Cat in the Rain中女性形象探究

On Hemingway's Feminist Consciousness from Cat in the Rain 1. Criticism of Hemingway’ s works’ smearingIt is known that Hemingway has an important position in the literary history, his contribution to American literature is an indisputable fact.However, the image of Hemingway's female critics has been aroused heated arguments, and sometimes his attitudes to women are the focus in the critic world.A considerable number of critics thinks that Hemingway was a male chauvinist, which leads to the result that his work is more of a "tough guy" image, and a kind of discrimination against women. After the rise of feminism, Hemingway's female characters suffered more blame than praise. Some activists have not been satisfied with the so-called macho and dismissed it as "misogyny complex".Some critics tend to excavate materials from the private life of Ernest Hemingway, interpreting their work, analyzing the figures. This seems quite natural to come to the conclusion of Hemingway’s being hatred of women. He has re peatedly accused his mother as "she is a bitch," "That bitch!" For a woman giving his life and a love, this is indeed an insult to be added. He has not a happy marriage relationship. Hemingway had attacked Fitzgerald’s wife Zelda that he was jealous Fitzgerald’s talents to interfere his writing process. This is also listed as an example of his hostility toward women. Won him the Nobel Prize in Literature, "The Old Man and the Sea" is obviously a work concerning about the world of men - the book actually has no female role. His male characters owned "grace under pressure" and is a"tough guy", while female characters often seem to be as a foil or the opposite existence. Therefore, Edmund Wilson ,as the representative of part of the critics, pointed out the people in Hemingway’s works as "male chauvinist pigs."2.Hemingway’s women image tend to feministRobert. Keluser and other critics took Albright. Anshly, Maria and other female characters as the basis that: Hemingway is a feminist writer. His work has a strongfeminist tendencies. Many female characters should not have been cast aside, but should be sympathetic to, even admirable. This view has been affirmation for the first time to the repeatedly ignored or disparaged female characters of Hemingway's and certainly refreshes, and it has its unique feature. In his novels, there is not lack of feminist consciousness of Hemingway, and several of them were launched from the female consciousness. Hemingway also shows his own feelings in shaping their women characters on different occasions at different times.3.The Rebellious Image of Women in Hemingway’s Work—Cat in the Rain“Cat in the Rain” talks about a story of a woman who stays in a hotel with her husband, when she looks outside of the window to lighten her dull, she sees a cat in the rain. The woman shows her sympathy to that cat and desires to rescue it. She expresses her thought to her husband who was reading on the bed, actually he reads from the beginning to the end without considering his wife's idea. Then she plans to catch the cat herself, at that time, the owner of the hotel meets the woman, she said her idea to the boss after the cat was run away . Ant the end of the story, the woman was complain about the cat to her husband, a servant send a big tortoiseshell cat different from the cat in the rain.There were only near 2000 words in this novel, and it exists through the American wife's perspective. The American wife and her husband's relationship actually is not very harmony. The man is always reading on the bed without response to his wife warmly, which leads her to look out side the window. The man is apathy to his wife as they live in that age, which the woman have to obey to the man totally. The whole society is male-dominated, but the women at that time can't bear them and they just want to be independent from the men, the women in “Cat in the Rain” is a represent of the individual women. Hemingway expresses his ideas of women protest the patriarchal traditions.There are only 7 main image in this short novel, the American couple, the cat, the rain, the servant and the hotel owner. In western culture, the cat has a close relationship of metaphor with women. The cat is an important clue that runs through this novel, from the American wife finds the cat in the rain to she express she want to get that cat, then the hotel owner sends a a big tortoiseshell cat to her, the cat alsobecomes a motive to promote the plot develop."Cat" in English is regarded as "evil-minded women", therefore the cat in this novel can be seen as the woman, in the meantime, the cat itself is gentle, adorable, and needs to be protected. The cat in the rain are just like the women live in the shadow of male-dominated society. Their similarity is being lonely, adrift, insecurity, they also can't control their own destine. This means the women have to be controled by the men, their desires are also be repressed. We can see the American wife in this novel is very gentle, but her husband's cold attitude makes her need something to accompany her, at that time, the cat in the rain attracts her attention, she consider the single, helpless cat as her self, so she wants to protect it, look after it or gain it. The cat's bitter experience and unfortune date certainly resonated with the American wife herself's destiny, so she offers the thought of protect the cat, which indicates that the woman herself want to be protected. And the cat lies under the chair to shelter from the rain means the women want to escape the bondage of traditional social position of women, and they also want to persue more rights and find their own position in the society. "'And I want to eat at a table with my own silver and I want candles. And I want it to be spring and I want to brush my hair out in front of a mirror and I want a kitty and I want some new clothes.' " the American wife said to her husband, "'Anyway, I want a cat,' she said, 'I want a cat. I want a cat now. If I can't have long hair or any fun I can have a cat.' " but what she get from her husband is just "shut up"from her husband. The American wife want to change her situation, appearance, hair-style, and the relationship with her husband. This also shows her modern feminism consciousness appeared.4.Causes of the Female ImageAs an outstanding representative of "Lost Generation", Hemingway's distinguished position in literary world in the United States and his contribution to the development of American literature has been recorded in history. Hemingway’s image of women is the fragment and the silhouette of the course of whole Western civilization, which takes male power as the axis. It is also an exact reproduction of literary works. Hemingway’s contradictory views on women are formed under the influence of cultural background and life experiences in that era, and his views on women has played a huge impact on his life and art.Hemingway lived in the end of 19th century and mid-20th century, this particularturn of the old and new era of cultural ethos and historical events played a very important role in Hemingway's values, world views and concepts of the formation of women. As thousands of years of patriarchal culture, heritage, people's consciousness is invisibly influenced by the patriarchal culture, Hemingway is a writer with a strong sense of male subject, The independence of women he advocated is permitted within the scope of men, and doesn’t damage the main location. He truly works on women's living conditions, emotional needs, values, and expression. He shows his understanding and support to what the women required including female equality, freedom, liberation, requiring the same right to education, employment, voting rights and this requirements reflect the need of human civilization. Although the patriarchal culture has been on the wane, but several thousand years of cultural domination and influence, everyone of patriarchal culture has "collective unconscious". Hemingway could not completely give up men stand. Though he supported women's liberation movement and enjoy the independent, brave woman, he was afraid of the result women liberation movement developed into, such as the formation of female supremacy, female domination male. so he thinks the right women requested should not threaten the dignity and the authority of men,. It is in this time under the influence of cultural background, Hemingway’s views of women have become so complex and contradictory.Hemingway was living in a time there is a decline of Western patriarchal culture, but a rise of female consciousness, feminist movement of the twentieth century. As a result of two world wars, the traditional values have been destructed. People confronted a world which Nietzsche predicted an era of "value" evaluation. The so-called "Greenwich Village thought" swept in the United States in 1920s .This thought influenced the lives of men and women profoundly. Many poor writers and artists lived in Greenwich Village, living a unique life, forming a "Greenwich Village thought", to resist the traditional "business - Protestant Christian morality." Hemingway's life circumstances are being wrapped in women: his mother, his four wives, and his lovers. Those women are more or less influenced by" Greenwich Village thought," they have their own personality and temperament. The rising feminist movement, the practice of female life have an impact on the writer, Ernest Hemingway's thoughts, so he clearly recognize in that new era the trend women in the pursuit of self irreversibly. This is why Hemingway can recognize those women who have self-awareness and rebellious spirit from both perspectives of men and women.So fundamentally, the concepts of Hemingway's women is beyond the eternal myth category what Western patriarchal culture called.Bibliography[1]周杰.《简论海明威笔下女性形象》辽宁师专学报，2007年第6期.[2]赵玉君《父权意识与海明威女性形象的塑造》，山东莱阳农学院。