英美短篇小说欣赏a-new-England-nun(课堂PPT)课件(PPT 33页)

1、Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (1852-1930)1第1页，共33页。She was born in Randolph, Massachusetts, and attended Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, from 18701871. Freemans parents were orthodox Congregationalists, causing her to have a very strict childhood. Religious constraints play a key rol

2、e in some of her works. She passed the greater part of her life in Massachusetts and Vermont. Freeman herself married late in life, wedding Dr. Charles Freeman when she was forty-nine. After an initial period of harmony, the marriage ended in separation when she had her husband institutionalized for

3、 alcoholism. 2第2页，共33页。AchievementsIn 1926 she was awarded the William Dean Howells Gold Medal for Fiction by the American Academy of Letters, and later that year she was inducted into the prestigious National Institute for Arts and Letters. She died in Metuchen and was interred in Hillside Cemetery

4、 in Scotch Plains, New Jersey.3第3页，共33页。Primary WorksA Humble Romance and Other Stories. 1887.A New England Nun and Other Stories. 1891.Pembroke. 1894.Silence, and Other Stories. 1898. The Revolt of Mother and Other Stories. 1974. 4第4页，共33页。 The feature of her worksNarrated in a firm and objective m

5、anner with occasional subtle undertones of humor and irony, Freemans stories were deft character studies of somehow exceptional people who, trapped by poverty or other handicaps in sterile, restrictive circumstances, react in various ways against their situations. Her use of New England village and

6、countryside settings and dialects placed her stories in thelocal colormovement, and her work thereby enjoyed an added vogue; nevertheless, she avoided the sentimentality then current in popular literature. 5第5页，共33页。While Freemans successful career afforded her financial security and a great deal of

7、 autonomy, her best fiction focuses on the plight of women whose lives are bounded by poverty and the social constraints imposed on them by their strict religious beliefs and their position as women. Fascinated by the impact of traditional Puritan values of submissiveness, frugality, and self-denial

8、 on New England culture, Freeman often portrayed characters who create obstacles to their own happiness by their strict adherence to Calvinist morality. 6第6页，共33页。In other stories, however, she explored the rebellions and triumphs of seemingly meek women, depicting their strategies for gaining and m

9、aintaining control over their domestic situations with humor and sensitivity. She provided unflinching portraits of both the difficulties of spinsterhood and the often oppressive power dynamics that structured nineteenth-century marriage. 7第7页，共33页。A New England Nun8第8页，共33页。Historical ContextReligi

10、on and EconomicsMary Wilkins Freeman wrote most of her best-known short stories in the 1880s and 1890s. They provide a unique snapshot of a particular time and place in American history. The small towns of post- Civil War New England were often desolate places. The war itself, combined with urbaniza

11、tion, industrialization, and westward expansion, had taken most of the young able-bodied men out of the region. 9第9页，共33页。 The remaining population was largely female and elderly. Women like Louisa Ellis, who waited many years for husbands, brothers, fathers and boyfriends to return from the West or

12、 other places they had gone to seek jobs, were not uncommon. The area was suffering from economic depression and many were forced to leave to support themselves and their families. There were many widows from the war, too, often living hand-to-mouth and trying to keep up appearances.10第10页，共33页。Char

13、acters The main character in the story is Louisa Ellis. The plot focuses on her desire for remaining alone and maintaining her lifestyle.This character is classified as a round one, more individualized and belonging to the everyday world. Louisa can be defined as an independent and organized woman.1

14、1第11页，共33页。The secondary characters are Joe Dagget, Lily Dyer, Joes mother and the community. They all are classified as flat characters, constructed by a dominant trait.12第12页，共33页。PlotA New England Nun is a story about the heroine who learned to live a solitary life, despite her engagement of fift

15、een years to a fortune hunter. Freeman begins the novel with Louisa Ellis sewing in her sitting room. The lateness of the afternoon causes her to perform chores throughout the house. She is meticulous as she prepares her tea, cooks a meal, feeds the dog, and tidies the house. She is preparing for Jo

16、es return. Joe Dagget is her fianc of fifteen years, fourteen of which he has spent seeking fortune. 13第13页，共33页。As she waits, she thinks about the solitary ways she has adopted during the years spent with Joe. Freeman introduces two characters who dont really know each other. Every time they come t

17、ogether, the meeting is awkward and forced. Joes presence interrupts Louisas peaceful solitude. He brings imbalance. By the end of the story, Louisa discovers that Joe is in love with someone else and she calls off the engagement. Although she weeps at the loss, she is grateful to the idea that she

18、doesnt have to give up her personal domain to a marriage with Joe. 14第14页，共33页。Narration Heterodiegetic narrator who does know the story and thoughts of all the characters, and tells a story different to her own.Neutral omniscience- 3rd person narrator who has voice and knows everything about charac

19、ters lives, dreams, thoughts and intentions. There is no direct authorial intrusion: the narrator just tells the story and the reasoning of her characters mind, and does not give her own opinion about the matter. 15第15页，共33页。Symbols Louisas pet: they are symbols of Louisas captivity. Louisas pets, l

20、ike her, are living lives that are different from the way they would exist naturally. Thus, as the dog is chained and the canary is caged, Louisa is confined at her home voluntarily, and rejects her natural inclinations to motherhood.16第16页，共33页。Symbols The yellow canary:It symbolizes the way how Lo

21、uisa is seen by Joe, the woman is considered to me a mere decorative object with the only function of being wife and mother. Moreover, the canarys wild fluttering when Joe appears reflects Louisas anxiety over change. For Louisa Joe supposes a threat to her security and serenity.17第17页，共33页。The dog

22、Caesarrepresents the way in which Louisa sees herself. Caesar has been chained for the same period of time that Joe has been away. This fact leads us to interpret that both Caesar and Louisa are tied to something because of a mistake that they committed. Caesar bit a neighbor, so its punishment cons

23、ists on remain chained; Louisa was engaged, so she had to be tied to this promise and renounce to her independence.18第18页，共33页。The author also emphasizes the hermit- like existence that Caesar endures under the worried eye of Louisa (who is also an hermit). The fear she feels of taking the dog out i

24、s linked to her fear for the unknown. Thus, she prefers to stay at home instead of going to a strange house and changing her customs.Louisas home:it is linked to the idea of harmony, order and serenity. The house represents the known.19第19页，共33页。Discussion1. What is the structure of this short story

25、?2. Why does Louisa wear three aprons at the same time? And what does that indicate?3. What details will foreshadow the ending of this short story?20第20页，共33页。 tired farmers It was late in the afternoon, and the light was waning. There was a difference in the look of the tree shadows out in the yard

26、. Somewhere in the distance cows were lowing and a little bell was tinkling; now and then a farm-wagon tilted by, and the dust flew; some blue-shirted laborers with shovels over their shoulders plodded past; little swarms of flies were dancing up and down before the peoples faces in the soft air. Th

27、ere seemed to be a gentle stir arising over everything for the mere sake of subsidence - a very premonition of rest and hush and night. 21第21页，共33页。This soft diurnal commotion was over Louisa Ellis also. She had been peacefully sewing at her sitting-room window all the afternoon. Now she quilted her

28、 needle carefully into her work, which she folded precisely, and laid in a basket with her thimble and thread and scissors. Louisa Ellis could not remember that ever in her life she had mislaid one of these little feminine appurtenances, which had become, from long use and constant association, a ve

29、ry part of her personality. Louisa Ellis 22第22页，共33页。What is Louisa doing in her garden?Louisa tied a green apron round her waist, and got out a flat straw hat with a green ribbon. Then she went into the garden with a little blue crockery bowl, to pick some currants for her tea. After the currants w

30、ere picked she sat on the back door-step and stemmed them, collecting the stems carefully in her apron, and afterwards throwing them into the hen-coop. She looked sharply at the grass beside the step to see if any had fallen there. 23第23页，共33页。Ceasar! she called. Ceasar! Ceasar! There was a little r

31、ush, and the clank of a chain, and a large yellow-and-white dog appeared at the door of his tiny hut, which was half hidden among the tall grasses and flowers. Louisa patted him and gave him the corn-cakes. Then she returned to the house and washed the tea-things, polishing the china carefully. The

32、twilight had deepened; the chorus of the frogs floated in at the open window wonderfully loud and shrill, and once in a while a long sharp drone from a tree-toad pierced it. Louisa took off her green gingham apron, disclosing a shorter one of pink and white print. She lighted her lamp, and sat down

33、again with her sewing. 24第24页，共33页。Csar was a veritable hermit of a dog. Louisas favorite dog “Csar .25第25页，共33页。Joe DaggetIn about half an hour Joe Dagget came. She heard his heavy step on the walk, and rose and took off her pink-and-white apron. Under that was still another - white linen with a li

34、ttle cambric edging on the bottom; that was Louisas company apron. She never wore it without her calico sewing apron over it unless she had a guest. She had barely folded the pink and white one with methodical haste and laid it in a table-drawer when the door opened and Joe Dagget entered. 26第26页，共3

35、3页。Yellow canaryHe seemed to fill up the whole room. A little yellow canary that had been asleep in his green cage at the south window woke up and fluttered wildly, beating his little yellow wings against the wires. He always did so when Joe Dagget came into the room. Good-evening, said Louisa. She

36、extended her hand with a kind of solemn cordiality. 27第27页，共33页。She placed a chair for him, and they sat facing each other, with the table between them. He sat bolt-upright, toeing out his heavy feet squarely, glancing with a good-humored uneasiness around the room. She sat gently erect, folding her

37、 slender hands in her white-linen lap. Been a pleasant day, remarked Dagget. Louisas Behavior 28第28页，共33页。Dialogue between Louisa and JoeHe was not very young, but there was a boyish look about his large face. Louisa was not quite as old as he, her face was fairer and smoother, but she gave people t

38、he impression of being older. I suppose shes a good deal of help to your mother, she said, further. I guess she is; I dont know how motherd get along without her, said Dagget, with a sort of embarrassed warmth. She looks like a real capable girl. Shes pretty-looking too, remarked Louisa. Yes, she is

39、 pretty fair looking. 29第29页，共33页。Joe escaped from her houseWhen Joe Dagget was outside he drew in the sweet evening air with a sigh, and felt much as an innocent and perfectly well-intentioned bear might after his exit from a china shop. Louisa, on her part, felt much as the kind-hearted, long-suff

40、ering owner of the china shop might have done after the exit of the bear. 30第30页，共33页。Lily Dyer Appears Thats Lily Dyer, thought Louisa to herself. The voice embodied itself in her mind. She saw a girl tall and full-figured, with a firm, fair face, looking fairer and firmer in the moonlight, her strong yellow hair braided in a close knot. A girl full of a calm rustic strength and bloom,