（英语语言文学专业论文）挣扎的人生——利蓓卡·夏普和莉莉·巴特对比研究.pdf

摘 要 i 论文题目：论文题目：挣扎的人生 利蓓卡夏普和莉莉巴特对比研究 专 业： 专 业： 英语语言文学 研 究 生： 研 究 生： 吴 越 指导教师： 指导教师： 张发祥 教授 摘 要 摘 要 本文通过对威廉姆梅克皮斯萨克雷的名利场中的利蓓卡夏普和伊 迪斯华顿的欢乐之家中的莉莉巴特的对比分析,揭示了她们悲剧的根 源。尽管她们有着不同的社会和家庭背景,对爱情和婚姻有着不同的态度,但作为 无依无靠的弱女子,不管她们在这个社会里怎样努力挣扎,结局几乎一样: 她们的 梦想破裂,一个绝望死去,一个苟且偷生。她们的悲惨命运有自身在性格和思想上 的原因,但更多是由她们所处的社会造成的。不管是在十九世纪的英国还是二十 世纪初的美国,当时的社会都是以男性为中心的社会,无依无靠的女性想要通过自 身的努力取得成功是不可能的,她们只能靠婚姻来提升自己的地位,通过找一个有 钱有势的丈夫来保证自己在经济和社会方面的地位,但这种依靠男性的方法也是 不可靠的,因为当时的社会风俗和规范都是以保障男性的利益为前提的。因此,不 管她们怎样努力挣扎,她们的悲剧命运都是不可避免的。 本文的主体包括两部分。第一部分通过对比利蓓卡夏普和莉莉巴特的历 史和家庭背景以及她们所处的复杂的社会环境,指出社会和家庭环境对她们性格 以及生活和命运的影响,指出在她们所处的社会里,不但男性和女性之间存在不平 等,有钱阶级和穷人之间也有着明显的鸿沟。这两个无依无靠的主人公,不仅要受 到来自男性的不公,还要受到来自同性的疏远歧视甚至是阴谋陷害。第二部分通 过比较她们对待婚姻和爱情的态度以及在社会中的苦苦挣扎和悲惨结局,指出身 处以男性为中心的社会,不管女性以怎样的态度去面对这个社会,也不管她们怎样 努力去争取自己应得的权利,都只能以失败而告终。 尽管如此，她们的结局还是 有一定的差别的。利蓓卡已经深受当时社会的影响，事事以追求财富为目标，她 迷失在那个光怪陆离的社会中。尽管莉莉最终死去了，但她通过死实现了自我， 摆脱了所有尘世的烦扰。 通过以上分析得出,在男性占统治地位的社会,处于附属地位的女性只有通过 婚姻才能获得经济和社会地位的保障。而对于那些地位低下又无所依靠的女性来 说想要飞上枝头当凤凰,实在是难于上青天,她们的种种努力往往以悲剧收场。她 masters thesis of henan university of science and technology ii 们的悲惨结局有她们自身的原因,但更多的是由她们所处的社会造成的,她们摆脱 不了在物质乃至精神上对男性的依附,当然也就难以逃脱男权社会对她们的控制 和摆布。 关 键 词：关 键 词：对比研究, 挣扎，男权社会,悲剧结局 论文类型：论文类型：研究报告 abstract iii subject: life of struggle: a comparative study of rebecca sharp and lily bart specialty: english literature name: wu yue supervisor: prof. zhang faxiang abstract after a comparative study of rebecca sharp in william makepeace thackerays vanity fair and lily bart in edith whartons the house of mirth, this thesis points out the cause of their tragedies. though they have different family and social backgrounds and different attitudes towards love and marriage, as helpless females, their results are almost the same, their dreams end up in vain：one dies tragically and the other keeps alive without ambitious aims. there may be many reasons for their tragedies, but the society they live in is the major one. either in the nineteenth century england or the early twentieth century america, the society is dominated by men. for helpless women like rebecca and lily, its impossible for them to realize their dreams all by their own. if they want to live a better life and have a brighter future, the only way for them is to find a rich husband to promote their social status and give them economic security. but its not a dependent way to rely on men, for all the society is dominated by men and they can decide all the things according to their own interests and benefit. so no matter how hard they struggle in the society, they cant break away from their tragic fates. the main body can be divided into two parts. the first part is a comparative study of rebeccas and lilys social and family backgrounds and men and women around them which points out how deep the social and family backgrounds have influenced their characters, lives and fates. in the patriarchal society, inequality not only exits between men and women, but also the rich and the poor. as poor and helpless women, rebecca and lily have to suffer a lot. they not only suffer from inequality from men, but also isolation or even schemes by other women. the second part is their attitudes towards love and marriage and also their struggle in the society and their tragic fates and endings. living in the male-dominated society, no matter how hard they struggle and how they face the society, actively or passively, they cant realize their dreams. all their efforts end up in vain. but there is masters thesis of henan university of science and technology iv still some difference between their fates. rebecca is greatly influenced by the then society and she does everything with the aim of getting wealth. she has lost in the corrupted world. although lily dies at last, she has realized her self-identity. through the analysis above we can reach the conclusion that in the male- dominated society women who are in attached position can only get social and economic security through marriage. for women lower in economic and social position, its even difficult for them to live a better life and their hard struggle always ends up in tragedy. their tragic endings may haave something to do with their own shortcomings in their characteristics, but its mainly caused by the society they live in. they cant break away from the attachment to men both in spirit and economy, so, of course, they cant get rid of the control and oppression of the male-dominated world. key words: comparative study, struggle, male dominated society, tragedy thesis type: research report chapter one introduction 1 chapter one introduction the research method adopted in the thesis would be a comparative study of the two female protagonists of rebecca sharp in vanity fair and lily bart in the house of mirth, thus leading to an analysis of the protagonists different historical and family backgrounds, their complicated social nets, their struggle in the society and their tragic endings. 1.1 williams makepeace thackeray and vanity fair williams makepeace thackeray was born in calcutta on july 18th, 1811. his father held an important position in the east indian company. unfortunately, his father died when he was only 5 years old and he was sent to england to be educated. in 1829, he went to trinity college, cambridge, where he gained his reputation by his parody in the college magazine. then he left the university with a considerable load of debt. from cambridge he went to germany and then to paris to study drawing. in 1832, he came into his fortune, about 500 pounds a year, and a year or later he had lost it all. so he had to earn his living by journalism. for the next ten or twelve years he wrote articles, sketches and short stories for magazines and newspapers under a variety of pen-names. in 1836, he fell in love with and married isabella shaw in paris. however, four years later came the blow he never recovered. his wife became ill after the birth of their second daughter and she had to be put into a home. the rest of thackerays life was passed in clubs or hotels. in 1847, his vanity fair was published in monthly parts, which was followed by pendennis. in 1852, henry esmond appeared. it is the first great english historical novel. it tells the story of a private family, the esmonds, against the larger background of the facts of england and europe in the 18th century. between the years 1853 and 1863, he wrote the newcomes, the virginians, lovell the widower, the adventures of philip and the unfinished denis duval. but esmond, vanity fair and pendennis were the high mark of thackerays genius. he died in 1863. vanity fair is considered to be thackerays masterpiece which is rich in character development and historical accuracy. the novel is set during the napoleonic wars and focus on the lives of two sharply contrasted women: amelia sedley, a young lady from a rich merchant family who is very innocent and somewhat weak, and masters thesis of henan university of science and technology 2 rebecca sharp, an orphan with her father as a poor artist and her mother a french woman，who is very calculative and ambitious. the novel begins when the two ladies are ready to leave miss pinkertons academy for young ladies for amelias home. then rebecca stays in amelias home for a short time where she tries to marry joseph sedley, amelias brother, an official in east indian company, who is a shy man and is not skilled at dealing with women, but her conspiracy is thwarted by george osborne. she then goes to the crawley household as a governess and soon makes a good impression on everyone of the family. learning that rawdon crawley, the second son of sir pitt crawley, is the favorite of his rich aunt, she secretly marries him. later, sir pitt proposes to rebecca after his wife dies which makes rebecca regrets her marriage to rawdon. as their marriage is discovered, old miss crawley is so angry with rawdon that she decides to abandon rawdon. in fact, rawdon is an ignorant and self- indulgent man who cant prove rebeccas status in society and economy. rebecca has to do many things all by herself and sometimes she has to get rawdon out of trouble of his debt. on the eve of the napoleonic wars, rebecca meets general tufto and immediately becomes his sweetheart. general tufto is also a playboy who has affairs with many women and he is so attracted by rebeccas beauty that he buys her a lot of presents which rebecca secretly hides in her box. after the war, rebecca moves on further to become the mistress of lord steyne and finds her place in the society. unfortunately, rawdon discovers their affairs accidentally. out of anger, rawdon dismisses rebecca and goes abroad to accept the position lord steyne has helped to get, leaving their child in the care of his brother and sister-in-law. lord steyne also thinks that there are some intrigues, so he leaves rebecca and threatens her never to step into the upper-class again. abandoned by her husband and threatened by lord steyne, rebecca lives a terrible life when she accidentally meets amelia sedley and joseph sedley who help her live a comparatively normal life again. but she knows that her dream to go back to the upper class has been totally ruined. compared with rebeccas story, amelias story is not so interesting. amelia first marries george osborne, who is in fact a playboy and later dies in the war, leaving amelia nothing but a little baby. amelia later lives with her parents who have gone bankrupt. georges friend, dobbin, secretly loves her and takes care of amelia and her child for many years, but amelia is ignorant of dobbins affection for she is still addicted to her chapter one introduction 3 husband, george. many years passes, when she learns from rebecca that her husband has been disloyal to her, she finally accepts and marries dobbin and lives a happy life. from the very beginning of the novel, thackeray captures the readers interest and carries the readers through marriages, births, deaths, poverty, social climbing and even the war. the novel is a really vivid picture of english society in the early nineteenth century. 1.2 edith wharton and the house of mirth edith newbold jones was born on january 24, 1862. she was the third child and the only daughter of george frederic and jucretia rhinelander jones who belonged to the aristocratic family that had dominated new york from the dutch and english colonial era until 1870. as she was a shy, lonely and desolate girl, she began to write stories at the age of 12. she perceived her mother as remote, disappointing, impatient and unloving, who also had repressive influence on her. in 1885, edith jones married edward wharton from a wealthy boston family whose wealth seemed to offer edith enough social and economic status. however, their marriage proved to be a mistake. the two finally divorced in 1913. in order to release her pressure and break away from the frivolous society of new york and develop her interest in writing, she left her home in new york and moved into a house called “mount”. her first book was a guide to interior decorating, and followed by several novels and story collections. edith took up permanent residence in france, however, her subject remained america, especially old new york. the house of mirth was published in 1905, which was a great success and a best-seller. her great satirical novel, the custom of the country was published in 1913 and the age of innocence was published in 1920 which won her pulitzer prize. edith is perhaps best known for her novels depicting new york aristocratic life and the complicated struggle of the individual with the conventions of a powerful, and triumphant class, so she was called a writer of manners. edith received much acclaim for her lifelong devotion to writing. she is considered one of the leading american authors of the twentieth century. because of her humanitarian endeavors and contributions to literature, edith became the first masters thesis of henan university of science and technology 4 woman to receive an honorary doctorate from yale university in 1923, and in 1930 she was elected to the american academy of arts and letters. in her lifetime, she wrote thirty books, including a backward glance, an autobiography and 88 short stories. she died near paris in 1937. the house of mirth takes its title from ecclesiastes 7:4: “the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth”, which is one of the first novels of manners in american literature. it was a great success for edith wharton, selling 100,000 copies within ten days after its publication. it is set in the time when the novel was written, which covers the last seventeen months of lily barts life. lily bart is an attractive woman with some important social and family ties who is still not married at the age of 29. since the death of her mother who has great hatred for dingy life, lily begins to live with her aunt, mrs. peniston. though mrs. peniston is lilys fathers sister, she doesnt really love the girl at all. everyone else thinks that she adopts lily only because the girl has rich experiences in traveling which is useful to her. but in fact, it is not so. she adopts lily just because she knows clearly that no one else will take the girl except her. so she suggests having her for some time. lily is also clear about it. the two cant get on well with each other, though they live in the same house, they have little to talk about. so, lily spends much of her time staying at the bellomont, the out-of-town estate of the wealthy and well- established gus and judy trenor where judy regularly holds extravagant parties that are attended by most of the new york upper-crust and lily is fond of these kind of parties for shes thinking of finding a rich man as her husband . lily is eager to get married to a rich man who can secure her position in society and economy, but due to her own indecision, she passes up numerous chances, always thinking she can do better. her relationships with men are quite complicated. she loves selden lawrence who advocates republic of spirit, but he is not wealthy enough to provide her social and economic security which prevents her from marrying him. she also loses the chance of marrying percy gryce who is rather rich but is not so interesting as lawrence. the trenors and dorsets and much more sophisticated than lily who is relatively innocent and moral, so lily is easily used and cheated by them without knowing it. when lily is in economic trouble, she borrows money from gus trenor, thinking that she can pay him back with investment. to her surprise, gus chapter one introduction 5 trenor is secretly attached to lily and wants to proposition lily. learning this, lily withdraws quickly and promises that she will somehow pay him back, although she does not know how. but her staying with trenor at night has been discovered by the others and there are rumors that she has affairs with gus trenor and her reputation is greatly damaged. even lawrence selden believes it and avoids seeing her for several months. so she has to return to her aunts and lives the boring life again. later, she suddenly receives an invitation from bertha dorsets who invites her to spend the vacation at the mediterranean with them. lily accepts the invitation gladly without thinking that there may be some tricks. in fact, bertha uses lily to distract george while bertha has an affair with ned silverton. when george dorsets discovers his wifes affair with silverton and is angry with her, bertha spreads rumors that lily has affairs with her husband. in this way, she is free from trouble but lily becomes the focus of the scandal. this is a great shock to lily and it ruins her completely. she is squeezed out of the upper-class and realizes that she has to join the working class to support herself. but she soon finds that she is so incompetent that she even cant do the simple work well. her poverty continues and she is so desperate that she takes too large a dose of sleeping meditation and dies in her sleep after paying her debts with the money her aunt leaves her. 1.3 literature review william makepeace thackeray published his vanity fair in 1847-48 in monthly parts. it is the first novel which gives conspectus of london society. the foreign critics research on vanity fair can be divided into several streams. the first is thackeray as a sentimental novelist. his own life was full of ups and downs. after so many sufferings, hes able to see the world cynically. other researchers regard vanity fair as a realistic novel. in it thackeray has portrayed the living manners of his own age, without any decorations. and some others take vanity fair as a masterpiece of satire. on the stage founded by thackeray, wide varieties of characters appear on it and play themselves. they are busy at social climbing, gambling and money making and nothing can stop them from doing that. the research of vanity fair in china boomed in recent years, most of which are on the level of social affairs. through the vivid depiction of the characters, thackeray masters thesis of henan university of science and technology 6 puts forward the theme of the novel, that is, london at that time was really a vanity fair. most researchers focus on the character analysis, with rebecca sharp and amelia sedley as examples, to explore the characters innate world. also, there are comparisons between the two females. many critics are interested in edith wharton as