Wikipedia

Search results

Monday, December 9, 2013

Pride and Prejudice AND $

   Many people simply regard Pride and Prejudice as a love story, but I think this book is also an illustration of the society at that time. Jane Austen perfectly reflected the relation between money and marriage at her time and gave the people in her works vivid characters.Mrs. Bennet is a woman who makes great efforts to marry off her daughters. Mr. Bingley is a friendly young man, but his friend, Mr. Darcy, is a very proud man who seems to always feel superior. Even the five daughters in Bennet family are very different. Jane is simple, innocent and never speaks evil of others. Elizabeth is a clever girl who always has her own opinion. Mary likes reading classic books but she is kind of nerdy. Kitty doesn’t have her own opinion but likes to follow her sister, Lydia. Lydia is a girl who follows exotic things, handsome man, and is somehow a little profligate. Being a mom of these five totally different daughters is like being friend with five inharmonious friends.
   The sister of Mr. Bingley strongly opposed his plan of marrying Jane because the Bennets don’t have many possessions and their social positions are much lower than theirs. From this, we can see there are a lot of obstacles for a not very rich woman to marry a wealthy husband. The society, the relatives would not allow them to get married.One of the reasons of liking this book is that it centers the theme of money. This theme is a everlasting theme of the society, regardless of time.
    In modern society, although the marriages of economic needs have decreased rapidly, the concept of “money determines everything” is still rooted in our mind. Parents try hard to interfere their children’s marriages.Especially in some conservative countries.Education background, possessions, jobs remains the main reason that may influence one’s marriage.Many cynical critics say that money is lame and greed is the root of all evil. However, like a quote from a Chinese movie called Tiny Times, "Love without materialism is just a pile of sand, even without the flowing wind, it will spill after a couple of steps."

No comments:

Post a Comment