Abstract

The British playwright Bernard Shaw, in his play Pygmalion, portrays various vivid and impressive female characters, especially some independent images, and Pygmalion is no exception. In this drama, with the help of Higgins and Pickering, the heroine Eliza successfully transforms from a cockney flower girl into a fair lady. The conflicts between Eliza and Higgins reflect Eliza’s arousal of self- consciousness. Although she has finally establishes her identity as an independent lady, such independence is not real independence. Besides Eliza, other female characters like Clara, Mrs. Pearce and Mrs. Higgins also impress the reader a lot. Clara is of Eliza’s age, and the differences between them are worth comparing. Clara is willful and pretentious, but she also has the spirit of rebellion, ready to accept new things and follow the fashion. The causes of the differences between Eliza and Clara are related to not only family factors but also the class differences. Apart from Eliza and Clara, Mrs. Pearce, who seems to be a little snobbish, proves to be a dedicated and kind housekeeper while Mrs. Higgins is totally a model of a lady of the upper class, intelligent and elegant. All the four characters have their own characteristics, which makes Pygmalion more interesting and more worth studying. Moreover, the portraits of the four characters also reveal feminist elements in Shaw’s works. Through detailed analysis of the text, this paper is to explore the feminist elements along with progresses and limits of the four characters, especially the heroine, Eliza.

Keywords: Pygmalion，lady, self-awareness, independence

摘要

《卖花女》是英国作家萧伯纳最受欢迎的戏剧作品之一。萧伯纳在他的作品中成功塑造了很多个性鲜明的女性人物形象，尤其是塑造了很多独立自主的新女性形象,这部作品也不例外。在《卖花女》这部作品中，通过息金斯和匹克林的改造，女主人公伊莉莎成功地从一个粗鄙的卖花女变身成了一位窈窕淑女。在改造过程中，伊莉莎和息金斯的矛盾冲突也反映了伊莉莎女性意识的觉醒，建立了自己的身份认知。但伊莉莎的独立并不是真正的独立，还存在着一定的局限性。
除了伊莉莎，作品中其他的女性人物虽然占的篇幅不多，但是仍然给读者留下了很深的印象，比如克拉拉，管家别斯太太以及息金斯夫人。克拉拉和伊莉莎年纪相仿，两人的人物形象具对比价值。克拉拉任性，还有点装腔作势，但是她又具有反叛精神，乐于接受新事物，追求潮流。她和伊莉莎的差别不完全是家庭因素造成的，阶级差别也是原因之一。别斯太太看似有点势力，但本质上还是一个尽职而友善的管家形象，而息金斯太太则完全是上流社会淑女的典范，智慧，优雅。这四个人物形象都各具特色，使《卖花女》这部作品更加生动，而且体现出了萧伯纳的作品中某些女性主义的元素。本文力图通过细致的文本分析，探究她们身上，尤其是伊莉莎身上，所折射出的女性主义色彩及其进步性和局限性。

关键词：《卖花女》 淑女 自我意识 独立