Abstract and Key Words

Abstract：This thesis aims to investigate the different characteristics of the two heroines through comparative analysis in Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre from different perspectives. It also aims to get a deeper understanding of female consciousness in that period. The comparison study in this paper indicates that Elizabeth Bennet and Jane Eyre are two heroines who are different in their personalities and attitudes towards love and marriage. Furthermore, the influence of social background to female consciousness can be concluded, and it is an important reference for female’s independence that should base their development on society but not entirely.

Key words: Pride and Prejudice; Jane Eyre, Jane Austen; love and marriage；Female consciousness.

摘要：本文从生活经历，家庭背景，对待婚姻观的态度，以及女性意识这几方面展开《傲慢与偏见》和《简.爱》中女主人公的对比，分析比较两位女主人公的异同点。本文的比较分析展现了伊丽莎白和简爱的个性差异及对待爱情和婚姻的不同态度。通过分析，可进一步加深对女性解放运动初期发展状况的了解，阐明社会发展和时代背景对女性解放运动的影响，明确女性独立性格的产生既要超前于社会，又不会与社会格格不入，为更好地树立独立的女性性格提供借鉴。

关键词:傲慢与偏见；简•爱; 简奥斯丁；，爱情与婚姻; 女性意识

1. Introduction
1.1 Jane Austen & Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen (1775~1817) is a famous female novelist of English. She was a daughter of a reactor of the village of Steventon in Hampshire. She received a good education at home, and lives an uneventful life amid the provincial surroundings of the south. She never married throughout her life. The people she met were landlords with small fortune, clergies and so on. Those people, with little ambition, live a quiet life in the country, so did Jane Austen. Therefore, in Jane Austen’s novel, she never touched upon the class conflicts of her time. She restricted her subject to a narrow range of society and event for living in a quiet, prosperous, middle-class circle in provincial surrounding. Besides, she also wrote novels with female consciousness .However she wrote his novel with subtlety of observation, depth of psychological penetration and delicacy of touch. So she was considered as the novelist with equal status of William Shakespeare.