（英语语言文学专业论文）“真实的现实”——《谢莉》中夏洛特·勃朗蒂女性意识的体现.pdf

ii 中文摘要中文摘要 作为 19 世纪英国文坛的杰出女性作家，夏洛特勃朗蒂以其简爱一 书享誉文坛，并饱受多方评论家的关注。 随后出版的谢莉一书的研究著述 不多，但是近几年关于夏洛特勃朗蒂女性意识研究中开始慢慢出现了谢莉这个 角色的评论。鉴于此，本论文对谢莉一书进行了较为详尽的文本研究，旨在 发掘夏洛特勃朗蒂的女性意识在本书中的具体实现。 论文共有 5 个章节组成。导言部分概述了谢莉的创作背景以及维多利亚 时代对这部作品的部分评论， 通过对文章结构的交代提出本论文的中心论点和研 究目的。论文的主体部分则包括 3 个章节。第 1 章介绍了夏洛特勃朗蒂作为一 位独立女性的感悟和遭遇在两位女主角的塑造中的体现， 揭示了夏洛特勃朗 蒂女性意识的觉醒。第 2 章和第 3 章则具体地对小说文本进行分析，展示夏洛 特勃朗蒂女性意识的具体体现。第 2 章侧重分析夏洛特勃朗蒂对同时代女性 的生活境遇的关注。在写实性描写的基础上探究不幸的根源，同时塑造了两位在 思想上和行为上寻求独立的女主角。第 3 章进一步讨论了夏洛特勃朗蒂对于男 权的文学解构，表现在父权的败退以及女性神话的重塑。最后一章得出结论，重 申了谢莉中体现的夏洛特勃朗蒂女性意识觉醒，体现了谢莉一书的研 究价值，并且对进一步的文本研究提出了相关建议。 关关 键键 词：词：女性意识；女性的生活境遇；男权的文学解构；女性神话的重塑 iii abstract charlotte bronte (1816-1855) is one of the most outstanding female novelists in the 19th century english literature. she is well-known as the author of jane eyre, about which the critical works and articles are numerous. but in recent years, shirley, along with brontes other work, has received a great deal of attention from feminist critics. like charlottes other works, shirley is about the struggle of an individual consciousness toward self-realization, about some lonely and neglected young women with a longing for love. in it, charlotte writes about her own life and feelings as a victorian woman writer and the social problem of surplus women at the victorian age, condemning the patriarchal restrictions on women. she also deconstructs the patriarchal mythology and build up the female tradition instead. shirley is the literary embodiment of charlotte brontes serious thoughts, reflecting her female awareness. the thesis aims to fulfill the task of analyzing charlotte brontes female awareness in the framework discussed below. there are three sections in this thesis. in the introductory remarks, the author of this thesis gives an overview of charlotte brontes writings, especially shirley, and its critical receptions. the framework of the thesis is also introduced. the main body part of this thesis consists of three chapters, focusing on different aspects of the novel in terms of characterization for a close examination of the novels major characters life and spiritual reality from the textual approach. in chapter one, the thesis studies the similarities between the writer and her characters, reflecting charlottes consciousness in the writing process. in chapter two, the author of this thesis attempts to analyze charlottes concern about the victorian womens living conditions, which is reflected in the surplus women problem. charlotte also offers the conventional carolines reflection on her unhappiness and a pioneering women image of shirley. chapter three is mainly devoted to the analyses of charlottes unconventional treatment of deconstruction with regards to patriarchal mythology in the novel. as concluding remarks, the conclusion affirms charlotte brontes female awareness examined in the iv thesis, and offers some suggestion for further study. keywords: female awareness, womens living conditions, deconstruction of patriarchal mythology, female tradition 上海交通大学上海交通大学 学位论文原创性声明学位论文原创性声明 本人郑重声明：所呈交的学位论文，是本人在导师的指导下， 独立进行研究工作所取得的成果。除文中已经注明引用的内容外，本 论文不包含任何其他个人或集体已经发表或撰写过的作品成果。 对本 文的研究做出重要贡献的个人和集体，均已在文中以明确方式标明。 本人完全意识到本声明的法律结果由本人承担。 学位论文作者签名：于青青 日期：2008 年 1 月 16 日 上海交通大学上海交通大学 学位论文版权使用授权书学位论文版权使用授权书 本学位论文作者完全了解学校有关保留、使用学位论文的规定， 同意学校保留并向国家有关部门或机构送交论文的复印件和电子版， 允许论文被查阅和借阅。 本人授权上海交通大学可以将本学位论文的 全部或部分内容编入有关数据库进行检索，可以采用影印、缩印或扫 描等复制手段保存和汇编本学位论文。 保密保密，在 年解密后适用本授权书。 本学位论文属于 不保密 不保密。 （请在以上方框内打“” ） 学位论文作者签名：于青青 指导教师签名：左晓岚 日期：2008 年 1 月 16 日 日期：2008 年 1 月 16 日 i acknowledgements i extend my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, prof. zuo xiaolan, who has offered her consistent help and practical advice for this thesis. besides, during the last two and a half years, i have learned a lot from my professor. her profound literary perspectives and precision on researches have inspired my academic studies. her self-motivated and optimistic life philosophy has guided me in daily life. my thanks should also go to the teachers whose courses have triggered my interests in the literary study during my ma program at sjtu. without their helps, i would not have got to know the various fields of the academic research world. i am also grateful to prof. he weiwen, suo yuhuan, and shen yan, who have helped me during the early stage of planning this thesis. i am indebted to my dear parents and boy friend, who have encouraged me with their selfless love, and urged me to finish on time. they are the consistent backbone in my life, witnessing every development i have made. my heartful thanks also go to my friends, who have accompanied me during the two-and-a-half-year study in sjtu. they have made my life colorful and blessed. 1 introduction in the past forty years charlotte brontes reputation has risen rapidly, and feminist criticism has done much to show that she was speaking up for oppressed women of every age.1 she is among the first generation of the nineteenth-century feminine novelists. the nineteenth-century brought about major impetuses to feminist movement. inspired by the american and french revolution and the antislavery movement, women, for the first time, unmistakably claimed for the natural “rights of women”. trying to get independence, charlotte is courageous enough to take up the vocation as a writer at the victorian age. she once wrote to robert southey, the famous poet at that time, for advice, and the answer, very much in line with the then social morals, was discouraging: “literature cannot be the business of a womans life, and it ought not to be. the more she is engaged in her proper duties, the less leisure will she have for it, even as an accomplishment and a recreation. ”2 the letter indicates that women should have more respectable occupations besides being a writer. but charlotte took the advice in a positive way and continued her pursuit in writing. charlotte bronte (1816-1855), the eldest of the famed bronte sisters, is one of the most outstanding female novelists in the 19th century english literature. being a cultured woman, charlotte first sought independence as a governess to live on herself. the governess experience made her suffer a lot, getting to know how women were prejudiced against in the patriarchal society. then she took up the pen to express what she had seen, suffered, and wished for. her first two published works were jane eyre (1847) and shirley (1849). the other novels included villette (1853), the professor (1857), and emma, an unfinished version. poems of currer, ellis and acton bell (1846) was a collection of poems written by her sisters and brother. after the death of charlotte bronte, her novels were constantly reprinted. charlottes works were all about the struggle of an individual consciousness 1 “charlotte bronte biology and literary works”。 available from june, 27, 2007. 2 “advice to a young writer, given and taken: letters between robert southey and charlotte bronte”. available from /english/txt/southey.bronte.html, july, 4, 2007. 2 toward self-realization, about some lonely and neglected young women with a longing for love. charlotte was well-known as the writer of jane eyre, which was published in the year 1847. following the tremendous popular success of jane eyre, charlotte bronte vowed to write a sweeping social chronicle that focused on something unromantic as monday morning. (chapter i, p. 1)3 she had begun to think about her second novel shirley in december 1847, and spent two years on writing it. the first two volumes ran smoothly until the black period of her life came. from september 1848 to may 1849, the death of branwell, emily and anne followed each other in rapid succession. but charlotte toiled on, and the book appeared on 26 october 1849. immediately following the publication of shirley, the critiques of the novel were positive. in his essay written on october 31, 1849, g.b. smith stated: “there is more general merit in its shirleys writing.” another critic that shared smiths positive views on the content of shirley was the times. on december 7, 1849, the times exclaimed shirley to be “as being very clever, as a matter of course. it could not be otherwise.”4 the daily news on october 31, 1849, also gave praise to bronte when it stated that shirley was “the anatomy of the female heart.”5 some critics of the twentieth century were torn between giving shirley a good review and a bad review, so they stated a little of both. robert bernard martain, in 1966, wrote: “in many ways shirley is miss brontes most ambitious novel, but it is a long way from being her most successful. the reason for her failure is not, i think, the generally accepted one. that she knew too little of social history to deal with the situation of 1812, but rather that she attempted to split her sensibility in too many directions, divided it among too many characters, tried to encompass too many viewpoints, and to see them all objectively. she was not jane austen, capable of detachment, nor was she george eliot, able to give full emotional validity to several points of view; the result is a series of fragments, many of them splendid.”6 3 charlotte bronte, shirley, london: penguin books ltd, 1994, p. 1. all further references to shirley in this thesis are to the penguin popular classics edition, and appear in brackets in the text, with chapter number and page number in order. 4 “shirleys critical reception”. available from /wiki/shirley_(novel), july, 10, 2007. 5 ibid. 6 “shirleys critical reception”. available from /victoriannovels/stories/storyreader$25, july, 26, 2007. 3 living in a time of revolutionary changes and scientific booms, charlotte bronte was inspired to think about humanistic needs. charlotte brontes works are famous for her moving portrayals of the struggle of the creative and energetic woman in a world that resisted, even confined her. her writings are marked throughout by intensity of vision and passion. by writing from an individual point of view, by creating characters who are possessed of strong feelings, fiery passions and some extraordinary personalities, she is able to recreate life in a wondrously romantic way. so, whatever weakness her work may have, the vividness of her subjective narration, the intensely achieved characterization, especially those heroines who are contrary to the public expectations, and the most truthful description of the economic, moral, social life of the time - all this renders her works a never dying popularity. in shirley, bronte uses an omniscient third-person narrator and instead of one in jane eyre, two principal characters, shirley keeldar and caroline helstone. bronte moved out of the realm of the purely personal to include elements of the social and political as well. set in yorkshire during the time of the luddite unresta labor movement that began in 1811-1812 in an effort to protect the interests of the working classthe novel consists of two narrative strands woven together, one involving the struggles of workers against mill owners, and the other involving the romantic entanglements of the two heroines. in recent years, shirley, along with brontes other work, has received a great deal of attention from feminist critics. shirley is praised as an early feminist text by some feminist critics, and for others it should be denounced for the apparent capitulation of the female characters to the constraints of marriage at the end of the novel. though an intended social novel, shirley gives very vivid portrayal of the female protagonists, describing their struggles in a patriarchal society full of prejudice and limitations for women. the female awareness in her writings is recognized by the feminists in the 20th century. “the bronte cliff”7, as we can see in elaine showalters influential a 7 elaine showalter, a literature of their own. beijing: foreign language teaching and research press, 2004, p. 11. 4 literature of their own, acknowledges the contribution of charlotte bronte to the literary history of and about women. this thesis will undertake to examine charlotte brontes feminist awareness in shirley. having this in mind, this thesis will cover the following parts. first, after this introductory part, the thesis will uncover how charlotte writes down her own experiences in shirley in chapter one. we can find similarities between the experiences of the women writer charlotte and her two female protagonists. we can see the reality of charlottes time and charlottes feelings in the novel. in chapter two, there is an analysis of charlottes concern about the living conditions of the victorian age, which is reflected in the surplus women problem. she writes about the live of the old maids, reflecting on why they are made surplus, and how they suffer in the patriarchal society. charlotte also offers fresh thoughts and independent images for the victorian age women. caroline is unhappy in the rectory and she ponders on the reasons. shirley enjoys her independent life, and shows her ability comparable to the gentlemen at the victorian age. chapter three analyses charlottes feminine awareness through the deconstruction of the patriarchal mythology in shirley. charlotte denies and challenges the patriarchy, while establishing the female tradition. the last part is conclusion, which sums up how charlottes feminine awareness is reflected in shirley, and offers some hints for the further study. charlotte bronte writes about her life experiences, feelings and hopes in shirley. there are vivid descriptions of the meaningless lives of the victorian women, who suffer from their lonely and unhappy lives. charlottes understanding of how and why the victorian women suffered is expressed in shirley. the two female protagonists display how to be an independent woman at the victorian age, spiritually or physically. charlotte makes it clear that there are pressures from the patriarchy, but one can win her independence through personal endeavor. charlottes female awareness is displayed in various aspects in shirley, which is going to be discussed in the following chapters. 5 chapter one charlotte bronte in shirley charlotte bronte was born the third child of the rev. patrick bronte, a native of the county down in ireland, and maria branwell, the third daughter of mr. thomas branwell, merchant of penzance. the brontes finally settled in haworth, where patrick bronte became perpetual curate. after the death of the delicate mother, miss branwell, their anut, came to take care of the motherless poor kids. as their delicate mother was confined to bed for illness, the six children, grave and silent beyond their years, clung quietly together. “they took their meals alone; sat reading, or whispering low, in the childrens study, or wandered out on the hill-side, hand in hand.”8 charlotte learned a lot from this early staying in the childrens room. when she was young, “maria the eldest sister read the newspapers, and reported intelligence to her younger sisters which it is wonderful they could take an interest inwithout the childrens bookstheir eager minds browsed undisturbed among the wholesome pasturage of english literature, as charles lamb expresses it.”9 the servants of the household were much impressed with the little brontes extraordinary cleverness. their father wrote in a letter to mrs. gaskell: “the servants often said that they had never seen such a clever little child” as charlotte10 the father believed in education, and charlotte herself was keen on study. she went to a charity school for the clergymans daughters at first. after the death of the two elder girls, the father took the rest back home, and taught them himself. the rest four children would let free their imaginations and beguile themselves with writing poems. these literary practices gave charlotte an outlet to express her wonderful imaginations. thus when she felt depressed and meaningless, she could pick up her pen to write. charlotte inherited the celtic romance from her father and the english strictness from her mother. the celtic rebel spirit encourages her to doubt the unfair restrictions on women, seek for individual development and freedom, and long for the happy 8 elizabeth gaskell, the life of charlotte bronte, london: penguin books ltd., 1998, p. 26. 9 ibid, p. 31. 10 ibid, p. 31. 6 future. at the same time she is gifted with thoughtfulness and strong responsibilities from her mother and miss branwell, the aunt. the two characteristics, influencing and restricting each other, resides in charlottes restless heart and are expressed in shirley with its two contrasting heroines. one is the vivacious titular character shirley keeldar, who inherits a local estate and whose wealth liberates her from convention. she is independent, brave, and outspoken, having quite pioneering characteristics for a victorian woman. the other is the shy caroline helstone, a more conventional figure, who is trapped in the oppressive atmosphere of a yorkshire rectory and whose bare life epitomizes the plight of single women in the nineteenth century. caroline and shirley make up of the whole charlotte. just like charlotte in reality, caroline suffers from the one-sided love, feels the pressure the society puts on her as a woman. charlotte writes out the suffering of the victorian woman, and pours on shirley the strength and potential of women. car