解读《彩虹》中的三代女性
D.H.劳伦斯是英国二十世纪的著名作家之一，他的著作《彩虹》讲述了布兰温三代人的婚姻和恋爱故事，叙述了英国工业文明对人性的破坏。本篇论文通过对小说中三代女性的研究，分别阐释了她们对于追寻自我的不同体验，分析了她们与传统和男权制度抗争的历程，以及为解放自我，寻求自我界定的努力，重点对小说中第三代女性厄秀拉的女性形象进行了分析，探索了她在寻求自我解放和自我实现的过程中碰到问题时表现出的坚忍不屈的态度。
关键字  《彩虹》，女性形象，工业文明
1  Introduction                               1
2  Lydia: Quiet Awakening                          2
3  Anna: Failed Challenge                          4
3.1  Anna’s Life in Her Early Years                      4
3.2  Anna’s Encounter with Will                       5
4  Ursula: a Tenacious Quest                         6
4.1  The Relationship Between Ursula and Anton Skrebensky          7
4.2  The Failure of Ursula’s Rebellion                     8
Conclusion                                 10
Acknowledgements                             11
References                                 12、

1  Introduction
David Herbert Lawrence is one of the influential English novelists of the 20th century. He has published many works, such as novels, essays, short stories, plays, poems and so on. He is also a gifted painter. There are many of his works that relate to the description of sexual relationship, such as Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Women in Love and Lady Chatterley's Lover, which were very controversial at that time. His opinions on marriage and sex are partly affected by his family life. His father who was uneducated worked as a miner, liked drinking and paid little attention to the children and his wife. But his mother who was born in a middle-class family had good manners and was fond of reading and music. Not only did they have different family backgrounds and occupations, but also they had diverse values. Therefore, the relationship of his parents was very terrible. Lawrence has had a unique attitude to gender relation and been interested in art and literary since he was young. As a novelist, he mainly focuses on women’s pursuit of sexual fulfillment, relationships between men and women, and the conflicts between individuals and society. Though Lawrence’s opinions of the liberation of feminism are changing in the process of his writing, there is no doubt that Lawrence shows much sympathy for women and cares about them in his novels. Lawrence has created a lot of female images in his novels by analyzing their inner world, which leaves a deep impression on people.
 The Rainbow, written during 1913-1915, is one of Lawrence’s works which is very meaningful in the history of British literature. In the Victorian era, it was not decent for people to talk about sex in public. So when this book was first published, it raised much controversy owing to a lot of contents concerning the description of sexuality. In the novel of The Rainbow, Lawrence explores the emotional states of characters and the effects of social changes. The contents of the novel are about three generations of the Brangwen family. The first of these is the first representative couple of Tom Brangwen and Lydia Lensky. There is always a feeling of strangeness between them, but Lydia who is a polish widow lives a peaceful life with Tom on the Marsh Farm. The second generation of Brangwen family in The Rainbow deals with the marriage of Anna and Will. Unfortunately, this couple only has sexual desire but no spiritual communication. So Anna and Will often have conflicts in their marriage and can’t achieve the final fulfillment. In the third generation of Brangwens of the novel, it narrates the experience of Ursula who is the oldest daughter of Will and Anna. The views of Ursula’s sexual relation are different from the previous two generations. She is dissatisfied with the industrial society, always seeks the harmony between fresh and soul and constantly makes efforts to realize the self. Today, The Rainbow is accepted not only because it can embody Lawrence’s sympathy for women but also it is one of the most wonderful novels of the world.
2  Lydia’s Quiet Awakening
Lydia first married a surgeon named Paul Lensky who has higher status than her and better than her in many other aspects. The same as the traditional women at that time, Lydia respects her husband and considers herself as inferior and trivial. Lensky is an intellectual man who studied in Berlin and then became a passionate patriot when he went back to Warsaw. Lydia looks after Lensky carefully and repeats whatever he says. Lydia loses herself entirely following Lensky to become a patriot and participate in a lot of activities on patriotism. That Lydia learns nursing service only serves as a symbol of seeking the liberation but no virtual significance. During Lydia’s first marriage, she doesn’t have a correct definition of her self or express her own opinions. And she always keeps silent only devoting herself to her husband’s career and treating him like a loyal slave: “[a]s if drugged, followed him like a shadow, echoing.” (Lawrence, 2011: 43) But things happen unexpectedly, one day they come back home finding their two children die because of the disease, Lensky suddenly becomes crazy and almost doesn’t know anyone. And the war is continuing, Lensky returns at his work quickly. He gradually becomes irritable and combines himself with resistance movement. At the time Lydia doesn’t say a word only feeling darkness in her mind. But after Lensky died, she feels a sense of relief. It is tragic for Lydia who almost has no self and loses her emotion for life in the marriage between her and Lensky. However, Lydia’s first marriage makes her start to be aware of the necessity of realizing the self.
Lydia considers that the indifference and exotic atmosphere of England are suitable for her. In addition, in order to realize her own value and self-liberation, Lydia is determined to stay in England with her daughter, Anna. Here Tom Brangwens who is a farmer meets with Lydia and falls in love with her at first sight. On the one hand, Lydia coming from a foreign country is so charming for Tom that he can not help furthering to get to know her. When Lydia goes to Tom’s house to borrow butter, she talks to him directly and her unconventional behavior surprises him. On the other hand, Tom was born on the Marsh Farm and has always been living here, and he is curious and very interested in the fresh things. What is fortunate is that Lydia is also well disposed to him. However, due to the background of the farm and the times, their union is bound to have difficulties. Furthermore, it is inevitable that there are different languages, cultures and manners between them, which leads to the obstacles of their communication. Tom finds it difficult to contact with Lydia because he knows nothing about her past or other many things of her. Afterwards, they gradually have more connections with each other. But there is still a strong feeling of strangeness between them even when Lydia accepts the propose and love of Tom. Tom doesn’t have advantage over Lydia and also doesn’t have good education as her, but Lydia is willing to marry him. Accepting Tom is her instinct both for safety and for life. Between their marriage, Lydia gradually seeks her natural desire for self-definition and lives together with Tom hospitably and harmoniously.
After marrying Tom Brangwen, Lydia finds herself beginning to live for self instead of living by convention. Wakened from the suppressed female self, Lydia starts to have the courage to pursue her love actively. Besides, life is quiet peaceful on the Marsh farm where people can’t be disturbed by the outside world, which gives Lydia more opportunities to be the self. At the beginning of their marriage, both of them want to have own thoughts and desire, but they make an agreement by meeting the needs of sexual relation. In the aspect of the sexual contacts, Lydia takes an active and open attitude unlike other women in the Victorian time: “[s]he learned forward a little, and with a strange, primeval suggestion of embrace, hold him her mouth.” (Lawrence, 2011: 43) Sometimes, she also pursues her right to refuse Tom’s demand of sexuality. She has been conscious that her husband can not become all parts of her life and she should have her own thoughts. Lydia understands that it is unfair for her being completely controlled by her first husband and has been aware of the unfairness of men’s domination. Instead, she should be brave enough to fight against this
原文链接：http://www.jxszl.com/wgy/yy/25998.html