Abstract

Pride and Prejudice, the critically acclaimed novel written by the world-renowned British novelist Jane Austen, tells the stories about how marriageable women find satisfying husbands. It depicts two kinds of happy marriages, represented by that of Elizabeth and Darcy, and that of Jane and Bingley; two less happy marriages represented by that of materialistic Charlotte and Collins, and that of flirtatious Lydia and Wickham. Jane Austen pointed out emphatically that financial considerations are the bonds of wedlock and love. Marriage is not solely determined by finance and social status; it is unwise to marry without money, but it is wrong to marry for money; the marriage based on love and mutual understanding is a happy and ideal one, while the marriage based on love, money and mutual understanding all combined could be regarded as a perfect one.
This paper is focused on comparing the happy and the unfortunate marriages in Pride and Prejudice, and the roles of finance in marriage, by analyzing how financial status and property influence marriage in the novel Pride and Prejudice. Thus readers can obtain a better understanding of the influencing factors in marital choices during the Victorian era and hence some enlightenment into contemporary issues.

Keywords: finance; social status; marital choices

摘要

英国作家简•奥斯丁的小说《傲慢与偏见》，写的是适龄待嫁的女子怎样找到一个好归宿的故事。通过对两个非常幸福的婚姻--伊丽莎白和达西的婚姻，与吉英和彬格莱的婚姻；和两个不幸的婚姻--柯林斯和夏绿蒂的纯物质的婚姻，与丽迪亚和韦翰的轻浮婚姻的对比描写，奥斯丁强调了经济状况对女性的爱情和婚姻所起的束缚作用，指出婚姻不应该完全由经济状况和社会地位来决定；虽然跟一个没有钱的人结婚是不明智的，但是为了金钱而结婚也是错误的，只有建立在爱情和相互理解的基础上的婚姻才是理想和幸福的，而建立在爱情、财富和相互理解三者的基础上的婚姻，可被视为是完美的婚姻。
本文看重比较了《傲慢与偏见》中各种幸福和不幸的婚姻的特点，通过对经济因素和其他因素的比较分析，揭示了小说中经济因素是如何影响婚姻抉择的。希望读者能因此在婚姻的选择方面得到一些启示。

关键词：经济因素；社会地位；婚姻抉择