Materialistic and Materialized: An Analysis of Female Characters in The Great Gatsby_英语论文

摘要

《了不起的盖茨比》是美国著名小说家、被誉为爵士年代言人的弗朗西斯·斯科特·菲茨杰拉德的代表作之一。本篇论文旨在分析小说中信奉物质至上的女性形象和她们被物化为男性欲望与幻想的对象的社会处境，以及隐藏在物质主义至上以及被物化两者之间的因果关系。同时也拟探讨这种关系背后小说作者的创作动机，指出，无论是小说作者自身对女性带有的固有成见又或是时代背景下以男性为主导的父权社会都是使得女性被物化成男性欲望与幻想的对象,被贬低，被妖魔化,从而形成小说中一群深受拜金主义影响，信奉物质主义之上女性形象出现的根本原因。

关键词：物质主义至上，被物化，创作动机，偏见，父权社会

Abstract

The Great Gatsby is one of the representative works of Francis. Scott. Fitzgerald who was American famous novelist and considered as a chronicler of the “Jazz Age”. This thesis aims to analyze the image of materialistic female characters and their position of being materialized as male fantasy and desire in the novel. The paper would also try to analyze the relationship between their materialistic qualities and their position as being materialized. Furthermore, this thesis is going to explore the writing motive of Fitzgerald. The paper attempts to point out that both the writer’s bias against the women in particularly and the male supremacy of the patriarchal society in general, make the women materialized as objects of male desires and fantasy, be little and demonize the female characters, which is the root for the materialistic qualities of female characters in novel.

Key Words: materialistic, materialized, writing motive, bias, patriarchal society

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Demonstration 3

2.1 Materialistic Female Characters 3

2.1.1 Female Characters’ Craze for Luxury 3

2.1.2 Female Characters’ Materialistic Choice of Men 4

2.2 Materialized Female Characters 6

2.2.1 Women as Viewed by Tom 6

2.2.2 Daisy as Idolized by Gatsby 7

2.3 Materialistic or Materialized? 8

2.3.1The Author’s Bias against Women 8

2.3.2 The Male Supremacy of the Patriarchal Society 10

3. Conclusion 12