论文正文部分

1.Introduction

Jane Austen (16 December 1775 –18 July 1817)，a distinguished English novelist, who was born in Hampshire of middle class parents. She never accepted the formal school education. However, the wide range of activities with-in the Austen family-country walks, charades, reading, writing stories and family plays, constituted a rich informal education for the children and stimulated Ja ne Austen’s ambition to become a novelist. As a writer, she pay more attention to portraying the commonplace events of people among the landed gentry. Jane Austen’s appeared on the English literary scene in 1813. Besides, her novels are comedies of manners that depict the self-contained word of provincial ladies and gentlemen who appear in domestic setting. She is particularly noted for her vivid delineations and lively interplay of character, her super sense of comic irony, and her moral firmness(Wang Jun, 2007:1). In generally, Austen occupies a curious position between the 18th and 19th centuries. Jane Austen led a quiet, retired and uneventful life. She remained single her entire life. On July 8, 1817, she died in Winchester and was buried in the cathedral. (Zhang Boxiang＆Long Jiang, 2008:1-2)

Pride and Prejudice，published in 1813, was Jane Austen’s earliest work, and in some senses also one of her most mature works, which was Jane Austen herself called this brilliant work her "own darling child. The initial title of the novel is “First Impression” . The works raw material concentrates on daily life including the relationship of love and marriage and family life in the genteel rural society in Britain in the 18th century. It reflects people’s rural life and ways of the world in Britain in a state of conservative situation. With the ironic sentence “It is a truth universally acknowledged，that a single man in possession of a good fortune，must be in want of a wife” begins “the most reread novel of English” Pride and Prejudice. The story of Mrs. Bennet's attempts to marry off her five daughters is one of the best-loved and most enduring classics in English literature." In pride and prejudice the plot revolves

mainly around the second daughter, Elizabeth, and her troublesome romance with the rich, handsome, wealthy, high-born, but formidable outrageously pride and arrogant Mr Darcy.

Elizabeth, the protagonist in pride and prejudice, one of the most well-known female in English literature. She has a middle-class family background and has not been affected by the formal education that is belonging to the aristocratic young children, therefore, she is not good at painting and music. However, she has read a great deal of books which make her intelligent and perceptive. She is a witted girl with courage and independence. About Elizabeth, Jane Austen wrote in a letter“I must confess that i think her as a delightful creature as ever appeared in print and how I shall tolerate those who do not like her at least I do not know.(Jones, 1991)” Elizabeth is an indeed special girl at that time. She has attracted the attention of many readers. This paper will give an analysis of her characteristics, marriage concept, and the significance of her marriage concept，it aims to help readers understand the character and the novel comprehensively.

The thesis is divided into four parts. The first part is introduction. It is a part that contains of four points: a brief introduction about the author, a brief summary of the story, the method and value of my thesis, the frame of this thesis. The second part is literature review. It mainly includes some research about Elizabeth from home and aboard. The third part is the body part, which is about the analysis of Elizabeth. It is composed of background information, characteristics of Elizabeth, marriage concept of Elizabeth, and the significance of Elizabeth’s marriage concept. The forth part is conclusion. In this part, the author will give a briefly summary about this thesis on the whole and state the importance of this paper.

2. Literature Review

Many readers have witnessed their own romance experiences reflected in Pride and Prejudice while it has been serving as a source text which has yielded many