《花园茶会》女主人公劳拉思想斗争中的内心成长_英语论文

Laura’s Inner Growth through Ideological Conflicts in The Garden Party

摘要

凯瑟琳·曼斯菲尔德以其独树一帜的短篇小说写作风格在20世纪西方现代文学中占据着重要地位，其名篇《花园茶会》主要讲述出生于资产阶级家庭的小女孩劳拉经历思想斗争后对世界的看法和生命的意义有了全新认识的故事。本文采用定性和归纳分析的方法，以分析女主人公劳拉的内心世界和心理变化为切入点，细察她在三次思想矛盾冲突中实现内心成长的历程，从而启悟其中深刻的人生哲理。

本文首先简介凯瑟琳·曼斯菲尔德及其作品、本文研究问题和研究方法；在文献综述中， 概述前人相关研究成果，指出本文研究角度的不同之处；其后，重点研究她在三次思想斗争中实现内心成长的历程，探讨劳拉对世界和生命意义的新认识。第一次思想斗争属于资产阶级和无产阶级意识的碰撞，发生在劳拉与前来搭建帐篷的工人们在花园中相遇时；第二次思想斗争是资产阶级价值观和劳拉自身本性观念的碰撞，发生在劳拉突然听闻邻居家的男主人因车祸丧生并留下贫穷无助的妻儿的消息之时，出于同情提出取消园会却遭到家人的拒绝和批评；第三次思想斗争是幻想和现实的冲突，发生在茶会结束后劳拉对这一贫困家庭的造访。 

基于上诉分析， 本文得出以下结论：三次思想斗争促使劳拉实现了内心成长，最终“走出了园会这个梦幻世界，站在了现实世界的门前”，对现实世界和生命的意义有了新的认识。虚幻世界总是充满了美好和幸福，然而现实世界并非如此。现实世界的生活不仅仅有园会，鲜花，美丽的帽子和快乐，还会有贫穷，黑暗，苦难和死亡。劳拉内心成长的历程表明人们通过接触现实世界和参与社会实践才能更加全面地发现和认识世界和生命的意义，实现真正的自我成长。

关键词：凯瑟琳·曼斯菲尔德；花园茶会；思想斗争；内心成长

Abstract 

Katherine Mansfield has possessed an important position in the modern literature of the 20th century with her unique writing style of short stories. As a famous short story, The Garden Party mainly describes a story that Laura, a little girl born in the bourgeois family, achieves the inner growth and gets a new understanding of world and the meaning of life through ideological conflicts .This paper adopts qualitative analysis and inductive analysis methods to analyze Laura’s inner world and psychological changes, studies the process of Laura’s inner growth through three ideological conflicts to perceive profound life philosophy.

Firstly, this paper gives a brief introduction of Katherine Mansfield and her works, and research question and method for The Garden Party. Then, the literature review focuses on the previous researches on The Garden Party, and points out the difference from the previous studies. In the third chapter, this paper explores the process of growth and maturity of her inner world through three ideological conflicts, and shows the changes of her views to the world and her new understanding of the meaning of life. The first ideological conflict is the conflict between bourgeoisie and proletariat consciousness, appearing between Laura and the workmen who come to put up the marquee in the garden. The second ideological conflict is the conflict between bourgeoisie’s value and Laura’s own nature, appearing when Laura hears the news that a poor working-class neighbor dies from a car accident, leaving his young wife and little kids, out of sympathy, she decides to call off the garden party but this is refused and criticized by her family. The third ideological conflict is the conflict between illusion and reality, happening when Laura pays a visit to the poor carter’s family. 

Based on the overall analysis, it can be concluded that Laura eventually walks out of the dream world and stands in front of the real world, achieves her inner growth and has a new understanding of the world and the meaning of life. The illusory world is full of beauty and happiness, but it is not so much in the real world. Life is not only garden parties, flowers, beautiful hats and happiness, but also poverty, darkness, sufferings and death. Laura’s inner growth illustrates that people can discover and understand the world and the meaning of life more comprehensively through contacting the real world and participating in social practice, which leads us to achieve the real self-growth.

Keywords: Katherine Mansfield, The Garden Party, ideological conflicts, inner growth

Contents

摘 要 I

Abstract II

Acknowledgements III

Chapter One  Introduction 1

1.1 An Overview of Katherine Mansfield 1

1.2 Research Question and Scope of the Study 3

1.3 Objective and Significance of the Study 4

1.4 Method of the Study 6

1.5 Organization of the Thesis 6

Chapter Two  Literature Review 8

Chapter Three  Laura’s Inner Growth through Three Ideological Conflicts 12

3.1 Laura’s Inner Growth through Conflict between Bourgeois and Proletarian Cousciousness 12

3.2 Laura’s Inner Growth through Conflict between Bourgeois Value and Laura’s Own Nature 13

3.3 Laura’ Inner Growth through Conflict between Illusion and Reality 17

3.4 Summary 20

Chapter Four  Conclusion 22

Works Cited 25