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1苏州大学外国语学院英语一班姜曼曼2Main Characters Plot SummaryThemesEvaluations目录CONTENTS3Elizabeth(Lizzy)Bennet is the core of the family.Elizabeth is the second of Mr.and Mrs.Bennets five daughters.She is twenty years old and is intelligent,lively,attractive,and wittybut with a tendency to judge on first impression(the prejudice of the title)and to be a little selective of the evidence on which she bases her judgments.Elizabeth BennetFitzwilliam Darcy is the male protagonist of the novel.He is the wealthy owner of the renowned family estate of Pemberley in Derbyshire.He is an intelligent,wealthy,extremely handsome and reserved man,who often appears haughty or proud to strangers but possesses an honest and kind nature underneath.Mr.Darcy4Mr.Bennet is the father of Elizabeth Bennet and head of the Bennet family.Mr.Bennet is shrewd,witty,learned and detached.He has a bitingly sarcastic humour and can only derive amusement from his nervous wife and three silly daughters-Mary,Kitty and Lydia.He is closest to his daughter,Elizabeth,and is also attached to his eldest daughter,Jane.Mr.BennetMrs.Bennet is overbearing,obnoxious and narrow-minded.Her public manners and social climbing are embarrassing to Jane and Elizabeth.Her favourite daughter is the youngest,Lydia and she values the beauty of the eldest,Jane.Her main ambition in life is to marry her daughters to wealthy men;whether or not any such matches will give her daughters happiness is of little concern to her.Mrs.Bennet5Jane Bennet is the eldest Bennet sister.She is generally considered to be the most beautiful of her sisters.Her character is contrasted with Elizabeths as sweeter,shyer,and equally sensible,but not as clever;her most notable trait is a desire to see only the good in others.Jane BennetCharles Bingley is a handsome,good-natured,and wealthy young gentleman,who rents Netherfield Park near Longbourn.He is contrasted with his friend Mr Darcy as being more kind and more charming and having more generally pleasing manners,although not quite so clever.He lacks resolve and is easily influenced by others.Charles Bingley6Lydia Bennet is the youngest of the Bennet sisters.Lydia is extremely flirtatious,naive,and reckless.Her main activity in life is socializing,especially flirting with the officers of the militia.This leads to her elopement with George Wickham without much thought for the consequences to her family.Lydia BennetGeorge Wickham an officer in the militia,is superficially charming and rapidly forms an attachment with Elizabeth Bennet.He spreads rumors about the wrongs Mr Darcy has done him,adding to the local societys prejudice,but eventually he is found to have been the wrongdoer himself.George Wickham7William Collins is Mr Bennets clergyman cousin and heir to his estate.Mr.Collins is a conceited,narrow-minded sycophant(马屁精)Advised by Lady Catherine,his patroness(女资助人),to find a wife,he initially takes a fancy to Jane,and instantly transfers his affections to Elizabeth upon learning of Janes impending match with Mr.Bingley.After being rejected by his second choice,he proposes to Charlotte Lucas,who accepts him.William Collins8another two daughters9Mr and Mrs Bennet live with their five daughters at Longbourn near London.Because they have no son,their property will have to pass,according to the law at that time,to a cousin,William Collins.Hoping to secure their daughters position in society,they both want to marry them to some wealthy gentlemen.It so happens that Charles Bingley,a single man in possession of a good fortune,comes to settle in the neighborhood with his two sisters and his friend Fitzwilliam Darcy,who is also rich and unmarried.10Bingley and Jane fall in love with each other almost at first sight.And Darcy is attracted to Janes sister Elizabeth,but he offends her by his insolent behavior and rude remarks at a ball.The dislike and repulsion(反感)is increased by the pride of the one and the prejudice of the other.However,Darcy continues to be attracted to her,in spite of himself,till he proposes to her but is rejected indignantly.Later on,on a trip to north of England with her uncle and aunt,Elizabeth chances to meet Darcy,who receives them very warmly and shows greatly improved manners.Thus pride and prejudice is removed.11 Just at this point,news reaches Elizabeth that her youngest sister Lydia has eloped with Wickham.By Darcys help,their marriage is finally brought about.And through his influence,the former tie between Bingley and Jane is renewed,which leads to their engagement.Darcy and Elizabeth also become engaged despite the intervention of Lady Catherine de Bourgh.The story then ends happily with the marriages of Jane and Elizabeth.12ThemesOTheme of MarriageOCharlotte Lucas,Lydia Bennet,Jane Bennet and Elizabeth Bennet get married to men who are sufficiently appropriate for each of them.Marriage becomes an economic rather than social activity.In the case of Charlotte,the seeming success of the marriage lies in the comfortable economy of their household.The relationship of Mr and Mrs Bennet serves to illustrate all that a marriage relationship should not be.Elizabeth and Darcy marry each other on equal terms after breaking each others pride and prejudice and Austen clearly leaves the reader with the impression that the two will be the happiest.13ThemesOTheme of WealthOMoney plays a key role in the marriage market,not only for the young ladies seeking a well-off husband,but also for men who wish to marry a woman of means.Inheritance was governed by laws of entailment.When there was no heir to the estate,the family had to entail its fortune to a distant cousin.Inheritance laws benefited males because most women did not have independent legal rights.As a consequence,womens financial security at the time the novel is set depended on men.For the upper middle class,marriage to a man with a reliable income was almost the only road to security for the woman and her future children.14OTheme of ClassOMuch of the pride and prejudice in the novel exists because of class divisions.Darcys first impressions on Elizabeth are coloured by his snobbery.He cannot bring himself to love Elizabeth or at least acknowledge his love for her even in his own heart because of his pride.Also,Elizabeth quickly believes Wickhams account of Darcy because of her prejudice against him.Lady Catherine and the Bingley sisters belong to the snobbish category,while Mr Bingley shows complete disregard to class.Themes15OTheme of Women and FemininityOThe novel is actually concerned with the situation of the middle-class,single woman.Most of the women we see here are caught in a bind.In Pride and Prejudice,Jane Austen has made a breakthrough to shout out her own voice to the world for women.She cared about inner world of women,brought out and insisted on women independence.Themes16EvaluationsPride and Prejudice,first published in 1813,is a representative masterpiece written by Jane Austen.This fiction with social scenic style not only attracted vast readers long ago,but also brings with a unique artistic taste even by today.The application of irony is one of characteristics in the fiction.The author has vividly described five different kinds of loves and marriages by skillfully using irony and his witty and humorous language.17EvaluationsMoreover,for the first time throughout the history of English literature,Jane Austen has completely researched and discussed about the issue of womens circumstance and social status.She proposed and insisted that women should fight for their independent dignity and equal rights.It represents an advanced thinking of feminine consciousness.In her eyes,a happy marriage should be combined with material,morality,sense and sensibility.All of them constitute perfect love and marriage.18EvaluationsPride and Prejudice retains a fascination for modern readers,continuing near the top of lists of most loved books.It has become one of the most popular novels in English literature,selling over 20 million copies,and receives considerable attention from literary scholars.Modern interest in the book has resulted in a number of dramatic adaptations and an abundance of novels and stories imitating Austens memorable characters or themes.19It is a truth universally acknowledged,that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.凡是有钱的单身汉，总想娶位太太，这已经成了一条举世公认的真理。Vanity and pride are different things,though the words are often used synonymously.A person may be proud without being vain.Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves,vanity to what we would have others think of us.虚荣和骄傲是大不相同的两码事尽管这两个词总是被混为一谈。一个人可以骄傲但不可以虚荣。骄傲多数情况下，无非是我们对自己的看法，但虚荣却指的是我们过于看重其他人对我们的评价。Where there is a real superiority of mind,pride will be always under good regulation.如果智慧真的高人一等，傲慢也就不会太过分。20Nothing is more deceitful.than the appearance of humility.It is often only carelessness of opinion,and sometimes an indirect boast.假装谦虚是最虚伪的表现，因为这可能是信口雌黄的开始，又或者是拐弯抹角的自我夸奖。For what do we live,but to make sport for our neighbours,and laugh at them in our turn?我们活着是为了什么？不就是给邻居当笑柄，再反过来笑他们。I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.当我发现自己爱上你的时候，已经无法自拔。21
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