Jane Austen 简介

Jane Austen was born on 16 December ,1775,at the rectory in the village of Steventon,Hampshire.She was the second daughter in a family of eight.The first 25 years of her life was in Hampshire .She was educated mainly at home by her father and brothers.On her father’s retirement,the family moved to Bath.She started to write when she was a child ,in order to amuse the family.Jane Austen was a very shy and cute girl.She usually wrote on small pieces of paper and if someone came into the house,she would cover the paper under the desk.After the death of her father in 1805,she lived with her mother and sister in Southampton and moved in 1809 to a large cottage in the village of Chawton.Due to the poor health,she died on July 18,1817 in Winchester Cathedral.She never married,but her life was active and portrayed a lot of things that around her in her novels. Having reading Jane Austen’s famous novel Emma, which is considered a s 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 outlo ok on marriage in England at that time. In the 18th century, women crave d for marrying a gentleman who possessed considerable wealth and high social status. Love, seemed of no significance. This was because at that ti me, 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 Ja ne Austen on the grounds that almost all marriages created by her are on t he basis of wealth and social status. However, Austen had her own idea. S he also emphasized love. From her point of view, happy marriage= love + wealth + equal social status. In the novel, Austen narrated different kind s of marriages to express her idea, but all of them had relations with wealt h, 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 combinat ion, but Jane and Frank’s story. When I was reading the novel, their stran ge behaviors aroused my interest. They didn’t unveil their relationship unt il Frank’s aunt’s death. Why? That was because Mrs. Churchill, frank’s au nt 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 n oble background and no possession, which would not match the noble Ch urchill family. Even though Jane was elegant and well-educated, she still would not be accepted by rich family. This was a cruel phenomenon in En glish. Therefore, I guess, when Frank showed his attachment to Jane, she accepted willingly. I guess that she was eager to marry a rich and noble m
an to avoid herself of becoming a governess, whose life was just like a sla ve. Did they love each other? Maybe, but not very deeply. To some extent , Frank was just a little gentle. He had no capacity to match Jane if not co nsidering the factors of wealth and social status. Anyhow they married for God’s sake. Here Austen pointed that wealth and social status attached gr eat importance in marriage. Austen cast her criticism to the sad fact that p eople’s eye was only on wealth and high social status.
Compared with Jane, Harriet’s marriage was not that successful. Harriet, t he miserable girl, even didn’t know who her father was. Her position was so inferior that she had no choice but to rely on her so-called best friend —Emma. Under Emma’s matchmaking, Harriet thought she should fell in love with Mr. Elton. However, it was impossible because she was too obs cure to match the rich and prestigious vicar.
Failing in love with Elton, Harriet turned her goal to Knightly, but it was unrealistic too. On one hand, it was by virtue of the disparity of wealth an d social status; on the other hand, Knightly loved Emma. In Austen’s eyes
, marriage without love was contemptuous. At the same time, Emma was under an illusion that Harriet would fell in love with Frank. Actually, at fi rst, Harriet’s experience was a tragedy. Austen criticized the scornful phe nomenon of marriage on society by the example of Harriet.
To draw a shot conclusion, in Jane and Harriet’s cases, I don’t think Auste n appreciated them very much. She just wanted to unveil England’s outlo ok on marriage at that time. Obviously, Austen gave her criticism to it. Ho wever, she didn’t deny this kind of marriage absolutely since she gave Jan e and Frank love and they married at last; Harriet also found her happines s with Martin (we will mention it later). This illustrated that Austen didn’t think marriage without enough money and social status was possible. Th en, we will ask, what kind of marriage did Austen prefer?
Well, let us take Harriet as an example again. Constant failure in love led to Harriet’s realization of her mistake. Finally, she found her Mr. Right—Mr. Martin. As a matter of fact, at the beginning we can see that Harriet a nd Martin loved each other. Just because of Emma’s luring that Harriet sh ould look for a better man to match her, they did not get together. I figure that according to Auste n’s standard of marriage, Harriet and Martin match ed very much. Martin was a peasant who was industrious and good hearte d. He had the ability to support the family. At last, Harriet’s identity was a lso discovered. She was the illegitimate daughter of a trade person. Both of them had low social status .The most important point was that they lov
ed each other. Therefore, marriage with wealth and equal social status as well as love was preferred by Jane Austen.
Another example is Mrs. Weston and Mr. Weston’s marriage. We know th at Mr. Weston married Miss Churchill at first, but their marriage caused h ardship to both. Miss Churchill came from a wealthy and noble family wh o was obviously superior to Mr. Weston, who was only a trade man. His s econd marriage was happier because their social status was more equal---Mrs. Weston was a governess before marriage. What’s more, they loved e ach other and respected each other. Comparatively speaking, they lived a happy and comfortable life.
From these two cases, we can fathom what kind of marriage Jane Austen preferred--- love is the basis; enough wealth and equal social status are ne cessary. These two examples are nice explanation on Austen’s outlook on marriage, but not the best one. In her mind, Emma and Knightly are the b est combination of Marriage.
Emma was the richest lady in Austen’s writing. She owned an income of 30,000 dollars every year. As the leading role of this novel, she possessed distinct characteristics, but the most important point that she was the one who preferred to be single rather than marry one she didn’t love at all. Thi s paved the way for Emma and Knight’s love. Finally she realized her tru e love and dared to pursue it owning to her character. As to Knightly, he h ad been the guidance of Emma and loved Emma from heart. Knightly wa
s a respected landowner and enjoyed high reputation. Considering all the factors, from sentiment, wealth and social status, they were appropriately matched. Therefore, I figure, this was what Austen appreciated the most. With the
combination of love, wealth and high social states, Emma and Knightly m ust lead a happy life.
However, is it possible for every lady to marry her Mr. Right? I don’t thin k so. Here the story ended as a happy ending, but it is not easy to find Mr. or Mrs. Right at that time. I can’t help thinking Austen’s life. During her 42 years’ life, she didn’t marry. She devoted to creating happy marriages without creating hers. Maybe just as film Becoming Jane described. She met 3 men in her life. The one who had loving her in heart destroyed her happiness. The one she had to marry was disgusting. The last one was the layer. Even though they loved each other, they couldn’t be together becau se of social reality. Therefore, Austen chose to be single. As far as I am co ncerned, Austen’s failure in marriage just because she had the desire to ge
t rid of earthly marital outlook at that time, but at the same time she could n’t find the one who matched her from all aspects. Therefore, she gave up ; instead, she poured all her feelings into lovers in her books and delivere d her ideal pattern of marriage.
The draw a conclusion, in the novel Emma, Austen conveyed her criticis m towards peoples’ outlook on marriage that took wealth and high social states as the only factors on marriage, neglecting love. She expressed her marital outlook that marriage should be on the basis of love but at the sam e time should take wealth and equal social status into account. I figure ev en today, Austen’s marital outlook is well worth our deep consideration. L et’s remember Emma and remember Jane Austen.。