论文总字数：32914字

摘 要

伊丽莎白·盖斯凯尔的长篇小说《南方与北方》研究和探讨了英国19世纪中期南方乡村与北方工业城镇在价值观与生活习惯等方面的对比。小说中英国南方是女性和自然的乐园，而北方却充斥着对生态环境的破坏和对女性的压迫。本文将从生态女性主义文学批评的视角，通过作品中反人类中心主义和反男性中心主义的体现，以及盖斯凯尔夫人对理想社会的构建，解读在《南方与北方》中展现的生态女性主义思想。

关键词：南方与北方；生态女性主义；生态破坏；女性压迫

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 1

3. An Ecofeminist Approach to North and South 2

4. Anti-anthropocentrism 3

4.1 Nature and Women Are in Harmony 4

4.2 Nature and Human Are in Unity 6

5. Anti-androcentrism 7

5.1. Oppression for Women Under Androcentric Ideology 8

5.2 Against Gender Oppression - Margaret Hale 9

6. Exploration of Ideal Society 12

7. Conclusion 13

Works Cited 14

1. Introduction

North and South is a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, published serially in Household Words 1854-5, in volume form 1855. The novel studies the contrast between the habits and values of rural southern England and industrial northern England. Margaret Hale moves with family to the northern city, Milton. There she meets John Thornton, with whom she has collisions on views and values. As time goes on, they gradually understand and respect each other and eventually fall in love.

Ecofeminism “describes movements and philosophies that link feminism with ecology. Ecofeminist theories believe that disparagement of femininity and nature resulted from androcentrism and anthropocentrism. Ecofeminism criticizes them; concerns for not only survival of females and children, but also that of all humanity, as well as diversity of animal and plant. The aim of ecofeminism is to build a society in which men and women are equal, all creatures are equal, human activities get along with nature, in addition, cultural and biological diversity is allowed.

This thesis is going to explore how are ecofeminist ideas reflected in North and South in three aspects: anthropocentrism, androcentrism, and exploration of ideal harmonious society.

2. Literature Review

Victorian era witnessed the glory of English novel, among which the rise of female writers was most impressive. Best known for her novels depicting scenes of English country life which also often highlight the huge social divide between rich and poor, Elizabeth Gaskell is a skilled and natural story-teller who remains widely studied. Her novel, North and South, regarded as one of Mrs. Gaskell’s “industrial novels”, has attracted broad attention.

One of the major branches of existing studies on North and South is gender study. By in-depth analysis of working women and single women in Mrs. Gaskell’s novels, Hu Yile points out that Mrs. Gaskell judges male and female objectively on the same moral foundation, and queries about feminist issues. Chen Lizhen couples the separation of social space with sexual politics, he questions critics’ defining Margaret transgression the separation of social space as triumph of women’s gender empowerment, and claims that her salvation is propped up by moral power of conventional patriarchal society; in addition, he presents that her saving Thornton’s career reflects the personification of loan capital. Fu Yanhui analyzed the novel with Victorian domestic ideology, she finds out that Mrs. Gaskell hopes for repositioning of the role Victorian middle-class women are expected to play and widening their sphere.

Another is class conflict. Chen Jiao’e and He Chang introduce “Structure of Feeling” of Raymond Williams to compare and explore Mary Barton and North and South, it is concluded that the diversity of “structure of feelings” contributes to different emphasis in the two novels: Mary Barton embodies the “structure of feeling” of the working class while North and South embodies that of middle class.

Zhu Hong proposes a cultural perspective to study North and South and concludes that, industrialization is an irreversible trend of history and Mrs. Gaskell advocates the perfection of internal virtue as to build a humane society.

Zhou Xianghua has an ecofeminist approach to North and South. Based on the analysis of Mrs. Gaskell’s ingenious design about the conflicts between north and south in the novel, she explores the exposure and deconstruction of binary oppositions between women and men, nature and industrial culture, and interprets Mrs. Gaskell’s eco-feminist thoughts presented in the novel.

3. An Ecofeminist Approach to North and South

North and South tells the collision between northern and southern cultures through her life in Milton. Margaret Hale, the heroine, is the daughter of a parson who resigns his Hampshire living and moves with his family to the cotton-spinning northern city, Milton, because of his religious doubts. There she meets John Thornton, an able and stubborn manufacturer, whom she at first finds unattractive for his lack of sympathy for his workers. Mr. Thornton misunderstands her motives when she endangers herself to protect him from a mob of strikers, he offers her marriage which she refuses. But when he suspects Margaret of an intrigue with another man, who is in fact her brother and in danger of arrest, and shows his suspicion, her unhappiness reveals to her that she really loves him. It is not till after a series of deaths and misfortunes that Margaret and Thornton are finally united.

As to the novel, Donald Horne’s revealing of the two opposite metaphors of “North” and “South” can be followed: through the metaphor of “North”, pragmatism is promoted; the bourgeoisie is predominant; people are serious, enterprising and adventurous, they believe in the power of science and fight; through that of “South”, people are conventional and romantic; the nobility is predominant; people trust in order (Wiener,2004,42). In the novel, people from the North and the South have distinct values, beliefs and lifestyles, thus Margaret has conflicts with Mr. Thornton.

The term Ecofeminism is believed to have been coined by the French writer Françoise d"Eaubonne in her book Le Féminisme ou la Mort (1974)”. The key idea of Ecofeminism is that there is some historical and political relationship between plunder of nature and devaluation of femininity. Women’s function of breeding is the basis of human continuity, nonetheless, women have long lost the right of birth control and been overlooked and devalued by the male-dominated society. The earth provides human beings with resources of living and manufacturing, which enable human reproduction, however, the industrialization and urbanization dominated by the male has reduced the fertility of the earth. In this sense, nature has suffered through the same pain that women has.

Ecofeminists point out that, almost all know that overpopulation and resource destruction threaten the existence and development of both human and the earth, but few people are aware of the responsibility men should assume since their ability of seeding and participation in reproduction play a part in the threat(Jin Li, 2004:57).

Ecofeminist criticism uses “nature” and “sex” as its dimensions and investigates the appearance of nature and women in literature to expose the indifference and persecution which they have been suffering, thus highlights them that are taken for backgrounds and accompanies by critics all along and evokes sympathy, understanding and respect for them, and raises people’s consciousness of ecological protection and gender equality.

4. Anti-anthropocentrism

Anthropocentrism, literally means human-centeredness, is “the belief that human beings are the central or most significant species on the planet (in the sense that they are considered to have a moral status or value higher than that of other animals), or the assessment of reality through an exclusively human perspective”(Merriam-Webster Dictionary). The term has interchangeable concept with humanocentrism, and some refer to as human supremacy which claims that human beings are given full reign over nature.

Throughout human history, every society has treated other forms of life as different from humans and used them in ways that benefit humans, including food, clothing, vehicle, power, guarding, entertainment, etc. However, with ongoing environment deterioration, more and more people have realized that human and nature are closely connected and inter-dependent, thus all of these activities that were ordinary human behaviors over millennia and across the globe are now labeled as anthropocentrism. Although considered to be embedded profoundly in many modern human cultures, anthropocentrism is now believed to be the root cause of problems created by human interactions with the environment.

Ecofeminists hold the idea that “women have a special connection to the environment through their daily interactions and this connection has been ignored”, they regard it an equal partnership between human and nature rather than rulers and ruled. Ecofeminism criticizes modern industry and market economy which develops at the cost of environment. It opposes anthropocentrism which turns a blind eye to environment disruption and only use nature to contribute to human. Ecofeminists wants to attract people’s attention to environmental protection and regulating the relationship between human and nature.

4.1 Nature and Women Are in Harmony

In the novel North and South, nature serves as a spiritual habitat for human. The characters aspire to the beauty of nature and seek for protection from it when fatigue or hurt innerly.

Margaret, a girl closely-connected to the nature, regards nature as her paradise. Even talking about her hometown, Helstone, which likes a village in a tale rather than in real life, her face was “full of dimples, and glances that spoke of childish gladness, and boundless hope in the future”(Gaskell,1994:15). When she leaves London where she has lived with Aunt Shaw and cousin Edith for several years and returns to Helstone, although her heart feels more heavy than she could ever have thought, all about Helstone cheer her.

Mrs Gaskell uses a fair amount of words to describe and admire the beauty of the natural scene of Helstone. Unsullied landscape of this rural southern country is enchanting: “the forest trees were all one dark, full, dusky green; the fern below them caught all the slanting sunbeams; the weather was sultry and broodingly still.” Margaret tells Bessy Higgins about its beauty: “there are great trees standing all about it , with their branches stretching long and level, and making a deep shade of rest even at noonday; ... And then in other parts there are billowy ferns-whole stretches of fern; some in the green shadow; some with long streaks of golden sunlight lying on them - just like the sea”(Gaskell,1994:116). When Margaret wanders and crushes down the fern, “she felt it yield under her light foot, and send up the fragrance peculiar to it”; and when she’s out on the broad commons into the warm and scented light, she sees “multitudes of wild, free, living creatures, revelling in the sunshine, and the herbs and flowers it called forth”.(Gaskell,1994:15) Margaret is unrestrained and relaxed here because no footmen will accompany when she’s out, therefore, she “doubly enjoys the free walks and rambles of her forest life”.(Gaskell,1994:80) Even the poachers’ wild, adventurous freedom of their lives has taken her fancy.

The life in Helstone, at least the walks, realizes all Margaret’s anticipations. She loves the vitality and tranquility that the field brings to her and “she took a pride in her forest”(Gaskell,1994:16). Margaret enjoys integrating with nature: “with the soft violence of the west wind behind her, as she crossed some heath, she seemed to be borne onwards, as lightly and easily as the fallen leaf that was wafted along by the autumnal breeze”.(Gaskell,1994:18) Nature and women share the heavenly country of southern England, harmoniously and interdependently.

Nature is a refuge for Margaret. During her time at Cromer after Mr. Bell’s death, she “used to sit long hours upon the beach, gazing intently on the waves as they chafed with perpetual motion against the pebbly shore - or she looked out upon the more distant heave and sparkle against the sky, and heard, without being conscious of hearing, the eternal psalm, which went up continually, she is soothed”(Gaskell,1994:494). Margaret’s heart is wounded after a series of deaths and misfortunes, so she turns to nature for comfort and decides to take her life into her own hands.

Female characters besides Margaret also expressed their love toward nature.

When Margaret goes to visit Bessy Higgins and talks to her about her home town, Bessy begs Margaret to tell more:“I like to hear speak of the country, and trees, and such like things”. She “leant back, and shut her eyes, and crossed her hand over her breast, lying at perfect rest”(Gaskell,1994:116). Beauty of nature gives seriously ill Bessy great comfort and eliminates her pain.

Mrs Gaskell portrays about Mrs Hale’s love to nature in an indirect way. As Mrs Hale was terminally ill in Milton, she cried: “I shall never see Helstone again; While I was there, I was for ever wanting to leave it; Every place seemed pleasanter; And now I shall die far from it. I am rightly punished”(Gaskell,1994:151). These words are more of her love deep inside instead of confession.

4.2 Nature and Human Are in Unity

Different from that beautiful southern country, Milton, the industrial town of northern England, is a hellish textile-producing region. Mrs Gaskell used these words as a description: “a deep lead-coloured cloud hanging over the horizon in the direction in which Milton lay; It was all the darker from contrast with the pale grey-blue of the wintry sky; ... The air had a faint taste and smell of frost”.(Gaskell,1994:66) When the Hales settle down, it was found that “outside, a thick fog crept up to the very windows, and was driven in to every open door in choking white wreaths of unwholesome mist”(Gaskell,1994:74). The thick yellow November fogs has come on; and “the view of the plain in the valley, made by the sweeping bend of the river, was all shut out”(Gaskell,1994:74). Mrs Hale and Margaret are dismayed and dreary at the thought of living there.

Devastation of natural ecosystem results in damage to people.

Bessy Higgins, the poor girl, died of environmental destruction. She works in a carding-room soon after her mother’s death, and the fluff got into her lungs and poisoned her. An nineteen-year-old girl though she is, she imagines the end of life: “mill-noises in my ears for ever, until I could scream out for them to stop, and let me have a little piece o’ quiet - and wi’ the fluff filling my lungs, until I thirst to death for one long deep breath o’ the clean air”(Gaskell,1994:118).

In addition, Mrs Hale is a victim of the polluted environment. The life in Milton is so different from what she has been accustomed to live in Helstone, “in and out perpetually into the fresh and open air; the air itself was so different, deprived of all revivifying principle as it seemed to be here”(Gaskell,1994:101). Mrs Hale passed away in poison of the polluted air.

Mrs Gaskell criticizes the industrial civilization at the expense of environment, she writes about the ideal relationship between nature and humans: they are friends rather than opponents; nature listens to people and heal their wounds; all species are equal; human society is in harmony with all of nature. Her ideology of this coincides with that of ecofeminism. It breaks down the fixed concepts of 19^th century, of which human supremacy was preached, and is of significance that exceeds era.

5. Anti-androcentrism

Based on the theory of “male superior to female”, Androcentrism is the practice, conscious or otherwise, of placing male human beings or the masculine point of view at the center of one’s view of the world and its culture and history(Wikipedia); it is a social system in which males hold primary power and predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property. By far, it has come into existence and lasting for millennia in most cultures. According to Genesis, God created man from the dust of the ground and named him Adam, and then he made Eve from one rib he had taken out of Adam. In western civilizations, the female has always been ruled and as accessories for men.

Ecofeminists hold the idea that there is some historical and political relationship between plunder of nature and devaluation of femininity driven by traditional western culture and that is androcentrism. Ecofeminist theory defines androcentrism as an unjust social system that enforces gender roles. Being exploited, devastated and marginalized by partriarchy culture, nature and women share the similar fate and are victims of androcentrism. While nature being ravaged and destroyed, women are controlled and enslaved, thus it naturally comes to ecofeminists that androcentrism plays a similar role in the oppressions of the nature and females. As a result, many ecofeminists see it a way to solve the ecological crisis that is to restore the nature of females which has long been depressed and distorted, and furthermore, to construct and promote a female culture.

5.1. Oppression for Women Under Androcentric Ideology

Mr. Thornton is a gentleman of great strength of character and unusual intellect. He builds Marlborough Mills from scratch since he was 16 and grew it to a large scale; pays off his deceased father’s debt; spends money on technical equipment and expects for no instant success; goes after prestige and enterprise development rather than fortune. Facing the strike across the town, he is knowledgeable and resourceful that other millowners wait for him to decide what course had best be pursued.

Thornton is a manufacturer respected by his peers, a magistrate, and someone able to summon the army to quell the strike, with judicial, economic and political power, he is a representative of patriarchy.

Mr. Thornton worships the power of machinery and science: “so thoroughly was he occupied in explaining to Mr. Hale the magnificent power, yet delicate adjustment of the might of the steam-hammer”(Gaskell,1994:92). He takes pride of his industrialized town and believes that there are many among them who could “spring into the breath and carry on the war which compels, and shall compel, all material power to yield to science” (Gaskell,1994:93).

Other male characters feel similarly as Mr. Thornton about industrial civilization:

Although has been living in a quiet life in a country parsonage for more than twenty years, Mr. Hale founds “the power of the machinery of Milton, the power of the men of Milton, impressed him with a sense of grandeur”(Gaskell,1994:78). When Margaret shows her strong detestation to the town life, “their nerves are quickened by the haste and bustle and speed of everything around them, to say nothing of the confinement in these pent-up houses, which of it self is enough to induce depression and worry of spirits”(Gaskell,1994:358), he excuses Milton that people must live in towns since country life stagnates them. Mr. Lennox almost exceeds Margaret in “his appreciation of the character of Milton and its inhabitants; their energy, their power, their indomitable courage in struggling and fighting, their lurid vividness of existence, captivated and arrested his attention”(Gaskell,1994:496).

These male characters are all obsessed with the power of industry which destroys the natural environment. It essentially shows the relationship between androcentrism and anthropocentrism, that is, the former identifies with the latter.

In Victorian era, “Angels in the house” is the ideal woman image, of which women are requested to be loyal, elegant and obedient. Victorian women are supposed to focus on their family and not allowed for any participation in political and economic affairs. It is reflected in North and South as well.

Edith, Margaret’s cousin, is a spoiled child and is “too careless and idle to have a very strong will of her own”(Gaskell,1994:2). When in London, Margaret and her, were required that a footman should accompany if they go out. Actually, this restriction is oppression of secular ethics on women and it weakens independence of women. Similar to Edith, Fanny, John Thornton’s sister, are both weak in the very points in which her mother and brother are strong. Dixon, the maid of the Hales, “as do many others, likes to feel herself ruled by a powerful and decided nature”(Gaskell,1994:54).

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