Her pursuit of happiness
Her pursuit of happinessBy May 作文网 www.unjs.com
Even without hearing the name of Pemberley (a commonly known sequel of the book, Pride and Prejudice), ‘Tis doubtful that the judgment of marriage under the name of a female novelist who had never been engaged would be true. 作文网 www.unjs.com
Though being regarded as the second most successful writer of the English language, Austen, to be accurate, is never of rich and poor alike. As Sir Walter Scott said, those who loved Jane’s work would be overwhelmed with the first glimpses while the others may not able to endure it for another second. But for what reasons? Austen’s writings are unpretentious, well-worded, and expresses a splendid beauty of concise; nevertheless, her comedies are based on a subjective assessment of society, where status of the characters are conditionally settled. The heroine of her books is always poor but genuine while her perfect match is wealthy and wise: like a practical expression of fairy tales, “happily ever after” is everywhere: in Pride and Prejudice, Lizzy and Mr. Darcy; Mansfield Park, Fanny and Edmund Bertram, etc.
In spite of this, other implications given by this famous writer have captured a different picture: what if the hero of the tale is not wealthy at all? In fact, among all of the Jane Austen protagonists, Mrs. Darcy is most likely to be the model of her unfinished perfection of marriage: according to her biography, the pursuit of happiness with Tom Lefroy. During her lifetime the truth was deviously disguised, however, at all points perfectly evinced in her written work: though subscribing the ideality of love, she was much conservative about the “runaway affairs” . Without wordily agreed on the judgment, she severely said “yes” to monetary causes in success of marriage.
Jane Austen, as a novelist, is generous in giving her stories happy endings: but is “true love” unconditional? Let us face the truth that this “true love” is actually limited to her imaginary world, where one who deserves happiness will surely be gratified, and on the horse of white there’s always a man with both fortune and wisdom – but for Austen herself, sacrifices were not paid, love was lost and even the friends had turned to foes… But still, in her words of judgment, we see sensible views on various factors in building a successful relationship, and the pursuit of happiness that the writer may wanted but unable to carry out: at least, by the time Lizzy told her father with tears that she really loved Mr. Darcy, and the young couple wrote to Lady Catherine in announcing their engagement, Austen had achieved her aim of writing.
In her forty-two years of life she had never stopped thinking of the meaning of marriage, and showed no falter pursuing this courage to the afterwards generations. Perhaps, she met a Family Bennet in her life, grew with love like the Dashwood sisters, failed to get her own happiness but continued to persuade her illusions of love like Emma: but Austen is totally another independent woman. She deserved all respects and praises, and so did her characters, the amiable Jane and Bingley, and of course Mr. Darcy and his newly-wed.
At last I understood her: In British society of the early nineteenth century, marriage was always based on the family background – but in this novel, Jane Austen’s pursuit of happiness had made it possible for the youths to think of, and to prospect of a brighter future. The “true love” was settled, yes, but it had been respectfully accepted and inspired thousands of readers throughout the nation in the years of vanity.
And now we may say, it is not only HER pursuit of happiness, but also, the exclaim of a new era in which love would never be purchased: but merits our whole-hearted effort for lifelong.