Abstract and Key Words

Abstract: In the 18th century, England was still a patriarchal society and marriage was still the best way, even the only way for women to gain some social status and recognition. In Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice, marriage is the central topic and the plots of the novels and the actions of the characters in general revolve around it. By analyzing protagonists’ personality, family and social background, this thesis will probe into three major marriages, mainly focusing on the intrinsic emotional foundation and extrinsic community factors, in hopes of presenting a good understanding of them..

Key words: Pride and Prejudice; marriage; intrinsic foundation; extrinsic factors

摘要：18世纪的英国仍然是父权社会。对于女性来说，婚姻是她们获得社会地位和认可的最好出路，甚至是唯一出路。简•奥斯丁的经典小说《傲慢与偏见》以婚姻为其中心议题，小说情节与人物行为也大体围绕此主题展开。本文将从双方人物个性，家庭社会背景等方面来阐释三对主要婚姻关系，重点分析构成婚姻的内在感情基础与外在影响因素，试图勾画出奥斯丁笔下的婚姻模式及其产生原因。

关键词：《傲慢与偏见》；婚姻；内在基础；外在影响

1. Introduction
1.1 Brief Introduction to Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen is one of the greatest realistic novelists in English literature in the 19th century. During the uneventful forty-two years of her life, Austen had written six complete novels and left behind three fragments. In her works, Austen meticulously and humorously described the life of the country gentry of her time, thus vividly revealing the class relationships, social customs and morals at that time. Austen’s careful craftsmanship has ensured her a readership in every generation since they were first produced, and in the past two hundred years, her artistic charm has not decreased because of the change of reader’s literary taste. In short, she explores life of society and process of history and reveals her feminine consciousness, progressive views of marriage and profound implication through a vivid and realistic description of marriage and family life.
Austen’s masterpiece Pride and Prejudice is the best classic novel in 19th century of Britain. According to a poll of Times readers, one in ten ranked the novel, published in 1813, as their favorite work to have been written more than 100 years ago. During Austen’s time, based on the British law, entailed property was usually inherited by the nearest male-line descendant, and a woman usually must have a handsome dowry ready before she could marry properly, so there were quite many women who could not marry owing to their poor economic conditions.