Thesis: Comparative Study of Female Consciousness in Desperate Housewives and A Dream in Red Mansions
《绝望主妇》与《红楼梦》女性意识对比研究School or Department: College of Foreign Languages Grade and Specialty: 2010,English Education
Name: Sun Fangfang
Advisor: Han Fuling
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Abstract
The paper mainly makes a detailed comparison between the female consciousness of Desperate Housewives and A Dream in Red Mansions. This novel analyses the female consciousness from the following aspects: a brief introduction of Desperate Housewives and A Dream in Red Mansions; the interpretation of female consciousness; What should modern women learn from the two works. Through analysis, this paper attempts to show readers more than just a love novel. So in the meantime people should pay special attention to the intense female consciousness in the two works. And modern women could establish correct values and be more confident and learn the female consciousness from the two works.
Key words: resistance; love; self-consciousness;female consciousness
摘要
本文尝试从中西女性意识对比分析研究角度，剖析研究具有代表性的美国典型电视剧《绝望主妇》和中国古代四大名著其一的《红楼梦》，来分析不同文化背景下两部作品中女性意识的异同。本文运用对比研究法和文献资料法具体比较分析了两部作品中女主人公对不平等现状的反叛精神，爱情观，婚姻观和个人独立意识,从而展现剧中女性所代表的在男权社会现实下所面对的困境，揭露了女性和男性不平等的社会现实，同时强调了女性要通过独立斗争，争取自己权益的重要性。
关键词：女性意识；反叛精神；爱情观；婚姻观；独立意识
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Table of Contents
Abstract
摘要
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Analysis of Desperate Housewives and A Dream in Red Mansions
2.1 Analysis of Desperate Housewives
2.2 Analysis of A Dream in Red Mansions
Chapter 3 Female Consciousness
3.1 The Definition of Female Consciousness
Chapter 4 Female Consciousness in Desperate Housewives and A Dream in Red Mansions
4.1 Female consciousness in Desperate Housewives
4.1.1 Resistance
4.1.2 Love
4.1.3 Self-awareness
4.2 Female consciousness in A Dream in Red Mansions 4.2.1 Resistance
4.2.2 Love
4.2.3 Self-awareness
Chapter Five Conclusion
Chapter One Introduction
With the rapid advancement of modern society, it is obvious that women are playing a more and more important role on all aspects. People have began to realize the significance of women’s status and pursue individual freedom initially. More and more women choose to challenge traditional concepts and are struggling to improve their situations and social status. The two works all focus on the female consciousness and express wome n’s requirements, desire s, and meanwhile tell us how women struggle to strive for their own freedom and social status.
Desperate Housewives, an famous American television series, produced by Marc Cherry, was first presented on ABC in 2004.The ABC television network broadcast a series "desperate housewives" 1 set in October 2005, and in just two months it quickly entered into the American family. And the show attracted millions of viewers in such a short time. In 2005, the 62th annual golden globe awards "desperate housewives" on the TV series "best comedy series", "best actress", three "comedy" best
supporting actress award. The show, pouring into China as a fashion, was attracting increasing individuals. The main audience of Desperate Housewives are the white-collar workers living in cities, with small achievements. The show was a big success in the 2004-2005 television season and obtained a lot of critical acclaim, broadcast in many countries. There is no doubt that show was popular and attractive. The series raced to the top and immediately the term ''desperate housewives'' became a cultural phenomenon, arousing many woman just like the housewives in Desperate Housewives. The actresses, in Desperate Housewives, were especially spoke highly of for their roles in Desperate Housewives.
The show, in a way, is a microcosm, not only reflecting modern society's understanding of female characters but also reflecting the difficulties women are challenging. The show let us have a understanding of the four women’s distinctive personalities.
However, in the face of a variety of pressure in their life, the contradiction between the traditional bondage and modern woman's independence was intensifying, which made the housewives, in Desperate Housewives,
almost desperate. And they also persisted in fighting for their living space against patriarchal society pressure.
The show, Desperate Housewives, was set on Wisteria Lane in the town of Fairview, introducing the four housewives. Follow ing women’s domestic struggles, they shared happiness and sorrow. But there are lots of unknown things involving their surroundings, their families, their friends,and so on.
What Desperate housewives impressed people most is their honesty to others. People never take anything to hide their nature, which made people accustomed to the implicit culture atmosphere feel fresh and excited. The show created a series of brilliant female figures to express female encouragement and awake women’s self-consciousness.
A Dream in Red Mansions, one of the four great classics in ancient China, was famous enough to occupy an important position in the history of ancient novel, also called the encyclopedia of Feudal society. A Dream in Red Mansions is created by Cao Xueqin . He was born in a family which three generations held the office of Commissioner of Imperial Textiles in NanJing, a family so wealthy that they were able to entertain the Emperor
Kangxi four times. Cao Xueqin was living in poverty when he wrote this famous novel A Dream in Red Mansions(also known as The Story of the Stone), of which this is the second volume. The other four volumes, The Golden Days, The Warning Voice, The Debt of Tears and The Dreamer Wakes, are also published in the Penguin Classics.
A Dream in Red Mansions, also famous as The Story of the Stone, is one of the wonderful novels in the history of Chinese literature. The fifth part of this novel, "The Dreamer Awakes", was carefully edited and completed by Gao E. A great number of readers were attacked by A Dream in Red Mansions. However, many readers treated it just as a love story , a best-selling book and forgot about the distinctive female features in this novel. This novel contained rich implicatures which not only encouraged their spirit of struggling for survival and never gave in to fortune but also filled with intense female consciousness.
The paper, made up of five parts, mainly makes a detailed comparative analysis of female consciousness between the two works. The first chapter starts with a
simple and clear introduction to the topic. For the second chapter, the author gives a detailed introduction to the two works. The third chapter aims to explore the definition of female consciousness. In regard to the fourth chapter, it constitutes the key part in this paper, concentrating on the comparison of the two works. The fifth chapter serves as the conclusion part summarizing the main findings and making some useful suggestions.
This paper mainly attempts to analyze and make a comparison between the characters in Desperate Housewives and A Dream in Red Mansions under the different culture background.
Chapter Two Analyses of Desperate Housewives and A dream in Red Mansions
2.1 Analysis of Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives concentrated on the housewives who lived in Suburbia. The show revealed the circumstances that women lost themselves in their family and women’s traits of individuals in the marriage, love, and sex. The story happened in the United State. Here are the most beautiful and graceful housewives. In the fictional way, the community was full of rich happiness.People were enjoying their peaceful life. But one day the peace was shattered by a gunshot completely. The leading roles in Desperate housewives were of different personalities.They received a good education, with a country club membership, and they all live in big houses, with a large swimming pool. What’s more, they have a complete family, a decent job enjoying their high salaries.
However, in the sweet town, almost everyone has a secret. The women in the persuit of career found the
family worth giving up her job, and the girls thinking money means everything to them finally met a rich husband, but not everyone seems to lead a happy life just as fairy tale novel. Some housewives have been divorced,while some are still immersed in their desperate marriage. They lived together in a peaceful, graceful community, living the life which appeared to be very perfect. But the truth is not just as it looks like.
The show started with Mary Alice, who took her own life and left her families, her home. However, this is not Mary's end of the story. Now she took people into the lives of her friends, families and neighbors. On Wisteria Lane her circle of girlfriends included Susan Mayer (Teri Hatcher): Felicity Huffman played the role Lynette Scavo. Lynette Scavo was a single mother,who left her fast career in advertising and made up her mind to be a stay-at-home mother of four kids. Bree Van De Kamp, whose life recently is completely out of control. And something unhappy just happened to her perfect life. And Gabrielle Solis, the ex-model who had whatever she wanted , such as a wealthy husband, a decent house. The problem is she’s not sure who the father is. Newcomer
Betty Applewhite and her cute son, Matthew, who mysteriously moved into a house they’d never seen in the middle of the night.
Desperate Housewives exposed the reality that the four housewives were facing, and showed the difficulties and despair women had in real life. The show revealed that the society actually is the patriarchal society and women are not in equal status with men. They had no independent economic rights and was still attached to men,which made them fell despairing and hopeless.
A Dream in Red Mansions, also famous as The Story of the Stone,is a wonderful novel in Chinese literature, occupying a remarkable status in Chinese literature. It mainly described the story of the decline of a noble family, the decline of Jia dynasty. The novel, completed in the Qing Dynasty roughly between 1749 and 1759 , is credited to CaoXueqin.
Cao Xueqin, who created the work A dream in Red Mansions, was born in the early of the 18th century durin g the period of emperor Kong Xi. Historical researches re vealed that the personal experiences of Cao have amazin g similarities to the events in this novel. A Dream in Red
Mansions is universally accepted as the summit in Chinese classical novels. Based on the love story of Baoyu and Daiyu, the novel described the rise and fall of the four family. Moreover, it is believed to be a microscope, reflecting the tragedy of Cao's family. The main line of A dream of red mansions is the love marriage tragedy between Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu, Xue Baochai, describing the rise and decline of four families. The novel revealed the complicated contradictions in the feudal family, and the decayed feudal education, marriage, social system, culture, morality and so on. The novel created a variety of nobilities, civilians and the tragic images of slave women who has reflected an extremely typical feudal society’s living environment.A Dream in Red Mansions reflected that the feudal society is bound to collapse, the inevitably declining trend of history. A Dream in Red Mansions also praised the nobleman’s re bellion and objected to the feudal marriage, which mirrored the democratic idea. And the novel fully revealed the profound social root of marriage tragedy between Lin Daiyu, Jia Baoyu, Xue Baochai. The novel is outstanding, in addition to its huge and complex
psychological description and rich characters, mainly for its detailed and accurate observation of the feudal social structure. Many readers consider that this novel is completely a love story, which mainly lies in the triangular love between Baoyu, Daiyu, and Baochai. But owing to historical limitations, the author also betrayed sad feelings in writing the decline of the feudal family.
The author successfully potrayed many distinctive female characters filled with great talent and grace. One of the most important leading characters was Daiyu. One of the prominent characteristics of this novel is the great esteem given to women. In this novel, even those characters with rather low social status were given such vivid and unforgettable personalities.
Daiyu, being over sentimental and fragile, is orphaned and wretched. Daiyu is a talented beautiful girl, but she is so sentimental and delicate. Daiyu is one of the girls in"First Register of Twelve Beauties of Jin Ling", she stand for the highest value in A Dream in Red Mansions. Daiyu is beautiful and elegant, looking just like a fairy. Her artistic endowment is amazing.
Baoyu fell in love with Daiyu bacause she can
understanded his thoughts, they two had a lot in common. She was dedicated to her lifetime pursuit of perfect love. While she was so depressed, having a negative attitude to her life. And she often wept because of her fragile and sensitive character. More importantly, she loves Baoyu very much. This novel mainly des cribed Daiyu’s tragic destiny.
Daiyu, at the same time, is also a rebellious figure in the novel. Daiyu represents, to some degree, women’s unfortunate fate in the feudal society, women’s resistance to the feudal society and pursuit for true love. She is proud and aloof, but she is also respectable, because she helps Xiang ling learn poems, and treats ZiJuan as her sister. Moreover, she is also sentimental and sensitive, but there is no doubt that her spiritual world is elegant and rich. But Daiyu’s weakness lies in her fragile and restrained character.
Xue Baochai, she is one of the main characters in the classic novel A Dream in Red Mansions. Baochai is also a beautiful and elegant woman, and she behaves herself gracefully. She gets along well with others and solves matters properly. She is also learned and generous.
And she is worldly smart and makes herself safe, taking a feudal philosophy. She believes in feudal morals and ethics.At the same time, she does well in dealing with human relationship. she is able to please everybody. On the other hand, she is a cynical woman, she has a critical spirit towards the society, that explains why she is so heartless, cold and unconcerned about the world. She doesn’t care about frame and wealth.But, she is still a traditional girl, she urges Baoyu to study hard. Xue Baochai played a role of a conventional woman of feudal society. But she is also a tragic figure.
Wang Xifeng is the wife of Jia Lian. She has a ready tongue, able to please everybody in the big household. Wang Xifeng is very popular in JiaFu, handling all the inner problems, especially good at pleasing the elders at JiaFu, so even if she did something wrong, she never suffered severe criticism. But her means of dealing with things was very vicious. So no one dared to offend her, people often spoke ill of her behind her back.
But, she is also a faithful wife and loving mother, following the feudal wifely obedience and virtue. Being in the big household, no one really cares for them, so she
cautiously leads her life. Having deeply impressed by the feudal virtues, she easy-going and mild attitude to life as a common traditional woman does. So she has a peace of mind. She is smart in life, not allowing others to calculate her. In fact, she has potential ability to deal with a social activity, but she is just a widow at that dark feudal society.
Chapter Three Female Consciousness
3.1The Definition of Female Consciousness
"Female consciousness is a cross-cultural, cross-race concept."
Female consciousness, the concept stemed from the social gender awareness, referring to the female perspective and cognitive gender consciousness.
The so-called gender consciousness，referring to the conscious awareness of gender relations, studies the political economy culture from the gender perspective, conducting the gender analysis and planning. Famale consciousness mainly emphasises on human subjectivity. Therefore, female consciousness is that females act as the subjects in the objective world, and learn to be aware of their own position, value and role. Specifically, female consciousness is women's unique kind of the women's consciousness, is to fulfill their historical missions, social responsibility, obligation, to be aware of their own characteristics,and to find a unique way to take part in the social life of the reformation.
Female conciousness contains three respects,