[摘要] 简奥斯丁的《傲慢与偏见》写于1813年，一(3)
2013-08-20 01:03
导读：Except the detailed digit of money, there is another factor which has a great influence on marriage. That is social position determined by economic condition. In the story, the Bennets have some low c
Except the detailed digit of money, there is another factor which has a great influence on marriage. That is social position determined by economic condition. In the story, the Bennets have some low connections. They have one uncle, Mr. Phillips, being an attorney in Meryton, and another one, Mr. Gardiner, settling in London in a respectable line of trade. As for this, Miss Bingley always makes fun of the Bennets, and Mr. Darcy once says frankly that “it must very materially lessen their chance of marrying men of any consideration in the world.”(12)
To make it clear that money is very important in the marriage convention of such kind of society, Mr. Collins’ words after Elizabeth refusing his proposal can be taken as proof.
“… It does not appear to me that my hand is unworthy your acceptance, or that establishment I can offer would be any other than highly desirable. My situation in life, my connections with the family of de Bourgh, and my relationship to your own, are circumstances highly in my favor; and you should take it into further consideration, that in spite of your manifold attractions, it is by no means certain that another offer to marriage may ever be made you, your portion is unhappily so small, that it will in all likelihood undo the effects of your loveliness and amiable qualifications.”(13)
Mr. Collins is not a sensible man, and the deficiency of Nature has been but little assisted by education or society. The subjection in which his father brought him up has given him originally great humility of manner; but it is a great deal counteracted by the self-conceit of a weak head, living in retirement, and the consequent feelings of early and unexpected prosperity. The respect which he feels for Lady Catherine’s high rank, and his veneration for her as his patroness, mingling with a very good opinion of himself, of his authority as a clergyman, and his right as a rector, makes him altogether a mixture of pride and obsequiousness, self-importance and humility. His intention of choosing Elizabeth as his wife is his plan of amends -- of atonement – for inheriting their father’s estate; and he thinks it an excellent one, full of eligibility and suitableness, and excessively generous and disinterested on his own part. So he takes it for granted that Elizabeth will accept his proposal cheerfully and readily. Though Elizabeth rejects him for his incomplete character, it still can tell us the low social-status of the British women at that period of time. The only thing a young lady without property could do is to marrying a man with a good fortune.
（转载自中国科教评价网http://www.nseac.com）
Take the marriage case of Lucas-Collins for another example. Miss Lucas is Elizabeth’s closest friend. She is a sensible, intelligent young woman, knowing it very clearly that “Mr. Collins, to be sure, was neither sensible nor agreeable; his society was irksome, and his attachment to her must be imaginary. But still he would be her husband. Without thinking highly either of men or of matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only honorable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want.”(14)
Such humorous and piercing description portrays the mentality of Lucas-like women deeply and also their fate that there is no other way that can improve their own position in finance and society except marrying a husband with a good fortune. Elizabeth goes to Parsonage to visit them by the invitation of Miss Lucas after they getting married, and finds:
“Her home and her housekeeping, her parish and her poultry, and all their dependent concerns, had not yet lost their charms.”(15) “When Mr. Collins could be forgotten, there was really a great air of comfort throughout …”(16)
It is interesting that, in such marriage based on sole and naked money-transaction, the woman without property does marry a single man with a good fortune, but the husband himself has nothing to do with the enjoyment the marriage bringing to her. Is not it an excellent irony to the proposition at the beginning of the novel the “truth universally acknowledged”?
Wickham-Lydia Scandal can be taken as another instance to illustrate that money is of overwhelming importance in marriage. Wickham is very handsome and charming from his appearance, but actually demoralizes. He is extravagant and always greatly in debts of honor. Lydia, far more different from her two elder sisters, is vain, ignorant, idle and absolutely uncontrolled. Moreover, she indulges herself in flirtation with officers. They elope from Brighton without any engagement and are found out in London finally. Though under such circumstances, Wickham has no intention at all to marry Lydia, but for Darcy’s help in secret:
内容来自www.nseac.com “Mr. Darcy asked him why he had not married your sister at once? Though Mr. Bennet was not imagined to be very rich, he would have been able to do something for him, and his situation must have been benefited by marriage. But he found, in reply to this question, that Wickham still cherish the hope of more effectually making his fortune by marriage in some other county. Under such circumstances, however, he was not likely to be proof against the temptation of immediate relief.
