Chapter One Plights of Women as the Other
In the traditional society, the ideal women are “angels in the house” (Woolf 1989: 11) who center on their families without a mind of their own. What’s more, they take the burden of looking after the children, obeying their husbands’ orders and doing housework. With the development of feminism, women’s position in the society and the family changes a little. (Anderson 1988) Some women start to get out of house and have their own jobs. Besides, they can participate in politics. However, the patriarchal concepts are deep-seated and the modern women still receive unequal treatment because of their gender. The patriarchal concepts still torture the modern women’s mind and body. Under the oppression of patriarchy, modern women lose their subject consciousness and they are controlled by men. Therefore, they become the Other.
1.1 Marion’s Misery as Traditional Housewife
Marion Portmain, Richard’s wife, is a representative of the traditional obedient housewife who loses subjectivity and becomes the Other in family life. As the wife of a successful businessman and the mother of four kids, Marion is characterized as a stereotype of the housewife who revolves around her family. The role of mother and wife is all what she has. In her family life, Marion simply does everything according to her husband’s preferences and obeys her husband’s order without questioning. However, Marion’s husband simply sees her as a nursemaid and slave and controls her in emotions and economy. He not only controls her but also hurts her with frequent extramarital love affairs. Therefore, Marion has been living a miserable life. In the marriage with Richard, Marion gradually loses subjectivity in spirit and economy and completely becomes the Other.
1.2 Anna’s Dilemma as “Free Woman”
Compared with Marion, Anna Freeman Wulf is a totally different and liberated woman. As her middle name suggests, Anna is a “free woman”. She has divorced, so there is no yoke of matrimony on her. Divorce has freed her from the “cage” of marriage, after which she doesn’t remarry but has affairs with men. By profession Anna is a writer, now relying on about five hundred pounds a year from the copyright royalty on her popular novel Frontier of War, she doesn’t depend on men for economical support. As a women writer, she has “a room of her own” (Woolf 1989: 10) to write freely what she wants. Besides, she also participates in progressive political activities. In general, Anna is an intellectual who has independent thinking and economy. Because of her freedom in relationship with men, she is called “free woman”. She abandons the traditional role of housewife for a woman to fight against domination of men. It seems that Anna is free from the restrictions of patriarchal concepts that tortures Marion a lot. However, though Anna is free from the shackles of marriage and gains economic independence, she is not completely as free as men in psychological level. Her problems grow out of her mental attachment to her lover Michael, for whom she gives up subject personality from the very beginning of their relationship. In her love affair with Michael, Anna behaves more like an obedient woman than a free one. Therefore, Anna’s emotional dependence on men is the biggest restriction in her pursuit of freedom.
Chapter Two Causes for Women’s Becoming the Other
Both the liberated women and the traditional housewives are the Other. The traditional housewives with Marion as the representative are controlled by their husbands mentally and economically and lose subjectivity in marriage. Things are nothing different for “free women”. Although they have got economic independence and are free from the shackle of marriage, they still choose to submit to others when they are faced with the conflicts between their independence and requirements of men or motherhood. These women are the Other, the inessential while men are the subject and the essential. Yet they are not born to be, but are marginalized as the Other by the whole civilization.
2.1 Causes for Marion’s Becoming the Other in Family Life
As the traditional housewife, Marion gives up her own identity for the family and is controlled by her husband in every aspect of life, including economy, emotion and spirit. Marion is described as a typical housewife in her life; she spends all her efforts on the care of home and children and cares about nothing in the outside world. In the patriarchal society, the ideal women are “angels in the house”, who will submit to husband absolutely and possess no subject personality. Marion belongs to this kind of women. She is restrained in their house without connection with the outside world. What’s more, since she does not have contact with the rest of the society, she is excluded from the outside world. The brute reality turns her into the Other. That is to say, Marion is not born to be but rather becomes the Other.
2.1.1 Oppression of Patriarchy
Marion becomes the Other because she is oppressed by patriarchy. Madsen defines the concept of patriarchy. “Patriarchy is a culture that privileges men and masculine and a political system that places that power in hands of men.”(Madsen 2007: VI) Patriarchy refers to men’s domination and women’s subordination. Therefore, women’s position in the family is low in the patriarchal culture. In patriarchal culture, men belongs in the public society while women in the private. Women are always considered as being responsible for “emotional labor” and “manual labor” of house chores and childcare. (Friedan 1963: 75) On the one hand, women are tied down to the household chores.
2.2 Causes for Anna’s Becoming the Other in Love
“Free woman” as Anna is, she is far from free. As “free woman”, Anna has sense of independence. She has the courage to get out of the yoke of marriage and live the life she likes. However, in her relationship with different men, she is controlled by them in spirit and body. Therefore, her freedom is limited. Anna loses the subjectivity because of her reliance on men and the oppression of patriarchy.
2.2.1 Emotional Reliance on Men
Anna is a woman with economic independence, but she is not absolutely free. In the traditional society, family is the whole of women’s lives. These women are “angles in the house” who are dependent of men and who have no independent thinking. As a “free woman”, Anna is different. She has her own career as a writer, which provides her with enough money. She can make a living without the financial support of men and there is no need for her to submit to men for economic support. Therefore she does not need to revolve around her family any more. She seems to be “free woman”, but in fact, she isn’t free.
Anna is not free despite of her economic independence. Joyce Dyer advocates that one cannot get independence without money of his own. (1993: 51) Woolf holds that women with economic independence can live “in the sunshine”. (1989: 62) Beauvoir (1974) views the economic independent conditions as the basis for women’s way towards freedom. She holds that financial independence is the precondition to gain freedom because women’s economic dependent situation leads to their dependent position. Only if women have the economic guarantee, can they construct their own subjectivity. All of the three great minds stress the importance of women’s economic independence in their pursuit of freedom. However, economic independence is not equal to spiritual independence. Anna is a woman who has got the basis for freedom, but she is not really free. Economical independence is the basic factor but not all the factors for women to gain freedom. The “free women” like Anna don’t change their consciousness of regarding their lover as the master, therefore they are not absolutely free.
Chapter Three Women’s Ways Out of Otherness Towards Freedom ................... 44
3.1 Marion’s Fight Against Burden of Housewife ........... 44
3.1.1 Separation from Unhappy Marriage .................... 44
3.1.2 Pursuit of Self-Consciousness ................... 46
3.2 Anna’s Pursuit of Mutual Acceptance and Respect ............. 47
Chapter Three Women’s Ways Out of Otherness Towards Freedom
Modern women are the Other in the society. However, these women are not born to be but are alienated as the Other because of the oppression of the femininity, the patriarchal concepts, the heavy burden of motherhood or the requirements from society. Fortunately, these women have rebellious spirit; they don’t submit to the status as the Other, instead, take active measures to fight for freedom in social and personal lives through various struggles.
3.1 Marion’s Fight Against Burden of Housewife
Marion pursues subjectivity by fighting against the burden of housewife. In patriarchal culture, women are the Other in the subordinate position while men are the subject in the dominate position. Marion is the stereotype woman who loses subjectivity in her cage-like marriage. Besides, Marion is incapable of changing her unfortunate conditions. She suffers from depression before Tommy helps her find her self-worth. Marion, by abandoning the bondage of marriage and realizing her self- worth in the society, gets out of the control of her husband and becomes independent.
Conclusion
The Golden Notebook demonstrates modern women’s mental and emotional conditions, revealing their lack of subjectivity in modern society which is male-dominated. Both the liberated women and the traditional housewives are living miserable lives. Among them, Marion, the traditional housewife, loses her subjectivity in the bondage of marriage. She sacrifices her own subject personalities, submits to her husband like a slave and urges herself to behave as her husband defines her. Consequently, Marion is totally controlled by her husband in economy and spirit in her family life. In the end, Marion is alienated as the Other without her own subjectivity and lives a miserable life. Anna and Molly, the liberated women, are different from Marion, because they have liberated themselves from the yoke of marriage and have gotten the economic independence. However, they are not absolutely free. These women are still confronted with difficult conditions. Though the “free woman” Anna can choose her professions and participate in political activities, she still submits to men when there are conflicts between her own needs and men’s will. Even if Anna is an intellectual, she would like to become the type of woman that her lover likes and she is always ready to give happiness to her lover if she is asked to. Her lovers, by contrast, only regard her as a sex tool, which makes her painful. Gradually, Anna is controlled by her lovers in spirit and body in her love affairs. Anna’s dependence on men and men’s selfishness deprives Anna of subject consciousness as a human being and turns her into the Other.
references(omitted)
相关语言学论文论文