《呼啸山庄》和《简爱》中仆人的作用和特点英语专业毕业论文.doc

呼啸山庄和简爱中仆人的作用和特点Abstract(English).iAbstract(Chinese)iiChapter 1 Introduction.1Chapter 2 The Roles of Servants8Chapter 3 The Characteristics of Servants.27Chapter 4 Emily and Charlottes Presentation of Servants.46Chapter 5 Conclusion.51Bibliography.53iAbstractIn 1847,with the publication of Wuthering Heights,Agnes Grey and Jane Eyre,threeBronte sisters caused great curiosity of the readers and critics,especially Emily Bronte,theauthoress of Wuthering Heights,and Charlotte Bronte,the authoress of Jane Eyre.Janesstruggle for independence and her romantic love with Rochester and the passionate andcontroversial love between Catherine and Heathcliff have been reviewed for more than 100years.Many critics have made tremendous contributions to criticism of the sources of thenovels,their narrative styles and creating motivations as well as the analysis of theprotagonists.This thesis,however,focuses on the roles and characteristics of servants inthese two novels.Even though servants are minor characters,it doesnt follow that theyplay no roles and have no characteristic and therefore can be neglected.Although twonovels tell quite different stories,readers can easily find some interesting and controversialimages of the servants who are inseparable from the development of the protagonists andthe whole stories.When they are confronted with the changeable fate of the protagonists,especially when there is the lacking of the image of the mother,they participate in theactions,even intending to influence the protagonistsjudgment and showing their inbornconscience;some become totally callous and help to exacerbate the tragedy of theprotagonists.But employed,dependent and fundamentally confined in a low socialposition in patriarchal society in which men are supreme,they cannot understand theexterior and interior struggle of protagonists,nor can they have independent thinking,despite the fact that some of them are somewhat literate and strongly religious.Byexposing the conscience and callousness demonstrated by the servants in two novels,thethesis intends to dig out the social and psychological state of the servants in the early 19th century,finding that they are still enslaved in the patriarchal society.It is clear that Emilygives the reader richer and more vivid description of the servants,and pays more attentionto these people than Charlotte.ii摘要1847年，随着简爱、呼啸山庄、阿格尼斯·格雷的出版，勃朗特三姐妹引起了读者和评论界的极大兴趣，尤其是简爱的作者夏洛特?勃朗特和呼啸山庄的作者艾米莉?勃朗特。一百多年里，简对个人独立的不懈追求和她与罗切斯特先生之间浪漫而又波折的爱情故事，凯瑟琳和希刺克利夫之间狂热而又颇引人争议的爱情故事一直为人们所津津乐道。但是长期以来评论家们更多关注的是故事的主人公而忽略了次要人物。本文着眼于两部小说中的仆人形象，对简爱中的女仆贝丝和非而菲克斯太太、呼啸山庄里的耐莉和男仆约瑟夫进行了详细的分析。他们虽处于隶属地位，但他们具有各自的性格特征，并在小说中扮演一定的角色。他们不但亲眼目睹而且参加到了主人公跌宕起伏的命运当中，并试图施加影响以改变他们的命运。通过对他们的分析，试图找出19世纪早期仆人的共同特征和生活状态，在他们身上既可以看到人性光芒的闪烁，良心的展现，同时也发现了人性的麻木、酸腐、冷酷、虚伪，但总的来说他们怎么也无法摆脱他们所隶属的父权社会对他们思想的深深烙印，没有多少自己独立的思想和自我。同时，通过分析也发现艾米莉?勃朗特给了这些人物更为细致的描述。 Chapter 1 IntroductionGrown up and educated in the early 19thcentury in Haworth,an industrial town whichis straddling in the main route between Yorkshire and Lancashire,three Bronte sisters,Charlotte,Emily and Anne,drew much concern with the publication of their works,JaneEyre,Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey in the same year.Over centuries,the protagonists in their novels,the Brontes living context and theirspectacular lives have been analyzed and explored by numerous ardent readers of theirnovels and critics.The thesis focuses on the roles and characteristics of servants in Wuthering Heightsand Jane Eyre.Although those servants are minor characters,it does not follow that theydont play a role and have no distinct characteristics.In my opinion,it is worthwhile toattach importance to their roles and characteristics.The fact cant be ignored that in bothnovels the servants play a key role in the development of the changeable fate ofprotagonists and the plot with the image of mother lacking.It is known that after givingbirth to six children,Maria,Elizabeth,charlotte,Branwell,Emily and Anne,Mrs.Bronte,Maria Branwell,died when Charlotte was only six years old,and Emily only 3 years old.After their mother died of stomach cancer in 1821,the four eldest girls suffered fromprotracted hunger,illness,and cold at the harsh Clergy DaughtersSchool at the CowanBridge in Lancashire,model for the Lowood School of Jane Eyre.In fact,their two oldersisters,Maria and Elizabeth,died at the school before Charlotte and Emily were withdrawnand brought home in 1825.Under such severe reality,they must have been hungry forwarmth,comfort and encouragement from people living with them.With the responsibilityof caring for six growing children,Patrick Bronte got the help from Elizabeth Branwell,Charlottes aunt,and also he employed some servants to help him while he could throwhimself into religion,politics and his innovations.It is recorded that in April 1820 Patrick brought his wife,Maria,his six children,Maria,Elizabeth,Charlotte,Branwell,Emily and Anne as well as two maidservants to thenow famous parsonage in Haworth.Although his salary of around?170 was too small toenable them to acquire any savings and any luxuries,he could afford the wages for someservants1.At that time in Haworth the Bronte family was among the list of gentlemenshapter 1 Introduction2family.According to Juliet Barker,in the kitchen of parsonage in Haworth the children wouldgather round the fire to pass the long,dark winter evenings with their imaginary games andto listen to the tales of their much-loved servant,Tabby Aykroyd,who stayed with thefamily for thirty years2.Their servant,Sarah Garrs recollected that in evening sessions Patrick gathered hischildren around him“for recitation and talk,giving them oral lessons in history,biographyor travel”3.As the only clergyman covering the entire chapel at that period,Patrick Bronte waskept immensely busy.On average he baptized 290 children and carried out 111 burials ayear4.With the mother lost at their early age and the father who was highly busy,theBronte children needed the care and warmth from the image of mother.We have everyreason to believe that they got maternal love and counseling from Elizabeth Branwell,theiraunt,who came to live with the Brontes after the mother died and Tabby Aykroyd,aservant who lived with them for 30 years.The prototypes of Bessie,Mrs.Fairfax and NellyDean were their aunt,Tabby Aykroyd and other maidservants.The influence those figureshad on the Bronte children was well presented in their novels.Since Charlotte had twoexperiences of being governess in 1839 and 1841,the creation of Bessie and Mrs.Fairfaxmight have been inspired by the servants in her employers houses.While Emily had noexperience of being governess,the presentation of Nelly Dean was probably mostly fromher own family and account of her sisters.They had experiences of being children without the mothers care,so they naturallyturned to old servant and their aunt to seek comfort and emit their inner plight.Due to longexperience of living with the family and great knowledge of the family,especially of themaster,Patrick Bronte,the servants tended to exert their influence on those children,whichhelped the Bronte sisters to create the images of Nelly Dean in Wuthering Heights and Mrs.Fairfax,Bessie in Jane Eyre.That is to say they experienced the life of living with servants personally.In their ownlife they were strongly influenced by servants since they had lost mother,and meanwhiletheir father was so busy.It is because servants,especially female servants,played anhapter 1 Introduction3important role in their real life that in their created works,servants also played a vital role.Among the servants characterized in these two novels,only Nelly Dean caused greatattention at a given period,especially in 1950s and 1960s.John Fraser gave a humaneanalysis to Nelly Dean,declaring that Nelly did all the things in the name of action5.However,James Hafley argued that Nelly Dean is'The Villain in Wuthering Heights'.Sheis both ambitious and resentful of her lack of status within the family,and uses herprivileged access to people's emotional weaknesses to manipulate events so that she is lefteffective mistress of Thrushcross Grange6.More attention was given to the narratingfunction Nelly played in Wuthering Heights,the critics think that her narration is notreliable.Through analyzing Nelly Dean,Joseph in Wuthering Heights and Mrs.Fairfax,Bessiein Jane Eyre,the thesis is intended to show that they play an important role in thedevelopment of the story,without their interference there would be another story.Theircharacteristics are stereotyped but complexed.Some are kind and conscious enough to givevaluable comfort to the protagonists in trouble and isolation,exerting the profoundinfluence on protagonists to provide a shelter for them.Others are not totally callous andmerciless,giving up the social bias to treat the protagonists cordially as they faithfullymaintain the social rules that they think to be conventional in light of norms of thepatriarchal society.Still others unconsciously lost their humane emotion and like a devilliving in the choking and isolated environment.1.1 Charlotte Bronte and Emily Bronte and their creationsLiving a seclusive life with her three sisters and one brother,Charlotte and Emily readvoraciously and rambled on the moors.Together,the four remaining Bronte children(Charlotte,Emily,Anne,and Branwell)vividly detailed imaginary worlds in story form,recording them in miniature volumes written in minute script.The three sisters,whenadults,drew on their early literary efforts and published a book of poems together underthe pen names Currer,Ellis,and Acton Bell,neutral appellations,since the female authorswere tended be looked on with prejudice.The fact that their book of poems sold only twocopies disappointed them and they were determined to support themselves as writers,thehapter 1 Introduction4young women began to work on novels thereafter.Unfortunately Charlottes first matureeffort,The Professor,was rejected by numerous publishers,but the firm Smith,Elder&Co.urged her to try a three-volume novel with more action and excitement.The result was theimmediately successful Jane Eyre,a novel that treats the struggle for independence,self-respect and social recognition of a woman in mid-nineteenth century Britain.In thesame year Emily published her novel Wuthering Heights,which tells a love story takingplace in two old isolated families.Anne published Agnes Grey.The astonishing story of their family has been often told,but we should rememberfrom it the long apprenticeship in fantasy with their brother and sisters,the consumingmental passion of Angria,the imagined world Charlotte created in the writings of herchildhood and youth.She enacted dialectic of fantasy and reason,or release and repression.Her importance in the history of the novel is that they provide a bridge from Richardsonand the Romantics to modern psychological literature,to the experiments of James andLawrences transcendentalism.Wuthering Heights is the most purely romantic novel but,its energies are held in a dynamic balance by sophisticated technique.Its symbolism isestablished on a considered,symmetrical structure,its language is pellucid,and the doubleinsulation of those phlegmatic reporters,Lockwood and Nelly Dean,ensures amatter-of-fact rather than a baleful account of its wonders.Together with Jane Eyre andVillette it accomplishes a late but complete accommodation of the romantic impulse to theformal demands of the novel.Though the main actions of their psychodramas take place inthe isolation of the moor,or the claustrophobic enclosure of house or mansion,thetopography and dating are real7.To our grief,they two all died very young,Charlotte diedon 31 March,1855,in the early stage of pregnancy,aged 38,Emily died of consumptionon 19 December,1848,aged 30.In her life,Charlotte created Jane Eyre,Professor,Shirleyand Villette,Emily left us only Wuthering Heights and some pieces of poems.1.2 The condition of the working people in the early 19thcenturyIn order to get knowledge of servantssocial status and their living condition,it isnecessary to review the condition of the working-class which servants belonged to.Bydoing this,the thesis is intended to explore the psychology of servants who escaped fromhapter 1 Introduction5the poorly ventilated wool working shops.Behind them,there was the harsh reality withlittle dignity,poor sanitation and high mortality,before them,they witnessed the leisurelyand luxurious life of the upper-class and getting-on middle-class.There must have beensome strong conflicts on the bottom of their heart and even inner twist.Their innerconflicts and twist must be represented in their attitude to masters and account of mastersstories.With the Industrial Revolution,during the early nineteenth century very largeproportions of the population hovered dangerously near some absolute subsistence level,and were frequently below the borderline which,by any standards,delineated thepossibility of minimum health and moderate comfort.The effect of industrialization on working-class living standards was uneven preciselybecause the pattern of working-class skills and incomes was uneven,Thus,relativelyskilled workersprinters,carpenters,building craftsmen,fine spinners,engineeringworkers,toolmakers,some iron workers,etc.formed an economicaristocracy of labor.Their real incomes undoubtedly tended to rise,and by the end of the period the moreprosperous among them enjoyed living standards and even lifestyles which were associatedwith the respectable lower middle class.Of them,a modern social historian has written:These were the workers who ate meat,vegetables,fruit and dairy products,lived in the bestand newest cottages and filled them with furniture and knick-knacks,bought books andnewspapers,supported mechanicsinstitutes and friendly societies,and paid the heavysubscriptions to the craft unions8.Nor was it only these sorts of skills that received bettercompensation as the industrial society emerged.Many factory workers and miners,traditionally associated with the mainstream of industrial development,were among thebetter paid of the labor force and also among the group which saw a rise in the purchasingpower of their wages.Compared with skilled workers and the better-placed employees of factories andmines,men and women with skills or occupational commitment