2.3 The happiest marriage—Jane and Bingley 5

2.4 The most admirable marriage--Elizabeth and Darcy 5

3. Theory of mate decision 7

3.1 Mate gradient theory 7

3.2 The similar match theory 7

3.3 Complementary needs theory 8

4. Reflection 10

4.1 Implications for modern marriages 10

4.2 Realistic significance 10

5. Conclusion 12

6. Reference 13

1. Introduction

1.1 Background of the study

Jane Austen is known as Shakespeare to some degree. She draws a picture of the world around her with her feminine observation. Although she is single all her life, love and marriage is the consistent theme in her novels. Pride and Prejudice is one of the most successful novels of her with high reputation. It has been translated into several languages in different countries. Jane Austen paid attention to middle class people’s life as well as to present country life with little effect of industrialization. She was particularly interested in the view of women about love and marriage. Through the ages, many critics have continued to explore the author’s attitude towards love and marriage and analyzed the views on marriage performed in the novel. Pride and Prejudice presents us four marriage patterns with unique charm and vivid language. No matter how society develops, marriage is always a widely discussed social problem.

Beyond doubt, Jane Austen was a rising star in the 18th century English literature. In 1812, Jane Austen put her first work in public. From then on, the study about her works had begun. Austen acquired a rich knowledge of 18th century literature. At the same time, she was the first person who wrote realistic novel in this century. She focused on middle class people’s life with little effect of industrialization. She was particularly interested in the view of women about love and marriage. Pride and Prejudice is one of the most popular novels of Jane Austen. It was written in 1813. Marriage is the theme and it describes the life of middle class. Pride and Prejudice is not only a famous work about love stories, but also an illustration of the society at that time. From the ancient times to now, there are many studies about Jane Austen and her works, at home and abroad. 源`自,吹冰`.论"文'网[www.chuibin.com

    In China, Zhu Aiping was the first one who do some studies about the marriage in Pride and Prejudice. She expressed her thoughts in her article Attitude Toward Marriage in Jane Austen’ s Pride and Prejudice. In 1815, Zhu Hong was one of the earlier scholars to study Jane Austen. Meanwhile, some scholars had also translated some foreign critics about Austen’ s works, such as Lou Chenghong and Kong Haili. In 1990s, especially since 2000, Jane Austen and her works were popular among people and widely received. In 2001, Guan Xianheng studied the views on marriage in Pride and Prejudice. In 2007, Chen Yanling studied the consciousness of feminine in Jane Austen’ s novels. Several domestic presses launched Jane Austen’ s works, such as the Yilin Press, Nanjing University Press and Shanghai Translation Publishing House. What is more, her work had been made into movies, TV drama. There were also many translators, including Wang Keyi, Zhang Jinghao and Sun Zhili, promoted the spread of Austen’s works in China. Researches were more and more. In 2006, Yu Xin pointed out that people’s characters were influenced by money. Money played a very important part in people’s life. People attached great importance to money. In 2009, from the perspective of triangular theory, Lin Ling did some studies about Pride and Prejudice and pointed out that passion, intimacy and commitment were the three main components of true love.