Hello,
welcome to learning English through movies.
I'm your lecturer,
Lu Wei.
So far we've studied 5 English movies.
I believe you must have learned a lot from
the teachers' wonderful lectures.
Now,
we'll start the last English movie of this course:
Pride and Prejudice.
Before we talk about it,
I want to ask you a question:
Have you or your friends
encountered the problem of choosing love or money?
People may face this dilemma,
when they decide to get married.
Jane Austen tried to answer this question in her novel
Pride and Prejudice.
The novel was adapted into a movie in 2005.
The movie tells us a courtship story in England
near the close of the 18th century.
The Bennets have five daughters.
The only concern of Mrs.
Bennet
is to marry them off.
By the end of the movie,
she finally has succeeded with three of them:
the eldest daughter Jane
marries Mr. Bingley,
a charming and rich young man.
Elizabeth,
the heroine of the movie,
who overcomes her prejudice,
marries proud and even richer Darcy.
Both Jane and Elizabeth's husbands are conveniently rich
and have enough money to ensure them
to live comfortably in the rest of their lives.
Only Lydia,
the youngest one,
marries penniless and worthless Wickham
with whom she has eloped.
Their elopement almost brings great disaster to the family.
The disgrace is narrowly escaped
after Darcy gives Wickham a large sum of money
and forces him to marry Lydia.
From the story
we find money seems extremely important.
Why does the movie emphasize rich husbands?
We can get some explanation from the next movie clip,
where Mrs. Bennet forces Elizabeth to marry Mr. Collins,
a ridiculous clergyman.
Let's watch it and think about the question:
why does Mrs. Bennet force Elizabeth to marry Mr. Collins?
Do you get the answer?
Mrs. Bennet gives the following answers:
According to Mrs. Bennet,
the purpose of Elizabeth marrying Collins
is to keep their property
and save her sisters from destitution.
You may feel strange.
What's the problem?
The family looks rich and seems to lead a leisure life,
how can the girls be destitute?
Mrs. Bennet also gives us the answer:
Although they have a temporary comfortable life,
after their father's death,
the girls will possibly be
"without a roof over their head nor a penny to their name".
According to the English land law,
the Bennet girls
can't inherit their father's estate.
All property has to be passed to Collins,
a distant relation,
since Mr. Bennet has no son.
Therefore, marrying Collins will be the best choice
to keep their own house
and save the girls from poverty.
Genteel ladies in 18th century England
depended on the male the whole life.
When they were unmarried,
they depended on their fathers.
After marrying,
they depended on their husbands.
If no men married them,
their lives would be miserable.
They would face the humiliation and uncertainty
of ending up old maids.
However, an old maid still had to depend on the male,
her father or brothers for the rest of her life.
She would be considered as a burden of the family.
Couldn't they find a job?
Yes, it's quite normal now for women
to be economically independent through work.
However, it was not practical for the genteel women.
Few careers,
such as governess or lady's companion,
were open for middle and upper class women.
For most genteel women,
their only career option was marriage.
Only a "good" marriage
could guarantee their future security.
What was a good marriage?
In the next movie clip,
Charlotte gives her understanding.
A good marriage
should be financially capable
of supporting you.
Charlotte feels satisfied
to marry Collins,
because she has been offered
"a comfortable home and protection".
If money and love
can't be held together in a marriage,
love is always the second consideration.
Charlotte knows her situation quite well:
Collins is her last chance
to change her fate, though she doesn't love him.
She has to depend on him
for future financial security and social status.
If marriage is a means of making a living,
not all ladies can afford to choose love instead of money.
When Mr. Collins decides to select a wife
from the Bennet girls, he is cutely aware of
the miserable situation of them.
He knows Elizabeth's marriage to him
is apparently the best choice of the whole family.
He gives her a ridiculous proposal,
with no mention of love or even like.
It is a business proposition
which benefit only one person:
himself.
However, he acts as if
he is doing the whole family a favor
by marrying one of the girls.
Unfortunately, poor Mr. Collins picks the girl
who is most unlikely to accept his proposal.
Facing Elizabeth's firm rejection,
Collins reminds her:
"It is by no means? certain" means
"it is completely impossible".
What Collins wants to express is
although you are very attractive,
you should not reject me so quickly.
If you reject me now, you can't guarantee
that another man will propose to you.
So you may end up an old maid.
Collins is right here.
He points out a severe problem
women must face at that time:
they had to marry
whoever happened to propose to them,
no matter how stupid he was.
If a woman refused a proposal,
she had to run the risk
that no one would ask her again
and she would possibly end up an old maid.
However, Elizabeth is different.
She is brave.
In this unfavourable social environment,
she still has the courage to choose love for her marriage
instead of money.
She is also independent.
She is unwilling to compromise her principle
to accept a condescending, unromantic proposal
and enter an advantageous marriage.
What's more,
she is reluctant to lose her individualism,
though marrying Collins will keep their house and save her sisters.
Facing the dilemma about love or money,
her answer is certain:
love, yes;
marriage of convenience, no.
With this life attitude,
she rejects not only Mr. Collins
but also Mr. Darcy, a very rich man.
Let's see what happens to proud Darcy.
Stay tuned.