On the Women’s Status Seen in Pride and Prejudice [4]
论文作者:佚名论文属性:短文 essay登出时间:2009-04-04编辑:黄丽樱点击率:18099
论文字数:5830论文编号:org200904040809503408语种:中文 Chinese地区:中国价格:免费论文
关键词:Women’s statuspride and prejudicefeudal妇女地位傲慢与偏见封建观念《傲慢与偏见》
fortune must be in want of a wife.” which tells the reader that men were always in the dominant
status in a marriage and the heritance of property. Thus men enjoy the right to choose their wives according to their will.
Through Pride and Prejudice, Austen portrays the commonly held views on the characters’ marriage. Society, at that time, put a significant value on property and social status, and women in such a society, with their privileges tightly limited, had no chance to develop their personalities and their characters were fettered by the society. There were no centrally organized systems of state—supported schools, and some local grammar schools did exist but did not admit girls. So women’s education became impossible, and they didn’t have careers, but society required little for their use of knowledge and gave little chance for them to use knowledge. They were denied the possibility of improving their status or gaining their financial security through hard work or personal achievements. They were mostly estimated by others through their property and social status.
Therefore, in Pride and Prejudice, marriage is one of the most ideal ways, in which women could gain reputation, wealth and raise their social status. Just as the character Charlotte Lucas in the novel, without thinking highly either of men or matrimony, her life goal is marriage. When proposing and being rejected by Elizabeth, Mr. Collins quickly transfers his attention towards Charlotte Lucas, and he could not possibly be in love with Charlotte, for only three days before he had proposed Elizabeth. Yet Charlotte knows the fact that the man she will marry has no attachment to her, just for the will of marrying, but she pays no attention to it. She marries Mr. Collins for the purpose other than love, so she doesn’t care about whether there is love in their marriage. Just as Charlotte says to her fiend “I am not romantic, you know. I never was. I ask only a comfortable home; and considering Mr. Collins’s character, connections, and situations in life…” she accepts Mr. Collins’s proposal. Austen
portrays that Charlotte’s marriage to Collins is a monetary trade. Charlotte marries Collins primarily because he will be able to provide her enough livelihoods and will be able to make her life quite easy by considering estate. So she thinks that the tolerable Collins’s proposing to her is an extremely good fortune for her since he earns his money through inheritance and is in the command of the wealthy lady Catherine. In other words, Charlotte marries Collins not because of love but because of her desire for financial security and raising her social status. Facing the practicality, she would have sacrificed every better feeling to worldly advantages. After their marriage, Charlotte has to endure her intolerable husband.
Another obvious aspect, examining from Pride and Prejudice is the Prejudice on the right of women’s inheritance. Society doesn’t admit that women can entail from their fathers. Although the Bennet family has no son, none of the five Bennet daughters are allowed to entail their father’s estate, after their father’s death. And all his estate will have to be turned over to one of their male relatives Mr. Collins, and after the death of Mr. Bennet, the five Bennet daughters would lose all that they have been owned. Just as Mr. Bennet says to her wife and his daughter “about a month ago I received this letter …It is from my cousin, Mr. Collins, who, when
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