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
Austen’s literary status and the importance of her works cannot be neglected in the history of English literature no matter how limited her life circle is and no matter how trivial her subject matter seems. As we all know that there were a lot of novels talking about marriage at that time, but scarcely any other author could be like Austen in exposing the money-essence of women’s marriage in her society. This thesis has discussed about three main different marriages in Austen’s masterwork Pride and Prejudice, that of Jane and Bingley, of Charlotte and Collins, and of Elizabeth and Darcy. It is clearly seen that marriage is associated with the hierarchical system and respective pride and prejudice, as well as the most disadvantageous position of the women when marriage was based on fortune and social status. A good marriage is not only related to personal preference, but also influenced by social background, customs and unexpected factors particularly shown as the decisive reason at that time. In Pride and Prejudice, we can get a basic marital view that we cannot marry for money or regard marriage as a game, the marriage for both love and economic consideration with love playing the leading role is an ideal type.
