对比《爱玛》和《达罗卫夫人》两部小说中家庭人物的存在及表现方式

1、对比爱玛和达罗卫夫人两部小说中家庭人物的存在及表现方式 上海交通大学 硕士学位论文 对比爱玛和达罗卫夫人两部小说中家庭人物的存在与 表现方式 姓名李冬梅 申请学位级别硕士 专业英语语言文学 指导教师索宇环 20060101 acknowledgements writing this dissertation is a time-consuming process during which i was obliged by many people in many respects it is my honor to have the opportunity to express my since

2、re gratitude to them first of all my gratitude is extended to my supervisor professor suo yuhuan his intellectual vigor enthusiastic guidance and inspiring suggestions motivated me to carry on with this dissertation he has been the source of knowledge guidance and support to me through various stage

3、s of my study thanks also go to all other teachers in english department whose lectures made my school life truly fulfilling and inspirational their professional dedication has moved me deeply they set good models for me to follow in my academic practice i have been blessed with the assistance and g

4、ood will of many friends whose patience and care encouraged me in the trying days of writing my dissertation finally i want to express my deepest love for every member in my family without whose lasting confidence and support i might be still on my way to success 6 摘 要 简奥斯汀和弗吉尼亚伍尔夫在英国文学史上可谓享有盛 誉 两位女

5、作家在各自所处的年代影响深远 现在也深受读者的喜 爱 她们身上有着很多相似点 比如 两位都重在表现女性人物细 腻的情感体验 将故事的背景放在家庭这个特殊的社会单元里 并 且极为擅长刻画处在浓郁家庭氛围里的人物 但我们最为钦佩的莫 过于奥斯汀和伍尔夫大胆尝试在当时男性占主导地位的社会里 提 出女性主义观点 反映妇女的需求 展示妇女的美德 探索妇女的 出路 总体而言 国内外评论界对两位知名女作家的研究主要倾向于 对小说女主角的性格分析和女性主义的主题讨论 这都属于粗线条 的解读 虽然有评论家关注对比和对照 爱玛 和 达罗卫夫人 中的人物 但他们却很少注意两部小说中家庭人物的独特所在 本 课题旨在从

6、三个方面专门分析 爱玛 和 达罗卫夫人 中的家庭 人物 通过探索家庭人物的繁琐特性来解读两部巨著的宏大主题 为证明奥斯汀和伍尔夫的永久魅力提供新的论据和线索 同时也为 此课题的未来研究提出新的视角 本文除引言与结论外分为四章 第一章简要提出有关人物的基 本理论及人物在现实主义和现代主义阶段的不同表现形式 并讨论 其与家庭人物的内在关联 第二章阐述了两部作品中主要人物和作 者的关系 解读家庭人物原型的来源 第三章分析了主要家庭人物 7 的阶级身份 揭示了小家庭和大社会的无形联系 第四章关注的是 在社会历史环境和自然环境影响下的家庭人物 说明家庭是个小单 位 但是它与外界的联系是无处不在的 通过这

7、样的分析 说明以 家庭为背景的故事并不单薄 以家庭为生活环境的人物并不渺小 女性作家正是从细微之处着手 探讨着丝毫不逊色于男性作家的社 会问题 关键词 爱玛 达罗卫夫人 家庭人物 存在 表现 8 abstract jane austen and virginia woolf occupied a significant position in the history of british literature they enjoyed great popularity with numerous people all over the world and have exerted far-re

8、aching influences then and nowadays there exist quite a few similarities between them for instance they were both in favor of presenting female figures in their works and keen on exploring the emotional experiences of their female characters they both set characters in the special social unit home a

9、nd excelled in presenting family trifles and familial characters and the most admiring point is that austen and woolf were brave enough to make an attempt at proposing feminist ideas reflecting feminine needs demonstrating feminine virtues and seeking a way out for females through a vivid and realis

10、tic description of marriage and family life in a male-dominated society up to now many literary critics both at home and abroad have mainly focused on character analysis of heroines in general and thematic discussion of feminism this is inspiring but generates greater curiosity although they have gi

11、ven much attention to the contrast and comparison of characters in these two novels they rarely touched upon the 9 comparison of the uniqueness of familial characters this thesis attempts to look closely at the familial characters in emma and mrs dalloway from three angles to add to the rationality

12、of my analysis chapter one brings forward basic theories on character as well as its representations in realistic and modernistic periods and discusses particularities of familial characters chapter two describes the relationship between main characters and authors it reveals the archetype of the ma

13、in characters chapter three is devoted to the analysis of the class identity of familial characters to show the invisible connection between family and society chapter four focuses on familial characters in both historical and physical contexts it implies that while family is a small unit its associ

14、ation with the outside world is omnipresent after detailed analyses the thesis concludes that a story set in a family is not simplistic and the characters living in a family are not of no significance key words emma mrs dalloway familial characters existence presentation 10 introduction sensibility

15、of the comparison emma and mrs dalloway are two novels popular in their times and influential today they are in fact strikingly alike for instance the two authors jane austen and virginia woolf lived and acted in a similar cultural context main characters in their works share certain striking featur

16、es the two authors both put characters in a home setting the established scholarship on emma and mrs dalloway both fixed their eyes on one point jane austens feminine point of views and virginia woolfs feminist ideas this might be the biggest evident similarity between the two authors and novels 1 j

17、ane austens social context a family life since emma and mrs dalloway are house-set austen and woolf are both home-birds familial characters in their hands demonstrate a great deal of appealing features jane austen described her own writing as a little bit of ivory and maintained that three or four f

18、amilies in a country village is the very thing to work on the authoress has woven vivid pictures of the everyday life of simple country society1 she was the daughter of a country clergyman and passed all her life in doing small domestic duties in the countryside she was educated at home and began to

19、 write at an early age through the description of the daily household talks and housework of young men and women austen reveals their peculiar characteristics she is at her best in writing about young girls because she understands them astonishingly well 1 刘炳善 1993 p372 11 b male dominance in her ti

20、me in austens time publishing her own writing could threaten a womans reputation as well as her social position good women were modest retiring essentially domestic and private jane austen wrote six novels pride and prejudice is the most widely read among them austen began to write it when she was 2

21、1 but the manuscript went begging for 16 years at the doors of publishers before it was published in 2 1813 it is said that there was a little table in the family sitting-room on which she wrote her now famous novels in the midst of busy family life when a visitor entered she would throw a sheet of

22、paper or a piece of sewing over her work and she modestly refused to acknowledge that she was the author of her novels which were published anonymously owing to the prejudice prevailing at the time concerning the writing of novels by a lady3 before austens birth in 1775 literature had become firmly

23、fixed in the marketplace the public replaced the patron as a source of income most male writers were happy to be paid for their writing and once they established themselves in this new literary marketplace as reviewers essayists and so forth with few exceptions they tended to discourage competition

24、from women writers they transferred much of the old aristocratic disdain for all print to hack writers and to women who wrote women were attacked for having the temerity to write without having the necessary learning and taste4 accordingly womens prefaces often apologize for writing by alluding to d

25、istresses of this sort causing reviewers frequently to condescend kindly to their work 2 virginia woolfs social obstacles a family life 2 刘炳善 1993 p372 3 刘炳善 1993 p371 12 it is astonishing to note that like jane austen virginia woolf daughter of sir leslie stephen the biographer critic and editor of

26、 the dictionary of national biography was educated at home and in frequent contact with her fathers literary and political friends all high brows woolf was a real beloved daughter a cared sister and a protected wife having not weathered any rain or storm she began her literary career in youth as a b

27、ook reviewer then woolfs background combined with her innate talent for writing to a large extent leads to her unique feminist perspective expressed in her future creations b male dominance in her time th born in 1882 and having produced many of her masterpieces around the 20 century virginia woolf

28、was engaged with literary creation in the society in which the males still predominated in every aspect for instance at that time there were few women writers and it was even harder for them to obtain authorship with regard to virginia woolf why her interest was shifted from society to home world wa

29、r i was a crucial factor we can observe that some of her works such as a room of ones own and orlando showed obvious evidence that she was displeased with the status quo despite of all these obstacles in 1915 under the term of the national registration act virginia woolf the ardent woman writer was

30、registered by her husband leonard as an author5 3 similarities between austen and woolf a both are expert at telling home anecdotes the two women authors are fond of and are sharp at portraying family trifles with patience and passion mainly due to their life experiences these anecdotes have been 4

31、edward copeland 2001 p13 5 sue roe 2001 p127 13 read and talked about by people ever since the publication of the novels for instance pride and prejudice and emma by jane austen and mrs dalloway and to the lighthouse by virginia woolf have been popular with readers both at home and abroad seemingly

32、these anecdotes are less significant little and funny however they are so close to our own daily life and personal experiences that we are haunted by such novels for life long whats more those anecdotes can remind us of own daily life and inspire resonance in our mind that is of great use to the sel

33、f-reflection of ordinary people b both are expert at describing home settings the two authors are not familiar with the outside society as home-birds they seem to have relished with this actually this can be seen as their advantage in writing they choose to set the fiction in a home environment whil

34、e not abandoning the social background totally they know how to make good use of their advantage for example both are always able to create numerous impressive characters in home settings and even their life experiences greatly facilitate the delineation and narration of these characters above all t

35、hose familial characters have attracted so many loyal readers ever since c having insights into familial characters since fictions are arranged in a home setting familial characters possess their typical traits it is not easy for all the writers to do that at all austen and woolf avail themselves of

36、 their women-unique perception to create various impressive familial characters in their works we can sense the ingenuity of authors from the delicate depiction of characters they create the characters and endow them with special traits appealing to general readers 14 feasibility of the comparison a

37、t present jane austens emma and virginia woolfs mrs dalloway are still favourite objects of study the popularity has crossed the frontier and lasted for more than one century it has gone along with different stages of literary development and weathered the test of the passage of time 1 fervour in th

38、e west it is not uncommon for people to talk about such works as emma and pride and prejudice mrs dalloway and orlando when mentioning jane austen and virginia woolf as far as the references available are concerned the comments were mainly made in the following directions concerning emma and mrs dal

39、loway the analysis of the heroines of the novel or comments on the feminine ideas of the authors or reviews of the whole novel in terms of characters figure of speech etc in the book jane austens heroines by john hardy to begin with one lengthy part analyzes emma woodhouse in great detail how she re

40、peatedly made mistakes and grew up out of them how she came to realize her love for mr knightley and how she dealt with the relations with other people around her and next the book gives so much space commenting characters speech the language and the writing techniques especially the function of the

41、 irony the comic hint the typical components are the comic heroine she is a central figure of the romantic plot ending in marriage a possessor of a fine and irrepressible sense of humor and she is also a subject of comic irony emma is especially often laughable and ridiculous6 and the narration of l

42、ove and marriage which austen makes the aim of her fiction and perhaps that fact has been taken too much for granted apart from the above the book does not forget to note the attack on jane austen for her novel of ordinary life those comments and attack fall into 3 periods which is sufficient to jus

43、tify the wide popularity of austen the book modern critical interpretations virginia woolfs mrs dalloway furnishes 15 us with numerous ideas by many critics of different literary schools on fictional study some show interest in clarissa dalloway the heroine and probe into her inner world some analyz

44、e the novel from the point of view of selfhood and common life some comment on the novel in the context of the social system and others discuss the profound meaning of death the other two books which cannot be neglected are the cambridge companion to virginia woolf and the cambridge companion to jan

45、e austen dozens of significant critic articles on the main novels by the two women authors have been collected in each book about emma and mrs dalloway plenty of general judgments and explanations of the main characters especially heroes and heroines and the two authors writing intentions are made i

46、n detail 2 fervour in china in china it is not a hard task to find the novels by austen and woolf in a book store more and more readers like them in the meantime the relative recommendations and critical articles come into print the ideas held by critics chiefly concentrate on these points authors feminine ideas vivid descriptions of heroines and the contrast and comparison between the two novels emma and mrs dalloway or the two authors several chinese journals mainly concentrate their attention