更新时间:2009-03-01

维维安的天空 • 理智与情感:Marry for True Love or for Money?

I just finished with Ann Lee’s Sense and Sensibility tonight, and I confess that I could not get asleep after watching such a moving and lovely story.

Jane Austen is such a writer who always knew that what girls are thinking about and could present us with a nicely-told story about love and getting married. I was a Pride and Prejudice fan when I was only 15, the story between Elizabeth and Darcy should be dream for all of the girls who have read this novel. Later on I touched on the story of Emma and no more else. It’s a pity that I did not know much about Jane’s other novels although they are only six in total. Instead, I turned more to the real life of Jane, and to the tragedy of not getting married for her whole life. Well, when finished with Sense and Sensibility, especially when I was really moved by the tears of Emma Thompson, who played as the sensible Elinor in the story, I finally know why Jane chose to remain single for her whole life.

Whether girls should get married for true love or for money is a question forever. And even today, people still hold different opinions about this. In the story, it seems the writer choose the first choice: true love comes first than anything. When Edward proposed to Elinor in the last scene, we saw tears in Elinor’s eyes. Even her mother and sister felt heartfelt happiness and very good luck for her. For in those days, girls could seldom find a perfect engagement with a man of deep love as well as with a big fortune. The famous sentence comes to me again which shows Jane’s idea about marriage, “A man with a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” which told us about the customs of the 18th century.

There is no doubt that Jane always wanted to get married for true love as well as money, but if she could only choose one, I guess her heart should be on true love. As in her six novels, we could always find the female protagonists happily get married for true love and proper position in the end. This happy ending might reveal that Jane always in want of such a marriage herself. Imagine, if she possesses a good fortune herself, there shall no big obstacle in her pursuit of a perfect marriage. But life is a serious matter. Jane’s lover should have fallen in love with her but left her for another girl’s fortune. That’s the reason why Jane always centered her story on this topic. The readers today must feel lucky for themselves, as Jane could not even produce any more stories if she was happily get married when she was 23.

Last but not least, I wish Jane could be happily married even without those fascinating stories. As a girl with good sense and sensibility, she deserves man’s true love and a happier, longer life. Although she might not be remembered by so many people today, at least she lived her story to real in her own life, and that shall be the best story for Jane.