摘 要

《傲慢与偏见》和《飘》都被视为文学史上的杰出作品。两者都由女性作家所著，并且深刻描绘了女主角的生活。由于这两本书都探讨了女性主题，大多数评论者都从女性主义角度分析这两篇作品，因此较多学者以社会学批评的眼光探讨了这两本书中描绘的婚姻，爱情和家庭。另外，还有学者关注了《傲慢与偏见》和《飘》中女主角的变化和成长。有许多学者将《飘》作为成长小说进行分析，有部分学者认为伊丽莎白也具备成长小说主人公的特点，在中国有关于《傲慢与偏见》和成长小说的研究，但是鲜有国外学者涉及到此方面。

本文运用成长小说理论分析《傲慢与偏见》和《飘》中女主角的成长和变化，并且探讨了女性成长小说和一般成长小说的不同。本文分为引言、正文和结论三部分，引言分为两章，介绍作家作品以及成长小说理论，正文部分分为两大章，本文第二章从成长小说的特点逐一分析着两本著作，第三章分析《傲慢与偏见》和《飘》中其它影响女主角成长的因素。第四章得出结论，虽然两本书都关注了女主角的成长，《飘》基本满足了成长小说的特点，而《傲慢与偏见》依照此标准无法归为成长小说。

关键词：《傲慢与偏见》；《飘》；成长小说；改变

Abstract

Pride and Prejudice and Gone with the Wind are both considered as masterpieces in literary history. These two works are written by female writers, and depict the heroines’ life stories profoundly. Since they involve female themes, many critics study them from feminism view, and plenty of scholars discuss topics of marriage, love and family in the view of sociological criticism. Besides, scholars also pay attention to the changes and growth of the heroines. A number of scholars take Gone with the Wind as bildungsroman and carry out their researches, several scholars consider Elizabeth from Pride and Prejudice has the features of bildungsroman protagonist. In China, many studies are about bildungsroman and Pride and Prejudice, while similar topic isn’t that popular in foreign countries.

This thesis uses the theory of bildungsroman, and analyzes the heroines’ changes and growth. Besides, it discusses some differences between the feminine bildungsroman and the general bildungsroman. This thesis is divided into three parts，including the introduction，the main body and the conclusion．The main body consists of two chapters. The second chapter of this article analyzes the features of bildungsroman one by one to see whether Pride and Prejudice and Gone with the Wind meet the criterion. Chapter three discusses the other factors that affect the heroines’ growth. Then chapter four draws a conclusion that though both books pay attention to the heroines’ growth, Gone with the Wind meets the criterion of bildungsroman, while Pride and Prejudice doesn’t.

Key Words: Pride and Prejudice; Gone with the Wind; bildungsroman; change

Contents

1 Introduction 4

1.1 The Authors and Their Heroines 4

1.2 Feminine Bildungsroman 5

2. Features of Bildungsroman 7

2.1 The Youth of the Heroines 7

2.1.1 The Rational Elizabeth 7

2.1.2 The Young and Spoiled Scarlett 9

2.2 Form of Loss or Discontent 9

2.3 The Tough Journey 11

2.3.1 Elizabeth’s difficulties 11

2.3.2 Scarlett’s difficulties 12

2.4 The Mentors in Bildungsroman 13

2.4.1 Mrs. Darcy as Mentor 14

2.4.2 Rhett Butler as Mentor 15

2.5 The Heroines’ Places in the Society 16

3. Particular Bildungsroman 18

3.1 Specific Features about Growth 18

3.1 Bildungsroman or Not 19

4 Conclusion 21

References 22

Comparison between the Heroines' Growth in Pride and Prejudice and Gone with the Wind

1 Introduction

1.1 The Authors and Their Heroines

Jane Austen was an English novelist who was born in Steventon, Hampshire in 16 December 1775. Her father was a rector, and her mother came from an affluent family. She didn’t receive regular education, instead she learnt from her father. Jane Austen lived in the countryside, and therefore her acquaintances were mainly squires. The simple connection in the society and relaxing atmosphere were reflected in her novels which primarily depicted the various kinds of love and marriages between ladies and gentlemen.

As one of her best and most prestigious books, Pride and Prejudice describes how the heroine Elizabeth Bennet and the hero Fitzwilliam Darcy overcome pride and prejudice and walk into wedding ceremony.

Margaret Mitchell was an American novelist and journalist. She was a Southerner and lived in Atlanta, Georgia. She was born in November 8, 1900. Her family was wealthy and politically prominent. Her father was an attorney, and her mother was a suffragist. The family background gave her insight to see the South in a profound way, and the history of American Revolutionary War told by her elders in the family inspired her to write her only published novel in her lifetime, Gone with the Wind.

This novel depicts Scarlett O'Hara’s life story from her girlhood to her adulthood. During this period, she goes through failure in love, war, death of her kinsfolks, hunger, and fear of losing homeland. However, she becomes even stronger and changes herself totally. Her life is a process of losing, but she has a strong will to say no to her miserable destiny.

1.2 Feminine Bildungsroman

Gone with the Wind and Pride and Prejudice are set in different backgrounds and they focus on different aspects, yet they both emphasize the changes and growth of female characters. Protagonists of these two books become more mature after severe difficulties or emotional shocks.

In literary criticism, novels depicting protagonists’ psychological growth from youth to adulthood can be classified as bildungsroman. The term comes from German, and it’s a significant and common genre in modern western literature.

The term is defined in Glossary of Literary Terms as follows:

“Bildungsroman is a German term signifying novels of formation or novel of education. The subject of these novels is the growth of the protagonist’s mind and the character, in the passage from childhood through varied experiences—and often through a spiritual crisis—into maturity, which usually involves recognition of one’s identity and role in the world.” (Abrams, 193)

Bildungsroman originates from folklore tales which tell the stories of young boys’ journey to seek their fortunes. The goal of the protagonists in bildungsroman is maturity. To achieve this goal, the protagonists have to overcome difficulties and conflicts between themselves and the society.