An Analysis of Female's Self-consciousnessin The Thorn Birds1. IntroductionWritten by Australian woman writer Colleen McCullough, The Thorn Birds is her second novel which was published in 1977. Although it was not a great success at the time, it soon went on to become a best-seller, and by the early 1980s, it has become a required reading in many schools and colleges. It has been adapted to film in English in 1983. In 2003, the novel was listed at number 64 on the BBC’s survey The Big Read. Some people even regards it as the Australian version of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind, and The Time magazine has listed it as the top 10 modern classic works.This paper mainly explores the self-consciousness in The Thorn Birds by analyzing four women images from the perspective of their development stages which can be divided into four phases: female’s self-discovery, self-examination, self-positioning and self-improvement. Through the analysis of their living, social environment and twist love, the significance of self-consciousness can be figured out.1.1 About the authorColleen McCullough was born in Wellington of New South Wales in 1937[1:691]. She had shown her great talent in science and arts since she was young. Besides, she has never stoped developing her potential in literature, making many poems, stories and pictures[1:692]. All this contributes her to success.On the one side, she studied neurology abroad and taught the subject at Yale Medical School. And then she moved to American to be a neurophysiologist after working for ten years at Yale Medical School in New Haven, Connecticut. Now, McCullough is a member of the New York Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. On the other side, McCullough has also been very successful in writing. Her writing career lasted for four decades, and she covered a wide field of topics such as the Roman Empire and medical crimes. However, The Thorn Birds is her best and most powerful novel of all her works.The Thorn Birds establishes McCullough as a papular author of mainstream fiction. Though she got a reputation as a romance writer with this novel and Tim (1974), McCullough has created a diverse body of fiction with several genres, Millennium (1985)，the psychological novel An Indecent Obsession (1981), the dystopia fantasy A Creed for the Third, and ambitious series of historical novels set in Rome beginning with The First Man in Rome (1990).1.2 About The Thorn BirdsThe Thorn Birds was written by Colleen McCullough. I t’s a saga novel with its setting in Australia. The story focuses on Ralph and Meggie. It starts with the Cleary family in New Zealand: the father Paddy, his wife Fee, and the children, the most prominent person the eldest son Frank, and the youngest and only daughter Meggie, who becomes one of the two central characters in the story.In The Thorn Birds, women don’t want to submit themselves to men and old customs. They do their best to strive for their love. As the thorn birds which sing just once in their life, these women also love only once in their life. They would not like to change their love and they appeal to men for mutual understanding and valuing their love. No matter how difficult and painful the experiences will be, they do not care at all. They also believe that the real happiness comes after the extreme suffering experiences[2:61].The novel especially depicts four female images of Mary, Fiona, Meggie, and Justine, who dare to break the traditional rules and still believe in love after experiencing so much difficulties.1.3 Female’s self-consciousnessFemale self-consciousness is women’s consciousness of status,and value as human beings especially as women. It is a personal motive to stimulate women’s pursuit for freedom, independence, initiative, creativity. concretely speaking, female self consciousness means women wake up and fulfill her personal obligation, social responsibility, and historical mission, meanwhile they know their future well and take part in social activities positively in their own way[3:28].The establishment and development of female self-consciousness is a process of changing and developing with the change and development of the society. The standards of female self-consciousness’ status are stil l in research[4:11]. The development and improvement of female’s self-consciousness can be showed in four main aspects: women realize themselves as the subjects in society, this awareness is one of the great contributes of human beings. They are aware of w omen’s special abilities and play many different roles in balance, they regard man properly and can work with man in harmony. The female’s self-consciousness include the sex consciousness, which requires women to be self-confident, self-respective, but not self-abased. They can take a correct judgment on the two sexes, insisting on sexual equality, but not female superiority or inferiority. The female groups consciousness’ awakening begin with self-respect, self-confidence, independence, and female groups’ self-reliance.Mary Carson, Fiona, Meggie and Justine are the main females in The Thorn Birds.They have a strong female self-consciousness. They go through lots of sufferings, but they are independent and self-respected. They are in pursuit for love so as to be spiritually independent and make great efforts to achieve their dreams. They are kind-hearted, and go for what they want bravely. All these precious spirits are still worthy of cherishing till now.2. Female’s self-consciousness in The Thorn Birds2.1 Female’s self-discoverySelf-discovery is the first phase of self-consciousness’development that one starts to have the independent consciousness of being a human. In this stage, women in The Thorn Birds start to seek for independence and go for what they want. Mary Carson knows that fame and wealth are important to her; Fiona realizes she longs for the marriage that based on love; Meggie knows one must struggle for what she wants; Justine has her ideas both in love and career.2.1.1 Mary CarsonMary Carson’s self-discovery can be manifested in her pursuit towards wealth and power. She knows fame and wealth is necessary to women, so she chooses to change her destiny by marrying a rich man. She is not born with money and not so charming, but besides her genius, the great efforts make her live a superior life. It can be seen that Fiona starts to pursue money and power for she has the consciousness of being a woman. She is not a totally housewife who only knows to cook and raise children. She lives as a widow for thirty years and in order to keep all the inheritance to herself exclusively, she prefers to abandon her strong desire for man and wield power alone. “Not Mary Carson’s idea of living, to play second fiddle. So she had objured the flesh, preferring to wield power”[2:72]. It can be referred that Mary is a sensitive and clever woman.Mary Carson is unwilling to be the dependency of men. She wants her destiny firmly under control of her hands. From her story, it can be known that she begins to discover her emotion and looks for what she wants.2.1.2 FionaFiona’s self-discovery can be shown in her perseverance to love. She longs for the marriage that based in love, but she struggles for it with silence. She is a little different from traditional women who always follow parents’ orders. She falls in love with a married man Parker, and gives birth to a child for him. She cares nothing about others’ thinking and she knows what she wants and actually goes for it. Though her lover Parker abandons her for his own future and reputation. To maintain the honor of her family, she is forced to marry the shearer Paddy, she never regret for her pursuit.It can be shown that women have a vulnerable side in love. As a result of the first climax of feminist movement at the end of 19th century, women have the independent consciousness that woman should dominate the destiny of herself. Regardless of the secular eyes, she pursues the true love bravely. However, in the man-centered society, she has no opportunity to change their own destiny.2.1.3 MeggieMeggie’s self-discovery can be seen in her character of childhood. She is a woman who has her own thoughts since she is just 4 years old, she knows man must struggle for what they want. She is so brave and not like a girl, and she is aware of her mother’s indifference to her, but she ignores it and accepts it without any complains. She keeps silence to the shame of nun’s whip and turn s a deaf ear to the whispering of the little girl besides her. She can bear any bad thing just for what she wants .Then Ralph walks into her life and gives her warmth that others never give. As her love to Ralph becomes stronger, she shows her love to him positively. Even when she knows she can’t have Ralph, she still wants to fight for it.From Meggie, women’s self-consciousness can be seen clearly. They have their own ideas and want to achieve their dreams no matter what costs they have to pay.2.1.4 JustineJustine’s self-discovery can be shown in her attitude towards love and career. Her calling for independence is stronger than their former generations. She is strong, heartless and aloof. She never concern about other’s thoughts for she wants to prove one thing: she needs no one. She is a totally independent woman. Just as once she said: “I’m never, never, never going to love anyone! If you love people, they kill you. If you need people, they kill you. They do, I tell you!”[2:545]. One of the most prominent character of her is rebellion and independence. She despises the Vatican and calls religion as deceitful tricks. She even shows defiance to marriage and love when she is just 17. When her mother Meggie asks her if she wants to get marry, she says with an indifferent attitude: “Not bloody likely! Spend my life wiping snotty noses and cacky bums? Salaaming to some man not half my equal even though he thinks he’s better? Ho ho ho, not me!”[2:528].It can be found that she grows into an independent, keenly intelligent girl. She has little care for anyone else, and calmly refuses Meggie’s offers of motherly affection. As a woman of new generation, she has her special ideas both in marriage and career. .2.2 Female’s self-examinationSelf-examination is the second phase of self-consciousness’ development s that one starts to explore their inner world and realize what she can do to get what she needs. In thisstage, Mary Carson knows she can’t conceal her desire for Ralph; Fiona begins to comprehend his husband Paddy; Meggie leaves Luke; Justine wants to have her own life and career.2.2.1 Mary CarsonMary Carson’s self-examination can be showed in her love with Ralph. Mary Carson believes that there are no boundary of age in love. She loves Ralph and can’t hide it, but she is clear that Ralph is not likely to love her. As a result, she hates her age and only can follow Ralph and Meggie with an envious eyes. However, age cannot make her give up her love to Ralph, just as what she says, “ I have loved you, God, how much! Do you think my years automatically preclude it? Well, Father Bricassart, let me tell you something. Inside this stupid body I’m still young—I still feel, I still want, I still dream, I still kick up my heels and chafe at restrictions like my body. Being old is the bitterest vengeance our vengeful God inflicts upon us. Why doesn’t he age our minds as well?”[2:182].So, Mary Carson’s love is the same as her desire to wealth and power—destroy it or have it absolutely. She starts to explore her inner world but she does it in a wrong way.2.2.2 FionaFiona’s self-examination can be proved in her understandings to her husband. After the death of her husband, she suddenly knows that she loves her husband. She realizes her attitude to her husband is wrong. Actually when she is forced to marry Paddy, she is very unhappy, and the huge gap between ideal and reality makes her live in depression and pains. She complains for being a women, and curses destiny but has to surrender to fate. She thinks she won’t be able to love anyone else except Parker. Actually she is wrong because she loves her husband. However, her emotion breaks out only after her husband’s death.Fiona is a traditional woman, but her self-consciousness still can be found. She starts to examine herself and finds her inner world, but she is not a woman who totally realizes the real sense of self consciousness.2.2.3 MeggieMeggie’s self-examination can be showed in her attitude towards Luke. After being deserted by Ralph, she marries a rude man Luke who looks a little bit like Ralph. But in the bottom of her heart, Ralph is still her love. Luke does n’t love her, and he marries Meggie just because of the 2000 pounds per year.Since Meggie has known that Luke is a man who only cares about money, she resolutely leaves Luke and returns to Drogheda, and raises up two children. Meggie is a brave woman: once she realizes something is wrong, she abandons it without regrets.Self-examination is an important phase for the development of Meggie’s self-consciousness. The biggest charm of Meggie’s self-consciousness lies in her brave pursuit for love and loyalty. She has done everything she can to keep her love but she can’t change it. In her pursuit for a forbidden love, she exhausts everything she has, her love is selfless and worthy of praise.2.2.4 JustineJustine’s self-examination can be mainly showed in her perseverance for love and work. The 50s and 60s of 20th century is the second climax of the western feminist movement. Women have more rights in political, family, and economy, they also get chances to receive education like men. They are no longer regarding family as their life center, and they have their own careers[6:12]. Under this environment, Justine wants to be an actor and then goes for it, nothing can stop her. She leaves Drogheda for the city Sydney where full of stimulations and challenges. She is very confident in doing what she wants to do, and she has more freedom to strive for self-consciousness than her former generations. But instead of loving herself only, she puts all her love to her young brother Dane, she expects to get a little comfort and love from him.women in that time start to explore their inner world and realize what they can do to get what they need.2.3 Female’s self-positioningSelf-positioning is the third phase of self-consciousn ess’ development that one starts to have a goal to fight for, and one exactly knows who he/she is and what his/her position is. In this stage, knowing Ralph loves Meggie, Mary Carson writes a will to induce Ralph; Fiona understands Paddy’s love and regrets her indifferent attitude to Paddy and Meggie; Meggie knows she can’t fight with God; Justine thinks that she doesn’t need to love anyone else except her brother Dane.2.3.1 Mary CarsonMary Carson’s self-positioning manifests in her will. She is a woman who cannot stand that others possess the things that she longs for but could not gain. She never know how to do other things, but she only knows how to make the one she loves suffer. Just as an old saying goes: if you hate him, send him to New York, because it’s a hell; if you love him, send him you New York, because it’s a heaven.Mary knows what Ralph’s weakness is, so in the final moments of her life she makes a elaborate trap—13 million pounds heritage to lure Ralph, which makes Meggie and Ralph suffers forever. Her revenge carries on after her death, thus Ralph and Meggie's life has changed since that. “Ralph, I love you, so much I would have killed you for not wantingme, except that this is a far better form of revenge. I’m not the noble kind wo man; I love you but I want you to scream with agony. Because you see, I know what your decision will be. I know it as surely as if I could be there, watching you scream, Ralph, you’ll know what agony is. Read my will, and decide your fate”[2:188].This is a paragraph in Mary’s will, It’s obvious that the love between Mary and Ralph is a selfish and crazy love which is based on possession. I f she can’t get it, she will destroy it .Mary defines herself as a pride and selfish woman. Because of her love and hate to Ralph, she chooses to destroy him. Through her story, it can be inferred that women should place themselves in a correct position and love should be unselfish. A selfish love cannot let one obtain any pleasure or happiness, even he/she suffers great because of this love. He/She cannot get the peace and content as well. The only result it brings is to make you become hateful and regret[7:57-58]. Mary Carson is a clever woman but she shows herself in an extreme way.2.3.2 FionaFiona’s self-positioning can be shown in her regret to her husband. Although she is forced to marry Paddy, he accepts her without any complaints. For Paddy, she feels guilty all the time, but all she can do is the endless housework and raising children for him. In addition to this, she thinks can’t give him anything else. Paddy is a real good husband. In his lifetime, with the feelings of inferiority and admiration, he loves his wife who won’t love him. After knowing the death of P addy, Fiona’s emotion is broke out under the long time depression, she begins to self-examine. She cries and says to Meggie:“I kept hanging on to Frank, ignoring the rest of you. Ignored Paddy, who was the best thing ever happened to me. I didn’t see it. I was too busy to compare him to Parker. Oh, I was grateful to him, and I couldn’t help but see what a fine man he was….”[2:488]. This shows that the love of Fiona is always miserable. Thinking that she loves nobody but Parker, Fiona is usually indifferent to her husband Paddy. Not until her husband’s death did she suddenly understand that over the year’s life with her husband, the love her husband show s to her had deep rooted in her mind, and her feelings of guilty have been converted to affection and love. But it’s too late. Since fate is too complicated and difficult to predict, after all the pains and sufferings, she finally realizes the true meaning of life and love.2.3.3 MeggieMeggie’s self-positioning can be seen in the changes of her attitude to Ralph. Meggie’s son Dane also wishes to be a priest when he grows up. Knowing that she can’t fight against God, Meggie realizes she will lose her son and writes in the letter to Ralph that “I returned the thing I stolen from you”, which Ralph can’t understand all the time.Although in love with Meggie, in all his life, Ralph is always entangled with conflictions between power and love, divine and human nature. He doesn’t realize his emotions until the end of his life.The process of Meggie’s persistent pursuit for pure love fully embodies the traditional female self consciousness and the desire to pursue independent personalities. But in her heart, there still exists some deep-rooted traditional thoughts, such as the affirmation for man’s right to have money, houses, wife and children. So when Luke asks her property as his own, she takes it for granted. It is clear that women in that time had certain independent consciousness, but unable to completely get rid of the traditional thoughts about men and women[6:59].2.3.4 JustineJustine’s self-positioning can be shown in her attitude to Dane, her mother and Rainer. After the death of his brother Dane, everything changes. Justine stuck in the infinite pains and self-blame, she loses the focus of her life. But Dane's death awakes Meggie's love to her daughter. With the help of her mother and Rainer, Justine finally walks out of the pains. Rainer is a mature, charming and sincere man, who loves her, respects her and has waited her for ten year. She finally knows how to understand herself, overcome the fear of marriage, and establish their own way of life. It’s a road full of happiness which is totally different from her grandmother and mother.Justine’s life experienc es can fully manifest the new attitude that female of new generation towards love and marriages, and the ambivalence in the process of seeking themselves in the modern society[8:216].2.4 Female’s self-improvementSelf-improvement is the fourth phase of self-consciousness’ development that one learns what her/his problem is and seeks for solutions to solve it. In this stage, Fiona persuades her daughter to forgive Justine; Meggie shows her affection to her daughter and encourages her daughter to have a better life; Justine accepts Rainer and becomes closer to her mother.2.4.1 FionaFiona’s self-improvement can be found in Fiona attitude’s change to her daughter. When Meggie backs home, she gives birth to a beautiful boy whom she names Dane. Fiona, who has had experienced in such matters, notices Dane’s similarity to Ralph as s oon as he is born. The relationship between Meggie and Fiona takes a turn for the better. Dane grows up and decides to become a priest. Fiona tells Meggie what she steals from God, and she must now gives it back. After the death of Dane, she persuades Meggie to show heraffection to Justine.Fiona starts to find out her mistakes and wants to make up for it. She loves her daughter and hopes she won’t repeat her tragedy again.2.4.2 MeggieMeggie’s self-improvement in this stage is characterized by her attitudes towards Justine, Ralph, her mother Fee and Dane’s death. After Dane’s death, Meggie asks Ralph who can speak Greece for help to get her son’s body back home. She tells Ralph that Dane is their son. Ralph takes Dane back to Drogheda and dies in Meggie's arms with pain and guilt. Meggie suddenly loses two important men in her life, and the struggle for the love between her and God also ends with her failure. But after experiencing so much pain, Finally calming down, Meggie realizes the depth of love, so her life still has the meaning of itself. She knows that her perseverance to love is not wrong, just as what she says:“I did it all to myself, I have no one else to blame. And I cannot regret one single moment of it ”[1:692].Meggie in this phase is aware of who she is and what she has done, what her mistake is and how to make up for it. She breaks the traditional definition of men to women.2.4.3 JustineJustine’s self-improvement can manifests in her positive attitude towards her lover Rainer and her mother Meggie. Because of the death of Dane, Justine disconnects with Rainer and falls into a depressed mood. But Rainer visits Drogheda alone in order to urge Meggie to help him chase Justine. Justine finally accepts her true feelings for Rainer.As the last generation, Justine finally becomes an independent woman both in economy, politics, and personality. She has her own career, and a marriage that based on love, which is just the thing that her mother and grandmother longs for. The self-consciousness of her becomes mature at last.3. Factors of forming female’s self-consciousness in The Thorn BirdsIn The Thorn Birds,there are two factors for the four females to form self-consciousness: the family factor and the character factor. The family factor refers to family upbringing, family structure, family atmosphere, and parents’ words and deeds. The character factor means personal quality and individuality. It can be showed in one’s moral, ethical actions and reactions.3.1 Family factorsFamily factors play an important role in forming Fiona’s self consciousness. Fiona isborn and grows up in upper class. In her family, she must strictly abide by the family rules. Fiona wants to control their own fate through free love, but she achieves it in a wrong way. Those sufferings make her a silent woman. After her husband’s death, all her emotions break out. She starts to realize her husband’s love to her, and regrets for her attitudes to him and her children. The development of her self-consciousness is influenced by her family environment.Meggie is born in a poor family which only can survive by shearing. She is the only girl in many kids. In the eyes of her mother, Meggie is only her copy and will repeat the same fate as her, so it’s not worth much to love her. In her view, women are born with miserable fate. Therefore she ignores Meggie's existence and puts all her love on the eldest son Frank. Lacking of love except Frank’s love, Meggie takes Frank as her only reliance. When she is nine years old she moves to Drogheda and meets Ralph, whom she regards as a friend and tells everything to him, she thinks she gets what she can’t gets from Ralph. All the things make her a brave woman. She loves the person who loves her, and she longs for true love and wants to seek for meaningful life.Justine is the child of Meggie and Luke, who grows up in a single parent family. Meggie regards Luke just as Ralph's replacement. From him, she has never received any happiness she wants. Therefore Justine becomes the victim of their unfortunate marriage. Justine is born and grows up in a home without father’s love,and little care from her mother. Living in such a family, Justine shows an independent and arrogant attitude which is different from ordinary girl. She is not close to anyone, even her dear mother. When her brother Dane is born, she puts all her passion and love to her brother Dane. She always has a strong possessive desire and sense of responsibility, as if Dane only belongs to her alone. Even in adulthood, she still maintains great relationship with Dane. Her growing environment not only shapes her independent, rebellious character, but also causes an abnormal psychology of her. But all these change since Dane’s death. With the help of her mother and lover, she finally becomes a great woman.3.2 Character factorsThe noble family makes Fiona a pride and elegant woman, but actually she is a stubborn and brave woman. She falls in love with the married man Parker. Though he abandons her, she still gives birth to their child Frank without hesitation. After all the hardships, she develops a silent and indifferent character. Spending the day in silence, she looks serious, even her husband can’t know what she is thinking. These cause the distance between her and her husband, who love her all his life but gets no response. After his death, she wakes up, as she says, "I love him, but I never have the opportunity to say to him! Iwas so unlucky......" [2:315]. From Fiona, it can be found that character has a great effect on the development of self-consciousness.From 4 years old, Meggie understands that people who don’t struggle for themselves won’t win anything. She knows that people need to pay huge price if they want to realize their dreams. She is more direct than other girls, and doesn’t want to hide her feelings. Having ideas that are different from ordinary woman, she has more personalities: perseverance, courage, and great capacity to against the doom[8:216-217]. When she meets Ralph, Ralph replaces her brother and father's position and she realizes the feeling to him is a kind of love when she is grow up. Although she knows he is a priest and it’s unlikely to have him, she still adheres to fight against God fearlessly.Justine develops an independent personality. When she becomes older, she is freer both in work and love. She is independent, strong, and prefers to realize her dream with her own ability rather than depending on anyone else. As to love, she doesn't believe secular love, and even doesn't want to get married. Because of her rebellious character, she won’t follow anybody's advice, and choose a special but hard love road. After the death of Dane, she is awake and starts to seek their happiness.4. ConclusionsThese four women in the novel The Thorn Birds represent the process of women’s self-consciousness in different stages. At the same time, they also show different self-consciousness because of their different characters and different background.The first generation representatives of female images are Mary Carson and Fiona. I t’s a stage that women is bullied by men, thus women has to struggle with society. Then it comes to the second stage which is represented by Meggie. At this stage, women want to change their destiny by pursuing love on their own, they are out of traditional society that men control everything. They starts to know what self-consciousness is and how to obtain it. The last stage is represented by Justine, who is a bold, independent, and rebellious woman. It’s a phase full of independence and liberation of personality. In the life experiences of Mary, Fiona, Meggie, and Justine, their dissatisfaction and resistance to the fate of traditional women is showed here. They have stronger independent consciousness to get rid of the attachment to men, and restore the independent position[10:57-59].From them, it can be known clearly that love needs loyalty and selflessness. At the same time it should be based on the mutual understanding of both sexes and harmonious coexistence[11:18]. Under independence, equality and mutual trust, true love can exist. At any time, the selfishness, vanity, greed love should be despised. As a female of new。
