There are many classic works in English and American literature that focus on love and marriage. These classic stories have a long aftertaste, allowing readers to comprehend different views on love and marriage. This article takes “Pride and Prejudice” as an example to explore the concept of love and marriage in British and American literature. “Pride and Prejudice” is the masterpiece of British female novelist Jane Austen. The author also uses delicate and elegant techniques to show the world the daily life and human conditions of British towns and villages in a conservative and closed state from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century. In the novel, the author mainly describes the views on love and marriage of the five daughters in the Bennet family and their friends. Express the author’s views on love and marriage through the love story of the daughter of the Bennet family. She opposes marriages based on material things such as money and status, and also opposes marriages without love but only lust. In Austin’s view, marriage is an organic combination of love and material things, that is, marriage needs to be based on love and guaranteed by material things.
1. Views on Love and Marriage in Pride and Prejudice
(1) Elizabeth and Darcy: High-quality Love and Happy Marriage with Mutual Recognition and Respect
Elizabeth is the second daughter of the squire Mr. Bennet. Upbringing, good conversation and strong character. Darcy’s aristocratic background made him arrogant at first, but after he failed in his first courtship, he had a deep self-reflection, and he could correct his mistakes, which also showed his kind and upright nature. The love between Elizabeth and Darcy is the main line that promotes the development of the novel. The story begins with the arrogant attitude of Elizabeth and Bingley when they commented on Elizabeth at the ball, which caused Elizabeth to have a prejudice against her image. In the future, they gradually discovered the bright spots in each other. Eliminate the “arrogance” and “prejudice” towards each other in your heart, appreciate and attract each other and constantly realize self-improvement. Although their emotional road was full of twists and turns, in the end they still reaped the most sincere love and happy marriage.
Elizabeth’s stubbornness kept her away from Darcy for a while, and her courage, insight, and independent personality also attracted Darcy’s attention. When Elizabeth visited Collins’ house, they met again and had a deeper understanding of each other. Darcy got to know Elizabeth again and found that she was very different from the hypocritical, artificial, and profit-seeking women in society at that time. Smart and humorous, elegant manners, and more unique feminine charm, and Elizabeth also saw Darcy’s attitude in talking with the elders, etc., she let go of her prejudice against Darcy, and was gradually attracted by Darcy’s personality. Being able to be honest with each other, he finally accepted Darcy’s confession. The two of them appreciate and respect each other from the bottom of their hearts. Darcy did not change his temperament in order to please Elizabeth, and Elizabeth did not accept the arrogant confession because of Darcy’s status and financial resources. This shows that Elizabeth pursues love but does not lose herself. This has also become the key to her happy and beautiful marriage. Elizabeth and Darcy’s independent personalities, their responsible attitudes towards love and marriage, and their happy endings are in stark contrast to the people’s views on love and marriage and marriage tragedies at that time, which also reflects the author Jane Austen’s heart. Yearning and admiration for this concept of love and marriage.
(2) Jane and Bingley: a two-way pure love and a beautiful marriage
Jane is the eldest daughter of Mr. Bennet, the squire, and the sister of Elizabeth. She is gentle, lovely, beautiful, kind, understanding, generous and decent. They spoke highly of her when they first met. Bingley is a single rich man and a friend of Darcy. He is handsome, handsome and gentle, but lacks his own opinions and is easily influenced by other people’s words. At a ball, when Bingley saw Jane for the first time, he was moved by Jane’s beautiful appearance, and Jane also fell in love with Bingley, who was a gentleman at first sight. The meaning is buried in the bottom of my heart. Their relationship line shows their timidity when love comes. Bingley, who is hesitant to do things, Jane, who is shy and afraid to express her heart, and the disparity in property status between the two make their love road go through twists and turns. . But Jane and Bingley have each other in their hearts, and finally came together under the power of love, and reaped the pure love, which was undoubtedly very precious in the feudal society at that time. The pure and unadulterated view of love and marriage between the two of them is also what Jane Austen wants to show the most beautiful love and marriage to the world.
(3) Charlotte and Collins: overly realistic love and rational marriage
Charlotte is Elizabeth’s neighbor and best friend, as well as a woman with independent opinions and full of wisdom. But Charlotte is different from Elizabeth, she is more rational and realistic when facing love and marriage. At that time, her family status was not considered prominent, and she did not have Elizabeth’s good looks, and she was also nearly 26 years old. Under the reality of her age and family, she also realized that life was helpless. In order to change her social status and obtain a stable material life, she had no choice but to stop picking whether there was love in her marriage. Therefore, under such a view of love and marriage, she chose to marry Collins without hesitation, which also reflected that she “bowed her head” and “bowed her waist” to reality, which was in line with the general concept of women’s value in society at that time. Marriage is the best opportunity to realize women’s self-worth” coincidentally, and it also reflects what Charlotte herself said “I have never been a romanticist, I just want to have a comfortable and secure home” This love marriage view. As the distant cousin of the Bennet family, Collins inherited the property of the Bennet family. He is vain and good at flattering and flattering. For him, marriage should also be based on money and interests. The woman who serves Lady Catherine together is not the sustenance of her emotions, and Charlotte also wants to obtain a comfortable life. The marriage between Charlotte and Collins was a marriage without love and a marriage based on real interests, but Charlotte was able to accurately position her own marriage and find a marriage model to live in peace with her husband after marriage. It can be seen that Charlotte’s marriage is undoubtedly a rational choice.
(4) Lydia and Wickham: Irresponsible Love and Hasty Marriage
Lydia is the youngest daughter of Mr. Bennet, a squire. She is frivolous, misbehaving, enjoys the love and flattery of men, is not loyal to her feelings, can flirt with many handsome men at the same time, and has no self-respect and self-love. Bewitched by Wickham’s handsome, suave, and gentle appearance and deliberately flattering him, Lydia soon fell in love with him. But in fact, Wickham has misconduct, is very hypocritical, and does anything to achieve his goals, but Lydia has no rational judgment at all in getting along with him, nor does she ask her true inner feelings, but is immersed in Wickham. She couldn’t extricate herself from Mu’s sweet talk and lust, and then eloped with her regardless of her and her sister’s reputation. And Wickham seduces Lydia to elope not because he loves her and wants to give her a happy marriage, but because of the impulse driven by money. Lydia’s infidelity towards love and superficial cognition towards marriage reveal the flaws in her outlook on life and values, as well as her childish and immature outlook on love and marriage. The marriage under the irresponsible attitude of the two towards love and marriage is also destined to be a tragedy.
2. Views on love and marriage reflected in Jane Austen’s works
(1) Love and marriage should focus on
character Whether they are like-minded, whether they have the same moral qualities. If in love and marriage, you just covet the other party’s “beauty” and ignore the most basic character, then the marriage will inevitably end in tragedy. This concept is fully demonstrated in Austen’s novel “Pride and Prejudice”, in which the marriage of the Bennet couple is the most typical counterexample. Mr. Bennet is a wise man. When he met Gardner, he was attracted by her beauty and youth, and thought that such a woman was worthy of him, but with the beginning of married life, Gardner’s superficial and stupid Personalities such as narrow-mindedness and narrow-mindedness also gradually wiped out Mr. Bennet’s love.
