《名利场》中两位女主人公的对比分析

1 A Comparative Analysis of the Two Heroines in Vanity Fair 名利场名利场 中两位女主人公的对比分析中两位女主人公的对比分析 Abstract Vanity Fair is a famous novel and masterpiece written by William Makepeace Thackeray and it is a famous work of critical realism In the novel Thackeray has created two female images Becky and Amelia who are fresh and plump They respectively stands for two types of female images one is the bad woman image represented by Becky who breaks the tradition ones and the other is the typical traditional family angel image represented by Amelia However both the bad woman and angel have the dual natures in Thackeray s eyes In this paper it makes a comparative analysis of the two female images shaped by Thackeray in Vanity Fair to discuss the similarities and differences between two females images characters values and destiny and probe into the deep reasons for such differences Through this novel the 19th century English society can be seen at all levels and how different people survive in the cruel society Researching this topic has important significance in understanding and becoming familiar with the society and culture of the 19th century British capitalism Key words characters Becky Amelia 2 中文摘要中文摘要 名利场 是 19 世纪英国著名小说家威廉 梅克比斯 萨克雷的成名作也 是其代表作 是一部著名的批判现实主义作品 小说中塑造了两位女主角 蓓基和爱米丽亚 形象鲜活丰满 栩栩如生 她们分别代表了两种女性形象 一种是蓓基所代表的打破传统女性形象的 坏女人 一种是爱米莉亚所代表的 典型传统家庭天使形象 然而 不管是坏女人还是天使 在萨克雷的眼中都是 有其两重性的 本文就萨克雷在 名利场 中所塑造的两位女性形象进行对比 分析 分析二人性格 价值观及命运的异同 并探讨导致这种差异的深层原因 透过这篇小说 我们可以看到 19 世纪英国上流社会的各个层面 以及不同 的人怎样在社会中谋得他们的一席之地 研究此课题对了解和熟悉 19 世纪英国 资本主义社会文化具有重要的意义 关键词关键词 性格 蓓基 爱米丽亚 3 Outline 1 Introduction 2 Comparison of Becky and Amelia in Vanity Fair 2 1 Different Characters 2 1 1 Becky Breaking the Traditional Image of Women 2 1 2 Amelia A Typical Traditional Female Image 2 2 Different Attitude toward Love and Marriage 2 2 1 Becky A Tool Leading Her to the Upper Society 2 2 2 Amelia Devoted Herself to Love 2 2 Different Fates 2 2 1 Becky s Destiny 2 2 2 Amelia s Fates 3 Reasons for Their Different Fates 3 1 Living Environment 3 2 Social Situation in Victorian Era 3 3 Traditional Female Morality 4 Conclusion 4 1 Introduction Vanity Fair is a masterpiece of the British novelist Thackeray It mainly depicts the encounters and destinies of two beautiful girls Becky and Amelia who live in the British upper class in the early time of the 19th century Becky is a typical adventuress in the capitalist society The influences and discriminations of the underworld cause her personalities to become distorted In order to make a living she doesn t give up any opportunities and tries to reach her purpose through marriages She likes to show her face in public In fact the life pursued by her is filled with fame and wealth as well as the endless desires She is evil but successful She is an outcome of the dual function of the era and society On the contrary Amelia is a pretty and simple woman with good characters and pure love She comes from a rich merchant family looking forward to the ideal love and trying to weave her own life with love She is poor but happy Being deeply attracted by these two heroines distinct personalities and different fates the author tries to explore the implied social reasons for their different encounters and views of love and marriage Through analyzing Becky and Amelia s different characters views on love and marriage as well as fates in this novel this paper aims at summarizing the core moral concepts of the Victorian women and exploring the implied social reasons Hope this paper can not only be a supplement to the previous studies but also help the readers better understand the deep connotations of this novel 2 Comparison of Becky and Amelia in Vanity Fair Britain at that time is nothing short of Vanity Fair Therefore to survive in such a cruel society one must have certain life skills especially people born in poor families So do Becky and Amelia In this part the characters attitude to love and marriage as well as their fates will be compared 2 1 Different Characters In the Vanity Fair the two heroines Becky and Amelia appear full blown especially Becky who is one of the most successful and typical characters in novels In the following part their different characters will be discussed 2 1 1 Becky Breaking the Traditional Image of Women Being doughty to pursue In the Vitoria times social culture and economic status determine the status of women In Victorian Britain women have no opportunity to get knowledge through education or work they are only told to what kind of their behaviors are in conformity to norms which bound the female s characters Hagan 1975 479 Rebecca is a poor orphan but she wants to win the respect and obtains the economic status and social status Her independent personality is in conflict with her status conferred by the society Her desire of respect derives from her childhood experience Her father would 5 beat his wife and daughter when drunk and complained the society s injustice Her father s punishment intensified her anger and her childhood experience made her realize she was living in in a cage of patriarchal society She wants to have a different childhood life but the society imposed restrictions of females on her Therefore in that society to live with your own goals and desires is a great challenge for her In the Victorian times only women in the upper class have the opportunity to accept the education about manners for a girl like Rebecca such a girl from the bottom of the society life is more bound Rebecca s social status condemns her to rely on her own but no other way She will never accept the restrictions of gender and status imposed form the society and she has her own plans and tries to realize her aspirations by herself Resisting Spirits After his father died Rebecca is allowed to stay in school but has to teach other girls French Rebecca is angered by other students discrimination and she begins to desire for prestige extremely The school life makes her more aware no one else can rely on but herself so she begins to plan for her own future She can not bear other s discrimination any more so she determines to enter the upper society However before graduation she finds the challenge to the traditional concepts will only hurt herself so she gets her own anger and ambition hidden and pretends to surrender She has learned from Amelia that being submissive and naive will be more popular to people And the huge differences in Miss Pinkerton s treating on Amelia and her makes she realize that she has to hide her natural instincts but to show elegant and polite manners Innate rebellion dooms her won t change her behavior to achieve the social expectations of women Hammond 2002 26 She socializes carefully with people around her and then laughs at them behind Lord Steyne s humiliation lets her get the sense of satisfaction because his noble status symbolizes for the cage set by her childhood social system Wit and Capability In Victorian patriarchy traditional society women can not leave the man alone but the men only thinks themselves Rebecca has transforms woman s inferior role through her intelligent manipulation or deceive men around her As a governess she break the rules restricted by the society for women through becoming indispensable figures In the master s home although she is only a family teacher but she finds herself actually dominating the family business to a great extent Rebecca s words and deeds under the cover of innocence are very persuasive She controls others through her words and actions to make them believe she a woman like Amelia obedient and childlike innocent 2 1 2 Amelia A Typical Traditional Female Image Amelia complies with the requirements of being an angel in the house Hammond 1992 663 She not only acts as a qualified mother but also acts as a docile wife and a filial daughter The social gender is not only determined by the physiological sex but also constructed by the society Throughout the Victorian era for most of the middle class women their life is shaped by both their family roles and the idea of what feminization is And their sense of self concept is determined by their social status 6 and economic conditions Females are described as caring simple and ignorant groups According to the Victorian society the ideal wife should be loyal obedient passive self denying and and pure and so on Amelia is such a representative She desires to be an Victorian angel which is consistent with the requirements of the times However the society doesn t support her sense of self concept and limits all her independent awareness Beauvoir has ever said that when females rely on males to make a living and enjoy such a kind of lifestyle they are willing to be others Zeng 2006 149 And this is a very exact description for Amelia During the six years of studying in Pinkerton girls school Amelia has been also praised and loved by people around her When she finishes her studies the headmaster Miss Pinkerton says that Amelia possesses the unique personalities that a qualified British woman should have She studies hard and has moderate temperament winning the praise of teachers and classmates Thus everyone in the school young and old loves her Amelia regards Becky as her most intimate friend Once after Becky s staying at her home for a week she still wants her to stay at there for another week which sounds extremely incredible The sentimental Amelia inherently tends to depend on people around her making her be in a subordinate position in the patriarchal society but she doesn t mind at all She takes love and marriage as a lifelong career She is the embodiment of angels and her coward and gentle personalities are in accordance with the social norms of that time However she is not perfect She also has the foolish and selfish side with no thought no insight no talent and no fun She is a vulgar idealist and can be regarded as the representative of Utopians Amelia here is no longer synonymous with purity and goodness Instead she is the best reflection of stupidity and selfishness In the end when Becky shows her George s betrayal to her she decides to throw herself on William Dobbin so as to find a new person to depend on Both Amelia s unnatural self sacrifice and her distorted purity are the products of the patriarchal society 2 2 Different Attitude toward Love and Marriage In the Vanity Fair because of their different personalities and different backgrounds the attitudes to love and marriage held by Becky and Amelia are completely different 2 2 1 Becky A Tool Leading Her to the Upper Society As a poor painter s daughter Becky is willing to try all means to enter into the upper class and finally she successfully becomes one member of it from having nothing at all with the good appearance Different from Amelia Becky regards all the people as her stepping stones to the upper class And to her to look for a rich husband is the true focus of life At first she seduces Amelia s brother Joseph a rich tax man just to make herself become rich Later she gets married with a young officer Rawdy who is likely to inherit a huge fortune Soon after the marriage Rawdy s mother dies her father in law asks her to marry him Then she feels very regretful since the dream of being a baroness seems so near but meanwhile so far away from her Even later under her unremitting efforts she unexpectedly knows a bigger man 7 the Lord Steyne With his help she naturally steps into the upper society and meets the King luckily When she is very complacent her husband finds her illicit relations and becomes angry with her Her scandals are immediately made public and Lord Steyne abandons her at once Her dreams of living in the upper class gradually bedashed However she doesn t change her nature at all and still tries to enter into the upper class with her tricks Her purpose is very simple namely realizing her dreams through men and getting the recognition of the world However she cannot realize these dreams only by her own strength which is a sadness of a woman Simone de Beauvoir has said that in The Second Sex Instead of saying that women are inborn it would be better to say they are shaped There is no physical psychological or economic factor which can determine women s status in society but the human culture as a whole create this intermediate called women between men and asexual roles cited in Chen 2010 154 Becky has ever said that I think if I have five thousand pounds a year I will also do a respectable woman Thackeray 2010 173 In Thackeray s description Becky s actions are forced by her living environments If she is born in a rich and noble family there is no necessity for her to conquer the hypocritical men one after another to get wealth and status 2 2 2 Amelia Devoted Herself to Love Inherently the sentimental Amelia would like to depend on people around her making her be in a subordinate position in the patriarchal society but she doesn t mind at all She takes love and marriage as a lifelong career She can be regarded as the embodiment of angels and she is a faithful martyr of the patriarchal society Yu 2010 127 Amelia s love and blind worship for George make her ignore her own feelings Her helplessness and lowliness in emotions is primarily caused by the social customs which classify females into the passive and subservient group Thus females in the life lose their self esteem and and become powerless In such a society many behaviors of females are started from the point of love leading them to have no right in economy be dependent in psychology and be humble in emotion Amelia s emotional fantasy of males virtues and females responsibilities make her be in a immature state of psychology She tries hard to believe that George is loyal and noble Her loyalty to George is based on her benevolence and trust which is also her weakness since she is lack of courage and strength to admit George s true colors and she is aways insisting her beliefs of being a good wife However Thackeray hasn t shaped her as a perfect image She doesn t possess her own thoughts insights talents and funs To some extent she is only a vulgar idealist She doesn t decide to throw herself on William Dobbin until Becky shows her a note in which George says he asks Becky to elope with him so as to find a new person to depend on In fact Amelia s distorted purity is the outcome of the patriarchal society and it s also the laws that imposed by males Thackeray has ever evaluated Amelia with such words What a person I want to shape is just like Amelia who lives in a world without god The only advantage of her is the endless love in her heart and thus she can be saved Cited in Lindner 2002 8 564 When depicting Amelia he shows his sympathy for her However what he shows more is his disagreement with the angel in the house in the Victorian age 2 3 Different Fates In Vanity Fair Becky and Amelia s different fates can be said as the representatives of the virtuous females and rebellious females s encounters 2 3 1 Becky s Destiny Becky Sharp comes from the bottom layer of the British society and her parents have been dead before she becomes underage so she has to finish her studies by working part time After leaving the school she starts her own journey to struggle with the reality As a very ordinary family teacher at the beginning through holding every man she meets she creates opportunities one after another for herself to enter into the upper society and change the destiny After experiencing repeated setbacks and failures Becky finally becomes a social butterfly attracting numerous males attention in the British upper class At the end of the novel Becky carries out a deceptive act to Joseph again After winning his favor she begins to squeeze this stupid tax man making him die with illness finally No matter how hard she tries she gets no fame status money and love She is just the one who is spurned by the upper class Becky s entire life is filled with ups and downs The desires in her heart are always incomparably attractive but unreachable Thus such desires are destined to be suppressed and they are also the main factors resulting in her tragic ending Things are impermanent and Thackeray has given out such a feeling for many times Cited in Lindner 2002 564 However all the helplessness and sighs cannot prove anything The temptation of the fame and fortune makes people pursue them at all costs even by hurting their loved ones and friends eventually making themselves fall into the abyss 2 3 2 Amelia s Fates Faced with the sufferings and misfortunes of life Amelia is lack of fighting spirit and courage She is too weak and too submissive After Osborne s death in the war her son becomes her new hope of life she cannot trust anyone at home to take care of him Later due to her parents becoming poor there are no other economic sources for her to support her son Thus she sends her son to his grandfather s home However life is impermanent The two heroines fates in this novel change again in their middle age Amelia s goodness eventually makes her get status money and love again while Becky s cleverness let her return to the starting point of life living in poverty To tolerate the Emily of sacrifice for others finally no sweet without sweat status money and love Thackeray s such an arrangement of the two heroines fates undoubtedly implies a great irony In this kind of vanity fair all the splendor will be washed and people one generation after another will be eliminated However there will be still a lot of aspirants who don t give up and want a share It seems that such a life is just what 9 they seek Thackeray catches the mysteries of the vanity fair and shows them out with a special way making people know these the tragic and deplorable roles 3 Reasons for Their Different Fates The major reasons for their different characters lies in their different growing environment as well as the the social situation and the traditional female morality in Victoria