is familiar with us living today. Her works have won high criticism in the 20th century and her readers are increasing as time goes by. The authoress depicted the daily life in the serene and picturesque English country, which indicates the realistic content in the romantic background. More significantly, she points wisely that reason and emotion are equally essential to happiness. A perfect balance is what we try to seek. And this view is not 18
only realistic but also idealistic, because pure romance is unlikely to last in the real world as much as a perfect balance is so hard to meet. Hence, such a combination in the author‘s mind leaves much we can dwell on, which may be the reason why so many people are enchanted with the masterpiece during two hundred years ago.
In today‘s society, one can find similar aspects in ―Pride and Prejudice”. Although we have moved on to accept women and men as equals, we still value individuals based on their advantages, such as money and social aspects. This leads too many difficulties with human relationships; people are suffering more than they need. Problems still exist in marriages; equality has evolved into more complex situations. The harmony between love and long-lasting relationships is hidden. Perseverance is the key to unlock a very special emotion. This is true today as it was in the time when this book was written. Although time have changed, people‘s emotions are still very much the same. True love and happiness seems to be the driving force behind the search for a harmonic relationship, some are lucky to find it while others are not.
In a word, Elizabeth completely rebelled against traditional civilization, life style and ideals of marriage. Her braveness, independence, diligence, optimism and the spirit to pursue happy life embodied British characters, she was a heroine. She has independent personality and dares to rebel against the tradition. She pursued the freedom of personality and equality of gender. All these characters deserve to be studied by modern women. One says:―Girls can do absolutely anything that boys can do. A woman can reach any height in any discipline if she works hard enough‖. In order to realize their dreams, they should stay determined, work hard and do everything to make it a reality. Especially now, women have become the focus of this world. If women can manage these well, they can live a happy life.
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Acknowledgements
I am deeply grateful to Mr. Jiang hezhou my tutor, to whom I owe a great deal of gratitude and appreciation. Mr. Jiang hezhou gave me many invaluable instructions and helped me much in every stage of my thesis writing.
And I also greatly appreciate the help coming from my dear friends and my lovely roommates, who spend much time with me on my paper.
Finally, I would like to offer my sincere gratitude to my parents and teachers who spend their precious time in reading this paper.
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