[摘要]

玛莎·诺曼为美国当代最成功的女性主义戏剧家之一。玛莎·诺曼的作品不仅继承了现实主义传统，而且采用了象征戏剧手法对主题创作进行了大胆创新。在她的第一部力作《出狱》中，玛莎·诺曼将具有强烈反抗心理、自暴自弃的女主人公艾琳及获得重生的艾丽同时搬上舞台，生动刻画了因二级谋杀罪被判服刑八年的女子艾琳走出牢门回到肯塔基州贫民窟的简陋公寓里后24小时之内所经历的心理变化。本文以《出狱》中女主人公内心矛盾的变化为研究线索，分析和阐述“房子”作为艾琳人生轨迹的阶梯及转折点的象征意义，并进一步分析发现艾琳走出监狱踏进贫民窟公寓并不是简单地从一间房子走向另一间房子的过程，而是实现艾琳的自我独立、自我救赎、完善自我人格价值的过程。

[关键词]房子意象；人格缺失；自我完善；象征主义

Abstract:

Marsha Norman, who has won the Pulitzer Prize because of her second play in 1983, is one of the most successful women playwrights in American contemporary theatre. Getting Out is Norman’s first work, in which she shows the audience the two different selves of the protagonist Arlene together in the same place, walk in the same stage but show no awareness of one another until the final scene. One of the artistic features of Getting Out is the playwright’s wonderfully use of symbol, especially the house. The connotations of “house” in Getting Out are dissimilar and vary as the protagonist’s mental struggle varies every time. This thesis tries to analyze the dynamic house image in this play from the symbolic and feminist view, unveiling that the house—prison is the symbol for the current society and the stage of Arlene’s moving life and the image of the house—apartment is the way-station of the journey from confinement to self-realization, which indicates that the protagonist’s movement from prison to apartment is actually the achievement for self-definition, realization and autonomy. 

Key words: house image; moral quality; self-realization; symbol

1. Introduction
Drama, like all other literary genres, is in a constant state of flux, forever working to reflect human conditions in a certain cultural milieu, which finds a convincing proof in the development of the American drama. Since the 1930s, coinciding with the changing and enhancing roles of women in society, women playwrights have become a contributive and vital voice in the American theatre with an extraordinary production of works that signifies a new thrust in the dramatic world. The second wave of feminism in the 1960s sparked a more spectacular emergence of women playwrights. Their literary creations foreground their female experiences and extend their special concern to the reality of female existence. Among them, Marsha Norman is the remarkable representative who has invigorated and influenced the American stage with their classic creations in which women are the main characters. In 1979, Marsha Norman made her debut Getting Out, which won the American Theater Critics Association Award. “Getting Out is powerful, disturbing and moving work whose significance transcends its setting and whose form reflects its content.”“The biggest characteristic of Marsha Norman’s drama is to present the all-known real world and some difficulties the common people facing in the world for audiences and readers through theatrical art.”