Abstract：

The Hours, a novel written by modern American writer Michael Cunningham in 1998, depicts the lives and the feelings of the three women of different times in a day. Mrs. Dalloway, written by Virginia Woolf, makes the three women(writer、reader、Mrs. Dalloway in reality) connected vividly. During the day, they encountered countless distress and suffering. The women’s lives which reflect the social problems are worth studying. This thesis is made up of two parts. In the first part, I talk about the three women’s lives in detail and try to analyze their living state based on my careful reading of the book and I will also present a comprehensive analysis of the plot. In the second part, I try to decode the three women’s choices through their action. Also, I will talk about their feelings after they make their choices.
 
Key words: The Hours; distress and suffering; women’s lives

摘要：

美国当代著名作家迈克尔.坎宁安1998年发表的小说《时时刻刻》描述了不同时代三位女性一天的生活与感受。一本弗吉尼亚.伍尔夫的小说《达洛维夫人》把这三位女性（分别是创作者、阅读者、现实版达洛维夫人）联系在一起。在这一天中，她们遇到无数的烦恼并经历着难以诉说的痛苦。小说所反映出的女
性心理的挣扎与生活的痛苦是值得关注与研究的社会问题。

关键词：《时时刻刻》；烦恼和痛苦；女性生活
 
1. Introduction
Michael Cunningham (born November 6, 1952) is an American writer. He is best known for his 1998 novel The Hours, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1999. The Hours depicts the three women’s psychology in order to show us their colorful psychological world. The author uses the method of super realism to connect the three women’s spiritual life. Also, the author observes his main characters, and lays stress on their miserable life and the choices they’ve made when facing the miserable lives. In this thesis, the author uses the method of comparison to recur the lives and the choices of the main characters. There exist lots of study on the feminism and the theme of death. But there still exists a lack of comprehensive conclusion of the women’s lives.
    The thesis is made up of two parts. In the first part, I talk about the three women’s lives in detail and try to analyze their living state based on my careful reading of the book and I will also present a comprehensive analysis of the plot. In the second part, I try to decode the three women’s choices through their action. Also, I will talk about their feelings after they make their choices.