There is always a story to tell in a novel, even if it is headless and unreasonable. Stories are always made up by the author. How to fabricate-such as what theme to choose, from what angle to write, what to focus on, what to express, how to deal with the theme, that is, how to layout, how to shape characters and so on. Can only be understood from the whole novel, but not from a story. The story is expressed in words again. The skill of expression depends only on the text itself and cannot be sought from the story. To fully understand a novel, we must analyze it from the above aspects.
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There is often a story in novels. When and where someone met (or didn't meet) something and did (or didn't do) something-people, background and plot make up the story. Story is the skeleton or basic component of a novel, and it is also the "greatest common divisor" of all novels. If the story is attractive and the characters are moving, we can catch the readers' interest and their hearts, so that they can't let go and are anxious to know how things develop and how the characters end. Many people just read a story when reading a novel-or read only one story.
Pride and Prejudice tells the story of1late 8th century1early 9th century about the love and marriage of daughters of a squire in a small town in England. This paper mainly talks about how the second daughter Elizabeth has a deep prejudice against the young gentleman Darcy because of his arrogance, and then how to eliminate the prejudice, fall in love with Darcy and get married.
The story is unremarkable, and there are no thrilling scenes. The plot is nothing more than trivial, such as communication between neighbors, tea parties, banquets, dances, or driving around places of interest, or staying in London, or visiting relatives and friends, and so on. , are the daily life of the township leisure class. There are no heroes or role models to worship, only people we meet every day. Some are smarter and more elegant, some are stupid and vulgar, and there is nothing but the gentlemen, wives and ladies of the idle class. An African boy read this book and thought:
"What do these English ladies have to do with me?" We can't help asking, 19 th century foreign bourgeois love novels have what value today?
But we can't judge this novel only by its story.
Jiang Yang: What's good about Pride and Prejudice?
The first meeting between Darcy and Elizabeth-the proud Mr. Darcy looked at Lizzy without a partner and said, "She is ok, but not enough to impress me."
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The story is only the main plot that can be summarized in the novel, and the story does not tell the author's mind. However, it is impossible for the author to reflect the reality purely and objectively, and it is impossible to completely hide himself in his works. His thoughts will be revealed everywhere in his works like moral.
What kind of story to write and what kind of theme to choose. Pride and Prejudice is a realistic novel, not a legendary novel. These two are different types. Realistic novels inherit real records such as letters, diaries, biographies and history, and are mainly realistic. Legendary novels inherited epic and medieval legends and wrote amazing things. There is no wonder in the world. As long as it is reasonable, there is no need to get used to it every day. Scott (w? Scott wrote legendary novels, while Austin wrote realistic novels. Austin himself said that he couldn't write a legendary novel unless his life was at stake. I'm afraid I'll burst into laughter if I can't finish a chapter. Why? In another novel, northanger abbey, she deliberately imitated a horrible romantic story (Gothic)
Romantic)
The mood of teasing. It can be seen that when she laughs at that amazing story, she can't get rid of the old story, and the characters are inevitably exaggerated and inaccurate. In her letter at home, she said that the heroine in the novel is disgusting and can't help being naughty. In her letters instructing her niece to write, she repeatedly emphasized that characters should write naturally to avoid distortion and illusion of imagination. She likes to set the story in a small town with three or four big families. Austin is not a closed old girl. She reads books and newspapers, is familiar with famous contemporary works, has many relatives and contacts with people who have seen the world, and is not ignorant of world events and city life. However, almost all her novels are set in villages and towns of a family of three or four. It seems that she agrees with Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice. People in towns and villages can be observed and studied as well as people in big cities; Both simple and complex are interesting subjects, especially the latter. Although the place is small and there are not many people, everyone's face changes greatly, and the invisible aspects will emerge one after another. Austin obviously intends to choose ordinary themes to create realistic novels.
Jiang Yang: What's good about Pride and Prejudice?
At Darcy's menstruation home-Darcy has fallen in love with Elizabeth at this time, but he doesn't know it. At this time, his image in Elizabeth's mind is terrible.
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Pride and Prejudice is usually called a love novel. In fact, the novel focuses on young men and women choosing spouses and getting married. As can be seen from Austen's novels, she never divorced from marriage and wrote about love. It is irresponsible for a man to fall in love with a woman without the conditions and sincerity to get married, or to play with a woman. It is indecent for a woman to show her love without seeing the sincerity of her husband's proposal, and even it is detrimental to her dignity; Although selfish love people, but must be deeply restrained. Love is to get married, and marriage is to get married, so we should consider the social status and economic foundation of both sides. The portal is not flexible, but the economic foundation can not be ignored. Because the squire's children can't support themselves and their jobs are limited. The eldest son inherits the family property, and other sons are lower than the eldest son as priests, officers and lawyers. If you do business, you will fall into another class within your own class. The old maid has no property of her own, so she has to rely on others. If you are a female teacher, you will fall to the edge of the class or further. A good marriage can not only solve a person's lifelong problems, but also bring prosperity to the whole family. For the sake of marriage, every family struggles to climb up for fear of falling down. This is an important juncture in the competition for survival. Men and women themselves and two families, old and young, go all out. Although there are only three or four big towns and villages, the contradictions are complex enough, the competition is fierce enough, and the world is really beautiful. Pride and prejudice describes this social situation from the perspective of love and marriage.
Austin thinks that marriage without love is unbearable distress. Many couples in her novels are caused by ignorance before marriage. Marriage has to take into account each other's personality, including appearance, manners, speech, as well as internal talent and virtue. Although the appearance is obvious, it also needs the other person's eyes to judge the character by appearances. As for character, it depends on his behavior. This has to be judged in many ways. It is not enough to do one thing once in a while, but also to look at daily behavior from the perspective of daily life. It is not easy to know people, and it is not easy to know yourself. In the fierce competition for survival, misunderstandings and disputes between people are even more inevitable. In Pride and Prejudice, how to create and eliminate the prejudice of the heroine is to go deep into the hearts of the characters from the surface and understand their personality, cultivation and psychological state. It can be said that Austin's novels all look at the world and human feelings from the perspective of love and marriage, and express the inner feelings of the characters as the world and human feelings.
Jiang Yang: What's good about Pride and Prejudice?
Darcy's first confession-
Elizabeth was very surprised by Darcy's confession, and the arrogance in his words completely angered her. Elizabeth said, "If all the men in the world died, I wouldn't marry you!" "
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"Pride and Prejudice" begins with the first sentence: "A well-off bachelor must want to marry a wife, which is an accepted and inevitable principle." Then he said, "This truth is deeply rooted in people's hearts. Once such a person arrives, the neighboring families ignore his own wishes and regard him as the husband that one of their daughters deserves. " Austin looked at the world coldly, pointed out these two sentences, and then led to a large group of ridiculous characters and a series of ridiculous plots. Critics often compare Austin's novels to comedies depicting the world and human feelings.
Etiquette), because they are all comic novels.
Although according to Aristotle, comedy is only for entertainment, Plato thinks it is instructive and enlightening. This is the same as Cicero's view that "comedy should be a mirror of life …" quoted by Cervantes in Spain and Shakespeare in England. Fielding is also used to illustrate the function of his novels in his self-proclaimed "comedy novels". These words have become common expressions in comedies. The so-called "mirror" is nothing more than reflecting life. It is generally believed that when the mirror shows ugly people and ugly things, it can be used as a warning.
But what does Pride and Prejudice warn? Can you use a few sarcastic words or even a few flogging words to deal with the stupid Reverend Collins, Mrs. Benaite, Mrs. Kesselring and so on? To uproot that stupid blunt root? Austin doesn't seem to have this intention. It's not the priest, or the squire's wife, or his wife, or the absurdity caused by man-made system or bad habits, but these stupid people. She didn't just grab a few idiots to make fun of her, and smart people didn't escape her ridicule. A clever girl like Elizabeth was not ashamed until the end of the story. Darcy, who is so arrogant, is afraid of being laughed at and tries to behave appropriately, but only at the end of the story does he realize his inappropriateness. Austin has no hatred, anger or disdain for the characters she makes fun of. She put herself in their shoes and fully understood and sympathized with them. Her smile is not a criticism, not a whip, nor a tearful sympathy, but a quick understanding, sometimes even looking at the reader and smiling. For example.
In chapter 11, Elizabeth sarcastically says that Darcy can't be teased. Darcy believes that if a person blindly pursues jokes, even the smartest and best people-even their smartest and best behaviors-can be described as jokes.
Elizabeth said, "Of course some people do. I hope I'm not that kind of person. I believe in wisdom and kindness, and I never make fun of it; Stupid, absurd, willful, unreasonable, to be honest, I think it's really funny. As long as the occasion allowed me to laugh, I smiled when I saw it. However, that kind of thing is probably what you don't have. "
"Who will. However, I have been careful all my life not to make the mistake that makes me laugh. "
"Like vanity and pride."
"Yes, vanity is indeed a problem; Proud, really smart people will have proper limit. "
Elizabeth, don't look away and snicker.
Elizabeth satirized Darcy face to face, caught his pride and vanity on the spot and smiled on the spot. But careful readers will find that the author is also laughing internally. Elizabeth is prejudiced against Darcy, isn't it because Darcy has hurt her vanity? Didn't she show her pride and ignorance by satirizing Darcy's complacency? Readers understand the author's smile, is George Merediz (George.
Meredith) the so-called "rational smile that comes out of my head."
Laughter contains the other side of being serious and not laughing. Lewis pointed out in his essay "On Jane Austen" that adhering to principles and seriousness are the essence of Austen's art. There is a beautiful and reasonable standard in my heart. When you see something ugly and unreasonable, you can't help laughing in contrast. Without such a criterion in mind, we can't see the contrast between beauty and ugliness, rationality and irrationality at a glance. Austin often writes the other side of a smile on the back of it. For example, in Pride and Prejudice, silly Collins proposed to Elizabeth, which is a big joke. After being rejected, he turned to propose to Elizabeth's good friend Charlotte and was accepted, which was another big joke. Mrs. Benaite took it for granted that Lei Bin, a rich young master, took a fancy to his eldest daughter Jane, got carried away and boasted everywhere; To my surprise, I didn't hear from Lei Bin after he left. This is another joke. Elizabeth was disappointed that her good friend Charlotte was willing to marry such a slave-like fool as Collins. After listening to one of Darcy's cousins, she concluded that Bingley listened to Darcy's words and thought her family was poor, so she gave up her original intention of proposing to her sister Jane. When talking to Jane about these two things, she said angrily, "I really don't like many people, let alone value them;" The more experience, the more dissatisfied with the world. A person's character is unpredictable. He looks good, has a good mind and is unreliable. I always thought so, and now I feel much better. "Jane advised her not to complain so much, which ruined her happy mood: everyone's situation is different and their temperament is different; Charlotte's family has many sisters. She is a cautious person. As far as property is concerned, this marriage is good. Maybe she has some respect for Collins. Elizabeth thinks this is impossible unless Charlotte is an idiot. She doesn't believe that selfishness means caution, and blindly embarking on a dangerous road means happiness is guaranteed. She can't give up principle and justice to protect a friend. Jane blames her sister's extreme remarks and defends Lei Bin, saying that he is not ungrateful, and energetic young people are bound to behave badly; Out of vanity, a woman thinks she is interested when she sees others fall for her. Elizabeth said that men should behave themselves and not be tempted by women casually. Although Lei Bin didn't do anything wrong, although he didn't mean to do anything bad or embarrass others, he would still do something wrong and be sorry for others. Without brains, ignoring other people's feelings and making up our minds, we did something bad.
The two sisters have their own opinions. According to the following, my sister's principle is good and my sister's tolerance is right. From this serious discourse, we can see that Austin distinguishes right from wrong and observes human feelings (common
She likes reading Samuel.
I admire Dr. Johnson's work, which is called My Lovely Dr. Johnson. She was deeply influenced by Johnson and inherited his wisdom of facing reality. Critics call her Dr. Johnson's spiritual daughter. Austin has no illusions about the world she lives in, but she prefers to face the reality rather than the fantasy of beautifying it in the novel. She is cheerful and humorous by nature. When she saw the stupidity of the world and the injustice of the world, she didn't cry bitterly, but smiled with understanding and tolerance. Austin used reason to understand and regarded the world as a comedy.
Understanding the world in this way is not to laugh off unpleasant and dissatisfied things. Laughter is not reconciliation; Laughter is not harmonious. The inherent standard of right and wrong, good and evil is firm, and it refuses to improvise. When it is collided or rubbed by external reality, it will give out lightning-like laughter. Austen doesn't preach to people directly, but uses her smart spotlight to illuminate ridiculous people and things in the world, so that smart readers can explore what is not ridiculous and what is good and wisdom. George meredith thinks that comedy laughter should be thought-provoking. Austin's inspired smile is a thought-provoking smile.
Jiang Yang: What's good about Pride and Prejudice?
Explanatory letter-expressing frustration, Darcy rushed to write a long letter overnight, explaining some misunderstandings. Through this letter, Elizabeth's impression of Darcy began to change.
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Pride and Prejudice, like drama, has a strict layout. There are no unnecessary characters in the novel (unimportant characters are indispensable foil and necessary in this sense), and there are no unnecessary plots. Things are closely linked and mutually causal. Readers are not only anxious to know what will happen next, but also can't help thinking about the past, exploring the reasons and guessing the future. If the novel has a layout, it will be concise and round, and will not be sloppy. But there is no layout in real life. The layout of the novel limits the free action of the characters and the natural development of things. Under the guidance of his own world outlook, the author can't help but subjectively set a foregone conclusion. Put the characters into some kind of fate; Even if it seems reasonable, there are always artificial traces-the author is pretending to be the god who created the world.
However, the layout of Pride and Prejudice is very natural, and readers will not think that a series of causal plots are creating a predetermined ending and only see the natural actions of the characters. Of course, the author intervened to arrange a foregone conclusion, but the arrangement was very light and without trace. For example, the silly priest Collins in the story is not only a ridiculous figure, but also the key to the layout. His benefactor was Mrs. menstruation Kesselring of Darcy, and he married Elizabeth's good friend Charlotte. It is natural for Elizabeth to visit her friends and meet Darcy again. Another key figure in the layout is Elizabeth menstruation, who lived in a small town near Darcy Manor before her marriage. Naturally, she revisited the old place and took Elizabeth into Darcy's manor for sightseeing. These personal relationships seem to exist naturally without the arrangement of the author. The turning point of the master plan is often the discovery of long-hidden secrets; Only a little misunderstanding was found here, which also made the story look natural and there was no artificial arrangement. All Austen's novels-including her early unpublished work The Lady.
Susan) has a layout, and the layout does not reveal the traces of the author's planning. Is it because the routines in small towns are well arranged? This is very intriguing.
Austin, like the author of detective stories, confined the story to a small area and few people. Everyone's words and deeds and any inner fluctuations are carefully planned, and the details are not accidental. Austin instructed her niece to write, demanding that everything should be explained clearly, which is obviously her own creative method. This makes the whole story alert and vivid, and everything makes sense. Small expressions and casual remarks have deepened our understanding of people and things. R.W.Chapman, who studies Austin, said that Emma in Austin can also be said to be a detective novel. In fact, in Austin's novels, detective or reasoning is very heavy. For example, in Pride and Prejudice, Darcy meets Wickham, the son of his bookkeeper. Darcy's face was flushed, but Wickham's face was white and bloodless. Why? Why did Lei Bin suddenly leave? Wickham cheated Lydia and ran away with her. Why did he marry her? Elizabeth and Jane, like Sherlock Holmes and Watson, often try to figure out the intentions of this person and that person together, as well as the details of this matter. Because in social activities, no one will "lightly throw away all my sincerity" and only say "three points"; A three-point statement is not necessarily bragging or mystifying. To know the truth and sincerity, we must rely on groping and guessing-groping and guessing are people's hearts, pursuing a partner who can love each other for life, not a murderer. Although the story is dull, every detail is of concern.
Austin only said that she likes to set the story in a small town with three or four big families, but she didn't give any reason. But from the works, we can see the effect of setting in villages and towns.