摘　要

  论文主要分析了《荆棘鸟》中宗教桎梏下的爱情。前人主要研究了小说的悲剧性，和男女主角的性格特点。很少从宗教角度来研究其悲剧的根源，全文主要从宗教和爱情的关系角度分析了在宗教枷锁下的爱情悲剧，男女主人公对待爱情的不同态度和不同选择，造成了一生的悲剧，并探究了造成的原因。小说还分析了男主人公拉尔夫的性格弱点，在宗教与爱情的选择中犹豫不定，始终徘徊在人性和神性之间，一生挣扎在宗教的枷锁之中。在父权之上的社会，克利里家族的三代女性摆脱宗教的束缚，勇于追求爱情和自由，塑造了鲜明的女性形象，描述了她们追求爱情和命运抗争的过程，探讨了女性主义的觉醒。最后揭示了宗教具有两面性的特点，要求我们以正确的态度来对待，谨慎选择宗教信仰，防止宗教对人的精神控制和负面影响。

关键词：宗教；爱情；人性和神性；两面性
 
Abstract

The paper analyzes the love shackled by the religion in the thorn birds. Previous views mainly focus on the love tragedies and the personalities of hero and heroine. From the angle of the relationship between religion and love, it analyzes the tragedy love under the shackles of religion. Due to the different attitudes and choices of the hero and the heroine to the love, this made the tragedy in their lives. Besides, the paper studies the main causes for the tragedy. It also analyzes the personality split in Ralph and his hesitation between love and religion. He always lingers between humanity and divinity. He spends his whole life struggling with the shackles of religion. In the paternity society, with the aware of the female consciousness, the three female generations in the Cleary Family get rid of the shackles of religion, and bravely pursue the love. It builds bright female images and describes the way of pursuing the love and fighting with the fate. In this paper, it represents the use of symbolism and the meaning of the symbol. It also analyzes the different thorn bird’s images in this novel. At last, the paper proclaims the dual influences of religion. In order to avoid a negative impact and controlling by the religion, it requires us to treat it properly, and choose it cautiously. 

Key words: religion; feminism; humanity and divinity; dual character
 
1 Introduction
This paper mainly introduces the love shackled by religion in The Thorn Birds. The Thorn Birds written by Colleen McCullough was published in 1977 which is a successful family background novel and love legend that regarded as Gone with the Wind in Australia, and endured for Romeo and Juliet's love side-by-side. It caused a great sensation in the literary field at that time. The Thorn Birds had been adapted into the movie, the TV serial and the cassette tape successively, being one of the best bestsellers in the entire 80's. It described different love stories among three generations in the family of Cleary.