摘要

简•奥斯汀是英国十八至十九世纪著名的现实主义女作家，她家喻户晓的作品《傲慢与偏见》以清新睿智的文字描绘了英国的人情世故，体现了当时英国社会的贵族礼仪。本文主要结合英国贵族文化，分析在《傲慢与偏见》中频繁出现的两个词语-------教养和礼仪。通过分析当时的贵族礼仪，不仅能加深我们对文学作品的理解，同时也有助于拓展我们对英国贵族文化本身的认识。

关键词：《傲慢与偏见》，贵族文化，礼仪

Abstract

Jane Austen is a famous British realist writer in 18th and 19th Century. Her well-known work, Pride and Prejudice depicts British traditional code of conduct and reflects the British aristocracy etiquettes. This thesis is a study on two words----manners and propriety which appear frequently in Pride and Prejudice. The essay analyzes the British aristocracy etiquettes through British aristocracy culture. It will not only deepen our understanding of literary works, but also help to expand our understanding of the British aristocracy culture.

Key words:  Pride and Prejudice, Aristocracy Culture, Etiquette

1. Introduction
As part of the culture, literature is the reproduction of social reality in a certain period of history. Through the interpretation of literary works we can understand the culture patterns of a nation in the context of a certain time. In the Victorian era, Jane Austen's novels mostly show the rural daily life of British nobility and the middle class. Her masterpiece Pride and Prejudice is especially associated with the society. The novel is about the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education, and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England. Characters in the novel are often cautious to comply with the socially accepted decency to reflect the individual's upbringing. Pride and Prejudice involves a very wide range of etiquettes, including almost all kinds of social activities. It is a true reflection of the importance of social upbringing and etiquettes.
The purpose of this study is threefold: first, to analyze characteristics of aristocratic culture and aristocracy etiquettes embodied in the novel. The first part includes etiquettes in daily communication, etiquettes for the ball room, the influence of etiquettes on love and marriage and etiquette taboos; the second part, to discuss how and why some people’s words and deeds are regarded as inappropriate, while others are quite decent; the last part, to learn about value judgments of the society at that time reflected by all kinds of marriages in the novel. Then we can have a deeper understanding of the British aristocracy etiquettes.