《曼斯菲尔德庄园》中的动物形象分析

An Analysis of the Animal Images in Mansfield Park

英国小说家简·奥斯丁的《曼斯菲尔德庄园》,长期以来被认为是关于"一个村镇上的三四家人"的故事,评论家大多将侧重点放在小说中的人物身上,而作品中的动物却被忽视。本文聚焦小说中的动物形象,结合英国18世纪末、19世纪初的社会文化背景,挖掘隐藏于动物背后的潜文本,旨在说明动物在小说中占有一席之地。小说中的动物形象一方面展示了当时英国社会政治、经济与文化等诸多层面,另一方面也是作家得以完成其讽刺和道德说教的重要载体。

Jane Austen's Mansfield Park has long been considered as a story of 'three or four families in a country village'. Critics tend to put emphases on the characters in the novel, whereas the animals have been overlooked. Focusing on the animal images in Mansfield Park, this article attempts to reveal the subtext of the animals in the novel by taking into consideration the socio-cultural background of England in the late 18 th and early 19 th centuries. This article aims to illustrate that animals play an important role in the novel as they not only mirror the then English politics, economy, and culture, but also serve as a means to assist the novelist in achieving irony and moral teachings.