1、壓抑，追求，叛逆荊棘鳥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 birdsconstraining, pursuing, and rebelling analysis of the three female images in the thorn birdsabstract: the

3、thorn birds，colleen mcculloughs sweeping saga of dreams, struggles, dark passions, and forbidden 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,

4、frailty, and secrets that penetrate their family. most of all, it is the story of only daughter 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 b

5、irds remains a monumental literary achievement. three female images of the clearys in this novel 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. fion

6、a lives in constraining, meggie pursues her love and justine, independent and rebelling. three of them represent different female images in different stages of the feminist movement.key words: constraining; pursuing; rebelling; fate; the feminist movement摘 要：澳大利亞女作家考林.麥卡洛的長篇小說荊棘鳥以其充滿夢想、抗?fàn)帯阂峙c為世俗所不允許

7、的愛情故事吸引著世界各國讀者。這是一部濃縮了克利里家族三代人的人生經(jīng)歷和情感經(jīng)歷的作品，描寫了克利里一家三代與艱難、困苦和存在于他們家族的秘密頑強斗爭的過程,是一部描寫可利里家族中唯一的女兒梅吉與虔誠的神父拉爾夫之間長達一生愛情的故事。小說中讓人辛酸的愛情故事、那段有力的抗?fàn)幒蜖奚泛退憩F(xiàn)的對個體和心靈的解放是文學(xué)里程上很大的成功。小說中克利里家族三代女性分別表現(xiàn)了它們追求愛情和幸福的過程以及它們在追求過程中所遭受的痛苦。本文研究的目的就在于通過對她們女性形象的分析從而得出她們各自的性格和其命運的關(guān)系，進而揭示她們各自的形象分別代表了女權(quán)運動的不同階段的女性形象。在她們?nèi)齻€中，菲奧娜冷漠，

8、一直生活在壓抑中；梅吉為了她的愛情不懈的追求；而朱絲婷則獨立而且叛逆。關(guān)鍵詞：壓抑；追求；叛逆；命運；女權(quán)運動i. introduction colleen mccullough was 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 researche

9、r and teacher at yale medical school for ten years. her writing career began with the publication 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

10、, ric robinson. her other works are: tim (1974) , an indecent obsession (1981), a creed for 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), mo

11、rgans run (2000) and so on. her the thorn birds is a sweeping love story set on drogheda, a 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

12、to choose between the woman he loves, and the church he is sworn to, father ralphs ambitions 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 p

13、riesthood. after danes tragic death, meggie must choose between her own comfort and the independence 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 pain

14、ts a convincing portrait of the trials and rewards of life in the australian desert, and one 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 i

15、n the different generations of the clearys. among the three females, the female of the first 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, th

16、e female of the second generation in the clearys, is brave, firm and pursuing. she plays a dual 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 differ

17、ent female images in the different stages of the feminist movement through analysis of their 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. alt

18、hough she has carried six babies, she has an excellent figure with a tiny waist. she is silent 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, elo

19、quence and glamour. its just fionas splendid temperament and paddys condition that reveal the 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

20、 declining years. that painful experience changes all her life and fate.fiona was born in the 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

21、 father had a big wheat-and -sheep property outside asbburton in the south ireland. money was 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

22、politician. fiona tells her daughter in her declining years “i love him to the point of madness. 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

23、to her all lifes tragedy. she is seen as the lowest and cheapest woman at that time. even her 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 no

24、t to be beaten by fate. she always tries to keep her familys temperament rather than be consistent 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 h

25、er marrying paddy, she never laughs and cries, nor does she ever complain. she doesnt talk about 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 l

26、ove to her son, frank, for whom is her only consolation left by her past love. just as paddy 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 lif

27、e. moreover, he and paddy are incompatible as fire and water. they always fight against unconsciously 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

28、 fatefully. from then on, she loses all her passion for life and becomes more undemonstrative 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

29、 painful experience makes her to curse the unfairness of the fate. she has to give in the patriarchy. 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 nev

30、er thinks about her mothers embracement and kiss. “fee cast meggie no more than a passing game 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

31、 the death of her little son, hal, franks leaving and being in prison , the death of her husband, 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

32、movement in the 19th century. at that time, she has had the self-awareness that love should 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

33、tragedy of love. and when her rebelling action disgraces her family, her father decides her 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 w

34、hat bob says. all of these are because at that time, male is considered as a person to own property, 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

35、 constraining for a long time. its also this difference that leads her to see the world and 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 pa

36、triarchy. iii. meggie, outwardly yielding, inwardly firm, pursues her happiness meggie, the 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

37、 ralph has been twenty-nine years and meggie is only ten years old, this disparity doesnt affect 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 rom

38、an catholicon, cant break his vow to god, and cant get married. besides, he loves his profession 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 p

39、riest who is faithful to the god while her mother tries to gain the romance from another woman. 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 th

40、e unfair fate in spite of losing her only son, dane, who is her only consolation leaven by ralph, 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

41、independent and a self-awareness female image represented by meggie. meggie never regrets pursuing 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

42、 traditional female. even when her father persuades her to give up love for ralph, she speaks 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

43、 courting. her refusal attitude doesnt change until she meets luke, a stockman, who has a similar 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

44、gain and to save money. meggie is no more than an instrument of becoming rich for luke. when 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 mon

45、ey. she had simply assumed when she got married, it would become lukes, not hers. all save the 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 pro

46、perty, his instrument t save money and let off his lust. he doesnt want to give meggie a stable 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,

47、 lukes indifference and carelessness for meggies life and his daughter hurt meggie deeply. she is at the point of disappointment. at last, meggie realizes the essence of their marriage “l(fā)uke for her money, she as an escape from ralph de bricassart while trying to retain ralph de bricassart” “the fac

48、t remained that he was who she wanted, and she ought never to have settled for less.” meggie 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 meggi

49、e 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 pa

50、triarchy is her brave challenging the god representiveness of extreme patriarchy. for a long time, her fear for god is more than her faithfulness. when she experiences the agony of the first menstruation, ralph tells her “when adam and eve ate the fruit of knowledge, god punished the woman more than

51、 he did to the man.” when meggie knows that their wedding cant be held in the church because of lukes not a catholicon, she says terrifiedly that “i have to be married in church. if im not, ill be living in sin.” but in pursuing the romantic love, she gradually realizes its the god, the church, whic

52、h kills her love and dominates ralphs spiritual world so that she speaks out her doubtness for gods asceticism. “it isnt fair! protestant clergy can marry, why cant catholic?” it is romantic love that wakes up her female awareness, makes her to conquer her fear to the god. she steps into the religio

53、us forbidden zone to vie with god for ralph. she denounces gods mercilessness “oh, dear god, dear god! no not dear god! whats god ever done for me, except deprive me of ralph?” when she finds she has the baby of ralphs, she yells bravely “ive got the part of ralph the church can never have, the part

54、 of him which carries on from generation to generation. through me hell continue to live, because i know its going to be a son! and that son will have sons, and they will have sons ill beat god yet.” we can say that meggie gains some victory in the resisting with god. she once has snatched away ralp

55、h from god physically and psychologically. although its only several days, she even shakes ralphs faithfulness for god. ralph cries in his heart “ dear god, if she meant nothing to me, it would be easier to bear, but sometimes i think i love her far more than i do thee, and that, too, is a part of t

56、hy punishment. her i do not doubt; thou? a trick, a phantom, a jest. how can i love a jest? and yet, i do.” when meggie departs with ralph at the matleck island, she makes a new choice for her life: leaving luke, withdrawing her power of property and returning to her family. this brave action extrem

57、ely reveals her female-awareness waking up. she doesnt want a male to master her life and doesnt want to depend on men.reviewing the process of meggies pursuing her love, her happiness, she experiences agony, escape, disappointment, soul-searching, rebelling and fighting. her spiritual road to pursu

58、e the love reveals the self-awareness of traditional female and their eagerness to gain the independence. the process of her personal maturity is the course that traditional maria image changes into independent awareness of eve. the former is gentle and meek while the latter firm and independent. iv. justine, independent, rebelling, refuses traditional marriage if meggie has the dual character of maria and eve, her daughter-justine, the female of the third generation in the clearys, is an independent, rebe