Constraining, Pursuing, and Rebelling — Analysis of the Three Female Images in The Thorn Birds.doc

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1、压抑，追求，叛逆荆棘鸟中克利里家族三位女性形象分析Constraining, Pursuing, and Rebelling -Analysis of the Three Female Images in The Thorn BirdsContentsAbstract.1Key words.1I. Introduction.2II. Fiona, Total Undemonstrativeness, Constraining, Submits to the Fate3III. Meggie, Outwardly Yielding, Inwardly Firm, Pursues Her Happ

2、iness.5IV. Justine, Independent, Rebelling, Refuses Traditional Marriage.7V. Conclusion.9References.10Constraining, Pursuing, and Rebelling Analysis of the Three Female Images in The Thorn BirdsAbstract: The Thorn Birds，Colleen McCulloughs sweeping saga of dreams, struggles, dark passions, and forbi

3、dden love story in the Australia has interested readers from all the world. This is the saga of three generations of the Clearys, who carve lives from a beautiful, hard land while contending with bitterness, frailty, and secrets that penetrate their family. Most of all, it is the story of only daugh

4、ter Meggie and her lifelong relationship with the priest Father Ralph de Bricassart. A miserable love story, a powerful epic of struggle and sacrifice, a celebration of individuality and spirit in The Thorn Birds remains a monumental literary achievement. Three female images of the Clearys in this n

5、ovel present their process and suffering in pursuing love and happiness respectively. This thesis will analyze the three female images to reveal the relationship between their personality and their fate. Fiona lives in constraining, Meggie pursues her love and Justine, independent and rebelling. Thr

6、ee of them represent different female images in different stages of the Feminist Movement.Key words: Constraining; Pursuing; Rebelling; Fate; The Feminist Movement摘 要：澳大利亚女作家考林.麦卡洛的长篇小说荆棘鸟以其充满梦想、抗争、压抑与为世俗所不允许的爱情故事吸引着世界各国读者。这是一部浓缩了克利里家族三代人的人生经历和情感经历的作品，描写了克利里一家三代与艰难、困苦和存在于他们家族的秘密顽强斗争的过程,是一部描写可利里家族中唯一

7、的女儿梅吉与虔诚的神父拉尔夫之间长达一生爱情的故事。小说中让人辛酸的爱情故事、那段有力的抗争和牺牲史和它所表现的对个体和心灵的解放是文学里程上很大的成功。小说中克利里家族三代女性分别表现了它们追求爱情和幸福的过程以及它们在追求过程中所遭受的痛苦。本文研究的目的就在于通过对她们女性形象的分析从而得出她们各自的性格和其命运的关系，进而揭示她们各自的形象分别代表了女权运动的不同阶段的女性形象。在她们三个中，菲奥娜冷漠，一直生活在压抑中；梅吉为了她的爱情不懈的追求；而朱丝婷则独立而且叛逆。关键词：压抑；追求；叛逆；命运；女权运动I. Introduction Colleen McCullough wa

8、s born in Australia. She graduated from Sydney University. As a neurophysiologist, she established the department of neurophysiology at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney. Then she worked as a researcher and teacher at Yale Medical School for ten years. Her writing career began with the public

9、ation of Tim, followed by The Thorn Birds, a record-breaking international bestseller. McCullough has also written lyrics for musical theater. She lives on Norfolk Island in the South Pacific with her husband, Ric Robinson. Her other works are: Tim (1974) , An Indecent Obsession (1981), A Creed for

10、the Third Millennium (1985), The Ladies of Missalonghi (1987), The First Man in Rome (1990), The Grass Crown (1991), Fortunes Favorites (1993), Caesars Women (1996), Caesar (1997), The Song of Troy (1998), Morgans Run (2000) and so on. Her The Thorn Birds is a sweeping love story set on Drogheda, a

11、sheep station in the Australian Outback. At its heart is the ill-fated romance of beautiful Meggie, the only daughter in the Clearys and the handsome Roman Catholic priest, Father Ralph de Bricassart. Forced to choose between the woman he loves, and the Church he is sworn to, Father Ralphs ambitions

12、 win. And he stays with the Church, eventually becomes a Cardinal in Rome. Ralph never realizes that Meggies bright, compliant young son, Dane, is his child, even when the boy comes to Rome to study for the priesthood. After Danes tragic death, Meggie must choose between her own comfort and the inde

13、pendence of her beautiful, willful daughter Justine, a talented actress. McCulloughs tome, almost 700 pages in length, details the private lives of three generations of the Cleary clan over 55 years, and paints a convincing portrait of the trials and rewards of life in the Australian desert, and one

14、 womans doomed love for an unavailable man. In The Thorn Birds, the author also shows all the readers the love-pursuing process of the three females in the Clearys, and she depicts different feminist images in the different generations of the Clearys. Among the three females, the female of the first

15、 generation in the Clearys, Meggies mother, Fiona, is quiet and indifferent outwardly. She doesnt laugh, nor show her sadness but do her housework quietly. She plays a submissive role in the novel. Meggie, the female of the second generation in the Clearys, is brave, firm and pursuing. She plays a d

16、ual character in the novel, submissive and pursuing. Justine, Meggies daughter, is independent and rebelling. She does not like her grandmother or her mother at all.The aim of my paper is to reveal the different female images in the different stages of the Feminist Movement through analysis of their

17、 personality and fate.II. Fiona, Total Undemonstrativeness, Constraining, Submits to the FateFiona is female of the first generation in the Clearys. She is beautiful woman but rather hard-faced and stern. Although she has carried six babies, she has an excellent figure with a tiny waist. She is sile

18、nt and has no spontaneous conversation. No one knows what she thinks, even her husband, Paddy. She never laughs, nor does she lose her temper. Her husband, Paddy, is a poor herdsman, who has no knowledge, eloquence and glamour. Its just Fionas splendid temperament and Paddys condition that reveal th

19、e inappropriateness in her marriage with Paddy.The novel tells readers Fionas impressed romantic love through an intense quarrel between Frank and Paddy and the conversation between Fiona and Meggie in Fionas declining years. That painful experience changes all her life and fate.Fiona was born in th

20、e Armstrongs of New Zealand, who owns numerous property and high dignity. Her father hopes she finds a right husband. Just as Paddy says Her people were practically New Zealands first family socially, and her father had a big wheat-and -sheep property outside Asbburton in the South Ireland. Money wa

21、s no object, and Fee was his only daughter. As I understand it, hed planned her life for her a trip to the old country, a debut at court, the right husband.” However, she falls in love with Pakeha, a married politician. Fiona tells her daughter in her declining years “I love him to the point of madn

22、ess. And I thought Id never love anyone else.” Therefore she makes a brave and forbidden by society action: get delivered of Frank the fruit of the forbidden love between her and Pakeha. Fionas romance leads to her all lifes tragedy. She is seen as the lowest and cheapest woman at that time. Even he

23、r father thinks that she has disgraced their family. So he pays Paddy, a lowest status stockman to marry her and take her away.Arrogant and adamant character which Fiona inherits from her clan supports her not to be beaten by fate. She always tries to keep her familys temperament rather than be cons

24、istent with those vulgar women. However, unfairness of the fate and the poverty of Paddy cut off all her passion for life. She becomes undemonstrative and indifferent, and she falls into constraining. Since her marrying Paddy, she never laughs and cries, nor does she ever complain. She doesnt talk a

25、bout her past at all. It seems that she has forgotten and given up all her past. However, in her heart, she never forgets about it. She lives in the shadow of her past all the time so that she gives all her love to her son, Frank, for whom is her only consolation left by her past love. Just as Paddy

26、 says “I always know she loved Frank more than the rest of us put together.”However, facing the reality, her love to Frank cant keep him at all. He is unsatisfied with the poverty and vapidness of pasture life. Moreover, he and Paddy are incompatible as fire and water. They always fight against unco

27、nsciously each other like couple of rival in love. They have no spiritual space to live in the same family. So when Frank knows his secret life, he leaves his family and his mother firmly, which strikes Fiona fatefully. From then on, she loses all her passion for life and becomes more undemonstrativ

28、e and durable. It seems that she fights against fate helplessly by that way. Reviewing Fees process of romantic love with Pakeha, in a time, she pursues her love enthusiastically, also rebels for it. But that painful experience makes her to curse the unfairness of the fate. She has to give in the pa

29、triarchy. Consequently, she never gives her only daughter, Meggie, any loving care. In Meggies youth, how strong her hoping for her mothers laugh. But to her astonishment, her mother never does. So Meggie never thinks about her mothers embracement and kiss. “Fee cast Meggie no more than a passing ga

30、me before leaving; there was no mystery to Meggie, she was female. Fee knew what her lot would be, and did not envy her or pity her.” Especially, having experienced a series of striking and hardship , such as the death of her little son, Hal, Franks leaving and being in prison , the death of her hus

31、band, Paddy and her son, Stu in the fire accident, Fiona shows the total despair for the female fate. Fiona was born at the wrong time. In her young age, she is influenced by the first climax of the Feminist Movement in the 19th century. At that time, she has had the self-awareness that love should

32、decide ones fate. However, although she has a beautiful appearance and perfect temperament, her lover, Pkeha chooses the power rather than their love in that patriarchy society. Pakehas decision leads to her tragedy of love. And when her rebelling action disgraces her family, her father decides her

33、marriage fate. Even when she marries Paddy, a stockman, she also must do what Paddy tells her. Moreover, after Paddys death in the fire accident, she sees her second son, Bob, as Paddys heir, and listens to what Bob says. All of these are because at that time, male is considered as a person to own p

34、roperty, house, wife and children. Fionas painful source is from her eagerness to decide her own life and helplessness to change her fate. The difference between the dream and the reality makes her to live in constraining for a long time. Its also this difference that leads her to see the world and

35、life indifferently. She sighs with pity for unhappiness of all the female and curses the unfairness of the fate. However, no matter what she thinks and does, she has no choice but submit to the fate in the patriarchy. III. Meggie, Outwardly Yielding, Inwardly Firm, Pursues Her Happiness Meggie, the

36、female of the second generation in the Clearys, is innocent and full of female temperament. The novels prologue is Meggies fourth birthday, and its thread is the miserable love between her and Ralph. Although Ralph has been twenty-nine years and Meggie is only ten years old, this disparity doesnt af

37、fect their adoration for each other. When Meggie is a little girl, she has been eager for the marriage and children. If let her choose her husband, the best person is certainly Ralph. However, Ralph, as a Roman Catholicon, cant break his vow to God, and cant get married. Besides, he loves his profes

38、sion and is willing to sacrifice himself to the God. All of these decide Meggies romantic love is a tragedy. So its understandable that she has the unfortunate romantic love like her mother. She pursues the priest who is faithful to the God while her mother tries to gain the romance from another wom

39、an. The similarity of them is that both of their romance is within sight but beyond reach. The difference between them is that Meggie never becomes indifferent and submissive in pursuing love and rebelling the unfair fate in spite of losing her only son, Dane, who is her only consolation leaven by R

40、alph, as well as a miserable memory. Although she is yielding outwardly, the novel reveals her firm will and kind heart by describing her emotive experience in her life. Meanwhile, the novel shows readers an independent and a self-awareness female image represented by Meggie. Meggie never regrets pu

41、rsuing her romantic love. As a female, she has some traditional ideas. She thinks woman should be gentle and meek. However, when pursuing her romantic love, she is active and braves without any passiveness of traditional female. Even when her father persuades her to give up love for Ralph, she speak

42、s out “But he could stop being a priest.” For a faithful Catholicon, Meggies words are the worst sound in the hell. After Ralph leaves Drogheda, Meggie still misses him so much that she refuses all the youths courting. Her refusal attitude doesnt change until she meets Luke, a stockman, who has a si

43、milar appearance with Ralph. She considers Luke as a substitute of Ralph. She wishes a husband, children and a stable family, which can make her like an ordinary housewife. However, what Luke interests is to gain and to save money. Meggie is no more than an instrument of becoming rich for Luke. When

44、 wedding hasnt been hold, Luke demands her to put all her money in his name. In fact, Meggie doesnt think about keeping her money at all. Because “It had never occurred to Meggie that she would retain her money. She had simply assumed when she got married, it would become Lukes, not hers. All save t

45、he most educated and sophisticated Australian women were reared to think themselves more or less the chattels of their men, and this was especially true of Meggie. ” Luke just sees Meggie as a part of his property, his instrument t save money and let off his lust. He doesnt want to give Meggie a sta

46、ble family, no a husbands love, even never thinks about giving her a child, who only adds a mouth in the family in his opinion. Therefore, Meggie has to make a trick to conceive her daughter, Justine. Beside, Lukes indifference and carelessness for Meggies life and his daughter hurt Meggie deeply. S

47、he is at the point of disappointment. At last, Meggie realizes the essence of their marriage “Luke for her money, she as an escape from Ralph de Bricassart while trying to retain Ralph de Bricassart” “The fact remained that he was who she wanted, and she ought never to have settled for less.” Meggie

48、 is tired physically and psychologically after being delivered of her daughter, Justine. Fortunately, Ludwig Mueller, a warm-hearted couple arranges her to have a vocation at Matleck Island alone, where Meggie meets Ralph again. It is Matleck Island that Meggie and Ralph face their true feeling for each other. Its also Matleck Island that they live like in paradise. And its there Meggie “steals” Ralph from God. We can say that the most obvious expression which Meggie fights against female fate in the patriarchy is her