傲慢与偏见中达西求婚被拒后给伊丽莎白的信的作用(英文)

The function of the letter that Mr. Darcy wrote to Elizabeth after hisfailure of proposal[Abstract]: Under the influence of epistolary story, Letters are very important in the writing of Jane Austen’s Pride and prejudice. Among so many letters in the novel, the letter that Mr. 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 course of reading. [Keywords]: Pride and prejudice, letter, turning point1.IntroductionJane Austen was a famous English novelist whose works focused on women’s marriage and life. Her sensitivity to human emotion, her keen observation to life and her vivid language contribute to her success of writing. Pride and prejudice, one of her masterpieces, is a love story of a country gentleman’s 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 communication. 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 proposal 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.Introduction the letterThe 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 Elizabeth’s pardon forthe bother brought by the letter. The letter consisted of two parts. The first part was Mr. Darcy’s explanation of his conduct of preventing the connection of Mr. Bingley and Jane, while the second part was Mr. Darcy’s description of the relationship between Mr. Wickham and Darcy’s family.3.The letter indirectly portrayed the characters.Actually, letter is the writing form of words [3], in which the character’s feature is implied. Mr. Darcy’s 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 letter, 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, 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 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 to marrying a woman of his own class. What he could not bear most was the Bennet’s ungracious conduct, especially Elizabeth’s 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, 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, who he was tend to fall in love with awoman 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 Jane’s indifference and the Bennet’s ungraciousness. Then in London, he pointed out to his friend, “the certain evils of such a choice” and concealed from him Jane's 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 friend. 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 sister's credit and feelings. 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. Wickham’s will to exchange the reserved position 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 co mplained of Jane’s indifference and “no participation of sentiment”, of the Benet’s misfeasance and rudeness, which were equal to speak ill of Elizabeth’s 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. Bingley’s affair was nothing wrong and was also bold to confess only the conduct of concealing Jane’s 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 Bingley’s love toward Jane was serious and sensed Jane’s disposition-though she was beautiful, well-behaved, cheerful, she looked indifferent to Bingley’s af fection, 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 disgusted byElizabeth, 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 Fitzwilliam, his near and intimate relative, one of the executors of his father's will, who was familiar with the truth of the matter.4.The letter forwarded the plot.Mr. Darcy’s arrogance and interference in Jane’s marriage disgusted Elizabeth very mu ch until Darcy’ proposal, however, they finally got 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 Darc y’s proposal, Elizabeth disgusted him because he had pride in himself, looked down upon others, destroyed Mr. Wickham’s promising future, and most unbearably, he destroyed her dear sister, Jane’s happiness. Under these circumstances, Elizabeth was astonish ed by Mr. Darcy’s unexpected proposal. To her great surprise, he did not feel ashamed of what he had done to Jane and dared to criticize her family 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. Darcy’s disposition only out of Mr. Wickham’s 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. Darcy’s on his dilemma-getting close to her or staying away her family, appreciation for his affection, respect 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 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 Jane’s and Mr. Wickham’s affair by Mr. Darcy’s own words but also paved t he way for the further development of theirrelationship [4].5.ConclusionJane 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 and 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 remained vague in the previous chapter and foreshadowed the following plot. From this letter, the readers that misunderstand Mr. Darcy’s 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（24）:89—90.[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。