《米德爾馬契》中的婚姻觀: 一篇費爾巴哈式的閱讀

Abstract

在這篇論文中，我探討的作品是喬治•愛略特的經典小說《米得爾馬契》，而論文主題是討論愛略特如何用宗教的觀點看待她的理想婚姻觀。我主張一位十九世紀的德國哲學家路得威得•費爾巴哈的代表作《基督教的本質》深深影響愛略特的宗教思想，也正因為這份濃郁的費爾巴哈色彩使得愛略特的婚姻觀有別於十九世紀和二十世紀女性主義份子對婚姻的觀點。同時，我主張愛略特將小說中的女主角多羅西亞•布魯克比喻成聖母瑪麗亞和聖德雷莎的意涵在於代表費爾巴哈式的理想典範。這兩方面的主張會和我論文的三個章節有緊密關係。 在第一章裡頭，我討論愛略特如何用多羅西亞的聖德雷莎形象來制衡婚姻中基督教父權的壓迫以及愛略特與聖德雷莎的相似之處，例如對受難者的憐憫心，也反映到愛略特的婚姻觀中。在第二章，我會研究愛略特理想的婚姻觀如何受到費爾巴哈的影響，諸如勞動分工，有機社會理論，何謂理想妻子，理想丈夫，愛的哲學觀，和受難議題等等，一探愛略特理想婚姻的各種面相。到了第三章，我探討愛略特如何採用多羅西亞的聖母和聖德雷莎形象恢復女性被剝奪漠視的基本人性需求以及愛略特的家庭史詩如何反映費爾巴哈的物質概念。經過這些討論後，冀望能提供一篇關於愛略特婚姻觀有趣的詮釋。 .

In this thesis, I plan to discuss how George Eliot uses a religious eye to look at her ideal concept of marriage in Middlemarch. I will argue that Eliot is influenced by the Essence of Christianity written by Ludwig Feuerbach, a nineteenth-century German religious philosopher, and demonstrates a lot of Feuerbachian hues to distinguish her thoughts from other nineteenth- and twentieth-century feminists. Moreover, I suggest that Eliot compares her main heroine, Dorothea Brooke, to Madonna and St. Theresa to represent a Feuerbachian paradigm. These two aspects will have a close relationship with my three chapters. In chapter one, I will discuss how Eliot uses Dorothea’s St. Theresa image to counterbalance Christian patriarchal oppression in marriage and Eliot’s similarity with St. Theresa in their sympathy. In chapter two, I will explore Eliot’s Feuerbachian influence in her idea of wife, husband and marriage, such as division of labor, organic society, ideal wifehood and husbandhood, love philosophy and suffering issue, etc. In chapter three, I will discuss Eliot’s employment of Dorothea’s Madonna and St. Theresa images to restore woman’s basic human needs and how her home epic reflects Feuerbach’s matter concept. After these discussions, I hope to offer an interesting interpretation of Eliot’s marital concept.