| Margret Drabble (1939- ) is a preeminent modern British novelist, critic and editor. Her fiction is characterized by reflecting the women's living condition of her own generation. In her works, Drabble displays that female protagonists in different ages face various quandaries; besides, she tries to explore some appropriate way for women to live a relaxed and happy life. In recent years, Drabble's works are becoming popular in China and the related literature criticism is increasing. However, most of this criticism is focused on Drabble's works before 1980s such as The Summer Bird-Cage, The Millstone, The Needle's Eye. The Seven Sisters published in 2002 describes the life experience of an aged woman, who was divorced from her husband and was estranged from her three daughters. In this novel, the author put the female protagonist Candida in different spaces, along with detailed psychological description. Obviously, Drabble paid much attention to the existence of aged women. Her work tends to show the readers what aged women desire and arouse the society's attention to the aged women. Therefore, in order to understand the theme of the novel, it is significant to release the meaning concealed between the space and the protagonist psychology. Combining Henri Lefebvre's theory of space, this thesis aims to explore the protagonist's psychological space during the process of self-search and further explore the British aged women's existential situation.This thesis consists of five chapters:Chapter one introduces Margret Drabble's life and works, summarizes The Seven Sisters'achievement and reviews its literary criticism. In addition, the interrelationship between psychological space and social space is narrated.Chapters two refers to Candida's perceiving the senselessness of self-existence. First, her position in family was disappearing. From a newly-married wife to pregnancy to being a mother, Candida's position in family was changing along with her responsibility. When the children were little, her important position in family depended on her great responsibility for looking after the whole family. With the children's grow-up, the jobless Candida began to lose her value in the family. Then, Candida found that she also lost herself in Suffolk, for she had lost her family there. In Suffolk, Candida was Andrew's wife. Since she had gone away from the family, she not only lost her family, but also her social relationship in Suffolk.Chapter three analyzes Candida's psychological space during the process of searching the value of her self-existence. After divorced from her husband, Candida moved to London, where she pursued happiness of freedom. With five female friends and a Junoesque local guide, she enjoyed a journey in Italy, where she tended to search the love in life by visit Aeneid's trace. After returning from Italy, she began to reflect her present life, especially her relationship with her daughters. In her imagining space, she tried to think what her second daughter might think, which helped her realize that she should call back the lost mother and daughter affection. Chapter four turns to Candida's knowledge about the real life, that is to say, an aged woman should live with love in order to break away from loneliness. Candida encouraged herself to attend her second daughter's wedding in Finland, where she restored the mother-daughter affection. Apart from family affection, she intended to accept a dawn love with Stuart Courage.Chapter five concludes Candida's psychological space during the process of self-search. Candida gradually realized that love makes life meaningful, which emphasizes and promotes Drabble's consistent theme—love, also human-being's eternal theme. With love in heart, human-being will live relaxed and happy life.
|
PDF Full Text Request