A Brief Analysis of the Function that Social Classes Play in Pride and Prejudice

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1、论社会阶层因素在傲慢与偏见中的作用A Brief Analysis of the Function that Social Classes Play in Pride and PrejudiceContentsAbstract.1Key words.1I. Introduction.2II. Literature Review.3III. The Influence of Social Classes on he Characters.51. The character of Mrs. Bennet under her heavy class-consciousness.52. The rol

2、e Darcy plays in Pride and Prejudice with his wealth and status.63. The attitude of Lady De Bourgh towards the marriage of Darcy and Elizabeth.74. The courtship of Miss Bingley to Mr. Darcy for his status and wealth.8IV. The Main FactorPride of the Characters Resulted from Social Classes.8V. Marriag

3、es in the Hierarchy Society in Pride and Prejudice9VI. Conclusion.11References.11 A Brief Analysis of the Function that Social Classes Play in Pride and PrejudiceA Brief Analysis of the Function that Social Classes Play in Pride and PrejudiceAbstract: As one of the most famous novelists, Jane Austen

4、 is one of the writers that English learners must be familiar with in English literature. She was born in 1775 and the period during which she lived was one of the social milieu of Regency England. In that period, the society was seriously stratified, resulted from family connections and wealth. So

5、in her works, she mainly talks about love and marriage, which are influenced by peoples wealth and status very much. As for her most popular work, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen shows her own opinions on the social class hierarchy of her society. She criticizes the serious class-consciousness of p

6、eople by describing the ridiculous behaviors and words in detail. For her excellent satire and description in Pride and Prejudice, many people have given their own opinions on the social classes in her novel Pride and Prejudice. In my essay, I will discuss the importance of social classes in Pride a

7、nd Prejudice by analyzing different personalities of the characters influenced by their different class consciousness and their different attitudes towards marriage. Key words: Pride and Prejudice; Jane Austen; love and marriage; class-consciousness摘 要：简奥斯丁是世界最著名的小说家之一，也是英语学习者必须熟悉的英语作家之一。她出生于1775年，处

8、于英国摄政时期，社会有明确的阶级分化，而社会分化的根源在于家庭关系和财富。简奥斯丁作品的主题主要是受人们的财富和地位严重影响下的爱情与婚姻。傲慢与偏见是她最受欢迎的作品，其展现的是简奥斯丁自己对当时阶级社会的看法。通过对人物荒谬行为和语言的描写，她严厉地批评了人们的阶级意识。许多人都对她的精彩尖利的讽刺风格和幽默的语言做出了评价。本论文将对阶级意识影响下的人物性格以及他们不同的婚姻观进行进一步的分析，从而对阶级在傲慢与偏见中起到了重要作用的观点做出深入的论证。关键词：傲慢与偏见；简奥斯丁；爱情与婚姻；阶级意识I. Introduction As one of the greatest writ

9、ers in the world, Jane Austen is one of the writers English learners must get familiar with. She occupies a curious position between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and has been popular with people around the world. Early in the nineteenth century, she got many peoples attention to her works

10、 and a lot of writers have given her their reviews on her works, such as Woolf, Henry James. Nowadays, Austen has become not just an author, but a “figure”, a writer claimed by readers lay and academic, by critics of different stripes and schools.Jane Austen was born in 1775 and began to write in he

11、r teens. In her period, the social hierarchy was very serious. Socially regimented ideas of appropriate behavior for each gender were very grave. A womans role was clear and simple. Her husband or father decided her position in the society. In peoples eyes, she must be modest and submissive and a fe

12、males entrance into the public sphere meant reprehensible loss of feminist. So the main method of self-improvement for women was to get wealth so that they could live a good life. However, because of the discrimination on the female, women from the middle class were not allowed to work. Whats the wo

13、rse, they were also forbidden to inherit property from their parents according to the law. The most effective way to get wealth for them was a successful marriage. So it was really very important for them to marry a wealthy husband. Unfortunately, according to the tradition then, women could not be

14、active in their courtship. The only thing that they could do is to wait for men who would like to pursue them. Therefore, marriage became a problem for the female in the society. Then, as a female from the middle class, Jane Austen faced the same predicament as others. In order to accomplish a marri

15、age in which money and status were as important as love, she refused a rich mans proposal because she did not love him. At last, she remained single all her life. Suffering so much from such a social hierarchy, Jane Austen showed this social phenomenon in her works and stated her own opinions on it.

16、 In fact, the inequality of men and women was just one aspect of Jane Austens society. The social milieu of Austens society was particularly stratified and class divisions were rooted in family connections and wealth. Among her works Pride and Prejudice is the most popular one as her masterpiece. Wi

17、th the affect of the social hierarchy, people pursued their marriage with different attitudes and purposes, which can also be seen in Pride and Prejudice. It is set among the rural middle and upper classes who are landowners. In Pride and Prejudice, none of the major characters works because they li

18、ve entirely on their money from rents and inheritances. There are, however, great distinctions among the landed classes, determined by the amount of wealth possessed by the members. For example, Bingley and her sister look down on the Bennets because they are not wealthy. Class distinctions at that

19、time were in fact very rigid. The land-owning aristocracy belonged to the highest step of the social ladder, and all the power was in their hands. The gentry were in the second rank. The new prosperous industrialist and traders, such as Mr. Gardiner were gradually rising as a class, but they had sti

20、ll not got the right to vote. The lowest in that society were the workers and laborers, who were not mentioned in Pride and Prejudice. In Pride and Prejudice, through her direction at Mr. Collins, Jane Austen criticizes the entire social hierarchy and all the people in the society who hold the class

21、 consciousness. By describing the love between Darcy and Elizabeth, Bingley and Jane, Austen shows the power of love. From her discription we can also see that the social class system influences greatly on her novel Pride and Prejudice. Her criticism of the upper classs pride and heavy consciousness

22、 created different characters in the novel. With different opinions towards money and social class, different characters also show their own attitudes toward their marriages and have different purposes in them. So in my essay, I will give some detailed analyses of the formation of the characters and

23、 different marriages. Through the analyses, the great function of the social classes will then become obvious.IILiterature Review Since the early 19th century, there have been different reviews on classes in Jane Austens novels. Juliem McMaster acclaims that class difference was of course a fact of

24、life for Austen, and an acute observation of the fine distinction between one social class and another was a necessary part of her business as a writer of realistic fiction. In Pride and Prejudice Austen suggests, the quality of humanity is to be judged by moral and humane standard, not by social st

25、atus.Ross Douthat thinks that Austen was in many ways a realist and that the England she depicts is one in which social nobility is limited and class consciousness is strong. In his mind, Jane Austen is often critical of the assumption and prejudices in her work Pride and Prejudice. She distinguishe

26、d between internal merit (goodness of a person) and external merit (rank and possessions).Honan Park asserts that socially regimented ideas of appropriate behaviors for each gender factored into pride and prejudice as well. While social advancement for young men lays in the military, church and law,

27、 the chief method of self-improvement for women was the acquisition of wealth. Women could only accomplish the wealth through successful marriage. So the social hierarchy promotes the topic of Pride and Prejudicemarriage.Marilyn Butler says in his essay Jane Austen and the War of Ideas in 1975 that

28、no one these days would condescend, with such evident class and gender bias, to Jane Austens masterpiece Pride and Prejudice, which is a notable departure from the romantic fictions that were popular and expected of women novelist. She highlighted the injustices of the system of inheritance. Collins

29、, a parody of a serious cleric, serves as vehicles for criticism of the practice of entertainment. In the novel the law forces Mr. Bennet to leave his property to such a ridiculous man instead of his own daughters. Collins, as an example of snob in Pride and Prejudice, believing wholeheartedly in cl

30、asses, is the target of Jane Austens great satire.Qian Qing in her book The History of English Literature in the 19th Century also thinks that the social class hierarchy has a great effect on Austens works, especially her masterpiece Pride and Prejudice. She says that the main topic of her novels is

31、 love and marriage. In Austens society, there are a lot of limits for women and the condition of female in society is very terrible and marriage is very important for women. However because of the great inequality between the male and the female and many unreasonable rules made for women, it was ver

32、y difficult for the female to marry a suitable man. Jane Austen also suffered a lot from such a society system. She did not marry in her life because of her opinion on marriage that love is as dispensable as wealth and status in marriage. So with her unsatisfaction and lament to her society hierarch

33、y, she made a serious criticism to it by the satire of the characters snob and class-consciousness. Cynthia Lachapelle, in his Class Consciousness in Pride and Prejudice suggests that Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice satirically depicts the universal ideals in Regency England, primarily regarding so

34、cial class. Austen follows the development of an outspoken, middle-class British woman, Elizabeth Bennet, as she encounters and overcomes the many social barriers that separate her from her aristocratic neighbors. Throughout the novel, Lizzie must confront societys class-consciousness, particularly

35、with her familys growing relationship with the wellborn Bingleys and their friend, Mr. Darcy. He holds that it is clear that the author, Jane Austen, intended Pride and Prejudice to be a parody of English societys emphasis on the social class structure, which parallels the social class system of tod

36、ay. Jane Austen makes it indisputable that her novel, Pride and Prejudice, satirizes the social class system in England during the late 1700s. By creating characters who place themselves on pedestals according to their classes, Austen is able to make light of the often derogatory class consciousness

37、 common to Regency England. On the other hand, this British novelist also shows that love and happiness can overcome all class boundaries.With these different literature reviews, we can get a general understanding of the influence of the social class on Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice. This subject

38、 is useful for us to understand the cultural and social background under which Jane Austen wrote her novels. As English majors, it is necessary for us to learn how to analyze this topic deeply so that we can gain more knowledge about Jane Austen and her works.IIIThe Influence of Social Classes on th

39、e Characters 1. The character of Mrs. Bennet under her strong class-consciousnessSocial status is an important part of the 19th Century English society, and Mrs. Bennet is not different from any other people in her attempts to improve her familys social status, or at least to give the impression tha

40、t they belong to the high class. Mrs. Bennet has left a deep impression of a vulgar, noisy, foolish and earthly woman to anybody who has read Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice. Mrs. Bennets obsession with marrying her daughters off to wealthy men is a part of this absorption with social status. There

41、fore, Mrs. Bennet ridiculously concern that she and her daughters will be homeless and penniless if none of them marry well. She is worrying about her daughters marriages all the time. Except her daughters marrying to wealthy husbands, she seems to care for nothing else in the world. Ironically, her

42、 pursuit of this goal tends to be against her mind. Because of her lack of grace and her foolishness, she alienates Darcy and Bingley whom she tries desperately to attract. In addition, her snobbery can also be seen from the change of her attitudes towards different people.First, we can see the obvi

43、ous change of Mrs. Bennets attitude towards Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice. Mr. Collins is one of the Bennets relatives and also a person who will inherit Mr Bennets property. So when she hears that Mr. Collins will come, she feels very worried and fears that she and her daughters will be droven

44、 away from her own house. Therefore, when Mr. Collins comes to their house and walks around it, she always says something in a satirical way. Meanwhile, she also hints Mr. Collins that he can marry one of her daughters. Therefore, when she knows that Mr. Collins wants to marry Elizabeth, she feels v

45、ery happy and begins to flatter him. Because Elizabeth refuses Collins she even says some bad words to her daughter. From this we can see that how eager she is to get her daughters marry not caring whether they are willing or not.Another change of Mrs. Bennets attitude is toward Mr. Darcy. In the be

46、ginning, Darcy is an arrogant man and seems to be interested in nothing. Because of his countenance of refusing everybody, Mrs. Bennet can not take the opportunity to flatter him. So she hates him and ask Elizabeth not to dance with him. When Darcy visits the Bennets with Bingley, she also shows her

47、 extremely different attitude towards these two men. She shows her great abilities of flattering and enthusiasm to Bingley who will become her son-in-law. In contrast, she is very desolate to Darcy and even satires him. However when she knows that Darcy likes her daughter Elizabeth, she feels very h

48、appy and changes her attitude immediately. She becomes more enthusiastic and begins to make great use of her proficient skills of flattering, which reveals her foolishness and snobbery. With the description of the character- Mrs. Bennet, Jane Austen highlights the necessity of marriage for women in

49、her society and also shows the foolishness influenced by the social class hierocracy of people. 2. The role Darcy played in Pride and Prejudice with his wealth and status Mr. Darcys wealth and handsomeness make him a likely target for single women, although he is snobby and unapproachable. A marriag

50、e to him will greatly improve the social status of any family in the Bennets neighborhood, but because Darcy is so rude, no one even considers the idea of pairing their daughters with him. His social status makes him seem out of reach. Because of this, instead of flattering him, Mrs. Bennet shows he

51、r violent lament to him. That is also the reason why Elizabeth misunderstood her in the beginning, which was a great barrier to their love. She thinks that status is more important to him than love, and so she despises him for it.As an aristocrat, Darcy looks down upon anybody of his social inferior

52、s. We can feel Mr. Darcys arrogance when he meets Elizabeth for the first time. In the ball, Darcy shows his pride and does not invite anybody to dance with him. So when Mr. Bingley suggests his dancing with Elizabeth, he makes a glance at her and says; “She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to

53、tempt me.” He continues to declare that he has no interest in women who are “slighted by other men.” His words makes Elizabeth take an immediate and understandable disliking to Darcy and this misunderstanding runs through the whole novel until they becomes lovers. Because of Darcys comments and refu

54、sal to dance with anybody not rich and well bred, the neighborhood takes a similar dislike for him the first time they meet him.However, Darcys arrogance is reasonable for Jane Austen, because he is from the high social class. In the hierarchy of Darcys society, people from different classes hold ke

55、en class-consciousness. As for Darcy, a son of a wealthy, well-established family and the master of the great estate of Pemberley, his noble family background and wealth make him overly proud and serious of his social status and is always isolated in a dome of high society. Therefore, he knows no ot

56、her way of life than the life of an aristocrat and expects to be treated as such. His over-emphasis of class differences is a laughable matter. He thinks that he is more apt to marry other upper-class citizens, rather than his social inferiors. So when he feels that he has fallen in love with Elizab

57、eth, he does not want to admit the fact and hopes that Elizabeth can be far from him just because she is from the middle class and not rich. In addition, he also thinks that he should be treated with utmost respect and dignity, merely because he is of higher social status. So he expects that his ori

58、ginal proposal to Elizabeth is accepted simply because he has never really been exposed to rejection and knows no other way. Unfortunately, Elizabeth refused him and he has to struggle “for the appearance of composure” in order to question her unfavorable response. Austen points out that “His astoni

59、shment was obvious; he looked at her with an expression of mingled incredulity and mortification”. Again, because society has exalted the upper class, Darcy has been brought up to expect his social inferiors to please and serve him, which explains his surprise at Lizzies unsubtle refusal. In the end

60、, because Darcy gets rid of his class-consciousness, Elizabeth accepts his courtship.By writing about Mr. Darcy and his love toward Elizabeth, Jane Austen declares her opinion that love can be independent of the special forces and can be factured by the people who are able to escape the warping effe

61、cts of the hierarchical society.3. The attitude of Lady De Bourgh towards the marriage of Darcy and ElizabethLady De Bourgh, a rich and bossy noblewoman , is also Mr. Collinss patron and Darcys aunt. She epitomizes class snobbery , especially in her attempts to make Elizabeth be away from her well-b

62、red nephew. Lady De Bourgh sees a marriage between Elizabeth and Darcy as a drastic mistake because it is between two people of different social classes and financial status. Although Lady De Bourgh seemed to like Elizabeth well enough when they met, she is not pleased that her nephew, whom she inte

63、nded would marry her own daughter and increase the fortunes of both parties, is now interested in a middle class girl like Elizabeth. So when she knows that Darcy wants to marry Elizabeth, she breaks into Elizabeths house rudely and insists that they walk outside to have a conversation. There, Lady

64、De Bourgh informs that she has heard a rumor that Darcy is planning to marry her. She tells Elizabeth that such a notion is ridiculous because of Elizabeths low position in life and the tacit engagement of Darcy to her own daughter. She demands that Elizabeth promise not to get engaged with Darcy fo

65、rever, claiming that Elizabeth is bound to obey her by “the claims of duty, honor, and gratitude.” She presents the objection; the Bennets have such low connections that Darcys marrying Elizabeth would “run him in the opinion of all his friends, and make him the contempt of the world.” All of her behavior and words reve