《傲慢与偏见中达西求婚被拒后给伊丽莎白的信的作用.docx》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《傲慢与偏见中达西求婚被拒后给伊丽莎白的信的作用.docx（8页珍藏版）》请在三一办公上搜索。
1、傲慢与偏见中达西求婚被拒后给伊丽莎白的信的作用The function of the letter that Mr. Darcy wrote to Elizabeth after his failure of proposal Abstract: Under the influence of epistolary story, Letters are very important in the writing of Jane Austens Pride and prejudice. Among so many letters in the novel, the letter that Mr.
2、Darcy wrote to Elizabeth after his proposal was rejected was a turning point of the plot of the whole story, showing the reader the real characteristics of the main character, promoting the sudden change of the romance between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, exciting the reader further more in the c
3、ourse of reading. Keywords: Pride and prejudice, letter, turning point 1. Introduction Jane Austen was a famous English novelist whose works focused on womens marriage and life. Her sensitivity to human emotion, her keen observation to life and her vivid language contribute to her success of writing
4、. Pride and prejudice, one of her masterpieces, is a love story of a country gentlemans daughter, Elizabeth Bennet, mirroring the reserved life of the Englishmen at the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Letter is the only way of communication apart from language com
5、munication. According to the existing literature, there are more than thirty letters in the novel 1, which play a significant role in the portrait of the characters, the development of plot and the transformation the point of view 2.The letter that Mr. Darcy wrote to Elizabeth after his failure of p
6、roposal is viewed as the most important letters in the novel. There is still little study about this letter, so this paper will explore the function of this letter in terms of portraying the characters and forwarding the plot to confirm the previous study by analyzing the letter in depth. 2. Introdu
7、ction the letter The letter was given to Elizabeth by Mr. Darcy the following day of the failure his proposal. In the beginning of the letter, Mr. Darcy asked for Elizabeths pardon for the bother brought by the letter. The letter consisted of two parts. The first part was Mr. Darcys explanation of h
8、is conduct of preventing the connection of Mr. Bingley and Jane, while the second part was Mr. Darcys description of the relationship between Mr. Wickham and Darcys family. 3. The letter indirectly portrayed the characters. Actually, letter is the writing form of words 3, in which the characters fea
9、ture is implied. Mr. Darcys letter reflected that he was well-educated, arrogant, caring, kind-hearted, frank and intelligent. Well-educated Instead of coming straight to his point, he at first placated the potential alarm and unpleasure of Elizabeth, showing his gentility and courtesy. In the lette
10、r, he used formal language including relative clause, preposing structure 3. E.g. I had, in defiance of various claims, in defiance of honour and humanity, ruined the immediate prosperity, and blasted the prospects of Mr. Wickham. - Wilfully and wantonly to have thrown off the companion of my youth,
11、 the acknowledged favourite of my father, a young man who had scarcely any other dependence than on our patronage, and who had been brought up to expect its exertion Arrogant From 1800 to 1830, a special type of men appeared in London. They dressed gracefully, behaved courteously, with a little blue
12、 facial expression; they were cold and poignant in their words; they had excellent temperament and intelligence; they made light of the bourgeoisie, considering them as ignorant and indelicate 2. Mr. Darcy was one of them: he was well-born (which he was very proud of) and attached great importance t
13、o marrying a woman of his own class. What he could not bear most was the Bennets ungracious conduct, especially Elizabeths three younger sisters. In his eye, this kind of bourgeois family who were badly- educated, vulgar, passionate and direct (like animals) did not match his class at all. For him,
14、etiquette was the standard of judging a person, even the standard of judging things and reason 2. That was why he had tried his best to restraint his feeling towards Elizabeth. Caring As a friend of Mr. Bingley, he showed great concern over his love affair and marriage. He know Bingley very well, wh
15、o he was tend to fall in love with a woman easily. When he found that this time Bingley was really in deep love with Jane and the neighbor were sure that the two would marry in the near future, Mr. Darcy decided to take action to protect Bingley from this kind of misfortunate connection because of J
16、anes indifference and the Bennets ungraciousness. Then in London, he pointed out to his friend, “the certain evils of such a choice” and concealed from him Janes being in town. He could not blame himself for having done this because he thought he was actually being a villain for the good of his frie
17、nd. As the brother of Georgiana, he took good care of his much younger sister as a brother as well as a father, so he was annoyed when she was tempted to elope with the evil Mr. Wickham. He managed to stop the scandal from happening and prevented any public exposure for his sisters credit and feelin
18、gs. When everything was over, he even did not want to remember this kind of offence to his dear sister. Kind-hearted Although Mr. Wickham was wild, vicious, greedy and unprincipled, even go against his own words, Mr. Darcy was still kind enough to satisfy Mr. Wickhams will to exchange the reserved p
19、osition of a clergyman with the freedom to study law and three thousand pounds. Frank Apparently, Mr. Darcy knew what he would present in the letter would more a less offend Elizabeth, he insisted on telling the truth. He complained of Janes indifference and “no participation of sentiment”, of the B
20、enets misfeasance and rudeness, which were equal to speak ill of Elizabeths family in the face of her. At the same time he frankly acknowledged his great effort of refrained himself from falling in love with Elizabeth due to the situation of her family. He insisted his involvement in Mr. Bingleys af
21、fair was nothing wrong and was also bold to confess only the conduct of concealing Janes being in town made him upset. Intelligent One the one hand, he was so observant that he could know black from white: he felt that this time Bingleys love toward Jane was serious and sensed Janes disposition-thou
22、gh she was beautiful, well-behaved, cheerful, she looked indifferent to Bingleys affection, which at the very start annoyed Elizabeth but was actually the long-standing concern of Elizabeth over her sister. On the other hand, he was an expert in explaining. Knowing he was already misunderstood and d
23、isgusted by Elizabeth, he did not speak in defense of himself directly. Instead, he told what he had done in the affair of Mr. Bingley and the story between his family and Mr. Wickham. Meanwhile, for Mr. Wickham, he pointed out that the truth of everything could withstand the testimony of Colonel Fi
24、tzwilliam, his near and intimate relative, one of the executors of his fathers will, who was familiar with the truth of the matter. 4. The letter forwarded the plot. Mr. Darcys arrogance and interference in Janes marriage disgusted Elizabeth very much until Darcy proposal, however, they finally got
25、married in the end of the story. How could that happened? The letter that Mr. Darcy wrote to Elizabeth after his failure of proposal played an important part in the forwarding of the plot 1. Before Darcys proposal, Elizabeth disgusted him because he had pride in himself, looked down upon others, des
26、troyed Mr. Wickhams promising future, and most unbearably, he destroyed her dear sister, Janes happiness. Under these circumstances, Elizabeth was astonished by Mr. Darcys unexpected proposal. To her great surprise, he did not feel ashamed of what he had done to Jane and dared to criticize her famil
27、y in that way. She could not help rereading the letter over and over again. At first, she refused to believe what he had said but she began to regain her rationality, considering there were some truths in his word about her badly-behaved family and she had jumped into the conclusion of Mr. Darcys di
28、sposition only out of Mr. Wickhams a one-sided statement. However, the letter pushed her to reflect and explore herself. She gradually sprouted a kind of complicated emotion: compassion for Mr. Darcys on his dilemma-getting close to her or staying away her family, appreciation for his affection, res
29、pect for his kindness and so on. In the meanwhile, she grew shamed of her own blindness and prejudice and afraid to meet Mr. Darcy again. At the sight of Lady Catherine, she even had such idea that if she had accepted her proposal, then she would be her future niece. When visiting the Pemberley with
30、 Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, she kept imaging how wonderful her life would be, if she were the mistress of the Pemberley. To sum up, the letter not only explained Janes and Mr. Wickhams affair by Mr. Darcys own words but also paved the way for the further development of their relationship 4. 5. Conclusio
31、n Jane Austin was clever at using the letter, which came at the right time to make her novel more readable and dramatic. When Mr. Darcy proposal was rejected relentlessly, the readers who are looking forward to their romance from the very beginning of the story actually begin to hold their breath an
32、d cannot wait to turn over the following pages quickly to fulfill their curiosity about what would happen next. In this case, Jane Austin presented us an explanatory and emotional letter from Mr. Darcy in good time. As the turning point of the novel, the writer explained through Dr. Darcy what was r
33、emained vague in the previous chapter and foreshadowed the following plot. From this letter, the readers that misunderstand Mr. Darcys real nature start to remove their prejudice again Mr. Darcy, even gradually fall in love with him like Elizabeth. Bibliography 1 耿妍.浅析傲慢与偏见中最重要的一封书信J.时代文学,2009:8990. 2 赵星.傲慢与偏见中书信的艺术价值J.理论导刊,2008, (1): 126-128. 3 罗杰鹦.对话的书面形式小说傲慢与偏见中书信解读J.浙江工业大学学报(社会科学版),2007, (2): 138-142 4 陈 莘.傲慢与偏见中的书信评述J. 学林漫录,2013(21):142-143
