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1、新女性独立精神在小妇人中的体现The New Woman Ideology in Little Women摘要：露易莎. 梅. 奥尔科特，美国十九世纪后半期著名女作家， 以其长篇小说小妇人而闻名于世。这部以19世纪中叶美国内战时期的新英格兰小镇为背景，生动地体现出美国社会的变迁和文化的传承的小说， 以家庭日志的形式，讲述了马奇家四姐妹的成长经历，给读者留下了极为深刻的印象。小说中充分体现了时代新女性的独立精神，小说女主人公们不满足家庭主妇式的生活， 要求走出家门、步入社会、追求经济上的独立， 渴望通过发挥自己的才智以实现自我价值。除此之外，小说通过马奇姐妹艺术才华的展示、梅格和乔外出工作以补贴
2、家用、马奇姐妹组织俱乐部创立自己的报刊、 乔违背传统的婚姻、丈夫们参与家务事等片段揭示出女权主义兴起和新女性主义的体现。 论文的第一部分主要阐述女性主义的萌芽，包括美国文化中的女性主义，女权运动，新女性主义等。第二部分着重于女性独立精神在婚姻和家庭生活中的改革，分别从乔和艾米这两个人物加以论证描述。第三章是论文的结论，概括总结了小妇人中体现出的新女性独立精神。 关键词：新女性；自我依靠；自我独立The New woman Ideology in Little WomenAbstractLouisa. May. Alcott, American woman writer in the latte
3、r half of the 19th century, is famous for her warmly-received novel Little Women. In the form of domestic diary, the novel tells the growing- up experiences of the four March sisters. Set in a small town in New England during American Civil War in the mid-nineteenth century, Little Women impresses r
4、eaders with the social changes and cultural traditions of the American society at that time. The story presents the New Woman ideology in great sense, such as the four March sisters cannot stand their poor life and go out to work, earn money for the family in order to lessen the pressure of their pa
5、rents and pursuit their economic independence, realize their self-value. Besides, the March sisters show their artistic talents, Meg go out to work and earn money for lessen the family burden, they run their own newspaper club, Jo go against with the traditional marriage, and husband takes part in t
6、he household things are all present the New Woman Ideology.The first chapter of this thesis introduces the Initiation of Feminism, including the True Women Ideology in American Culture, Womens Movement, the New Women Ideology. The second chapter mainly describes the Feminist Reform of Marriage and F
7、amily Life, especially about Jo and Amy in this perspective. The Third chapter is the conclusion, which summerizes the new Women Ideology in Little Women.Key words: new woman; self-reliance; self-individualism Contents中文摘要iAbstractiiAcknowledgementsiiiIntroduction2I.The Initiation of Feminism4A.The”
8、 True Women” Ideology in American Culture4B.Womens movement7C.The “New Woman ideology9II.Feminist reform of marriage and family life11A.Self-reliance and Individualism in Jos Writing Pursuit121.Self-reliance in Jos writing Pursuit132.Individualism in Jos Writing Pursuit13B.Self-knowledge and Individ
9、ualism in Jos Marriage151.Self-knowledge in Jos Marriage152.Individualism in Jos Marriage16C.Self-assertion and Self-reliance in Amys Artistic Pursuit161.Self-assertion in Amys Artistic Pursuit172.Self-reliance in Amys Artistic Pursuit183.Individualism in Amys Marriage19Conclusion21Works Cited22The
10、New Women Ideology in Little WomenIntroductionLittle Women is a novel published in 1868 and written by American author Louisa May Alcott. The story concerns the lives and loves of four sisters growing up during the American Civil War. It was based on Alcotts own experiences as a child in Concord, Ma
11、ssachusetts with her three sisters, Anna, May, and Elizabeth.This is a story about love, faith, fortitude, and devotion. The story of March happened in Massachusetts during the American Civil War. It includes most problems which probably happen in the growth of young girls, such as the problems in f
12、irst love, friendship between teenagers and the gap between our dream and the reality. Little Women is the story of The Marches, a family used to hard toil and suffering. Although Father March is away with the Union armies, the sisters Meg, Jo, Amy and Beth keep in high spirits with their mother, af
13、fectionately named Marmee. However, despite their efforts to be good, the girls show faults: the pretty Meg becomes discontented with the children she teaches; boyish Jo loses her temper regularly; while the golden-haired schoolgirl Amy is inclined towards affectation. However, Beth, who keeps the h
14、ouse, is always kind and gentle. After certain happy times winning over the Laurences, dark times arrive as Maumee finds out about her husbands illness. Worse is to come as Beth contracts scarlet fever in her Samaritan efforts for a sick neighbor and becomes more or less an invalid. The novel tells
15、of their progress into young womanhood with the additional strains of romance, Beths terminal illness, the pressures of marriage and the outside world. This is the story of their growing maturity and wisdom and the search for the contentedness of family life. It was written in 1867 and is a fictiona
16、lized biography of Alcott and her sisters. It has become a much loved classic tale and, while some of its issues seem outdated, many of the trials of the sisters are all too relevant today as evidenced by its continued following.I. The Initiation of Feminism Little Women is a multifaceted novel with
17、 Alcotts subversion of the storys traditional doctrine and on the other hand her compromise with her cultures norms. It preaches domestic containment while it explores the infinity of inward female space and suggests an unending rage against the cultural limitations imposed on female development. Wo
18、men in the March family bear conventional feminine features preserved by the 19th-century True Woman ideology, but meanwhile carry distinctive New Womans spirits of that time. These self-contradictory messages in Little Women show two highly polarized views as regards womens role in the American cul
19、ture. The more prevalent of these two views, the conservative or traditional one, relied especially on the Biblical story of Eves ordained subservient status. The opposing view, “equalitarian feminism” to use Cot s phrase, admitted womens “shared weakness relative to men but questioned “whether this
20、 weakness was natural or artificial, biological or cultural（qtd. in Davidson,126).Accord to this view womens supposed natural inferiority was really imposed by custom and culture ,then it could largely be remedied through many ways.A. The” True Women” Ideology in American CultureBased on the traditi
21、onal ideologies, a term and concept of “True Women” pervaded in antebellum 19th-century American Culture, defining the proper role for middle class white women. “The Cult of True Womanhood”, as Barbara Welter named in her influential essay of the same title, involves “the attributes of piety, purity
22、, submissiveness and domesticity”. (qtd. in Ross, 887-888)Piety, a virtue of “True Womanhood”, requires a devout belief in Christianity, stressing that woman is mans helpmeet, not his equal. A womans duty is to serve her husband. Religious women are not expected to question their subordinate status,
23、 which is believed to be ordained by God. Megs engagement years and marital life clearly prove this point. When Megs engagement to John Brooke is fixed, Meg resolves to learn the domestic chores so as to get herself ready for marriage when Brooke works outside to earn the material basis for their ma
24、rriage. Precisely speaking, Megs preparation for marriage is to train her to serve a man.Purity, a second virtue, demands of womens chastity before marriage and fidelity afterwards. When Mr. March leaves home to take part in the war, Mrs. March waits for him to come back faithfully. When Meg is enga
25、ged to Mr. Brooke, she with fidelity waits three years for him to earn enough means for marriage. These show female loyalty to husband of fianc.Submissiveness, the next virtue, requires that a woman obey her parents and later her husband without question. Womans passivity, dependence, self-effacemen
26、t and self-abnegation ensure that the patriarchal myth of male supremacy will remain in force. Although submission brings suffering to many women, they are schooled to vie suffering as part of their lot and obediently accept. The four March girls, following the suggestion of their mother as well as
27、in response to their fathers expectation in a letter, determine to begin their self-improvement in journey. They are obedient children. Mrs. Marchs advice to her daughter Meg on her marriage-”Watch yourself, be the first to ask pardon if you both err, and guard against the little piques, misundersta
28、ndings, and hasty words that often pave the way for bitter sorrow and regret”. (263). shows the former obedient child is turning to a docile wife. Amys utterance in the novel-”women should learn to be agreeable”, - echoes womens submissive status. Women will not be tolerated unless they are agreeabl
29、e. They can justify their existence and assuage the guilt deriving from being useless only through a life of cheerful service to others. Women must watch themselves because they are economically dependent on mens income and emotionally dependent on their approval.Domesticity favors the doctrine of s
30、eparate spheres, emphasizing that womens sphere is the home while mens sphere is the world. Men are the supporters of families, and should go out to earn the bread. Women should center their lives on the home, immersing themselves in domestic tasks of housekeeping, child rearing, and providing comfo
31、rt to their families. In the novel, Mrs. March represents such an ideal domestic woman in the 19th-century America. Mrs. March, the mother of the four March sisters, is the center of the household. Her voice is “the first sound in the morning- and the last sound at night”. When her husband is away a
32、s a Union Army chaplain during the Civil War, she leads her daughters through their troubles and faults with her calm bearing, selflessness, and wisdom. Throughout the novel she is a reliable source of loving wisdom, strong as an imperturbable rock. She is the guide for the girls when they are confu
33、sed, their confessor when they have done wrong, and their confidante when they are troubled. She is always compassionate, always there when she is needed, always strong and loving, and always knowing what to do. Mrs. March is a model domestic woman for all her girls to follow. Married Meg is a dupli
34、cate of her model mother. She does all the domestic chores and takes care of two small children in her little cottage, while John, the single wage-earner spends more time working away from home. These instances exemplify womens role in their domestic sphere.While Alcotts Little Women still celebrate
35、s womens domestic role, its heroine Jo March carries with her the image of the financially, physically, and emotionally independent “New Woman”. It seems clear that the traditional messages about female dependency gradually did not serve the needs of the 19th century women. Alcott in a certain sense
36、 openly violated the boundaries of womens sphere. The reason is that at that time, American social reformers such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton fought to achieve social and political equality for women, especially through the right for women to vote, and Alcott was definitely affect
37、ed by this womens rights movement.B. Womens movementWomens movements, according to Lisa Fine, occurred during three separate periods in the history of the United States. They roughly coincided with the antebellum period (18301860), the progressive era (approximately 1900-World War1), and the civil r
38、ights movement and the student activism of the 1960s and early 1970s (933).At different times during Alcotts childhood, the Alcott family had influential feminists as acquaintances such as Margaret Fuller, Elizabeth Peabody and so on. Surely Alcott was affected by the initiation of womens movement.T
39、he first period of womens movement in the United States occurred just as the existence of the womens sphere seemed to be limiting womens range of activates. The intellectual and organizational progress women made during the antebellum period grew out of the antebellum reforms. Many of the early acti
40、vities on behalf of womens rights such as Elizabeth Cady and Susan B. Anthony participated in one or more of the great causes of the day, such as abolitionism, educational reform, temperance, and labor reform because these reforms and intellectual currents of the day also led women to expressions of
41、 the desire for a change in gender roles. Scottish Frances Wright scandalized in her New York City audience not only by being one of the first women to speak in public but also by tackling such subjects as labor reform, the gradual emancipation of slaves, and womens emancipation. Margret Fuller, int
42、ellectual, writer, and one of the New England transcendentalists, also challenged all barriers to the fullest development of women. Invoking assumption about natural rights, Fuller claimed, “We should have every arbitrary barrier thrown down. We would have every path laid open to woman as freely as
43、to man”.The beginning of the self-conscious and organized efforts on behalf of womens rights usually dated from 1848 to the famous womens rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York. This meeting marked the beginning of the struggle for womens movement. In the meeting antebellum reformers Elizabeth
44、Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott led the call for a Womens rights Convention. Stanton and Mott believed that women confronted the power of men in seeking political, economic, and legal tights. The meeting identified most of the important activists for the 19th century, and also produced one of the mos
45、t important documents of the womens movement. The Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions. The authors rewrote the Declaration of independence:” We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights
46、; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”.(Fine,935).After the Civil War, leaders of the womens rights movement looked to a new source to improve their status：The United States Constitution. They maintained that voting was a basic right shared by all citizens, men and women
47、, white and black.According to Boorish, the National Woman Suffrage Association (N by Stanton and Anthony in 1869 and the American Woman Suffrage Association organized later by Lucy Stone and her husband Henry Blackwell in the same year were two influential organizations of that time(860861).Althoug
48、h suffrage was the cornerstone of American womens campaign for political, social, economic equality, it was not the only cause for which they fought. Suffrage fighters also aimed to create more fulfilling lives for women. They challenged the traditional notion that womens destiny lay in full-time ho
49、memaking. They praised the value of homemaking but urged women to seek employment outside of the home. Women needed a purpose, a definite pursuit in which they were interested, if they expected to gather from it vigor, either of mind or body. They encouraged women to pursuit their careers in industry, science, art