Abstract and Key Words

Abstract: In Pride and Prejudice Austen writes about four types of marriage: ideal Elizabeth and Darcy, realizable Charlotte and Collins, felicitous Jane and Bingley, unhappy Lydia and Wickham. In this novel Austen expresses her view of marriage clearly: it is wrong to marry for money, but is silly to marry without it; marriage is associated with property and social status but is not determined by them; no happiness can be obtained from a marriage without love. Austen’s view of marriage lays stress on the importance of striking some balance between love and economic considerations but it seems to insist that love plays a more important role in marriage.

Key words: marriage types; view of marriage; property and social status; love

摘要：奥斯汀在《傲慢与偏见》中描述了四种男女的婚姻类型：理想的伊丽莎白和达西、现实的夏洛蒂和柯林斯、幸福的吉英和彬格莱以及不幸的莉迪亚和韦翰。通过对这些婚姻类型的描写，奥斯汀清晰地展示了她的婚姻观：为钱结婚是错误的，但找一个没钱的人结婚也是愚蠢的；婚姻虽然与财产门第有联系，但不应该仅仅由财产门第来决定；建立在爱情基础上的婚姻才是幸福的婚姻。总的说来，奥斯汀在她的作品中倡导的是一种爱情与经济并重而以爱情为主的婚姻观，这在当时社会是有进步意义的。

关键词：婚姻类型; 婚姻观; 财产和门第; 爱情

1. Introduction
Jane Austen(1775-1817) was one of the distinguished English novelists of the nineteenth century. Austen was born in a village called Steventon in Hampshire, England. As a country clergyman’s daughter, she was educated at home and remained unmarried, living an uneventful life of forty-odd years at her native place and in the small towns nearby. She received education in practical arts, such as drawing, sewing and piano playing, which were considered the most important skills to women at the time. Besides that, she read a lot of books in her father’s library both the serious and the popular literature of the day, which had great influences on her. At the age of 12, she began to write. In her lifetime, she was engaged in writing but received little public recognition.
Austen spent a peaceful life and paying only occasional visits to London. Surrounded by her lively and affectionate family and wholly immersed in her writing and domestic chores, she lived a life notable for its lack of events. Jane Austen’s self-contained life is often reflected in her novels, which, peopled as they are by impoverished clerical families, eligible country squires, foolish snobs and husband-hunting women, seem to portray the world in miniature.