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1、Title: An Analysis of A Tale of Two Cities from Feminism Perspective摘要：本文主要采用Mary Wollstonecraft的女性主义研究方法分析查尔斯狄更斯的名著双城记。在双城记中，女性在父权制社会中一直处于被歧视被边缘化的位置，在欧洲大陆只能被认为是“屋里的天使”，而不能参与男性从事的政治，教育等工作。并且，男性可以随意发声，而女性则处于沉默状态，正如她们在现实生活中的状态一样。法国大革命爆发之后，人们开始追求自由与平等的权利关系，也为女权运动提供了契机。关键词：双城记；女性主义；边缘化；平等Abstract：This p
2、aper will further explore Charles Dickens masterpiece A Tale of Two Cities from Mary Wollstonecrafts feminism perspective. In the book A Tale of Two Cities, women are always in the subordinate and marginalized position in the patriarchal society, and they are also deemed as the “angel in the house“
3、in European continent, so that they can not go out and participate the areas like politics or education. Moreover, men are in the dominate position, while women are mostly silent, which reflects their social status at that time. After French Revolution, people began to fight for the freedom and equa
4、l power relations, which has also provided fabulous opportunities for feminism movement. Key Words: A Tale of Two Cities; Feminism; Marginalization; Equality. Table of ContentsAbstract摘要.Table of ContentsAcknowledgement. 1. Introduction2. Literature Review3. The Dominant Position of Men 3.1 The Kind
5、 Image of Manette 3.2 The Loyalty of Charles Darnay. 3.3 The Talented image of Sydney Carton4. The Marginalization of Women in Patriarchal Society. 4.1 The Silence of All Women in the Story 4.2 The Reality of “Angel in the House” 5. The Positive and Negative Images of Women 5.1 Lucys Perfect Image B
6、ased on Mens Desire 5.2 Madame Defarges Evil Image. 5.3 Irrationality and Emotionality of All Women 6. Conclusion.ReferenceAcknowledgement I would like to express my gratitude to those who have helped me finish this thesis and helped me make it better. To begin with, I would like to extend my sincer
7、e gratitude to Professor xx who is also my supervisor for my thesis for his patient instruction and constructive suggestions. Professor xx was very supportive of my own ideas on the thesis at the very first stage and shared plenty of useful materials to me to enrich the contents and deepen the subje
8、ct of this thesis. When I got problems with the thesis, he was rather generous to provide me with valuable advice. With his patient instruction and revision of my each draft, the thesis has been improved a lot. Besides, I also want to express my thanks to my classmates for their generous share of va
9、luable materials and their continuous encouragement. Their support and constant discussion with me have inspired me greatly while I was facing difficulties writing this thesis.Text1. Introduction A Tale of Two Cities is one of Charles Dickens masterpieces, and it mainly sets the French Revolution as
10、 the background. In the story, the city of London and Paris are connected, and the main characters are the Manettes families. In the novel, how bad the royalties are, how cruelly the royalties treat the people have all been revealed, which has clearly presented peoples grudge towards the royalties.
11、As revealed in A Tale of Two Cities, at the authors time when various ideological trends sprang up, people were experiencing fear, joy, or surprise in the social change. At the same time, the contradictions among British classes were deepening, which has developed into the irreconcilable stage. Acco
12、mpanied by the rise of the industrial revolution, the contradiction between the working class and the bourgeois struggle has become the theme of the era in British society. During this period, the capitalists are extracting more profits through the cruel exploitation of domestic workers, so the work
13、ers are leading a difficult life, and the treatment is difficult to match with the pay. Consequently, more distress of life has finally resulted in the movements among the working class. A Tale of Two Cities has perfectly demonstrated the historical moments. Apart from the revolution it presents, wo
14、mens situation in A Tale of Two Cities is also demonstrated. As a matter of fact, feminism movement aims at fighting against the discrimination towards women, so as to guarantee womens deserved social status and rights, and eventually realize the target of totally equal relations between men and wom
15、en. In patriarchal society, fighting for womens liberation refers to the formulation of regulations and laws to guarantee womens equality in race, gender and property. When improving the productivity in the society, the old doctrines that may prosecute women such as fee-binding or castration must be
16、 completely forbidden, and gradually the equality on politics, culture, society and families will be realized. Though most countries have histories of announcing equality, the equality does not involve respects and freedom of women, which has eventually led to the fierce feminism movements. Just Jud
17、ith Butler mentioned, it is high time for culture study to focus on gender equality, (Butler 15) and A Tale of Two Cities just shows the subordinate position and miserable life of women in the society, so the following parts will analyze this masterpiece form feminism perspective. 2. Literature Revi
18、ew As a giant writer in British literature, Charles Dickens is a writer who is rather good at writing long stories, and his work has attracted plenty of researches from great experts all over the world. As a remarkable book written by Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities has also received numerous
19、critics from professionals in literature field. Usually, the experts mat focus on the theme of the novel, such as humanism and feminism, and some experts In Zang Change and Guo Yueqins study, they mainly focus on the study of different images and cultural characteristics that reflected in the story
20、of A Tale of Two Cities. In Wu Mins essay, she mainly focuses on the study of humanism and the related spirits in French Revolution in A Tale of Two Cities. In Bai Yangs essay, he also explores the theme of humanism that involved in each character in the story of A Tale of Two Cities. In Qui Xiping,
21、 Wang Taohua, and He Sufangs essay, they mainly research on the progress, limitation and the significance to modern society of humanism in A Tale of Two Cities. In Wang Zimos essay, he mainly explores the different attitudes towards revolution and the reasons that caused their different responses fo
22、r all characters in A Tale of Two Cities. In Fu Shouxiangs essay, he provides a detailed analysis on the demonstration of romantic reality in the story of A Tale of Two Cities. Apart from the similar themes of humanism that reflected in the story and the spirits that related to the French Revolution
23、, a lot of experts also notice about the women images in the story. Since the story happens during the period of French Revolution, humanism and equality must be an important theme in the story. In Ma Weiyus essay, he points out the negative images shaped in the story and criticizes the discriminati
24、on towards women. In Lv Zhenhuas essay, he shared a detailed analysis on womens subordinate position revealed in the story. Clearly, scholars have already provided abundant resources on analyzing the stories from different perspective, and this paper will adopt Mary Wollstonecrafts feminism methods
25、to discover womens position in the patriarchal society. 3. The Dominant Position of Men In Victorian age, women are deemed as “Angel in the House”, so they are limited to stay at home and do house work, while man are granted with honor to participate in politics, laws, education, arts, music and so
26、on. Therefore, men are always in the dominant position in history. It is also rather obvious in the novel that the men in the novel are shaped as either kind or brave, and they are definitely the main characters in the story, so women are totally neglected. 3.1 The Kind Image of Manette There are va
27、rious kinds of characters in this story, while Doctor Manette belongs to the group that have extremely kind heart towards everyone and everything in the word. As a matter of fact, Doctor Manette is considered to be a little bit too perfect and ideal, so it can be clear that he must be the model for
28、the entire society. As the main character of the story, Doctor Manette shows the characteristics of being honest and noble . In order to fight fro justice, he gathered his nerves to reveal the royalties to the imperial court. However, Doctor Manette is not that powerful as the royal brothers, so he
29、ended up being caught in prison. Perhaps other people may become irritated and desperate, but Doctor Manette shows his love and tolerance to all other criminals in the prison, which is rather unbelievable and astonishing to readers. Besides, under the influence of Doctor Manette, his daughter also p
30、resented extreme kindness and tolerance to people, which has shown Doctor Manettes great impact. In order to present the positive image of men in the novel, Doctor Manette is shaped as a merciful god, and he is just the representative of numerous profound men in the society. Perhaps Charles Dickens
31、was just like other men in the society at that time, so he hoped men could all be as perfect as Doctor Manette. Doctor Manettes seems to be great, but his extreme perfectness and kindness are too unrealistic. 3.2 The Loyalty of Charles Darnay Compared with Doctor Manette, Charles Darnay should be ev
32、en more perfect, and Charles Dickens just have used the tone of compliment to create this characters. Although Charles Darnay was born in a royal family which has conducted numerous crimes, he should have the pure heart and has never been affected by the other family members. Charles Darnay hated th
33、e crimes his families have committed, and he confessed to his aunt that, their families have made too many mistakes that have hurt great many people. Apart from the condemnation from language, Charles Darnay also took action, such as giving up his position, property. Eventually, Charles Darnay chang
34、ed his name and came to London to be a teacher. He had property that can provide him with a wealthy life, but he chose to give them up and rely on himself, which was rather believable for people. In Charles Darnays ideology, the real value of men is not reflected on power, social status and property
35、, but it should be reflected on the realization of individuals values as well as the social values. The royal families are the targets for the French Revolution to fight against, but Charles Darnay just showed his bravery, noble pursuit in front of readers. Charles Darnays experience has contained C
36、harles Dickens desire of the royals to give up their privileges, and Charles Darnays excellent traits in the story are also the important personalities in men that Charles Dickens wants to emphasize. 3.3 The Talented image of Sydney Carton Doctor Manette and Charles Darnay may be too perfect to be t
37、rue for readers, but the image of Sydney Carton has rich personalities. He has contradictory personality, but he is talented and kind, so this kind of personality is also another kind of demonstration of the excellent features of men. Sydney Carton is not serious as other characters, and he can not
38、change his weaknesses even though he knows rather clearly about it. When he is suffering from miseries and disappointment, he chooses to rely on wine. All these may make him be like a imperfect person, but it is still the fundamental emotions for human beings. When he falls in love with Lucy, he cho
39、oses to stay away from the relationship because he is clearly aware of the fact that he is not able to bring happiness to Lucy. Considering the responsible behavior of Sydney Carton in the relationship, his noble spirit is quite great. In the end, in order to maintain the happiness for the entire fa
40、mily of Lucy, Sydney Carton eventually chooses to substitute Darnay to be executed. At that time, Sydney Cartons great spirit of benefiting others have been best revealed. 4. The Marginalization of Women in Patriarchal Society The prevailing tradition to consider men as superior to women in patriarc
41、hal society is one of the realistic roots of womens sufferings. In mens traditional mind, women are not equal to man, so they should just stay at home and do housework and are always ready to make men feel content. Just as Mary Wollstonecraft pointed out, “as for Rousseaus remarks,that they(little g
42、irls) are naturally, that is, from their birth, independent of education, a fondness for dolls, dressing, and talking, they are so puerile as not to merit a serious refutation.” (Wollstonecraft 162) Clearly, women have already been prejudiced by the society, so they eventually become what the societ
43、y expect them to be. 4.1 The Silence of All Women in the Story When men are in the dominant position in patriarchal society, then women will definitely have to be in the subordinate position. In the story, all men are shaped as responsible, brave and talented, and they are the main characters to pus
44、h the story line, so women will have to be silent all the time. In the entire story, women do not play rather significant role, and they are just watching the men characters to fight and make efforts. Similarly, in the society at that time, women were just expected to stay at home, so they are compl
45、etely silent from all aspects of social life. They are not able to join the politics, vote, or receive education, so they are just marginalized by the mainstream culture. Although women are also the key participants in French Revolution, mens efforts are only be seen by readers, while women were jus
46、t silent, which was just the reflection of womens subordinate position in the society. For instance, several women characters appeared in the story, such as Lucy, Madame Defarge, but they seemed to be unworthy of being mentioned in the story. When most countries are working hard to fight for equal r
47、ights for human beings, they fail to take womens rights into account, which has directly resulted in womens marginalization in the society, prejudice and neglecting of womens rights. Therefore, only men have the rights to make their voice herd, but women have to keep silent in the story. 4.2 The Reality of “Angel in the House” In Victorian age, women are expected to stay at home and deal