女性主义视角下《理想丈夫》中的女性人物形象(2)
本篇论文共分为五部分。第一部分是介绍。第二部分阐述了女性主义及其对王尔德的影响。第三部分主要从女性主义角度分析了《理想丈夫》中的三位女性角色。第四部分探究了王尔德借由《理想丈夫》所表明的女性观。第五部分是结尾。
关键词：女性主义，《理想丈夫》，女性人物形象
Contents
Acknowledgments….i
Abstract…ii
摘要….iii
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Oscar Wilde’s Place and Significance in British Literature.1
1.2 The Story of An Ideal Husband2
2 An Overview of Feminism.4
2.1 Emergence and Development of Feminism4
2.2 Wilde under Feminism’s Influence5
3 An Interpretation of Main Female Characters in An Ideal Husband.7
3.1 Mabel Chiltern….…..….…7
3.2 Lady Chiltern…9
3.3 Mrs. Cheveley….…11
4 Wilde’s Point of View towards Females in An Ideal Husband….13
4.1 Subversion of Female Gender Role13
4.2 Emphasis on Female Family Role13
4.3 Elimination of Female Moral Shackle….….…14
5 Conclusion..15
Bibliography…..….16
1 Introduction
Oscar Wilde, the advocate of aestheticism in the late 19th century, whose works cover many styles and are seldom surpassed by others, was a genius in British literature. He was noted for his colorful and tactful language using and peculiar and fancy trappings. As an advocate for “art for art’s sake”, Oscar Wilde had evoked the imagination of the century and created myth and legendry. Though genius as he was, Wilde unfortunately died in his late forties. In his short life, Oscar Wilde left tens of works in the field of drama, novel, fairy tales, poetry and literary criticism. Among these works, his five plays, namely Lady Windermere’s Fan in 1892, Salome in 1893, A Woman of No Importance in 1893, An Ideal Husband in 1895 and The Importance of Being Earnest in 1895, are known to the world, have made a hit in literary field since publication and are even still favored home and abroad. He was remembered as a writer, an inpidualist, an aesthete, a feminist, a socialist, as well as a nationalist for his adorable and enormous influence on British literature.
1.1 Oscar Wilde’s Place and Significance in British Literature
With his father being a famous surgeon and his mother being a warm Irish Nationalist, Oscar Wilde was blessed with a good literary enlightment from his childhood. His artistic and life styles were formed during his study at Magdalen College, Oxford, where also cultivating his passion for clothing and decoration. At Oxford, he attended Ruskin's lectures, cooperated in his road-building scheme and, while “impressed by his teacher’s views on art, caught from him sympathy with the poor and outcast” (Liu 2004:446). But “a stronger influence came from Pater, later became his favorite disciple” (Liu 2004:446). All Wilde’s major works were written and published from the eighties to the nineties.
Wilde has been considered as a controversial figure, and aestheticism is the creed which is usually attributed to him. Adhering to the aesthetic slogan of “art for art's sake”, he was determined to put Pater's doctrine into practice. Declaring that art should serve no religious, moral or social end, nor any end except itself, the Aesthetes tried to separate art from real life and paid little attention to its social and moral obligations. Wilde put this theory a step further: art does not reflect life but life imitates art, so that art should not begin with the study of life but with what is untrue and does not exist (The Decay of Lying, 1997). Strongly influenced by Ruskin for his sense of morality and Pater for aesthetical sense—perception, Wilde’s theme is not art’s porce from life, but its inescapable decrial by experience.