Abstract

    Jane Austen’s Emma and William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair both concern a woman’s marriage. Emma starts with the story that Emma enjoys matchmaking for others while declares herself as a never-married woman. Nevertheless, Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair is a perfect embodiment of money-worship. Her only aspiration in life is to marry a rich man and gain wealth and position. These two works both reveal the significance of money in marriage.
    This thesis is designed to analyze the differences of marriage values between Emma and Becky from the perspective of two heroines’ external and internal needs for their spouses. As for the external needs, Emma believes that money, rank, appearance and social connections are significant in marriage while Becky attaches importance to money only. In terms of the internal needs, Emma considers knowledge, manner and the combination of two souls as important in marriage while Becky has no internal needs for marriage. Their differences in marriage values are mainly due to two causes: the family background and their characters. As for the family background, Emma is born in a rich family, therefore, she is respectable and not in a hurry for marriage. However, Becky is born into a poor family so she needs money and a comfortable home to survive in the society. In terms of the character, Emma is honest and lovely while Becky is sharp and sophisticated.

Key Words: money  marriage values  external needs  internal needs  causes

摘  要

    简•奥斯汀的《艾玛》和威廉•梅克皮斯•萨克雷的《名利场》都是由一个女人的婚姻故事展开。《艾玛》中女主角艾玛宣称是个“不婚主义”者，却喜欢给别人做媒，故事由此发展。而《名利场》中女主角蓓基是个典型的拜金主义者，她的人生目标就是嫁个有钱人，她认为金钱至上，故事以此为线索展开。这两部作品中都表现出金钱在婚姻中的重要性。
    本文从两位女主人公艾玛和蓓基对配偶的外在要求和内在要求的角度，分析了她们的婚姻观差异。从对配偶的外在要求方面来看，艾玛认为婚姻需要有金钱、外貌、家庭地位和社会地位；而蓓基认为只有金钱才是唯一重要的要求。从对配偶的内在要求方面来看，艾玛需要对方有知识、有举止，而且婚姻需要双方真心相爱。而对于蓓基来说，只要对方有钱，她就没有内在要求。两人的婚姻观差异的原因主要是家庭背景和性格差异。艾玛家庭富裕，所以她受人尊敬并且不着急结婚。而蓓基家庭贫困，她想要在社会中生存就需要金钱和一个温暖的家。就性格而言，艾玛性格可爱诚实而蓓基为人机敏又世故。

关键词：金钱 婚姻观 外在要求 内在要求 原因到灯塔去》中的女性主义分析