摘 要

女性主义，即一系列为了将女性从各种限制与束缚中解放出来的政治运动，同时赋予她们作为社会生活一员的各种权利。这也促进了全世界女性解放运动的快速发展。

爱德华.摩根.福斯特是全世界文明的小说家，他的小说因为利用具有讽刺意义以及缜密的情节来描述阶级和文化差异而备受好评。在他所有的作品中，《印度之行》是他最后一本也是最为著名的长篇小说。福斯特擅长利用小说人物的对比来达到深化主题的作用。同时，他晦涩复杂的意识体系和价值观也深深植根于小说之中。张爱玲是中国最受瞩目的女性作家之一，她总是将目光放在男女小事而不是战争或者革命上。但是，她总是能够达到她讽刺以及传达苍凉意象的目的。《倾城之恋》是张爱玲唯一一部具有完美结局的小说。尽管如此，她还是赋予了这样的完美以悲凉的含义和暗讽的效果。本论文试图以女性主义角度进行两本小说中女性主人公的对比，从而揭示中西方女性在父权社会中自我意识的缺失。尽管这两位女主人公拥有相似的女性主义作为指引，但是却得到了截然不同的命运。从某种角度上来说，这篇论文对于那些生活在当今这个先进发达、快节奏的社会的女性有重大意义。

关键词：女性主义；阿德拉；《印度之行》 ；白流苏；《倾城之恋》

Abstract

Feminism, the movements related to liberate women from all kinds of limits and restrictions, authorizing them with different social rights in every aspect of life. It contributes to the rapid development of campaigns for female all over the world.

Edward Morgan Forster is a famous novelist no matter it is at home or abroad. His works are credited for their ironic and well-plotted stories examining class and culture differences. Among all his masterpieces, A Passage to India is the last and most famous novel in his lifetime. He is good at depicting all the characters by comparisons to enhance themes of his novel. Also, his complicated ideologies and values are entrenched in his novels deeply. Eileen Chang is the most renowned female writer in China. She focuses on the little affairs between men and women instead of something enormous, such as wars and national revolutions. But she always can reach her ironic purposes with metaphor and dismayed endings for her novels. As one of her most famous novels, Love in A Fallen City is the only one that owns a happy ending. But she endows more bleak implications with its ending. The thesis tries to compare these two novels in the perspective of feminism in order to reveal the loss of women’s identity in the patriarchal society both in China and the West. Although the two female protagonists share the similar idea of feminism, they end up their life with different destinies. The thesis, to some certain degree, is significant for women who live in this advanced and fast-paced society nowadays.

Key Words: feminism, Adela, A Passage to India, Bai Liusu, Love in a Fallen City

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 E. M. Forster and A Passage to India 1

1.2 Eileen Chang and Love in a Fallen city 2

2 Literary Review 4

2.1 Review on feminism 4

2.2 Studies on A Passage to India 5

2.3 Studies on Love in A Fallen City 5

3 Patterns of manifestation of feminism in two novels 7

3.1 Feminism in A Passage to India: Nature 7

3.2 Feminism in Love in A Fallen City: Rebellion 8

4 Different destinies of two protagonists 10

4.1 Adela: Liberated and independent 10

4.2 Bai Liusu: Subordinate and dismal 10

5 Causes analysis of different destinies in two novels 12

5.1 Backgrounds of two novels 12

5.2 Effects of feminism in different destinies 13

6 Conclusion 15

References 16

Acknowledgements 18

If Adela Meets Bai Liusu: Similar Feminism, Different Destiny

1 Introduction

1.1 E. M. Forster and A Passage to India

Edward Morgan Forster was born in a middle-class English family. What makes him different is that he inherited a lot of money from his great-aunt Marianne Thornton. This amount of capital enables him to be a writer much more easily. After his university at King’s College in Cambridge, he traveled a lot with his mother. Moreover, he also served as a volunteer in the Red Cross in Egypt during the First World War. And he spent another spell in India as a private secretary in early 1920s. His rich and lively experiences in India ensure his great success in his writing career.

A large majority of scholars and critics focus on the cultural conflicts and racial discriminations in this novel. However, there is the voice that is in favor of the feminism. Du Zhenni, a Chinese professor explains not only the feminism, she also specializes it into eco-feminism, which is involved with the relationship between nature and women. She analyzes the symbolization of some sceneries so that readers can understand its definition more clearly.

Adela Quested, a young British teacher, and her friend, Mrs. Moore, an elder lady, visit the fictional city Chandrapore, a British colony in India. Adela wants to find the answer that if she is willing to marry Ronny Heaslop, the son of the elder lady and the city magistrate. At the same time, Dr. Aziz, a young Indian Physician, is dining with his friends and talking about if there is any chance to be a friend with an English.

In order to make sure that the newcomers can see Indians, Mr. Turton, the city tax collector, holds a party and invites a lot of Indian gentlemen at his home. It is on that party where Adela meets Cyril Fielding, the headmaster of a college in Chandrapore. Naturally, Fielding invites her and Mr. Moore to a tea party. At the tea party, Dr. Aziz commits to show Mrs. Moore and Adela around the Marabar Caves, a wonderful caves complex.

Aziz and the women start their exploration which is at great cost to himself in the caves. But what’s more scaring is the echo in the caves. Upset by the sound, Mrs. Moore gives up the exploring. When he is out one of the caves, he finds that Adela has gone for the exploring by herself. Worse still, Aziz fails to find her on time. He looks around just to find her glasses on the ground. And Aziz puts them in the pocket.

When Aziz arrives at the train station, he is arrested and accused of sexually assaulting Adela. She claims that Dr. Aziz followed her and wanted to grab her in the cave, and she defended herself by throwing her glasses at him. But when the judge asks her on the trial that whether Aziz assaults her or not, she are confused and finally admits her misunderstanding. Two years later, however, when Fielding comes back from Britain with his wife, Stella, Mrs. Moore’s daughter, Aziz gets back a little bit respect for him. But still, Aziz believes only when India is free from the colonists that they could become close and intimate exactly like what they used to be. E. M. Forster ends up the story with a more ambiguous way that can lead to rich imagination for readers.

1.2 Eileen Chang and Love in a Fallen city

Love in a Fallen City, one of the most famous novels written by Eileen Chang, focus on exploring love, marriage and humanity before and after the war. Obviously, the destiny of female is also the point.