[摘要] 简奥斯丁的《傲慢与偏见》写于1813年，一(4)
2013-08-20 01:03
导读：They met several times, for there was much to be discussed. Wickham, of course, wanted more than he could get, but at length was reduced to be reasonable.(17) Wickhams marrying Lydia finally calms dow
They met several times, for there was much to be discussed. Wickham, of course, wanted more than he could get, but at length was reduced to be reasonable.”(17)
Wickham’s marrying Lydia finally calms down the dissatisfaction in the society, and for that, Mrs. Bennet is in great joy.
In marriage, money is considered as the factor of extreme importance, not only to daughters, but also to younger sons. Let’s have a close look at the conversation between the respectable Colonel Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth:
“… Now, seriously, what have you ever known of self-denial and dependence? When have you been prevented by want of money from going wherever you chose, or procuring anything you had a fancy for?”
“These are home questions — and perhaps I can not say that I have experienced many hardships of that nature. But in matters of greater weight, I may suffer from the want of money. Younger sons can not marry where they like.”
“Unless where they like women of fortune, which I think they very often do.”
“Our habits of expense make us too dependent, and there are not many in my rank of life who can afford to marry without some attention to money.”(18)
Now let’s turn to the protagonist of the novel, Elizabeth Bennets. She is intelligent, vivacious, humorous, perceptive and quick-witted, and she has a strong sense of personality and dignity. She despises her mother’s dreadful mentality and unbearably vulgar and also her younger sisters’ flirtatiousness and dissoluteness, but is never ashamed of her amiable uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner just because of their profession as merchants. She firmly refuses Mr. Collins’ proposal, against her mother’s expectation, because she does not and will never love him, and declines Mr. Darcy resolutely, for his expressing his love to her arrogantly and impertinently. She does not knuckle under the snobbish Miss Bingley, and is neither overbearing nor cringing to Mrs. de Bourgh and her domineeringness. When the latter shows her intention to intervene her freedom of marrying Darcy or not, she takes on diamond-cut-diamond and never compromised. She finally marries Darcy and her marriage is considered as an ideal one, for it consists of money and love. Leaving aside her true love for Darcy, then, what role does money play in her process of chasing after marriage?
（科教作文网http://zw.ΝsΕac.cOM编辑） She once holds good feelings on Wickham, considering him to be the most agreeable man she has ever met. But meanwhile, she thinks it is too imprudent to fall in love with him. She once says to her aunt, Mrs. Gardiner,
“I will take care of myself, and of Mr. Wickham too. He shall not be in love with me, if I can prevent it.”(19)
So when Wickham gets engaged with Miss King for her ten-thousand-pound property, she does not feel a little bit sad but free. Her two younger sisters, Kitty and Lydia are resentful about him, but she thinks “They are young in the ways of the world, and not yet open to the mortifying conviction that handsome young men must have something to live on as well as the plain.”(20)
When Mrs. Gardiner expresses her idea about Wickham’s desertion later, Elizabeth says,
“Pray, my dear aunt, what is the difference in matrimonial affairs, between the mercenary and the prudent motive? Where does discretion end, and avarice begin?”(21)
Here, Austen brings up a complicated problem for discussion through Elizabeth — How shall we quantify the ratio between money and love in a marriage? Elizabeth could not accept Collins because there could be no possibility of love between them, nor Wickham since he has no property. (Though Wickham is short of not only money but also moral, she does not know it until the latter part of the story.) Darcy’s pride and her prejudice against him makes her refuse his first offer of marriage, but later on, she feels regretful for her own bias and rashness. There is a faint pity in her painful self-condemn and complex feelings. When she sees Darcy’s Pemberley Park, her feeling changes,
“She had never seen a place for which nature had done more, or where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste.” And at that moment, “She felt that to be mistress of Pemberley might be something!”(22)
Apparently there is sort of pleasant sensation about substance based on money subconsciously. However, such kind of pursuit seems to be natural and reasonable accompanying with her elegant temperament. Elizabeth rejects a pride “Darcy”, but accepts a perfect-going “Darcy”. After she confesses her love for Darcy and their engagement to her elder sister, Jane asks her how long she has loved Mr. Darcy and she answers, “I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley….”(23) Though she is joking, we can see part of her feeling of pursuing money.
