An Analysis of the Inevitability of Becky’s Fate in Vanity Fair from the Perspective of Androgyny双性同体视阈下分析《名利场》中贝基命运的必然性文献综述

 2021-10-22 21:49:22

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1.Introduction1.1 Research backgroundWilliam Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863), the author of Vanity Fair, is a prominent British writer and humorist during Victorian period, in which the works of this era represented the commanding heights of Victorian literature. Among his contemporaries were Charles Dickens, the master of critical realism; Alfred Tennyson, England's poet laureate; Robert Browning, the second most famous Victorian poet; and Bronte sisters, the pioneer of feminist literature. At the same time, Thackeray is also one of the most representative figures in this age. Thackeray is very important. Not only is he an outstanding novelist, but also a great satirist, humorist and moralist (Mullen, 1995: 189). Thackeray's life was full of ups and downs. He was born in Calcutta, India in 1811 because his father held a high position in the East Indian Company. His mother was a well-bred beauty from another prominent family. We could say that Thackeray was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Unfortunately, his father died when he was at five and he was separated from his mother and sent back to England to continue his education. With his father's legacy, Thackeray left to study art in Germany without a degree from Trinity college, Cambridge. At the same time, he was keen to participate in various social activities, yearning for the comfortable life of the upper class which accumulated materials and laid the foundation for his writing career later. In 1834, with fathers left money squandered, Thackeray decided to go to Paris to learn drawing where he met his wife Isabella Shawn. But not for long, his wife became mentally abnormal after the birth of the third child so Thackeray need to work hard to support his family alone. As Richard Mullen noted, Thackerays own heart had been broken by the tragedy of his life (1995: 190). The contrast in his life and the fact that he had endured the vicissitude of the world laid the groundwork for his criticism on the upper classs hypocrisy and provided him with a unique perspective on society. In the history of British literature, Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero, first published in 1847-1848, is regarded as the masterpiece in Thackerays writing career, which establishes his fame. It became popular since its first publication and later the story was adapted into a movie in 2004. The novel is a vast panorama of the early 19th century Britain by depicting different life paths of the two main female characters Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedly. Amelia Sedly, the daughter of a rich London merchant, is an innocent and kind-hearted lady. By contrast, Becky is an orphan with her poor artist father, suffering from extreme poverty and discrimination in her childhood, which brings about her great desire for money and fame. The story begins with the two ladies graduating from Miss Pinkertons school and leaving for Amelias home where Becky meets with Joseph Sedly, Amelias brother, a shy man. After her plan of marrying Joseph failed, Becky then leaves and comes to the Crawley Household as a governess. Here, she secretly marries Rawdon Crawley, the favourite child of his rich aunt, and the heir to a large fortune. However, with discovering their marriage, the old lady Crawley is very angry and disinherits Rawdon so the poor young couple need to make their own living. Ignorant and self-indulgent as Rawdon is, Becky has to deal with much things for him even his debt. Whats more, Rawdon is so cowardly that Becky comforts and encourages him to participate in the Napoleonic Wars. After that, Becky manages to worm into the upper-class by flirting with Lord Steyne. Unfortunately, their affair has been discovered by Rawdon, who is so angry as to dismiss Becky and goes abroad. Therefore, Becky has no choice but to leave since she becomes the laughing stock among the higher class. At last, she meets Joseph again and this time she makes full use of her beauty to lure him. Undoubtedly, she succeeds. The story ends up with her great wealth but living alone. Compared with Beckys bad ending, Amelia seems to have a happy one. She marries George as she wishes. Like most traditional women of Victorian age, Amelia is loyal and submissive to her husband as the Angel in the house. So even her husband dies in the war, leaving nothing but a baby, Amelia still chooses to be ignorant of William Dobbins deep love and devotes all to the baby as an extension of love for George. Many years later, only when Becky tells her Georges disloyalty does Amelia accepts Dobbins love and marries him. In Vanity Fair, Thackeray shows us the extravagant and dissipated life of the ruling class in the 19th century Britain vividly. By depicting the different fate and personalities of the two main female characters, Thackeray satirizes the hypocrisy and corruption of the aristocracy and reveals the bourgeoisie's craze for fame and fortune heavily. In this materialistic society, love, friendship and even family affection are no longer important. They are something that serve for money and power. Although the subtitle is A Novel without a Hero which seems that everyone in this novel is not perfect but have flaws, but to some extent, it is an era when there are no heroes. The era when bourgeoisie and the feudal aristocracy call themselves heroes is over. Since its publication, the character Becky Sharp has received mixed reviews at home and abroad. On one hand, some people think that Becky, shameless and unscrupulous, violates the traditional virtue of Victorian women. On the other hand, other people claim that Becky, shrewd and ambitious, with the consciousness of feminism, seizes every opportunity to come up to her ambition. This thesis will focus on the controversial character Becky Sharp, based on Virginia Woolfs androgyny theory, to explore the androgynous features of Becky in order to have a thorough understanding of Becky and her destiny, which may be conducive to deep insight into the authors real intention. 1.2 Need for the studyAs for the need for the study, first, androgyny, as an important concept, is firstly put forward by Virginia Woolf as a feminine value system in her work A Room of Ones Own, which is regarded as her most vital contribution to literary criticism. Woolf, as a feminist, she employs the concept of androgyny to help women get rid of the shackles imposed by the patriarchal society and fight for more rights. In short, this theory is like a warm light leading female to a wider path where they are no longer only the Angel in the House, where they can be brave, independent and ambitious just like a man, where a person can be woman manly or man womanly. Secondly, it is not difficult to find that Thackeray's moral judgment on the two heroines is not so objective and fair, but inevitably permeates the male-oriented measure of value. So for more than a century, though some readers have been captivated by Becky's dynamic shrewdness, the dominant stream has regarded her as an unchaste social adventuress, which is the stereotype of her. There is no doubt that Beckys androgynous characteristic is tightly linked to her living condition and era. So this thesis hopes to provide a more thorough understanding of Becky Sharp for readers. Last but not least, the heroine Becky has a strong personal colour for us modern females. Becky, a shrewd and ambitious woman, manages to break the limits imposed by the bourgeoisie society and change her destiny on her own. Her brilliance, courage and fortitude are worth learning. Whats more, through this novel, we can see that financial independence is so vital for women. Otherwise after marriage, women may lose most of her legal rights and become an appendage of her husband.To sum up, this study is conducive to infusing the androgyny theory, providing some enlightening thoughts for modern women and helping readers to judge Becky fairly and objectively.2.Literature reviewSince its publication, Vanity Fair has gained abundant attention. Different scholars at home and abroad try to interpret it from various perspectives and many achievements have been made in these studies. Jia (2009) reinterprets Becky from a perspective of feminism and discusses her resistance to the patriarchal society, as well as the difficulties and setbacks she encounters when yearning for fame and wealth. A comparison in Xis work (2006) between Thackeray's attitude towards Becky and Amelia shows his affirmation of Becky's bravery to defy the traditional Victorian virtue, her sense of self-awareness, her courage, her independence, her coolness and her perseverance in adversity other than the denial of Amelia's weakness, submissiveness, uselessness, and parasitism. Ni (2012), through her critical realism interpretation of Becky and Amelia, reveals that the fate of the two types of women in the 19th century has its social inevitability. It is the crime and hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie society that makes the two young ladies doomed to a tragic fate, both external and internal. According to Wu (2016), she analyzes Beckys traits of character from a novel perspective which is Virginia Woolfs theory of androgyny, thinking that Becky both has masculinity and femininity. The author also points out that Becky's spirit and courage are commendable and worthy of learning and respect from people, especially modern women. In Hus work (2012), based on androgyny, she claims that Becky possesses female gender charm and male hostility, which is the ultimate goal of personality perfection. At the same time, the author also noticed that Beckys tragedy can be attributed to the oppression of the patriarchal society and the achievement of androgyny seems a little bit kind of ideal. Other aspects are as follows: Mullen (2002: 587) claims that Becky is only after the usual stakes in her society while Amelia, Beckys schoolmate, appears saintly but she lavishes adoration uncritically and ultimately ruinously. The attitude towards Becky and Amelia is vividly different. Whats more, the author also noticed that Thackeray also has an eye for the egoism that often underlies idealism, providing a novel understanding aspect for us readers. Jadwin (1992: 667) analyzes the females cheating behaviour and Thackerays acceptance for female double-discourse. Jadwin comes to a conclusion that when a man's unchastities are regarded as relatively insignificant and tacitly forgivable, a woman's lies are likely to be considered equally inconsequential, equally forgivable. His license to "lie" with other women is matched by her license to "lie" about her motives, designs, and ambitions. Hence, although Becky does lie, she is not a liar and she does not violate the female virtue and honour which for centuries denotes not truthfulness but chastity, purity, virginity. Dyson (1964: 11-12) holds the idea that Becky may be very unlike a heroine of the kind that Victorian young ladies had come to expect, but she does have qualities of courage, independence, resilience, even magnanimity, beyond those of any other character in the book.From all these literature reviews above, we can see that Vanity Fair has received extensive and intensive criticism. However, few studies touch on analyzing Beckys fate from the perspective of androgyny. Although Becky possesses both masculinity and femininity, worming into the upper-class successfully, she still cannot get rid of the disposal by the patriarchal society, leaving a bad ending with loneliness, which shows vividly the rebellious womans inevitable tragic fate. It is therefore planned that this novel will be studied in the following five aspects: 1) the theory of androgyny; 2) Beckys androgynous characteristics, on the contrary to Amelias; 3) the British historical background in the 19th century; 4) females fate in that time; 5) the development dilemma of androgynous charm. In short, why androgynous Beckys tragic fate is inevitable in that era, will be the focus of this thesis. 3.The Theory on Androgyny3.1DefinitionAs to the word itself, androgyny which derived from ancient Greek is a very old term which it contains two morphemes: one is andr which means man, the other is gny which means woman (Hu, 2011: 5). Literally, androgyny is a term that refers to the combination of feminine and masculine characteristics. So, if a woman is manly or a man is womanly, we can call this kind of person androgynous. In the beginning, the word androgyny comes from the Greek myth where Hermophroditus, the most handsome son of Hemes, and Salmaciss bodies, the nymph of spring and guardian of a lake, joined together tightly and merged into only one. Later, we can see the concept of androgyny in many myths. So far, the theory on androgyny has been applied in different fields like literature, aesthetics, psychology and so on. In the contemporary cultural context, this term is an important concept frequently used by feminists. Because in the view of feminist thinkers, androgyny represents a kind of feminine values and personality ideal, which transcends gender antagonism and at the same time integrates the excellent qualities of both sexes as a human being (Chen, 2008).3.2 Origin, Development and SignificanceAndrogyny, a symbol of unity and wholeness, is a very ancient idea in many western myths, which can be seen from many statues showing male and females sexual organs joint together vividly in the early matriarchal society. The concept of androgyny originates in matriarch but retreats from the mainstream society after the establishment of the patriarchy (Jiang, 2006). It is put forward firstly by Pluto on the philosophy field, who points out that there are three types of gender----man, woman and a fusion of the two genders. This union used to have a name corresponding to the double nature, which once has really existed, but now is lost, and the term androgyny is preserved only as a term of reproach (Edman, 1928: 353). Plato uses the ancient androgyny story to describe the mystery of love,inspiring the romantic imagination of numerous writers and poets. In other peoples opinion, androgyny is a third gender category which exists in the absence of a clear classification or identification as either male or female, and can be either biological or psychological ( Nowak Denes, 2016: 1). Therefore, Sigmund Freud, a psychoanalyst, and Jung Carl, a psychologist, respectively analyze the androgynous tendency in human beings from the perspectives of biology and psychology. Freud points out the concept of Subconscious Androgyny, thinking that the male not only has its masculine traits but also possesses the feminine one and vice verse. His follower, Jung Carl, believes that androgyny is the bridge connecting the two genders and harmonizing sex differences. In a 2006 article, Jiang believes that Freud and Jung both realized that everyone is an androgynous existence. It is the unreasonable patriarchal system that causes the division between male and female and the incompleteness in personality development. However, owing to the male gender and the influence of the traditional male-dominated culture, both of them cannot break out the frame of the traditional gender opposition. Hence, British authoress Virginia Woolf breaks through their limitation, acutely realizes the irrationality of the patriarchal system and formally introduces androgyny theory into literature field firstly in her work: A Room of Ones Own, which symbolizes that male-dominated value in literature works has begun to collapse and the degraded female value has its voice gradually. Woolf thinks that this theory can realize the great vision of equal communication and harmonious coexistence in male and female, which leads to many hot and deep discussions amid feminists. Today, due to the enactment of laws and regulations on equality between men and women and the protection of woman's rights, the in-depth development of the feminist movement and the extensive influence of feminine thoughts, men and women are undergoing profound changes in thought and behavior. Woolf's ideal of androgyny is gradually reflected in the new generation of young people. We can see more and more gender-neutral clothes in the shop and male buying assistant in skincare stores. Whats more, there is a trend that more and more male make-up bloggers or Youtubers are springing up after the prevalence of the new media. We cannot judge them from the traditional view that male should be masculine and female should be feminine. The theory on androgyny will help us have a thorough understanding on the new phenomena, handle the relation between male and female better and make the world more harmonious. 3.3 Virginia Woolf AndrogynyVirginia Woolf, one of the most outstanding feminist writers in the literature field, is well-known for her theory on androgyny. Besides, the stream of consciousness is vividly reflected in her works. It is widely acknowledged that Virginia Woolf is the first writer who introduces androgyny into the circle of literature, forming her own feminism system. In her work A Room of Ones Own, Woolf gives an explicit demonstration of androgyny. In her eyes, a woman must be independent, that is, have money and a room of her own if she wants to create literary works (Woolf, 1929:11). Besides, in this book, she also gives an explanation of an androgynous mind. In her 2011 article, Hu tells us that in Chapter Six, Woolf draws our attention from the gender opposition to the unity of mind, a mind which after being divided come together in a natural fusion. Therefore, we can see that in Woolfs opinion, the most brilliant mind is androgynous and she hopes that writers can break the limitations of the traditional sexual traits and express their ideas freely, especially the women writers like her. As a feminist, although Woolf advocates female values in her works, it does not mean that Woolf is eager to build a feminist society after overthrowing the traditional patriarchal society, which is essentially equivalent to falling into the trap of gender essentialism. At that time, women cut their hair short, wear knickerbockers, try to look like men, smoke, drink, and imitate the rough manners of men. They believe that by eliminating the differences between women and men in clothes, hairstyles and habits, they are eliminating woman's inferior social status. The new generation of feminists has made some progress and begun to strive for woman's equal social, economic and political rights, but their vision still fails to break through the value standard of the patriarchal society. They always take the male as the reference, want to enter the male-dominated society, obtain the rights like the male and achieve the success like them (Wu, 1999: 313-314). Instead, Woolf noticed the limitations, thinking If you are a man, the female side of the mind should play a role, and if you are a woman, you should also communicate with the male side. After this communion, the mind can fully absorb nourishment and play all its functions (Woolf, 2003: 85). Hence, it is concluded that Woolfs theory on androgyny plays an enlightening role on feminism waves. From a narrow sense, she uses this theory helping women locate their position---- they are not the appendage of their husband; they can be brave, be independent. From a broad sense, her own interpretation on androgyny is that male and female could coexist peacefully and the two genders are no longer opposite but unite, which reconciles relations between many couples and harmonizes the sex diversities ideologically. As an author said, It is the idea of androgyny that emancipated feminists from the patriarchal mode of thinking. Feminists consider androgyny to be the most ideal image of personality of males and females in the future (Mei, 2003: 20).ReferencesDyson, A. E. (1964). Vanity Fair: An irony against heroes. Critical Quarterly, 6, 11-12.Edman, I. (1928). The Works of Plato. New York: Parkway Printing Company.Jadwin, L. (1992). The Seductiveness of Female Duplicity in Vanity Fair. Studies in English Literature, 32 (4), 667.Mullen, A. (2002). Vanity Fair and vexation of spirit. 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