走不出的女性困境：解读《一个陌生女人的来信》

Unable to Walk out of the Female Dilemma:

A Reading of Letter from an Unknown Woman

By Cheng Yue

In partial fulfillment of the requirement

For the B. A. degree

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

May, 2017

Acknowledgments

First of all, I want to express my gratitude to Mr. Jiang Ping for her continuous support and guidance. She gives me many constructive suggestions and modifies my paper carefully. Without her patient instruction, insightful criticism and expert guidance, my paper would have been terrible.

Secondly, I also owe a special debt of gratitude to all the professors in the School of Foreign Language and culture. They devoted many lectures that benefit me a lot. Meanwhile I am also deeply indebted to my alma mater for its high-quality education and learning atmosphere. I get much information from its database and library.

Finally, I want to thank my roommates, my teachers and my parents too. They help me with the burden, otherwise I cannot finish my paper on time.

Contents

1. Introduction 2

1.1 The background about Stefan Zweig and his works 2

1.2 A brief account of Letter from an Unknown Woman 2

2. Heroine’s plight and its reasons 3

2.1 Upbringing background 4

2.2 Social milieu 6

2.2.1 Male chauvinistic consciousness 6

2.2.2 Women’s backward traditional idea 6

2.2.3 Women's low economic status 7

2.3 Other factors 7

Writer R’s perfect image and his dual character 7

3. Contemporary women plight 8

3.1 lower social status 8

3.2 The plight of marriage 9

3.3 The plight of career development 9

3.4 The plight of personal safety 10

4. The enlightenments of moderns from Letter from an Unknown Woman 10

4.1 Continuous study and thinking 11

4.2 Keeping economic independence 11

4.3 Working hard 12

4.4 Being equipped with safety awareness 13

5. Conclusion 13

References 14

Unable to Walk out of the Female Dilemma:

A Reading of Letter from an Unknown Woman

Cheng Yue

Department of English

School of Language and Culture

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

Abstract: Although our society advocates gender equality now, some inequality still exists. In many respects women have disadvantages. Based on the analysis of the characters in the novel Letter from an Unknown Woman, this thesis reveals the dilemma of the heroine and the female predicament of the society at that time, and then it analyzes the causes of women dilemma. At the same time, it leads to the exploration of the present female dilemma and seeks corresponding strategies accordingly. In addition, by researching the plights of women in the past and at present this thesis calls on women to go out of plight boldly, to break free of all kinds of bondage, and to seek self-worth and it also calls on our society to discard some innate ideas and to give women more opportunities to show themselves.

Key words: female dilemma, gender equality, social environment

摘 要:虽然现在倡导男女平等，但是男女不平等现象依旧存在。性别歧视下，女性在诸多方面占据劣势。本论文基于对《一个陌生女人的来信》中人物形象的分析，揭示了女主人公的多种困境及当时社会的女性困境，分析了造成困境的原因。同时，这引出了对当下女性困境的探究，并寻找相应的对策。此外，本文通过对过去及现在女性困境的探究，呼吁如今的女性能大胆出走，挣脱种种束缚，求索自我价值；也呼吁社会抛弃一些固有观念，给女性更多展示的平台。

关键词:女性困境；男女平等；社会坏境

1. Introduction

Female plight or feminism is an eternal theme appearing many works, and among them, Letter form an Unknown woman is a representative one. In the following part, the basic information of this novel as well as its author will be introduced.

1.1 The background about Stefan Zweig and his works

Stefan Zweig was an Austrian novelist, playwright, journalist and biographer. He had written many books: Chess story, Letter from an Unknown Woman, Beware of Pity, The World of Yesterday, Amok, and etc. He was born in Vienna, the son of Moritz Zweig, a wealthy Jewish textile manufacturer, and Ida Brett Auer, a daughter of a Jewish banking family. Zweig studied philosophy at the University of Vienna and earned a doctoral degree in 1904. At the beginning of World War I, patriotic sentiment was widespread, and it also inspired many German and Austrian Jews. Zweig served in the Archives of the Ministry of War. Just during that time, he began to change his mind and wrote Letter from an Unknown Woman. This novel is the literary expression of the spiritual crisis in the era of change in Zweig, and it is also the doubts and reflections of Zweig's self-centered values after the romantic tide. Besides, this novel can also be seen as Zweig's "autobiography", for Zweig once did receive two letters from a strange woman.

1.2 A brief account of Letter from an Unknown Woman

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