落魄配角的暗淡人生——从新历史主义角度解读《简•爱》中的里德姐妹

The Bleak Lives of the Declasse Supporting Roles—Interpretation of the Reed Sisters in Jane Eyre from the Perspective of New Historicism

摘要: 《简•爱》是作家夏洛特•勃朗特最成功的一部作品，勃朗特基于自己早年的人生经历见闻，在书中复刻出了生动鲜活的19世纪英国学校以及家宅生活情景。在角色塑造上，除了女主人公简之外，她的两个表姐伊丽莎和乔治娜也性格鲜明，形象立体。她们各自的脾气秉性及人生际遇同十九世纪英国富裕家庭中的成长教育环境、对子女的培养期望等因素有着密不可分的联系。本文从新历史主义理论视角出发，基于“文本的历史性”和“历史的文本性”，对致使二位里德小姐形成乖戾性格并逐渐滑向不甚如愿的命运归宿的时代及环境诱因进行解读分析。最终得出结论：她们日显黯淡的人生际遇走向同其长久浸润的家庭、社会生活环境以及十九世纪英国淑女们的普世价值观等历史时代因素有着难以分割的联系。

Abstract: Jane Eyre is Charlotte Bronte’s most successful novel, and Bronte draws on her early experiences to bring to life several vivid scenes of school and domestic life in 19th century England. In addition to the heroine, Jane, the images of her two cousins, Eliza and Georgiana Reed, are also distinctively and vividly portrayed. The two women’s temperaments and life situations are inextricably linked to the environment in which they grew up and the expectations of their children in the wealthy families of nineteenth-century England. From the perspective of New Historicism and on the basis of “textual historicity” and “textuality of history”, this paper analyzes the factors that lead to the formation of the two Miss Reed’s disagreeable characters, as well as the reason for their gradual descent into a less-than-ideal fate. In the end, it is concluded that the two ladies’ increasingly bleak course in life is inextricably linked to their long immersion in the unsound family and social atmosphere, as well as to the universal values that nineteenth-century British ladies hold.