从女性主义视角分析《小妇人》的人物特征_英语论文

An Analysis of Characters in Little Women from the Perspective of Feminism

摘要

《小妇人》是美国女性主义作家路易莎·梅·奥尔科特的经典之作，是奥尔科特基于自身经历所写的半自传体小说，小说中的二姐乔是作者奥尔科特的化身。《小妇人》以女性角色为主，南北战争为创作背景，讲述了发生在十九世纪美国英格兰地区的一个普通四姐妹家庭中的生活琐事，虽然小说没有跌宕起伏的情节或者出人意料的结局，但正是从平淡无奇的生活琐事的描写中反映出主人翁四姐妹各自鲜明的性格特征，同时向读者展示了人物不同的命运，引发读者对人物的深入思考。作者奥尔科特将女性主义理论融于小说，让梅格、乔、贝思和艾米四姐妹摆脱传统的家庭束缚，敢于追求、敢于梦想、自强不息、自尊自爱，与此同时集真善美为一体。本文将从女性主义视角研究《小妇人》，对四个主要人物的性格特征进行分析比较的过程中，在人物性格与命运之间建立起联系，研究性格在人物命运中所扮演的角色，以及不同的性格特征是如何决定不同的人物命运，最后总结出“性格决定命运”这一论点。

关键词：《小妇人》；半自传体小说；女性主义；性格特征；人物命运

Abstract

Little Women is a classic work written by American feminist author Louisa May Alcott, a semi-autobiographical novel based on author’s personal experiences, in which the second sister Joe is usually regarded as Alcott herself. The main characters in Little Women are mostly women and its creation background is American Civil War. Little Women tells us about trivial matters happening in a normal family of four sisters in the 19th century. There are neither many ups and downs nor surprising endings in the story, but the four sisters’ normal life reflects their different personalities, and at the same time their fates are shaped, causing readers’ profound thoughts on the four sisters’ personalities. In combination with feminism, Alcott presents us vivid pictures of her heroines in Little Women to show their bravery to break traditional family limitations, to pursue, to dream, to fight, to earn self-esteem, and in the meantime to demonstrate their being true, good and beautiful. In this dissertation, Little Women is to be analyzed from the perspective of feminism, a connection between character and fate is built by comparing the personalities of the four sisters, the role that character plays in fate is discussed and finally a conclusion is drawn that fate is determined by character.

Keywords: Little Women; semi-autobiography; feminism; character; fate

Contents

摘 要

Abstract

Acknowledgements

Contents

Chapter One  Introduction 1

1.1 Background of the Study 1

1.2 Research Questions and Objective of the Study 2

1.3 Significance of the Thesis 2

1.4 Methods of the Study 3

1.5 Structure of the Thesis 3

Chapter Two  Literature Review 4

2.1 Research on Little Women 4

2.2 Research on Feminism 5

2.3 Feminist Research on Little Women 6

Chapter Three  Theoretical Base 8

Feminism as a Literary Criticism 8

Chapter Four  Discussion about Feminism and Characters Analysis 10

4.1 Feminism 10

4.2 About the Story 11

4.3 Female Characters in Little Women 12

4.3.1 The Character Jo 12

4.3.2 The Character Maggie 14

4.3.3 The Character Beth 15

4.3.4 The Character Amy 16

4.3.5 Summary 17

Chapter Five  Conclusion 18

5.1 Major findings 18

5.2 Innovations 18

5.3 Limitations 19

References 20