论《去十九号房间》中的心理毁容

On Psychological Disfiguration in To Room Nineteen

《去十九号房间》是英国女作家多丽丝·莱辛创作的一部短篇小说。作品中,苏珊的自我定位是专情专意、理性聪明的中产阶级家庭主妇,但马修的出轨彻底颠覆了她的自我形象和角色定位,摧毁了她的安全感和价值感,对她造成了实实在在的心理毁容。马修既伤害又爱护的策略让人近中年、经济弱势、性情懦弱的苏珊难以招架,她疯狂地维持着理性,病态地执着于平和,不敢直面现实、化解冲突,无力弥补,也无力反抗,不断逃避,直至愿望被现实击破而崩溃自杀。作家对自他边界和理性感性的度进行了探索,既讽刺和批判了以苏珊为代表的中产阶级的算计、功利、虚伪、拘泥和懦弱,又对这个画地为牢、凿心为狱、挣扎至死的弱女子寄予了无限的同情。

In To Room Nineteen,a short story by British writer Doris Lessing,Susan identified herself as a devoted sensible middle-class housewife. Her husband Matthew's adultery,however,totally subverted her committed self-identification,destroyed her sense of security and worth,and wrecked upon her a substantial psychological disfiguration. Thereafter,encountering Mathew's passive-aggressive and protective-destructive strategies,Susan,now middle-aged,financially dependent and temperamentally weak,had to maintain her reasonableness in madness,pretend mildness in morbidity,and find herself unable to face the reality,conflict,and trauma,gradually develop helplessness and depression. She wistfully and willfully escaped until the aggravating reality crashed her hope for anonymity in rented room 19 and sent her into suicide,her last choice of escape. Lessing explored self-other boundary in the novel,criticized mildly her practicality and hypocrisy,rigidity and timidity of the middle class,and meanwhile empathized vicariously with the soul-stirring struggles of a weaker sex.