On Woman's Problems In Austen's Works And Her Matrimonial Value Orientation

Love and marriage affairs have always been taken as themes by many novelists, and which is also the truth in Great Britain. Although many writers have made such great efforts to describe love and marriage cases in their books, few of them could compare with Jane Austen when it comes to the achievements accomplished in literature.Jane Austen mostly lived in the 18th century, existing in this world for only 42 years, but in such a short period of time, she produced 6 novels, all of which are splendid ones. Strangely enough, all her novels were centered on the same topic: the trivial matters of love , marriage and family life between country squires and fair ladies in Britain in the 18th century. Still it is quite incredible that by using such simple plots Austen could describe the love and marriage conflicts of the three or four families in a small town and could create various colorful protagonists, who in some way have impressed all the readers deeply for nearly 200 years.In her novels, Austen described the experience of some young fair ladies gained in their process of finding an ideal husband, which showed the very problems that these fair ladies had to face: Firstly, they had no economic security, because it was almost impossible for them to inherit any money. Secondly, they had no social position, and they had to become men's followers even spiritually. Lastly, they had no position even inside their families. They had to obey their fathers or elder brothers before getting married, and obey their husbands after getting married. In order to make a living, they had to make a choice from the following three circumstances. Firstly, they could choose to become a private teacher to earn their livings, but being a private teacher meant holding a very low social position with only a small salary, and which meant it was almost impossible for them to improve their position in finance and society later. Secondly, they could choose to stay at home forever and never get married, which meant that they would have to rely on their relatives for financial help and could never be self-independent. Lastly, they could try their best to make some Mr. Rights be interested in them and eventually marry them, which meant a wealthy and comfortable life forever. There was no doubt that the last choice was the best choice because it was the most decent future for a fair lady.By describing the way those fair ladies searched for their futurehusbands, Austen exposed that money was the essence of the capitalism marriage. Austen was clearly aware of the important role that money always played on marriage. Just as Tony Tanner once said, "Jane Austen, as well as other authors, is very clear that no feeling could be extremely pure and no motive could be definitely single. But as long as it is possible, we should make it clear that which feeling or motive plays the leading role." Austen knew exactly the ideal marriage should compose money and love at the same time, and if money and love could not be obtained together ,love would always make a confession to money because of the special social background. That specific history time decided that people took money much more seriously, even on their marriage.At that time, the aristocratic families were still entitled to such great power and right that country squires were likely to fawn upon them. However, with the development of capitalism and the expansion of the rank of rich people, the distinction between social strata was becoming smaller and smaller, while money was getting more and more important in people's mind about social value. A western literature critic once said that "even David Ricardo(a British economist) had an unlikely clearer understanding about the function of money in daily life as Jane Austen had." It is exactly because of the secure pledge in finance that the country squire society could be existing strongly and solidly.Except the detailed digital of money, there is another factor which has a great influence on marriage. That is social position determined by economic...