英语论文-Feminism in The Scarlet Letter and The Thorn Birds.pdf

毕业论文 设计 1 feminism in the scarlet letter and the thorn birds feminism in the scarlet letter and the thorn birds 1 1 introduction 1 2 differences between the attitude to women in prynne s time and meggie s 2 time 2 2 1 the social circumstances of the two novels 2 2 2 feminist in the certain social circumstances 3 2 3 different ways of presenting feminism by male and female writer 4 3 similar feminist ideas related to the two heroines 10 3 1 feminism in love 10 3 2 resistance to the society 11 3 3 feminist ideas reflected in pearl and justine 13 4 conclusion 15 references 16 毕业论文 设计 2 1 introduction accordingtooxfordadvancedlearner senglish chinesedictionary feminism is belief in the principle that women should have the same right and opportunities legal political social and economic etc as men as hornby 2002 535 traditionally women were tied by bonds of love and dependence on men and subsequently to their children also the traditional belief was that women were inferior to men not only in physical part but also in psychological aspect they were considered lacking in consciousness of leading their own lives feminism contradicts these traditional beliefs and emphasizes individual character and the female consciousness feminist writers have argued that our culture and the social structures built around it force keeping women tied into the traditional gender role and subordinate to men guoying fu 2002 75 this thesis is to explore how feminism implied is in the scarlet letter and the thorn birds regarding to the feminism that shows in the two novels we can study the significance of feminism in modern literature and fiction which influence on women that will be good for us to search a more high value position for women in this modern society from the two heroines we figure out that women also can make every effort to search for their want and drive their own dreams in addition we female should not be scared by the male dominated society but try to protect our liberty and rights as the two heroines did 毕业论文 设计 3 2 differences between the attitude to women in prynne s time and meggie s time 2 1 the social circumstances of the two novels first in the scarlet letter nathaniel hawthorne had deep bonds with his puritan ancestors and created this story that both highlighted their weaknesses and their strengths the scarlet letter shows his attitude toward these puritans of boston the social background of the scarlet letter is a small community of puritans people there believe that all mankind was depraved and sinful at that time only male and members of the church could vote the rules governing the puritans came from the bible a source of spiritual and ethical standards these rules were definite and the penalties or punishments were public and severe then the story just took place during that period hester s turn on the scaffold and her scarlet letter were similar to those who were branded or forced to wear an m for murderer those who disagreed with the laws of the colony were banished persecuted and in some cases executed 陈伟娜 2007 on the contrary from 1915 to 1960 the living condition and social circumstance in the thorn birds were not as serious as the scarlet letter the thorn birds was published in 1977 that was at the period of the modern feminism movements the story was taken place mostly between the two world wars the male dominated society was still in place in australia and new zealand 毕业论文 设计 4 2 2 feminist in the certain social circumstances the scarlet letter is a 19thcentury novel it reflects the time when the first feminism movements took place in america nathaniel hawthorne noticed the most important aspect of feminism although he himself did not support the movement in addition the society built by the puritans was stern and repressive with no individualism for women for women they must turn to be the so called good women and met the need of the society and take care of their reputation at that period women were just start to notice how they can gain their deserved rights equalities and freedom they started to do some simple fighting for their rights there is a few centuries gap between the time of the story and the time the novel was written in the scarlet letter hester represents the resistance side she was brave enough to condemn her sin and she openly wears the a she believed in god but once tried to steal a priest from god she said why shouldst thou tarry so much as one other day in the torments that have so gnawed into thy life that have made thee feeble to will and to do that will leave thee powerless even to repent up and away dimmesdale ask her alone hester thou shalt not go alone answered she in a deep whisper then all was spoken nathaniel hawthorne 1994 198 the disgrace despairs and loneness change her to be independent she even showed more passion to life and was brave to ask her priest to run away with her the thorn birds was published at the period of the modern feminism movements colleen mccullough herself is a feminist the thorn birds was also 毕业论文 设计 5 the culmination of colleen mccullough s own experimentation about the subjects of life and love the novel is a love story with a strong focus on the society or the morality in the thorn birds the story was taken place mostly between the two world wars because of the male dominated society was still in place in australia and new zealand the position of women had been ignored for quite a long time but linked with every aspects of the world men make their voice and dominate in politics economic life society and also the moral setting the old moral for women reflects on fiona meggie s mother women like fiona had a very low social position economic status personal value and never fought for their rights but meggie was a reformer she tried to get out of that circle and fight for what she wanted although she could not meet her needs at the end of the story she still got her good reputation not facing the same situation as hester prynne in the thorn birds people really focus on their own choice especially women like meggie the old moral concepts were still there but just represented in traditional mores not in a law 2 3 different ways of presenting feminism by male and female writer the scarlet letter and the thorn birds have been considered a reflection of women s problems at the respective time they share a mostly simile love story the two heroines both fell in love with a priest but the backgrounds of the two novels are dramatically different the scarlet letter is a gothic love story basic on the puritan social background and the thorn birds tells a quite long story about the history of the cleary family that means the feminism in the two novels must be 毕业论文 设计 6 different here we start to figure it out the scarlet letter was written by famous romantic writer nathaniel hawthorne 1804 1864 in the middle of the nineteenth century in nathaniel hawthorne slife hewasdeeplyinfluencedbythreethoughts puritan consciousness transcendental philosophy and mysticism hongmei li 2005 this novel was the culmination of nathaniel hawthorne s own experimentation about the subjects of puritans sin guilt and the human conflict between emotions and intellect we can easily say that feminist consciousness was still not widespread at his time nathaniel hawthorne sharply criticized the new england puritanism also criticized the decadent moral of new england puritanism and the dominant attitude towards women nathaniel hawthorne wrote the scarlet letter not to just write about the crime of adultery but to probe into the moral emotional and psychological effect of the sin on people he shapes the image of hester prynne very successfully hester prynne is a beautiful and kind woman she is brave in seeking love and happiness in confronting the harsh reality in sticking to doing good things for her fellowmen on a new honest basis and finally won their love and admiration again hester prynne is one of the few strong female personalities in american literature when she was young she unfortunately married roger chillingworth who is much older than her later she was sent by her husband to boston to settle down she soon falls in love with a young priest there because she was lonely after her pregnancy is revealed she was sentenced to be in prison for 3 months and is forced to wear the letter a on her gown all the time when she is 毕业论文 设计 7 released she should have availed herself of the opportunity to escape to have a new life without shame somewhere however hester moves into the cottage bordering the woods there she and her daughter live a humble life nathaniel hawthorne is criticism of the decadent moral of new england puritanism for women the scarlet letter the author however gives deeper and richer meanings to a furthermore a gives people much food for thought in the age of the puritan community the letter a is a symbol of shame but hester is loyal and faithful to her lover in order to protect her partner she is willing to bear the shame she could leave the disgraceful place to live respectably after her prison life instead of staying there but she does not love gives her great courage and strength to endure hardships love is her spiritual prop to expect a bright future moreover nathaniel hawthorne s criticism of the decadent moral of new england puritanism for women is the most important part in the story hester s friendliness and kind heartedness gradually emerged in the scarlet letter we just want to ask why the society could not accept such a good woman then we even show sympathy to dimmesdale he is not only a mouthpiece of puritanism but also a victim of it he considers his love as disloyal to god and thinks his only way to atone his crime is to die when dying he realizes the importance of being true and he shows his own love to hester the problem of women draws much more attention and sympathy of nathaniel hawthorne than of his contemporaries as an honest and thoughtful writer nathaniel hawthorne narrates the story of hester s miserable life reveals us the 毕业论文 设计 8 woman s status quo of the seventeenth century puritan new england and meanwhile exposes mercilessly the cruelty and the prejudice against women in the puritan society through his insight into woman s life and artistic creation he successfully creates a rebellious image hester a rebel against the social order of the puritan community austin warren has said that hester is the a feminist in advance of the season 陈伟娜 2007 we can say that the greatness of the scarlet letter lies in the characterizing of hester prynne and it is her feminist ideas that give hester the attractive character compared with nathaniel hawthorne colleen mccullough pays more attention to true love between meggie and father ralph colleen mccullough does not focus on the society meggie faces the writer takes it as a background and makes the story smoothly going on instead of digging with how the society changes meggie s life perhaps this is the biggest difference between the two novels the thorn birds written by colleen mccullough was regarded as gone with the wind of australia being a record breaking international bestseller it caused a great sensation in the literary field it has been widely prevailing not only because of its touching love stories but also its exhibition of the importance of positive attitude towards life and the greatness of human nature this thesis focuses on the three heroines pursuit of home of soul and analyzes the significance of positive attitude towards life in their experiences there are three main female heroines in the novel fiona meggie and justine for more than half a century we follow their fates particularly those of 毕业论文 设计 9 meggie the only cleary daughter and the one man she truly loves ralph stunningly handsome ambitious and a priest in the thorn birds the narration of love is the key element the love experience of the heroine displays her desire and growth specifically in describing meggie s emotions love and marriage the novel reveals her growth from a dependent girl to an independent woman at the same time meggie s desire and pursuit are expressed effectively through which the feministic writing is clearly shown the thorn birds also demonstrates the love marriages and feminism consciousness looking through the whole passage you can say that the author tries her best to use the beautiful words to build meggie cleary as a positive character and a good image in this story actually she is the key character of this book and all the things happened just around her however those so many adjectives did no effect in covering the fact that meggie cleary isn t a simple woman she has an angel face and charm she is also an unlucky girl because all the people she loves or has loved die for example frank paddy cleary stuart cleary o neill dane and father ralph de bricassart on the other side she is an ambitious woman for achieving her aim she tries to gain the things she wants however father ralph de bricassart really loved meggie meggie knew that father ralph would never leave god and catholicism so she has a child of father ralph and successfully hide the truth she is very proud and joyful for her great contribution and ignores justine o neill daughter of meggie and luke 毕业论文 设计 10 unfortunately at last she lost the two men father ralph de bricassart and dane o neill meggie loved father ralph de bricassart very much however she can not stay with ralph de bricassart as long as she wants in the thorn birds heroin meggie is the representative of success in the pursuit of her own home of soul meggie had her home of soul but did not sacrifice what she owned this kind of positive attitude helped her enjoy happiness though it was luke s physical feature that attracted meggie s eyes she was aware that in nature luke was absolutely different from ralph meggie believed that marriage represented happiness with this idea she took luke as the messenger of happiness so meggie made up her mind to choose her happiness instead of staying in drogheda recalling ralph having had ralph s child meggie never neglected the existence of other members in drogheda she had more affection upon the clearies and was more aware of the importance of enjoying the things around her her positive attitude towards life brightened her eyes meggie was not only the kind of person who enjoyed herself but also the type who revitalized others affection to life after dane drowned justine was almost crushed down by sorrow it was meggie that spoke out the importance of enjoying life to justine otherwise justine would sacrifice her happiness and career to compensate her love to the gone dane meggie cherished her life as well as that of people about her meggie was full of femininity through her life she searched for her home of soul all the time although she suffered a lot in the pursuit she was never defeated under great sufferings she was brave enough to face life and get along with people around her 毕业论文 设计 11 further more she played the role of a guide in others life and helped them pursue happiness thus on account of positive attitude towards life meggie was successful in the pursuit of her home of soul 3 similar feminist ideas related to the two heroines 3 1 feminism in love in the two novels love is the key element which serves to recruit women in to subservient positions within the certain social circumstance there feminism acts as a bond that keeps women in the traditional gender roles and prevents them from attaining the economic freedom that could provide a basis for equality shuling yu 2002 69 the two heroines devote all their love to their priests without getting a blessing from god they believe in one might say if the love is real and true then at least she has the true love what could be worth more in one s life but the feminist critique goes further what is commonly called love is often permeated with uneasiness and people just face the same uneasiness in their life but love bravely and breakthrough the limitation of morality in the similarities of the two heroines we can find that feminism abound in their love stories hester believed in god married a man she never was in love with fell in love with arthur dimmesdale but got nothing besides receiving a shameful a she asked dimmesdale to run away with her but without the answer she wanted dimmesdale is too fearful to tell the truth to the community the same joke occurs 毕业论文 设计 12 to meggie meggie also believed in god at the very beginning when she noticed that god hadn t brought she any good fortune but take away frank her dad louis and her true love father ralph from her one by one when ms carson was dead in order to take away all the thirteen million pounds to scarify his career father ralph even showed out the new will of ms carson and in the novel we can see the content after bravo mary said father ralph again these first tears since his boyhood dropping from his face onto the backs of his hands but not onto the paper colleen mccullough 1992 195 ralph seems to love his career more than meggie so he did when meggie asks ralph to marry her her true love has been ignored ralph said that he loves god most although that must not be true ralph once admitted that he was just a man and he properly loves meggie more than god we can see ralph still dare not showing love to meggie in the two novels both the heroines are brave enough to face and fight for their true love 3 2 resistance to the society in their stories we can see that hester and meggie hold some traditional concepts of females but we say they have some new feminist concepts deep in their mind because they want a new life and they struggle with the reality without fear their resistance is more remarkable than any other characteristic hester and meggie both have an introvert personality for the sake of love and protection of the loved man hester keeps dimmesdale as a secret and never divulge t