1、英美文学课程论文论文题目：蝴蝶梦的人物分析和写作特色The analysis of Rebecca and writing techniques 学生姓名：XX XX XX 学 号：XXXXXXXXX 班 级：英语 1001 班 完成日期：2012 年 11 月 20 日The analysis of Rebecca and writing techniquesAbstractRebecca is the typical characteristics of gothic, developing with the leading ladys personal experience in Man
2、derley. she faces to challenge, defeats bravely, and challenging herself in the end And authors unique arrangement and writing techniques has added color to the creation of suspense in the novel. Many famous scholars think that the use of gothic, the description of the environment and characters, th
3、e fusion of feelings with natural settings and suspense all play an important role in creating success.Through this book, author criticize inequality in the society of man control and expound her view of marriage, her think marriage should base on love, and needs caring of both side. Key words: char
4、acter, gothic, suspense, lateral description, feminism 蝴蝶梦的人物分析和写作特色内 容 摘 要蝴蝶梦是一部典型的哥特式小说，情节围绕着女主角在曼德拉的私人生活展开。她面对挑战勇敢斗争，最终战胜自我。作者独特的安排和写作手法为小说增加了悬疑的色彩。在许多专家学者看来，哥特式、环境描写、人物塑造、情景交融和悬念设置为小说获得极大成功起到了功不可没的作用。通过这本书，作者极大的批判了男权社会中的不平等，同时也揭示了作者的婚姻观。她认为美满的婚姻要以爱情和双方付出为基础。关键词：人物分析， 哥特式， 悬念, 侧面烘托， 女权主义Content1.
5、Introduction 11.1Introduction of author .11.2 Introduction of book Rebecca .12. Analysis characters .22.1Rebecca .22.2 Leading lady.23. Novel features and writing techniques.33.1Gothic (suspense).33.2 foil on side.54. fiminise.65. Conclusion.61The analysis of Rebecca and writing techniquesI. Introdu
6、ction1. The Introduction of AuthorDaphne du Maurier (1907-1990) is a famous English female writer. She is also a member of Association of the Royal Society of Literature during her life time and wrote 17 novels and dozens of other types of literary works . She hated to city life, so She lived for ma
7、ny years in Cornwall, England.Her most of works inspiration are come from there social customs and local social background,for this reason people often called her works as “Cornwall novel“ . and in 1969 Dame Daphne du Maurie became a member of the Royal Society of Literaturer.Being deeply influenced
8、 by Gothic Novel, which is famous for its mystery, curiousness and terror, Daphne wrote her works with plots full of twists and turning.She has so much of famous works, such as Budding yee cousin 、 French stream、 Jamaica Inn、 Rebecca、 The Birds. Rebecca and the short story “The Birds“ some of which
9、were subsequently made into films, the latter two directed by Alfred Hitchcock.Anyone who has read Rebecca, the most famous novel written by Daphne, will never forget those dismal and constrained scenes and horrible imaginations. However, the specific feature of this novel is its using lots of suspe
10、nse carried through the whole story. This has made its plots intricate but well-knit and soul stirring.2. The Introduction of book RebeccaThe most famous novel Rebecca came out in 1938. The leading lady is a helpless Orphan , she fell in love with Manderleymaster Maxim and married to him . But then
11、she felt that she drowning in the ocean of Rebeccashadow .Rebecca is Maxims formmer wife ,she is beautiful and honorable ,people often praised her beauty and capable. It makes her shame and helpless.In addition, the housekeeper Mrs.Danvers is the henchman of Rebecca .She usually created all sorts of
12、 obstacles makes she depressed and cheerless. One day the shipwreck with Rebecca had 2been surfaced by accident.Maxim was accused of killing his wife.At this time, the leading lady has to know that Rebecca is a vicious beauty of lewdness woman, she deliberately provoked Maxim shoot at her and wreck
13、out resin. At last, by the court investigation, Maxim was found innocent .from now on, the leading lady Throw away burden and have a quite life. There are so many figures like Rebeccas division-appearance and inner in the history of fictionRebecca were judged as top 5 romatic novels in 2005,the onth
14、er 4 are Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Gone with the Wind.II. Analysing characters1. RebeccaShe is smart、 noble、beautiful and capable, but under attractive appearance she pursued dissclute and prodigal life.She regards men as preies, She took a delight in tormenting Maxim and pl
15、aying upon him. In addition to herself, she doesnt love anyone.Rebecca has pathological desire to conquer,even she known that she will be die in the near future,her decided to provoke her husband to kill her.Although she is described as a evil woman,but her story cant distinguish between good and ev
16、il. Her behavior is a resistance and revenge of male social injustice. Female image comes from male interests, women should to be beautiful, clever, and ability of housework.This is the womans function. Their common features are refuse to obey men, selfish and doughty; On the other hand, they are ce
17、lever and outstanding. They have mighty power to destory and subvert the patriarchal society. They revenge all of men, makes them feel a great of helpless and frustration. However, they are the victim of their social systerm.2. Leading ladyDifferent from other novels, the leading lady is neither bea
18、utiful nor intelligent like the other heroines or heroes. She is neither logical as a detective nor pathological as a patient. The leading lady of this story is a plain girl, timid and homely, kind and feeble. She is just a maid of Mrs. Van Hopper. During her trip with Mrs. Van Hopper, she ran into
19、widower Maxim, the beloved man in her life. Maderley card remember from childhood is the sigh of the future. Then everything happened dramatically-he fell in love with her immediately and proposed to her. 3At the end of story , she thoroughly rebuilt herself, became the hostess of Manderley. III.Nov
20、el features and writing techniques1.Gothic (suspense)Gothic is “written in the style popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, which described romantic adventures in mysterious or frightening surrounding . ”(Oxford Advanced Learners English-Chinese Dictionary 6th Edition).Rebecca is a Gothic novel and
21、 characteristics of it are terror and suspense, usually settle in a gloomy old castle. Suspense is “a feeling of worry or excitement that you have when you feel that something is going to happen, somebody is going to tell you some news.” (Oxford Advanced Learners English-Chinese Dictionary 6th Editi
22、on). Although many contemporaneous masterpieces could create the suspicious atmosphere as successful as Rebecca, Rebecca is still unique among all of them. It is different from detective stories from Agatha Christine which create suspicious atmosphere by making up a crime and revealing it by a detec
23、tive. It is also different from some stories from authors like Allan Poe who create suspicious atmosphere by describing vivid emotional activities of some pathological characters. The most distinguish feature of this novel is its suspension that existed in the novel all the time. First of all, the n
24、ovel told us that “I and Maxim moved out of Manderley and would never come back”. Then the scene flashed back to the coast hotel, where I first met Maxim and where I fell in love with him. When they came back to Manderley and started their new life, suspension came one by one: Why was Maxim reluctan
25、t to talk about Rebecca? Is he still in love with her? If Rebecca is beautiful and gorgeous and has a good taste, why Maxim would marry me-a ordinary girl? Why the housekeeper Miss Danvers hates me? What kind of person is Rebecca? Is she an attractive, perfect person who won everyones admiration or
26、is she actually slutty and bleeding? At the end of the story, all the mysteries are solved and they can live without horror and suspicion anymore. The story provoked the readers basic instinct to protect leading lady. It is successful in that aspect.Suspense is an important skill of writing. It is a
27、lso an singular design of literature writing. Its 4special feature, as the English dramatist, William Archill said,“ to predict a very attractive state of affairs without telling it out.” Usually, it sets forth a question and postpones the answer. To be more exactly, that is, to stress a main, unusu
28、al situation. And there is enough time and space left. The reason of causing the situation doesnt appear at once.In the opening sentences of the book, Manderley is noticed. The lines of describing the heroines dream are full of misgivings and mystic.“As I stood there, hushed and still, I could swear
29、 that the house was not an empty shell but lived and breathed as it had lived before.”“A cloud, hitherto unseen, came upon the moon, and hovered an instant like a dark hand before a face.”“The house was a sepulcher, our fear and suffering lay buried in the ruins. There would be no resurrection. When
30、 I thought of Manderley in my waking hours. I would not be bitter.”Then “I” come to the reality from dream. “I” am thinking about Manderley and all happened in it that cannot hurt. These words have put forward the first suspense, that is, what a story happened in such a ruined, barren garden? Who is
31、 “I”? It catches readers eyes at once. Therefore, they are hastened to go further into the story, into the story about my life experience in Manderley.Bens words is a suspense too.Bens action also shows Rebeccas hoof. Ben has been frightened badly by Rebecca just because he sees her wanton in the co
32、ttage. “(Ben) He held the fishing cline clutched to his heart like a treasure. You (“I”) wont put me to the asylum, will you? he said.You are not like the other one, he said.What do you mean? I said,what other one? He shook his head. His eyes were sly again. He laid his finger against his nose. Tall
33、 and dark she was, he said, she gave you the feeling of a snake. I had seen her here with my own eyes. Be night shed come. I seen her. He paused, watching me intently. I didnt say anything. I looked in on her once. He said, and she turn on me, she did. You dont know me, do you? she said. You have ne
34、ver seen me here, and you wont again. If I catch you looking at me through the windows here, Ill have you put to the asylum. She said. You wouldnt like that, would you? They are cruel to people in the asylum. She said.” At the end of the novel, when the leading lady and Maxim went back to Manderley,
35、 “they saw the sky towards the horizon was not black at all. It was red like blood. And then the blowing 5smoke soared straight up in the sky forming like a big letter R and disappeared gradually.” This is the end of the story. Author didnt tell people what really happened to Manderley. She gave the
36、 readers enough room to imagine. Daphne du Maurier brings skill of suspense into full play in her most famous novel Rebecca .In it; she sets forth a series of suspense, including both full-text suspense and partial suspense. Moreover, smaller suspense have mutual relations in or among each level. Th
37、is kind of arrangement not only because the motive force which helps the plots develop but also draw readers to read and guess what is in the next step. 2.foil on the sideIn the fiction , Rebeccas visualize describe through retrospection of everybody. Her faithful servant Danny described “She is ver
38、y charming when she is a child, likea beauty in the picture. When she pass by men , they will be turned back stared at her.“ The servant Frank think “she is the most beautiful woman Ive ever seen”.Not only beautiful but also capable, she made Maderley very famous and popular in far and near.Even gra
39、ndmother also like her very much, she said“A wife must have three virtues: breeding, mind and charm. She has three”.These utterance all foil out of her image.Rebecca never appear but her visualize come out by these description. A famous Chinese films critic said“The plot extends around the character
40、 Rebecca ,but she has been dead at the beginning of the story and never comes out. All the things heard discussed and remembered are around her.In addition, author use environment to describe the terror. At the beginning of the story, people may find that Miss. Maurie described Manderley as “the pri
41、vate road was just a narrow ribbon and its stony surface covered with grass and beyond a muddy ditch made by the winter rain. No birds sang song and no people talked happily.” This paragraph showed the reader a gloomy and dismal picture. The reader may wonder what happened in Manderley. At the end o
42、f the story, people knew the truth.Suspense created also by description of environment. in Chapter 14. The leading lady went into a beautiful room that she had never seen before. “It was the most beautiful room in Manderley, much beautiful than the east wing where I lived. The sheet on bed was soft
43、and light. The curtain was red and with beautiful flowers on it. The best thing is that you could see the sea from the 6window.” The leading lady stared at each thing in the room, the dressing table, the closet. Then Miss Danvers came in, with a “triumphant, gloating, and excited in a strange unheal
44、thy way” expression in her face. From this, people known that this beautiful room belonged to Rebecca. The sea which the lady could see from the window is the one where Rebecca was drowned. It not only pushes the plot forward, but also produces suspense to attract the reader.VI. feminismAlthough Reb
45、ecca is described as a evil woman, but her story not can distinguish with bad and good, She is the victim of the society at that time. Daphne through this character to criticizes the women in the patriarchal society of unfair treatment, sympathy for Rebeccas generation. At the same time, foiling to
46、the essence of marriag in her mind.Rebecca pursue to enjoy life, regards men as prey to mocked and ridiculed.Actually, it is the resistance and revenge of male social injustice. Female image comes from male interests, women should to be beautiful, clever, and ability of housework.This is the womans
47、function,they just care about womans appearance not their souls.Rebeccas the corruption of dissclute life is a blatant challenge and dissdain of patriarchal social system. There are so many figures like Rebeccas division-appearance and inner in the history of fiction., such as vanity fair Becky. The
48、y are the same in the evil teperament and beautiful appearance.Their common featurea are refuse to obey men, selfish and doughty; On the other hand, they are celever and outstanding. They have mighty power to destory and subvert the patriarchal society. They revenge all of men, makes them feel a great of helpless and frustration.At the same time, the author through the description of the Maximes marriage, expressed her criticism of the upper classes of the inherent essence of marriage, and the sincere pursuit of marriage equality.Author real
