摘 要

英国古典剧《唐顿庄园》自2010年首播之后，颇受观众好评，引起了世界范围内的轰动，由于其中展现的英伦风情，它在英国乃至世界范围内的影响不容小觑。该剧讲述了第一次世界大战前后的英国唐顿庄园里克劳利家族的悲欢离合，以及家中仆人们的命运。剧中所展现的女性主义也令人印象深刻，其中的女性主义致力于实现男女平等，终结社会中一切对女性进行歧视及剥削的行为。本文通过对该剧的社会大背景和女性主义的介绍，从女性主义的角度对剧中的部分女性形象进行性格剖析，不仅描述她们的言行，同时也分析她们的女性性格特征，展现了剧中女性形象中所表现现出的女性主义。本文分为五个部分，第一部分简单介绍女性主义概念及英剧《唐顿庄园》；第二部分描述20世纪初英国女性主义和女权的发展情况；第三部分介绍这部剧的编剧，故事情节和主要人物；第四部分从女性主义在就业、婚姻家庭、参政、教育等方面的表现分析上述女性形象；最后一部分是总结。对该剧女性形象的分析不仅能更好的理解这些人物，而且深切地感受到女性在这一时期的深刻变化，从而向世人传递男女平等、和谐共处的理念。

关键词：女性形象；唐顿庄园；女性主义；解析

Abstract

The British costume drama Downton Abbey, since its first broadcast in 2010, has been highly praised by the audience and caused a worldwide sensation. It describes the story of Crawley family as well as its servants’ fate in Downton before and after World War I. Meanwhile, feminism, aiming to achieve gender equality in all human beings as well as end all actions of discriminating or exploiting females, is very impressive in this series. Due to its British atmosphere, the effect cannot be underestimated in Britain and even in the world. Through the introduction of the TV series and feminism of the series, this paper analyzes some of the female images in it from the feminism perspective, which not only describes their words and deeds, but also decomposes their female characteristics to show the feminism in these female images. This paper is divided into five parts. The first part briefly introduces the concept of feminism and the British TV series Downton Abbey, the second part describes the development of feminism in the early twentieth century. The third part introduces the plots in Downton Abbey and the main characters. In the fourth part, it analyses feminism of some aspects, such as marriage and family, career, politics and education in above–mentioned female images. The last part is a summary. The analysis of the female images can not only better understand the characters, but also deeply feel the profound changes of women in this period so as to convey the relationship of equality and harmony between men and women to the world.

Key Words: Downton Abbey; female images; feminism; interpretation

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Research Background 1

1.2 Definition of Feminism 2

1.3 General Introduction of the TV Series Downton Abbey 3

2 Feminism in Early 20th Century in Britain 4

2.1 Feminism in Downton Abbey 4

2.2 Development of Women’s Right in 20th-century Britain 5

3 Introduction of the TV Series Downton Abbey 6

3.1 The Scriptwriter and His Works 6

3.2 The Plot in Downton Abbey 6

3.3 Main characters in Downton Abbey 9

4 The Interpretation of Female Images in Downton Abbey from the Feminism Perspective 11

4.1 Lady Mary Crawley – Suffering a lot from the Entail 11

4.1.1 Laws of Inheritance: Unfair to Women 11

4.1.2 Marriage and Family – Fighting for Equal Position and Rights 12

4.2 Lady Edith – a Supporter and a Silent Practitioner of Feminism 13

4.2.1 Driving a Tractor to a Farm to Help with Farming 13

4.2.2 Writing for a Newspaper as a Feminist 13

4.2.3 Marriage – Defying the Worldly Eye and Pursuing Her Love 14

4.3 Lady Sybil – the Advocate of Feminism 14

4.3.1 Career – to be a Nurse during the War 15

4.3.2 Politics – Fighting for Women’s Suffrage and Equality with Men 15

4.3.3 Marriage – Pursuing Love and Ignoring Social Rank 16

4.3.4 Challenging New Clothes 16

4.4 Isobel – a Warrior who Dares to Challenge Men’s Right 17

4.4.1 Being Independent in Work and Life 17

4.4.2 Challenging Male Occupation – Doctor 17

4.4.3 Challenging Worldly Sight – Employ Ethel who once was a Prostitute 18

4.5 Gwen Dawson – Pursuing what She Wants 18

4.6 Daisy – the Beneficiary of Family Education 19

5 Conclusion 20

References 21

Acknowledgements 22

The Interpretation of “Female Images” of Downton Abbey from the Perspective of Feminism

1 Introduction

1.1 Research Background

Downton Abbey, created by Julian Fellowes and co-produced by Carnival Films and Masterpiece, is an extremely popular British TV series in recent ten years. The story unfolds with the sinking of Titanic in 1912, in which two close relative heirs of Crawley family perish, and it is also a time witnesses a surge of feminism. Traces of the awakening of feminism can be found in the depiction of the Crawley family’s daughters as well as other female images (Gu, 2017). This TV series fits together perfectly from the part of clothing to the characters and the development of the story. Although the women in this series have unique personalities, they are all entitled with the features of feminism.

Feminism is a quite controversial topic from its time of origin until now, however, research on it has become a prevalent topic of international discussion. Though the research on feminism started relatively late in China, yet in last several years, more and more attention has been paid to the research of this topic. It is a meaningful research subject to understand the feminism better in Downton Abbey through the decomposition of female images’ personalities with complicated and special social background.