An Analysis of Lily Briscore in To the Lighthouse英语毕业论文.doc

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1、在弗吉尼亚伍尔夫女性主义视角下探析到灯塔去中的莉莉布里斯科On Woolfs FeminismAn Analysis of Lily Briscore in To the Lighthouse摘 要英国作家弗吉尼亚伍尔夫是二十世纪最具影响力的的文学人物之一,她对于小说、文学批评和许多其他形式的写作做出了巨大的贡献. 伍尔夫著名的意识流和女性主义小说到灯塔去1927年的出版更使她跻身于世界伟大小说家之列.本论文致力于关注小说中莉莉布里斯科所经历的女性主义自我发展过程.首先,本文将对莉莉布里斯科的心路历程做深入的探析,这个过程同时也可以被理解为是对伍尔夫关于现代女性自我觉醒的思考的一种解读.通过对

2、莉莉布里斯科在小说中追求艺术成功的表现,作者揭露了女性艺术家在表现自我和在艺术中保持自我的过程中经历的困苦.拉姆齐夫人的爱庇护着莉莉,使她免受生活的琐碎和男权社会强加于女性艺术家的歧视的困扰,而同时莉莉的绘画又使拉姆齐夫人的爱得以永恒.第二部分,本文基于当时的社会意识形态阐述了伍尔夫特有的女性主义观点:她十分关注女性的经济独立和自主空间,主张结束女性受压抑的状态、结束社会上的家长式制度以达到一种平和的氛围.本文最后对莉莉这个人物从自我发展和艺术创作两方面做深入分析,以期解读交织于小说到灯塔去中的女性主义主题.关键词：女性主义 ; 自我发展 ; 艺术创作AbstractEnglish write

3、r Virginia Woolf, one of the most influential literary figures of the twentieth century, has made great contributions to the creation of novels, critical essays and other forms of writings. The publication of the famous stream-of-consciousness and feminist novel一To the Lighthouse in 1927 established

4、 her as a major novelist. This paper focuses on the self-development process experienced by Lily Briscore on the sphere of feminism. Firstly, it will give a thorough exploration into the Lilys mental journey which could also be regarded as an interpretation of Woolfs feminism thoughts on modern wome

5、ns self-realization. Through the presentation of Lily Briscoes struggles to achieve artistic success, the writer reveals the hardship experienced by a woman artist in her expressing herself and maintaining herself in art. It is Mrs Ramsays love that shelters Lily Briscoe from the fragments of life,

6、and the discrimination imposed on the woman artist by the male-dominating society, and eventually completes her artistic creation thus the fulfillment of her self as a young woman artist. It is her painting that visualizes Mrs. Ramsays everlasting love, and it is also through her art of letter that

7、Woolf calls the revaluation of womens values. Secondly, my paper will illustrate Woolfs feminism viewpoints on the background of feminism ideology in her time. She attaches much importance to financial independence and autonomous space of the female, argues that securing peace depends on the end to

8、womens oppression, and an end to hierarchical stratification of society. Thirdly, this paper will analyze the character of Lily on the aspects of self-development and artistic creation, expecting to interpret the elusive feminism meaning woven in To the Lighthouse. Key words: feminism; self-developm

9、ent; artistic creation Contents. Introduction1. An Exploration into Lilys Mental Journey.3A. Pursuit.3B. Confusion.5 C. Surpassing.6. Woolfs Feminism Thoughts.8A. Women in Woolfs day.8B. Woolfs concept of feminism.8. An Interpretation of Lily Briscore on the Sphere of Feminism.11A. On Lilys self-rea

10、lization11B. On Lilys artistic creation.12. Conclusion14. Notes.15. Bibliography.16. Acknowledgements.18. IntroductionVirginia Woolf (1882-1941) is one of the most prominent literary figures of the twentieth century like her contemporary James Joyce, with whom she is often compared. Woolf is remembe

11、red as one of the most innovative novelists of the stream of consciousness. Concerned primarily with depicting the life of the mind, she revolted against the traditional narrative techniques of Bennet, Wells, and Gaisworthy, and developed her own highly individualized style. Woolfs works, noted for

12、their poetic and symbolic quality and their delicacy and sensitivity of style, have had a lasting effect on the art of the novel.To the Lighthouse is generally regarded as the best work of Virginia Woolf. Edwin Muirs words, “Its aim is high and serious, its technique brilliant”. 1 Since the novel tr

13、eats Woolfs favorite themes of marriage, time, and death and in a further maturation of her subjective mode, plot is completely abandoned, with unity and coherence provided instead by imagery, symbolism, and poetic elements, it is difficult to exhaust the meaning of the story. Dorothy Brewster says:

14、 “Mrs Woolf exposes her reader to constellations of stimuli, which form patterns of many motifs, the shape and color of each depending largely upon its relationship to each part of the whole design.”2It seems that nothing happens, in this houseful of odd nice people, and yet all of life happens. We

15、have seen, through her, the world. To the Lighthouse, since its publication in 1930s, has been studied from varied theoretical perspectives. In Britain and America, the majority of critics prior to the 1970s approached it principally as a modernist aesthetic work, largely in terms of its narrative t

16、echniques and form, while in the last thirty years it has been the subject of psychoanalytic and deconstructionist criticisms. It can be clearly seen in most criticism that Woolfs life has been probed in recent years as rich ground for psychological inquiry and feminist pathbreaking. Yet little atte

17、ntion has been paid to Woolfs intense preoccupation with the relationship between feminism and artistic creation. As an artist, Woolf naturally considers life in a special way, which is mirrored by Lily Briscoe, who paints, in To the Lighthouse. Being a painter of impressionism, Lily is always engag

18、ed in the problems originated from life and art. She burdens pressure of artistic creation and the identity of being a woman, and leads a difficult way which, fortunately, takes her to success in the end.This paper intends to give a thorough exploration into the self-development process experienced

19、by Lily Bricore in To the Lighthouse, on the sphere of feminism. Various approaches will be applied and I believe it will suffice us an opportunity to have a better understanding of the elusive masterpiece in the perspective of Lily Briscore, a seemingly subordinate, but critically crucial figure. A

20、n Exploration into Lilys Mental Journey Lilys voyage in the book is the process of her realization of painting a portrait of an artist of a woman with her own brush. As an artist, Lily is sensitive to the separation of life and the minute possibility of arts authentic reflection of life; and meanwhi

21、le the self-consciousness of being a woman further hinders her approach to artistic creation. She is beset with contradictory emotions resulting form the desire to paint in free inspiration and the inability to break out of her self-consciousness.Lily Briscoes self-development is based on her compre

22、hension of Mrs. Ramsay from the moment when the elder woman poses for her painting to the recognition that “there she sat”3 ten years laterfrom the elder womens physical presence to her spiritual prevalence. Lily experiences a process resembling to a childs maturation: from the longing for shelterin

23、g under a mother, to the suffering caused by the loss of the mother, and to the final approach to an independent selfhood with a discovery of the essence of the mother. Her painting is a reflection of the mothers essence as well as a record of the accumulation of her moments of self-realization, whi

24、ch is mostly initiated through her relations with Mrs. Ramsay. Mrs. Ramsay does provide her with a possibility of wholeness against the fragmentation she perceives and the anguish she suffers in her painting. But meanwhile, Lily is also pulled into the elder womans emotional manipulation, and is thr

25、eatened by a possibility of loss of autonomy as well as artistic creativity. So, while desiring to identify herself with Mrs. Ramsay, she is simultaneously fighting against the urge to dissolve herself in the other woman who would annihilate her struggle for selfhood. If in Part I, Lilys fighting fo

26、r her own identity is only indicated by her rejection to Mrs. Ramsays matchmaking, in Part III, her struggle is much more intensified since she is confronted with the emptiness haunting her life after Mrs. Ramsays death, and she is, on one hand, endeavoring to get free from her emotional dependency

27、on the elder woman, and on the other hand, seeking to internalize and eternalize Mrs. Ramsays personality in herself. Only after her desire for Mrs. Ramsay from a physical presence to a spiritual internalization can her self-development be culminated and a new horizon be unveiled to her.A. Pursuit L

28、ily, a mature woman, no longer views painting as a possible refuge but rather a tool she intends to master so as to present the world in her own perception. However, she is deprived of the freedom to maintain her subjectivity due to her sex. The whisper that “women cant paint, women cant write”4 has

29、 been engraved in her consciousness rather than Charles Tansleys male-chauvinistic statement. As a result, she senses herself under observation and in painting, she has to subdue all her impressions as a woman to something much more general. Exhausted by the intensified emotion of alienation between

30、 her true vision and the practical creation, she is in a profound desire of a unity with Mrs. Ramsay.In Part I of the novel, Lilys desire for a unity with Mrs. Ramsay is most intensified as she is painting to Mrs. Ramsays pose. Lily presents herself as a guest to the Ramsays but not a daughter. This

31、 position enables her to be a more objective observer of the family, but it also keeps her as an outsider of the mother-and-children bond. Mrs. Ramsay sitting with her son James and telling a story to him appears to Lily that she is in the strongest eagerness to be not as a lonely island of paradise

32、, which only attached to and but also included in. To Lily, a woman artist, to gain her objectivity means to preserve her subjectivity of vision. Although through her painting, she is linked to Mrs. Ramsay in a visionary world, she is not safe mentally or physically. And the eagerness to join togeth

33、er with Mrs. Ramsay so as to be in a solid wholeness is so strong that she longs for, beyond the remote spiritual tie, a physical intimacy with her: “Could loving, as people called it, make her and Mrs. Ramsay one? For it was not knowledge but unity that she desired, but intimacy itself, which is kn

34、owledge .”5 The desire drowns her artistic inspiration, and to be sheltered from the observation of Mr. Ramsay and the whisper that “Women cant paint, women cant write”,6 she impulsively longs to fling herself at Mrs. Ramsays knee. Ironically, Mrs. Ramsay herself believes in the whispering voice tha

35、t “women cant paint, women cant write” when she does protect Lily from the intrusion of Mr. Ramsay. So the young artists rejection to her spiritual mothers design for her life is inevitable unless she gives up her pursuit of her desire to paint in order to inherit the traditional role, which means t

36、o her the loss of autonomy.Lilys rejection to marriage is in continuity with her pursuit of a unity with Mrs. Ramsay as well as an attempt to surpass the limitation of the elder woman. Through her observation of the Ramsays marriage, she sees Mrs. Ramsays over-dependence on others, her husband in pa

37、rticular, for an identity, a lack of autonomy, and the threat of self-exhaustion in serving others. Lilys pursuit of completion in artistic creation naturally leads her to dodge marriage, which assigns women to the traditional wife-and-mother role. To her, marriage indicates the need to smother her

38、own voice in artistic expression and to accept the assumption that “women cant paint, women cant write”. Even Mrs. Ramsay, despite her fondness of Lily due to the younger womans independency, cares not a fig for her painting, and assumes that an unmarried woman has missed the best of life, but to Li

39、ly herself, to paint is to be herself, and to be alone is also what she likes. Even if in doing so, she does miss the best of life, it is worthwhile. The love she longs for is one far more visionary than the limited affection between one man and one woman, one with thousands of shapes, one that: “ne

40、ver attempted to clutch its object; but, like the love which mathematicians bear their symbols, or poets their phrases, was meant to be spread over the world and become part of the human gain”. 7 In her perception of love, Lily consciously deviates from the specific manipulation of Mrs Ramsay on her

41、 life, and intends to create a larger vision for herself.Nevertheless, Lily does not succeed in realizing this larger vision until she is able to transcend her desire to unite herself with the Mrs. Ramsay sitting there, telling a story and knitting to the revelation that the archetypal mother has be

42、en part of her spiritually. There is a narrative blankness concerning the reason for Lilys not finishing the painting after the dinner party, but it is safe to assume that she fails to do it because of the haunting voice and again her impulse to join herself with Mrs. Ramsay, which disrupts her cont

43、inuity in creation. B. Confusion Lilys vision that has developed in Part I is greatly dependent on that of Mrs. Ramsay, the focus of her painting as well as the center of her vision. Mrs. Ramsay s death having left the center empty, life presents to her as disintegrated patches floating here and the

44、re chaotically, leaving her attached to nowhere. She is compelled into a quest of meaning out of meaninglessness, a center out of emptiness: “what does it mean then, what can it all mean? For really, what did she feel, come back after all these years and Mrs. Ramsay dead? Nothing, nothingnothing tha

45、t she could express at all.”8 The emotional protection offered by the spiritual mother has been broken by the death, so Lily is exposed to the harsh world, being too fragile to confront it alone, either to stand against it or to embrace it as Mrs. Ramsay has done. Mr. Ramsay, the harsh fatherly figu

46、re, becomes a hypothetical enemy to her, threatening to ruin her painting. Lilys encounter with him is painful but inescapable, so correspondent to the imaginary hostility brought to her consciousness by Mr. Ramsay, she intends to be hostile to him. By doing so, she is entrapped in another stroke of

47、 anguish for the loss of Mrs. Ramsay and a feeling of inadequacy for being unable to give sympathy to Mr. Ramsay. With the step where Mrs. Ramsay used to sit being empty and Mr. Ramsay is approaching, Lily is beset in a dilemma with the impossibility to be loved and the impotence to love. Her vision and the factual world are in deep conflicts, so the harmony in painting is beyond her reach.When the desired harmony is not achieved, both the artist and art evade their role expressing, or interpreting or cherishing the deep