摘要

简·奥斯丁是19世纪早期的小说家，对英国文学的发展做出了巨大的贡献。她在创作过程中擅长运用反讽等修辞手法，以及微妙的对话语气的运用。《傲慢与偏见》是一部具有广泛影响意义的现实主义作品，其中人物性格的分明也给广大读者留下了深刻的印象。本文从结构与语言运用来研究这部小说的修辞艺术。通过对《傲慢与偏见》中的具体语料的分析，理解反讽、头韵、低调陈述等修辞的精妙应用。其目的是从总体上让读者对作者独特的创作风格和语言风格有更加深刻的理解。

关键词  反讽，头韵，低调陈述

Abstract

    Jane Austen is a well-known English novelist in the early 19th century. She has made a great contribution to the development of English literature. She is good at using irony and many other rhetorical devices in her creative works, among which some ingenious conversations are employed. Pride and Prejudice is a realistic work that has extensive influence. This novel’s distinctive characters have impressed the readers all over the world. This paper studies this novel’s rhetorical art from the structure and the language use and analyzes the specific examples to understand the wonderful use of irony, alliteration and understatement so as to get a whole understanding of Jane Austen’s unique creating and language styles.

Keywords  irony, alliteration, understatement

1  Introduction
Jane Austen (1775-1817) is a famous and much-loved English writer whose works earned her a solid position as one of the most popular writers in English literature. Her realism, vivid character portrayal, biting social commentary and masterful use of irony as well as her acclaimed plots have gained her historical importance among scholars and critics. From 1811 to 1816, with the release of Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816), Austen achieved great success as a published writer. Her stories highlight the dependence of women on marriage to ensure social position and economic security. She has a great talent in depicting people’s everyday life in the rural areas.
Pride and Prejudice, first published in 1813, is a masterpiece of Jane Austen. It is considered to be one of the most well-known novels in English literature. Austen herself compared this brilliant work to her “own darling child”. A famous British novelist, Maugham, comments it as one of the world’s top ten novels. The story follows 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 the British Regency.