《蝴蝶梦》文中悬念手法赏析

1、?蝴蝶梦?文中悬念手法赏析Abstract Suspense is an important element of writing. Its special feature, as the English dramatist, William Archill said, “to predict a very attractive state of affairs without telling it out. On suspenses forming, the English critic, David Lodge has incisive recapitulation, To set for

2、th a question and postpone the answer. To be exactly, that is, to stress a main, unusual situation. And there is enough time and space left for readers to imagine.Daphne du Maurier brings skill of suspense into full play in her most famous novel Rebecca .In it; she sets forth a series of suspense, i

3、ncluding both full-text suspense and partial suspense. Moreover, smaller suspense have mutual relations in or among each level. This kind of arrangement not only because the motive force which helps the plots develop but also draw readers to read and guess what is in the next step.This article expou

4、nds the special skill using a series of suspense in Rebecca and its artistic effects. And then，the novels design.Key Words Rebecca; suspense; Manderley; implications.【摘 要】 悬念是一种独特的文学构造形式,其重要特征,用英国戏剧理论家威廉阿契尔的话说,就是“预示出一种非常吸引人的事态,却不把它预叙出来.对于悬念的形成,英国当代小说批评家戴维洛奇曾作过精辟的概括,即“提出问题，延缓提供答案.详细而言,就是突出不同寻常的情境并延缓批

5、露内幕,使其呈明显的悬而未决的状态.达夫妮杜穆里埃在?蝴蝶梦?(原名?吕蓓卡?)中充分发挥悬念这一独特的文学构造形式的优势,设置了一系列悬念,这些悬念不仅成为推动故事情节开展的内在动力,而且极大地刺激读者的阅读兴趣,给读者带来了独特的审美感觉.本文从构造上讨论作品别具匠心的悬念艺术,以助于更好的欣赏作品中的悬念。此外，从创作手法的角度剖析了文中一系列悬念手法产生的非同一般的艺术效果，指出这种手法在全文篇章构造中的重要作用。【关键词】?吕蓓卡?;悬念；曼陀丽；暗示1. IntroductionBeing deeply influenced by Gothic Novel, which is fa

6、mous for its mystery, curiousness and terror, Daphne wrote her works with plots full of twists and turning.Any one who has read Rebecca, the most famous novel written by Daphne, will never forget those dismal and constrained scenes and horrible imaginations. However, the specific feature of this nov

7、el is its using lots of suspense carried through the whole story. This has made its plots intricate but well-knit and soul stirring.Add to this, Alfred Hitchcock filmed Rebecca in 20th century, considered as one of the well-known suspense films.Suspense is an important skill of writing. It is also a

8、n singular design of literature writing. Its special feature, as the English dramatist, William Archill said,“ to predict a very attractive state of affairs without telling it out. 6Usually, it sets forth a question and postpones the answer. To be more exactly, that is, to stress a main, unusual sit

9、uation. And there is enough time and space left. The reason of causing the situation doesnt appear at once.In this novel, Rebecca, there are 3 levels of suspense.In the opening sentences of the book, Manderley is noticed. The lines of describing the heroines dream are full of misgivings and mystic.“

10、As I stood there, hushed and still, I could swear that the house was not an empty shell but lived and breathed as it had lived before.4(P7)“A cloud, hitherto unseen, came upon the moon, and hovered an instant like a dark hand before a face.4(P7)“The house was a sepulcher, our fear and suffering lay

11、buried in the ruins. There would be no resurrection. When I thought of Manderley in my waking hours. I would not be bitter.4(P7)Then “I e to the reality from dream. “I am thinking about Manderley and all happened in it that cannot hurt. These words have put forward the first suspense, that is, what

12、a story happened in such a ruined, barren garden? Who is “I? It catches readers eyes at once. Therefore, they are hastened to go further into the story, into the story about my life experience in Manderley.2.The first level of suspense: Rebecca is a good wife with brains, beauty, and breeding?!2.1Ph

13、oneyThis is the main suspense, which goes through the whole story. In the story, the heroine and readers are mentioned time to time that Rebecca is a good wife who is beloved by Maxim.“Mrs. Van Hopper said, He looks ill, doesnt he? They say he cant get over his wifes death4(P15)“The Manderley partie

14、s were famous when she was alive, 2(P64)“The bishops wife said,(Rebecca)she was a very lovely creature, so full of life. She was certainly very gifted. I can see her now, standing at the foot of the stairs on the night of the ball, shaking hands with every-body, that cloud of dark hair against the v

15、ery white skin, and her costume suited her too, Yes, she was very beautiful. 4(P131)And in Mrs. Danvers eyes, Maxim could not live without Rebecca. After her death, he cant go to sleep; he moves away from the bedroom and travels out for a long time in order to get over it.Even for Maxims grandmother

16、, Rebecca has made a great fuss of her. The old lady has never forgotten her and asks for Rebecca all the time.All these seems that Rebecca is a kind, generous, elegant woman, a perfect wife. People around the town know her well and all praise her even when she is dead. Rebecca has a gift of smartne

17、ss; she masters her power, finances and resources to run Manderley into the most famous show place in all the country. “ She is damnably clever. No one would guess meeting her that she was not the kindest; most generous, most generous, most gifted person in the world. She knew exactly what to say to

18、 different people, how to match her mood to theirs. Had she met you, she would have walked off into the garden with you, arm in arm, calling to Jasper, chatting about flowers, music, painting, whatever she knew to be your particular hobby. And you would have been taken in, like the rest. You would h

19、ave sat at her feet and worshipped her. 4(P283-P284) This is Maxims description of his wife, Rebecca.2.2TruthAnd Rebecca does succeed, or we would rather say, Daphne does succeed. Daphne used peoples actions and words to set up suspense .In fact, Rebecca is just pletely opposed the impression being

20、felt. Things are that Rebecca is a debauchee. “She was vicious, damnable, rotten through and through.4(P283) She knows Maxims disadvantage and has made good use of it. She knows that Maxim will never stand in a divorce court and give her away, have fingers pointing at, mug flungRebecca would curse p

21、eople, using every filthy word in her particular vocabulary. Rebecca does what she likes, she lives, as she likes. She sticks a big brute of horse, slashing at him, drawing blood, and digging the spurs into the horse. She sits on the hills above Monte Carlo, laughing, and tear flowers into fragments

22、. She is like the devil. She seduces all kinds of man, even his husbands brother in-law. Even when she has got a cancer, she inveigles her husband into a murderer!2.3HintsThough we havent known the truth till Chapter21, the writer has set hints. When we finish reading we will bee aware of it and loo

23、k back the whole story.2.3.1Maxims attitudeOn his wife, Rebecca, Maxim says as below: “All memories are bitter, and I prefer to ignore them. Something happened a year ago that altered my whole life, and I want to forget every phase in my existence up that time. Those days are finished. They are blot

24、ted out. I must begin living all over again.4(P43)“ I was there some years ago, with my wife. You asked me if it was still the same, if it had changed at all. It was just the same, but I was thankful to realize oddly impersonal. There was no question of the other time. She and I had left no record.

25、4(P43)Such sentences show Maxims unhappy life with his first wifeRebecca.2.3.2 Others odd mannerSecondly, Franks odd manner when “I talk about Rebecca; and Beatrices rather different negative attitude. The silence is a silence born of shame and embarrassment. Frank says, “We none of us want to bring

26、 back the past. Maxim least of all. And its up to you, you know, to lead us away from it. Not to take us back again. 4(P141)Readers may a little hesitate when they came to this. Why does Frank say so? Well, isnt the past good enough for them? After all, their hostess is almost perfect. Therefore, th

27、e curiosity drives us go on reading. There seems a mist. We have an egger to look through it to the core. That is what suspense skill used perfectly by Daphne. She gives us a dream, and all of us get drown in it. The great writer handles our inquisitiveness skillfully.2.3.3 Rebeccas handwritingRebec

28、cas handwriting has given us a lot of implications. It gives us an inkling that what a person Rebecca is. She is strong, proud, independent, debauched, like a demon.“Maxim from Rebecca 17may, written in a curious slanting hand. A little blob of ink marred the white page opposite, as though the write

29、r, in impatience, had shaken her pen to make the ink flow freely. And then as it bubbled through the nib, it came a little thick, so that the name Rebecca stood out black and strong, the tall and sloping R dwarfing the other letters.4(P37)“They slept in peace, the grass blew over their graves. How a

30、live was her writing though, how full of force. Those curious, sloping letters. The blob of ink.4(P62.)2.3.4The unusual rhododendronThe rhododendron, which Daphne describes in this novel, is not just a kind of flower. In some sense, it is the character of Rebecca, bloody, cruel. It has created an at

31、mosphere of constrained and terror that shades Maxims second marriage.“The nameless shrubs had disappeared, and neither side of us was a wall of color, blood-red, reaching far above our heads. We were amongst the rhododendrons. There was something bewildering, even shocking, about the suddenness of

32、their discovery. The words had not prepared me for them. They startled me with their crimson faces, massed one upon the other in incredible profusion, showing no leaf, no turning, nothing but the slaughterhouse red, luscious and fantastic, unlike any rhododendron plant I had seen before. 4(P70)Rebec

33、ca considers rhododendron as her favor. Bloody-red flowers are like something flowing in Rebeccas bone. She is dying for wiping out something, especially man. She wants to conquer everything. It seems that she gets a lot of pleasure from dallying with all kinds of man; no matter he is in the upper c

34、lass or a gardener! She tries all her best to satisfy her lust for sexual. But she laughs at everybody and fears nothing.“For to me, a rhododendron was a homely, domestic thing, strictly conventional, mauve or pink in color, standing one beside the other in a neat round bed. And these were monsters,

35、 rearing to the sky massed like a battalion, too beautiful I thought, too powerful; they were not plants at all. 4(P70)Yes, those rhododendrons in Manderley are not plants at all, as Rebecca seems to be no human at all. Just as Maxim describes, she is not even normal. And Mrs. Danvers said, “she wer

36、e born into the world to take what she could out of it. Rebecca had all the courage and spirit of a boy. She ought to have been a boy instead of a girl. She did what she liked; she lived as she liked. She had the strength of a little lion too. I remember her at sixteen getting up on one of her fathe

37、rs horses, a big brute of an animal too, that the groom said it was too hot for her to ride. She stuck to him, all right. I can see her now, with her hair flying out behind her, slashing at him, drawing blood, digging the spurs into his side, and when she got off his back, he was trembling all over,

38、 full of froth and blood. 4(P254)This description suggests Rebecca well: wanton; cruel and sly.2.3.5 Bens wordsBesides, the idiot Bens action also shows Rebeccas hoof. Ben has been frightened badly by Rebecca just because he sees her wanton in the cottage.“(Ben) He held the fishing cline clutched to

39、 his heart like a treasure. You (“I) wont put me to the asylum, will you? he said.You are not like the other one, he said.What do you mean? I said,what other one? He shook his head. His eyes were sly again. He laid his finger against his nose. Tall and dark she was, he said, she gave you the feeling

40、 of a snake. I had seen her here with my own eyes. Be night shed e. I seen her. He paused, watching me intently. I didnt say anything. I looked in on her once. He said, and she turn on me, she did. You dont know me, do you? she said. You have never seen me here, and you wont again. If I catch you lo

41、oking at me through the windows here, Ill have you put to the asylum. She said. You wouldnt like that, would you? They are cruel to people in the asylum. She said. 4(P263)3.The second level of suspense: Rebeccas death- accident? Suicide? Or murder?In the front of the novel, we get message from Mrs.

42、Van Hoppers mouth that Rebecca is drowned nearby the bay of Manderley. So, it is an accident? Maybe not. If only she and Maxim were an affectionate couple. And as we have analyzed the first level of suspense, the truth of Rebeccas death is the second level. According to the position of the suspense

43、in the whole writing, suspense can be classified to partial suspense and full-text suspense.As in the first level of suspense, Rebecca and Maxims relation doesnt expose unless Chapter 19. Its a full-text suspense. Now, a second level of suspense forms. Readers may guess and look back again. We all w

44、onder if there is something that shows. Yes, when Maxim tells I that he shoots Rebecca, readers may stop again to think over.The poem appears in the front of the novel is a significant indication.The volume was well worn, well thumbed, falling open automatically at what must be a much-frequented pag

45、e. 4(P36) Why does Maxim always read this page of the poetry? What is its importance? Daphne is a careful and smart designer. She wouldnt write words wastefully. Every word leads to suspense.I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;I fled Him, down the arches of the years;I fled Him, down the l

46、abyrinthine waysof my own mind; and in the midst of tearsI hid from Him; and under running laughter.Up vistaed slopes I spedAnd shot, precipitedAdown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears,From those strong feet that followed, followed after. 4(P36)Maxim takes along this poetry and reads this page time to

47、time. Is he fleeing something? What is he hiding from on earth? In the latter chapters, Mrs. Danvers mentions about Rebeccas laughs. Say, when Rebecca fights with her cousin and wins. She cracks her whip over his head and down he es, head-over heels, cursing and laughing.So was everybody who knew he

48、r. She didnt care. She only laughed. I shall live as I please, Danny 4(P256)Rebecca makes men love her but she just laughs and doesnt care them at all. She wont love anything, except herself.Rebeccas laughs shade Maxim always, they are curse to Maxim. After shooting Rebecca, he is living with fear t

49、o be found out.Rebecca sits on the hills above Monte Carlo, laughing, tearing a flower to bits in her hands, after a bargain with her husband. She laughs at her husbands care about his Manderley. She laughs at his sacrifice on pride, honor, personal feelings, every quality about fame. After her barg

50、ain with Maxim, she laughs like the devil.She threw back her head and laughed.4(P291) Because she knows that Maxim cant prove anything against her, she has got a big triumph.She waited a minute, rocking on her heels, and then she lit a cigarette and went and stood by the window. She began to laugh.

51、She went on laughing, I thought she would never stop. 4(P292)Even when she is shot by Maxim, she is still smiling. I fired at her heart. The bullet passed right through. She did not fall at once. She stood there, looking at me, that slow smile on her face, her eyes wide open. Maxim hasnt realized th

52、is meaning of the smile until (in the end of the novel) they get files from the doctor that Rebecca has got a cancer before she dies. She foresees the whole thing. So she lies to Maxim on purpose. It is the last supreme bluff. She wants to be killed by Maxim that means to destroy him, also. That is

53、why she laughs. That is why she stands there laughing when she dies. What a wicked and cunning laugh it is!As in the poem, Maxim lives under Rebeccas damn laughs. All this strained shapes answers the second suspense: Maxim cant bear any longer and kills Rebecca. It is neither an accident nor a suici

54、de.4. The third level of suspense: whether Maxim can escape from Rebeccas conspiracy?The first two levels of suspense have given readers large space to image. We rely on our experiences and imagination to what is happening. The art of the suspense lies in this. People like unexpected answers and int

55、ricate plots. Daphne attracts not only readers attention but also their abilities to investigate. There are two possibilities: Maxim will be sentenced because of murder if it is Rebecca who wins the game. Will she? Or can Maxim escape? At this point, suspense pushes the story to a new high tide.4.1T

56、he first turningBecause a ship strands near the bay of Manderley, Rebeccas little boat is discovered, so is her dead body. Maxim told me everything about his murder of Rebecca. But to our surprise, they are lucky enough. Because the magistrate judges Rebecca is trapped there, in the cabin. The jury will believe. Every one is relaxed to read this phrase. Though in the inquest, holes made by Maxim are referred, the jury considers it as a suicide, without sufficient evidence to show the state of mind of the decease. Anyhow, Maxim and I are away from danger,