简奥斯汀的婚姻观(英文).docVIP

Jane Austen’s Outlook on Marriage ----My idea after reading Emma 英语本0609 韩宏斌 061411191 Having reading Jane Austen’s famous novel Emma, which is considered as her most classic work, I lost myself in pondering one word—marriage. This novel is composed by some marital stories which are connected by Emma, the matchmaker. Through the novel, we can see people’s outlook on marriage in England at that time. In the 18th century, women craved for marrying a gentleman who possessed considerable wealth and high social status. Love, seemed of no significance. This was because at that time, women had no right to inherit the possession. Their only way to live a desirable life after their fathers’ death was to marry a wealthy man who also possessed high social status. That is why in Pride and Prejudice Mrs. Bonnet was crazy to marry her daughters off. In the novel Emma, we can see that this outlook had great influence on Jane Austen on the grounds that almost all marriages created by her are on the basis of wealth and social status. However, Austen had her own idea. She also emphasized love. From her point of view, happy marriage= love + wealth + equal social status. In the novel, Austen narrated different kinds of marriages to express her idea, but all of them had relations with wealth, social status and love. Now, we will perceive how her marital outlook was embodied in the novel. In Emma, what impresses me most is not Emma and Knightly’s combination, but Jane and Frank’s story. When I was reading the novel, their strange behaviors aroused my interest. They didn’t unveil their relationship until Frank’s aunt’s death. Why? That was because Mrs. Churchill, frank’s aunt wouldn’t agree their marriage at all. It was reasonable at that time. Jane was an orphan who was brought up by her father’s friends. She had no noble background and no possession, which would not match the noble Churchill family. Even though Jane was elegant and well-educated, she still would no