Features of “New Women”—An Analysis of the Main Female Characters in Little Women_英语论文

摘要

《小妇人》是路易莎·梅·奥尔科特的代表作品，小说描述了四姐妹在母亲的教导与陪伴下逐渐成长的故事。

小说中的妇人们性格各异：马奇太太润物细无声地教导女儿们、梅格是个持家能手、乔骨子里的独立自主、贝思擅长弹钢琴以及艾米的艺术才华，最终每一个人都找到了幸福的归属，也大体实现了她们追求的人生。她们在追求幸福的同时，不断突破和完善自我，挣脱世俗的枷锁，抛弃陈旧的观念，逐渐成为推动时代进步的新女性。

小说的许多细节描写很细腻，刻画的人物丰满有型，但最重要的是，这部作品具有时代意义——它间接地促进了女性意识的觉醒，提醒人们思考女性地位的平等问题。直到今天，男女的地位平等还没有真正的在所有地区实现，而女性的权利保障和“新女性”的成功转型离不开男女平等的实现。

关键词：《小妇人》 新女性 幸福 平等

Abstract

Little Women is the representative work of Alcott, and it describes four sisters' 

growing-up story under their mother's teaching and accompanying.

Sisters March and their mother have different characters. Mrs. March moisturizes her daughters in silence as the spring rain; Meg is hardworking and thrifty at home; Joe is independent in her own things; Beth is good at piano; Amy is an artistic talent. In the end, everyone has a happy life and realizes her life goals. When chasing for their happiness, they try to break through and improve themselves, they hope to break free from the shackles of the world, and they will abandon old ideas, then they want to become the ones who can advance the Times step by step.

Many detailed representations are vivid and their characters are rich, but most of all, this work has epoch-making meaning-it indirectly makes the awareness of feminism and reminds of people thinking of the equality of women. Until now, there is still inequality between men and women in some places, but the guarantee of women’ rights depends on the realization of the equality between man and woman.

Key words: Little Women；New Women；Happiness；Equality

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Literature Review 3

2.1 The Definition of New Women (from the Writer and Others) 3

2.2 New Women’ Characteristics (the Research at Home and Abroad) 4

2.3 The Limitations about New Women in the Fiction 5

3 The Study on New Women 6

3.1 The Development of Women’ Awareness 6

3.2 The Requirement to New Women from Times 7

4 New Women’ Characteristics in the Fiction 10

4.1 The Untiring Seek to Independence and Freedom 10

4.2 The Continuous Effort to Happiness of and Equality of Status 12

4.3 The Reality about the Women' Negative Feeling 15

5 The Door to Get Happiness-How to be A Happy New Woman 18

6 Conclusion 22

Bibliography 23

Acknowledgements 24