| Kathleen Winsor is one of the most prominent women writers in American literaryworld. She published the famous novel Forever Amber in1944, which caused the strongsensation in the western literary world. It had been even banned in Boston, but manyreaders like it very much. In1947, the Hollywood in the United States once put it to thescreen and made it into a film called Forever Amber, so the influence of this book wasmore expanded. According to the readers online book review of the Amazon.com, itspublic praise among readers even exceeds Gone with the Wind and it also won the highestmark in the readers’ book review—five stars. It is indeed an eternal classic which willtimelessly retain in people’s minds like Gone with the Wind. As for readers, this novelseems a grain of brilliant amber as its name refers to. People can’t put it down and once itis enjoyed a little, people will fall in the stories during a period of time.The foreign scholars haven’t made much research on Forever Amber, while studiesmade by the scholars in our country were found in some publications. For example, fromthe angle of narratology, Li Lina made use of psychological perspective methods such asfocusing character selection, direct speech, free indirect speech as well as the narrator’scomments to study the works; She also analyzed the hero Bruce’s viewpoint of love andmarriage from the differences of the hero and heroine’s class status and the concept ofmarriage, etc; Combining with Amber’s personality, Li Chongfei made a study of hermodern woman independent consciousness(economy, politics, social status, etc). WangXinchun, Li Chunguang applied feminism to state the good part in Amber’s personality,and they also made use of Freud’s personality structure to describe the defects in herpersonality. But no matter in foreign countries or in our own country there is not anyresearch that uses Hegel’s theory of tragedy to analyze the tragic fate of Amber, so toanalyze the image of Amber by making use of this theory is not only a bold attempt butalso a very valuable research subject. This thesis will interprete Forever Amber from thenew perspective in order to make readers fully understand the heroine’s tragic life andfurther show the tragic effects that the author Kathleen Winsor has rendered.This thesis consists of an introduction, the main body and a conclusion. Its maincontents are as follows： The first part is the introduction. It offers a brief account of Kathleen Winsor andmakes a plot summary of Forever Amber, and then it summarizes the researchachievements and status of Forever Amber, and presents the feasibility and significanceof this study.The second part is the main body, which is made up of four chapters: Chapter Onesummarizes Hegel’s theory of tragedy, and it includes three aspects, that is, tragicconflicts, the “reconciliations” of the tragic conflicts and the tragic effects. He divides thetragic conflicts into three kinds: the first kind of conflict is caused by the simply physicalor natural causes, the second kind of conflict is the inner conflict caused by the naturalconditions, and the third kind of conflict is “the dissociation resulting from thecontradiction of the mind”. The tragic conflict has two ways of “reconciliations”, the firstway is both of the conflicting parties are internecine and even ruined and the second wayis the subjective and internal reconciliation. The tragic effects are divided into fear andmercy.Chapter Two detailedly analyzes the embodiment of Hegel’s tragic conflicts inForever Amber. This thesis analyzes that the heroine Amber has gradually realized theway of overstepping the inherent social norms and obtaining women’s independent statusin London which is full of physical desires and intrigues in terms of the inner conflictcaused by the natural conditions as well as the dissociation resulting from thecontradiction of the mind. At the same time, she is also infected with the characters inpatriarchal society such as greed, selfishness, lechery, unscrupulousness, etc by payingout her own youth and goodness.Chapter Three points out the ways of tragic conflicts’ reconciliations in ForeverAmber. The relationship between the King Charles II and his mistresses from affinity torupture reflects that both of the conflicting parties are internecine and even ruined; AfterAmber enters into the male-centered society, with her independent consciousnessdissolved, she is involved in the palace’s factions and fighting for the King’s favor. Sheeven takes advantage of all means to consolidate her position regardless of any cost. Theloss of self-awareness makes her change her own principles and leave England, thenfollow the true love of her life—Bruce, which reflects the subjective and internalreconciliation of one side in conflict.Chapter Four is the embodiment of Hegel’s tragic effects in Forever Amber. Owing to the differences of hereditary class between the hero and the heroine as well as therestriction of marriage system, Bruce leaves, threatens and discards Amber time and timeagain, which made her feel panic and kept in a state of constant nervousness. It reflects inForever Amber that the power of the outside world and the ethics in Hegel’s theory oftragedy give rise to the hero or heroine’s fear. In addition, Amber in her life shows hersympathy for many women who dedicate everything for their men in the patriarchalsociety, for example, the poor woman in the jail, Bess, Bruce’s wife Carina, Almsbury’swife Emily, etc. In her opinion, although these women are the representatives of the“ideal woman” in that era and society, they lose themselves and their independentpersonalities for their husbands and children. On the contrary, Amber who is forceful,self-reliant and independent in economy, politics and social status wouldn’t like tosurrender herself to men. It is just her independent personality that makes Bruce preferher being his mistress to being his wife. The only wish that is not realized in her life is tobe Bruce’s wife, what’s more, Amber gives up all her belongings in order to follow a manthat she loves deeply while doesn’t love her at all, which are doomed to her tragedy. Theheroine doesn’t realize that she is the most pitiful person in the world. In Hegel’s opinion,if a tragic character wants to arouse people’s “real pity”, he himself must be equippedwith “the rich inherent character and good quality”,“Only the inherent character canmove the depths of the noble minds”. Readers place sympathy and pity on Amber’sbumpy life. Although Amber is selfish, licentious, mercenary, her modern womanindependent consciousness in the patriarchal society arouses readers’ feelings in theirhearts and leaves readers most profound impressions.The last part is the conclusion, which makes a summary of the preceding critique.Kathleen Winsor’s Forever Amber has truly and delicately depicted the problems offamily, emotion, marriage, economy etc that women pay their close attention to duringthe period of social transformation, broken through the traditional social norms andattracted a large number of readers. By means of Hegel’s theory of tragedy, people couldunderstand the heroine Amber’s tragic and bumpy life. |
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