Abstract Pride and Prejudice, a famous novel by Jane Austen, discusses love and marriage between middle and upper class in Britain in 18th century. A Dream of Red Mansions, written by Cao Xueqin, narrates the ups and downs of Jia’s family, the upper class in Chinese feudal society. This paper focuses on the analysis of the love and marriage of both Charlotte in Pride and Prejudice and Xue Baochai in A Dream of Red Mansions. By comparing their different marriages, this paper analyzes the differences in marriages between China and the UK and explores several possible causes of these differences. At last, it concludes some essential elements in a successful marriage.54298
Key words: differences, love and Marriage; Xue Baochai; Charlotte;
摘要简.奥斯汀所著《傲慢与偏见》讲述了十八世纪英国中上层阶级的婚姻和爱情故事。曹雪芹所著的《红楼梦》讲述了中国封建高层贾府的兴衰。本文选取《红楼梦》中的薛宝钗和《傲慢与偏见》中的夏洛特为研究对象,从对比两人不同的婚姻中解读中英两国在婚姻文化中存在的差异,进而分析导致这些的种种原因,最后总结一段成功的婚姻一些必不可少的因素。
毕业论文关键词:差异;爱情婚姻;薛宝钗;夏洛特
Contents
1. Introduction 1
2. Literature Review 2
3. Analysis of the Two Characters 2
3.1 Xue Baochai 2
3.2 Charlotte Lucas 3
4. Differences of the Two Marriages 3
4.1 Different Basis of Two Marriages 3
4.1.1 Different emotional foundation 4
4.1.2 Different economic foundation 5
4.2 Different lives after marriage 5
4.2.1 Different family environment 5
4.2.2 Different statuses of women in marriages 6
4.2.3 Different concepts towards marriages 7
5. Causes of the Differences 8
5.1 The Different Systems of Marriages 8
5.2 The Different Purposes of Marriages 9
5.3 The Different Customs oh Marriages 10
6. Conclusion. 11
1. Introduction
Marriage is an important part of culture and custom. Through the study of different marriages in China and the West, people can get a further knowledge of the differences between China and the West.
Jane Austen, one of the most important English realistic writers, is one of the greatest novelists in English literature. Pride and Prejudice, published in 1813, is considered as her masterpiece. This novel probes deeply into the relationship between money and love in a marriage. It begins with a most famous sentence in English literature, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife”. (Austen 1994 1) With this core sentence, the novel tells the love stories of four pairs of young people. Taking their love and marriages as the thread, the novel covers property, social status and ethics. Cao Xueqin is one of the most famous novelists and poets in the history of Chinese literature. He was born into a family which held the office of Commissioner of Imperial Textiles in Nanking for three generations. But calamity overtook his family and their property was confiscated. In poverty, Cao Xueqin was living near Peking when he wrote his famous novel Dream of Red Mansions, which is said to be a story graved on a stone, so it is also called The Story of The Stone. In this novel, Cao Xueqin presents a vivid description of the rise and fall of sediments represented by four most prominent families in Nanking, revealing the complex contradictions of the feudal family. By creating a series of nobility civilians and the tragic images of feudal women, the novel demonstrates several extremely typical feudal marriages and gives his opinion about love and his value towards marriages.