学年论文《恋爱中的女人》

Analysis of Causes for Gudrun’s Love
Tragedy
院系：云南大学滇池学院外语系
学科、专业：英语语言文学
2015年9月1日
Abstract
This thesis is based on the study of Women in love.Women in love revolves around the emotional entanglements of two lovers: Ursula and Birkin overcome the differences and make a compromise for love ; But Gudrun and Gerald’s relationship is in the condition of ruin for the difference of the concept and numerous conflicts . In this paper, I will research the causes which lead to Gudrun’s love traged y . And I will use methods of empirical research and theoretical analysis to prove them. Gudrun’s love tragedy is led by external factors such as the patriarchal society, the Industrial Revolution and Gerald. At the same time, it is also influenced by her internal factors like the independent personality and the feminist tendency.In conclusion, social backgrounds, Gerald and Gudrun’s own personality are major causes that give rise to her love tragedy.
Key words:Gudrun; love tragedy; causes; social background; Gerald; personality
摘要
本文的研究是基于《恋爱中的女人》。

《恋爱中的女人》围绕两对恋人的情感纠葛展开：欧秀拉伯基怀着对生命的热爱，冲破重重阻隔，有情人终成眷属；而古德伦和杰拉德则由于双方观念上的巨大差异，经历了无数次冲突后最终关系破裂。

本文研究的主题是分析造成古德伦爱情悲剧的原因。

我将采用实证研究和理论分析的论证方法去论证它。

古德伦爱情悲剧的产生是外部因素的作用,例如：父权社会，女权运动以及杰拉德。

与此同时，也受到她自身独立的性格和女性主义倾向等内部因素的影响。

总之，社会背景，杰拉德和自身性格是最终导致古德伦爱情悲剧的主要原因。

关键词：古德兰；爱情悲剧；原因；社会背景；杰拉德；性格
Introduction
Women in Love is a novel by British author D.H. Lawrence.It is regarded as one of the most representative and greatest novels of Lawrence’s works. It firstly explores the psychological issues related to love with unprecedented passion and depth. Consequently, it represents the highest achievement of Lawrence’s work s. women in love tells about the love affairs of two sisters Ursula and Gudrun who live in a small town. They are both modern women, but the result of their love affairs is totally different. Ursula gets married with Birkin while the relationship between Gudrun and Gerald is on the rocks. There are so many reasons leading to Gudrun’s love tragedy. Under the background of patriarchal society and the feminism movement, Gudrun’s lov e tragedy must take place. Besides, Gerald is a typical representative of patriarchy in the patriarchal society, while Gudrun has a strong feminist tendency. They have an irreconcilable conflict at the conscious level so that Gerald can’t be the right man for Gudrun. Finally, the multifaceted character of Gudrun plays the most important role to her love tragedy. In brief, the social backgrounds, Gerald and Gudrun’s own personality all make a great difference to her love tragedy.
Part ⅠAnalysis of the social background
The social backgrounds like patriarchal society and the feminism movement have an important influence on Gudrun’s love tragedy.
1.1 Patriarchal society
On one hand, the independent personality of Gudrun is not accepted by patriarchal society .She lives in a patriarchal society that the destiny of women is decided by the men. Women are short of economic independence so that the economic basis for equality is absent. The value of women is to act as a mother or wife in their families. Women are used to be controlled by men and their mind will gradually be in a state of blank. However, Gudrun is totally different from those housewives. She owns independent character, rich experience and calm attitude which make her special among those women.1
Firstly, her outfit always makes her apart from those ordinary women. Secondly, although Gudrun was born poor, she never goes after money and power by getting married with a rich man. On the contrary, she has deep love for art especially painting and sticks to self-reliance. When she meets Gerald for the first time, she is just att racted by Gerald’s personal glamour without caring about his wealth. Thirdly, she gets love from Gerald with her personal charisma. Nevertheless, she gives up marriage and chooses a wandering life as an artist when she recognizes a fact that Gerald is not the right man for her.She is too incompatible to be tolerated by that era because she refuses to be controlled by man. She will not be allowed to seek a love without marriage and that era can’t give a love that she wants. Therefore, her love is doomed to be a tragedy. 2
1.2 Feminism movement
1王巍巍,父权社会下的女性形象—《恋爱中的女人》与《废都》之对比研究[M],2008年9月1日.
2
Messenger, Nigel. How to Study a D.H. Lawrence Novel [M]. London: Macmillan Education Ltd., 1989.
Women in love was written in 1916 which witnessed the feminist movement . In the early 20th century, British women lifted the first wave of the feminism movement for rights of voting, employment and education. They struggled for those rights with demonstrations and assemblies. In the end, their behaviors had caused great repercussions in society and woman's status was improved.3The economic independent of women makes them be independent in mind.4
Gudrun is a typical representative of feminist movement. Firstly, she is engaged in the art teacher's professional and she don't need to be attached to the man. So she pays no attention to the wealth of Gerald. Secondly, she obviously seeks after a equal and free relationship because of her good education. It is able to understand why there are so many conflicts between Gudrun and Gerald. Because she would not give in to Gerald’s will. Thirdly, Gudrun has a long view for life with those colorful experiences in London. She goes after something new and hates the commonplace life at that dirty town. The four holiday in Alps, Gudrun even begins an intense friendship with Loerke, a physically puny but emotionally commanding artist from Dresden. As a result, the relationship between Gudrun and Gerald breaks down because Gerald can’t create surprise constantly.
Part ⅡAnalysis of the influences of Gerald to Gudrun’s love tragedy
3谢淑梅,20世纪英国妇女与社会地位的变化[M],湖南科技大学,2007-04-01.
4马瑞映,20世纪初的西方妇女解放:主题与实质,陕西师范大学学报(哲学社会科学版)[N],2007-01-05.
Gerald plays a significant role in Gudrun’s love tragedy because of his indifferent attitude to love, patriarchal thoughts and lies to love.
2.1 The indifferent attitude to love
Gerald is the product of the industrial revolution and the embodiment of modern mechanical civilization, so he is ruthless to love. Highly developed industrial society makes people depend more and more on reason, will and intelligence to gain success. Gerald thinks that the only purpose to live is to work and coal miners are just the instruments to help him to achieve goals. He always regards those workers as parts of machine and ignores their pains or emotions. He only seeks mechanical civilization and ignores nature. Therefore, he will not know the reason forever why Gudrun is so excited to cry when she looks at the snow. Moreover, he even asks Guderun with scorn,“ Is dawn so important?” However, Gudrun doesn’t give any replies to Gerald about his ridiculous doubts. She swims in the water and dances in the forest which can express her deep love to nature . A person like Gerald who can’t appreciate the beauty of nature can’t truly understand a women. Therefore, the love based on contrary spiritual pursuit can not last for a long time.5
2.2 Patriarchal thoughts
Gerald has obvious patriarchal thoughts and has a strong control to love. He has a same attitude towards work and love that everything should be controlled by him. When he meets Gudrun at the first time, he vaingloriously thinks that Gudrun is conquered by his glamour. In order to show his control in front of Gudrun, he cruelly
5徐敬珍,《恋爱中的女人》之原型分析：流放的该隐[J],2009年第10期.
sticks the spur into the belly of horse to calm it down. He always has a strong control to love and he wants to control Gudrun. It is just a desire to control but not love. However, Gudrun is not the animal but has her own independent thoughts so that she can not be controlled easily. Gudrun always dares to challenge the authority of paternity and fights for freedom of women. Gudrun even said to him," I can’t give you the happiness and you must get it by yourself."Hence, their relationship ends because of the irreconcilable contradictions.
2.3 The lie to love
Gerald doesn’t love Gudrun and she is just a companion when he feels lonely. Although Gerald is successful in his career, he is short of comforts in spirit. The more successful his career is, the more empty he would feel. He becomes a hollow man because he doesn’t have a faith .6Under this circumstance, he needs someone to share the fierce loneliness. Gudrun is just one of those mistresses of Gerald and she is not special for him. Gerald only need a feeling of freshness and he chooses Gudrun. Besides, his feelings for Gudrun are driven by lust. In other words, once the fire of desire disappears, his love will no longer exist. Gudrun is so clever that she must have recognized that there is no true love between her and Gerald. Therefore, she eventually chooses to leave.
Part Ⅲ Analysis of the influences of Gudrun’s personality to her love tragedy
6Jiang Haiying, Nature. women. Harmony: A Reading of women in Love from Eco-feminism Perspective Journal of Changzhou University (Social Science Edition)[J], 2011.
Gudrun’s love tragedy is mostly decided by her own factors such as her feminist tendency, contradictory character, extreme personality and the pursuit for freedom.
3.1 Gudrun’s feminist tendency
Gudrun has an obvious feminist tendency and she always challenges the authority of paternity. Since Gudrun is a typical representative of modern women, she certainly looks like a distinctive woman among those traditional women. In fact, the ways she does things are indeed characteristic.She always dressed herself in colorful and strange style in all public places. She supports the idea that it is stupid that women should play up to man’s appreciation of the beauty. 7There is a impressed scene in the book that Gudrun dances in front of a group of cattle. In fact, Gudrun is afraid of cattle, but she is filled with a strange passion at that time and she wants to scare cattle via a strange way―dancing.The cattle belongs to Gerald and it is a symbol of his power. Therefore, Gudrun’s behavior actually gives a response to Gerald’s challenge. Besides, Gudrun never comes t o terms with Gerald when they hold different opinions. These performances all express a fact that Gudrun is not willing to be controlled by man and she even dears to challenge the authority of man. Therefore, her behaviors actually have a obvious feminist color. For this reason, she must not make a compromise in love by standing the patriarchy.
3.2 Gudrun’s contradictory character
Gudrun owns a contradictory character which makes difference to her failing love. She envies the male superiority, at the same time, she also hates the authority of man. 7郝滢,Declining of Nature——Analysis of women in Love[J],Overseas English，2013年12期.
8Gudrun grows up in a patriarchal society and it is hard for her to avoid admiring the superiority of man. When she meets Gerald for the first time, she is totally attracted by his manliness and she even regards him as a wolf. Obviously, Gudrun has found Gerald’s innermost wild nature and his strong desire to conquer others under the face,but she also gets close to him without any hesitation. However, it is ridiculous for Gudrun to accept the absolute superiority of man and rely on man .Next, when she gets along with Gerald, the serious patriarchal thoughts of Gerald which gives her a fierce dislike are completely unmasked. When Gudrun finds that her two contrary ideas simultaneously reflect on Gerald, her own contradictions will change into the struggles between Gerald and her. Hence, the contradictions must make the lovers break up.
3.3 Gudrun’s extreme personality
Gurun also has a strong desire for control which is the absolutely irreconcilable contradiction between she and Gerald. At first, she is an artist and she always likes to carve some small and delicate things. Generally speaking, the small things are easier to control than big articles. Her partiality for small-sized objects may unconsciously reflects her strong desire for control. Besides, it is crazy for her to catch that struggled rabbit named Bismarck. This behavior is cruel and also reflects her desire to handle other things. Even Ursula said," Gudrun is so shameless and arrogant that she measures everything by herself and downgrades other things under the standard of human beings. She wants to have complete control over everything like God.9She 8朱茜,从萨特存在主义角度解读《恋爱中的女人》之女主角古德伦[N],吉林省教育学院学报，2011.08.
certainly has a tendency to assimilate Gerald but he similarly has a strong desire for control. Later, she finds that her will can not change Gerald’s and she turns love into hate. After the short fervor, she even launches into the arms of a German sculptor with disappointments and pains. However, her new romance finally ends up with Gerald’s death. Therefore,Gudrun can not get a happiness with her extreme personality.
3.4 Gudrun’s pursuit for freedom
Gudrun always insists the pursuit of freedom , and she refuses to be bound by marriage. In the book, she supports the idea that marriage is just a necessary experience in the life but not the final destination. She also thinks that marriage separates two people from the world and finally leaves them behind .She always misses the atmosphere of London and never wants to stop exploring the world. Even if she falls in love with Gerald, she never gives up her own independent thoughts. In spite of the pressures from outside world, she tries to stick to her belief and keep her personality. Consequently, she eventually gives up the love with Gerald and chooses a wandering life as a artist.
Conclusion
Lawrence describes Gudrun as a representative of modern women, but her ending is not satisfied. Her sister Ursula gets a happy marriage while she can not get a true love from beginning to end.Gudrun’s love tragedy is the re sult of interaction of multiple factors such as social backgrounds, Gerald and her personality. That old society would not allow a women who seeks after independent get something after her own heart including her love. Besides, love needs joint efforts of both sides, but
both of Gudrun and Gerald does not know how to love. Therefore, when all the conditions are against for Gudrun, she certainly can not get a perfect love.
Bibliography
1.郝滢, Declining of Nature——Analysis of women in Love[J], Overseas English，2013年12期.
2. Jiang Haiying, Nature. women. Harmony: A Reading of women in Love from Eco-feminism Perspective Journal of Changzhou University (Social Science Edition)[J], 2011.
3.Messenger, Nigel. How to Study a D.H. Lawrence Novel [M]. London: Macmillan Education Ltd., 1989.
4. 马瑞映,20世纪初的西方妇女解放:主题与实质,陕西师范大学学报(哲学社会科学版),2007-01-0
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5. 王巍巍, 父权社会下的女性形象—《恋爱中的女人》与《废都》之对比研究, 2008年9月1日.
6. 谢淑梅,20世纪英国妇女与社会地位的变化,湖南科技大学,2007-04-01.
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