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英国文学选读教学课件Unit7 Jane Austen(1775-1817)Pride and PrejudiceJane Austen(1775-1817)Jane Austen was the first to write novels of realism in the 19th century,though she spent most of her lifetime in the 18th century.Specially she was the writer of the two centuries,and her works were the product in the crossing of the two centuries.Jane Austen was born in a country clergymans family in Hamspshire of Southern England in 1775 and remained single all her life.She was educated at home and received a good education.Her life was notable for lack of events.She began to write at an early age,but at first had difficulty in getting them published.Later on when her works were really published they were only published anonymously,partly because of the prejudice prevailing at the time against woman writers and partly because of her aversion(反感，厌恶)to publicity and popularity.Living a quiet life in the countryside,Austin chiefly wrote about the small world she lived in,about the very narrow world of rural gentry(上层阶级)and clergy,and there is no heroic passions nor astounding adventures in her novels.Therefore she is regarded as the founder of the novel which deals with unimportant middle class people.She is also notable for her extraordinary power of keen observation and penetrating analysis.Most of her novels depict the loves and marriages of the young people.Further more Austens novels are not devoid(缺乏的)of satire or irony.She was highly praised by Sir Walter Scot who said“That young lady has a talent for describing the involvement and feelings and characters of the ordinary life which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with in Quarterly Review.Beginning to write at a very early age she completed many works,among which the major ones are Sense and Sensibility,Pride and Prejudice,Mansfield Park,Emmar,Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.Pride and Prejudice was the widely read one.The tile tells of a major concern of the novel pride and prejudice.If to form good relations is our main task in life and we must first have good judgment.Our first impressions,according to Jane Austen,are usually wrong,as is shown here by those of Elizabeth.In the process of judging others,Elizabeth finds out something about herself,her blindness,partiality,prejudice and absurdity.In time she discovers her own shortcomings.On the other hand,Darcy too learns about other people and himself.In the end false pride is humbled and prejudice dissolved.Analysis of Pride and Prejudice Another theme that is common to all Jane Austens works is love and marriage.Here three kinds of motivations or attitudes towards marriage are presented for manifestation.First there is marriage merely for fortune,money and social rank.The second is the tendency to marry for beauty,attraction and passion r e g a r d l e s s o f e c o n o m i c conditions or personal merits.This is general known as“love as first sight.The third is the ideal marriage which is a love matching with considerations and in which perfect happiness is to be found.Remarks:Pride and Prejudice has long been a favorite of both readers and critics alike and is often regarded as Jane Austens consummate achievement.In Pride and Prejudice and her other works,Jane Austen focused on characters of her own social class:the ladies and gentlemen of the landed gentry.She wrote about the people that she knew best and wove her plots around the intricacies of courtship(求爱)and marriage between members of the landed gentry.As she depicted events concerning the class to which she was a member of herself,she illuminate in their characters the follies(愚行)and failings of men and women of all times and classes.Austens concept of narrative perspective is unique and innovative.Each of her works features a central character through whose eyes we view the world of the novel which is essentially based on that of Austens own.Though critics paid little attention to Pride and Prejudice when it first appeared,it was remarkably well received by readers for its characterization and portrayal of domestic life,or rather,as Sir Scott noted,for Austens ability to render(给予)commonplace things and characters interesting.Thank you for learning
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