本文是一篇英语论文，笔者通过对三个人物进入社会的描述，默多克揭示了造成这种不平衡和冷漠的根源，即缺乏爱和对社会中特定群体的偏见。在寻找治愈创伤的有效方法的过程中，默多克验证了爱的救赎，布拉德利最终摆脱了他的幻想，发现了他人和现实的本质，并真实地记录下了这段经历，以帮助读者。
1 Family and Society: The Analysis of Traumatic Causes
1.1 Neglected: A Disturbed Writer
“The original experience of care makes it possible for human beings to envisage a world in where they belong, a world hospitable to human life”, (Herman 1992:37) but the neglected Bradley does not believe that good can be of triumph (Murdoch 1975:108). The concept of good, for Murdoch, is closely connected with real and love (Murdoch 2014:41), which refers to things relating with beauty. However, Bradley refuses to believe in good. As the owner of a shabby shop, Bradley’s parents are poor and neglect his emotional as well as educational needs. Father, who is “nervous, timid, upright, conventional”, “disapproved of her (his wife) ‘worldliness’ and detested the ‘social scene’” (Murdoch 1975:82). However, father cannot do anything, but avoids crossing her. As for his father’s dislike, Bradley believes that it is because his father lacks education. “He (father) was afraid of making some undignified mistake.” (Ibid) Such disapproved of worldliness and anxiety of lack of education are “shared” (Ibid) by Bradley. Father’s trauma is unconsciously transmitted to Bradley in daily life, for which the transmission has been defined as “transgenerational trauma” by Abraham and Torok. It is a phenomenon that the unspeakable trauma is passed from one generation to the next unconsciously. Unlike the absent father, Bradley’s mother is a doer. Besides her complaint about the injustice and the unwealthy husband, she hopes the daughter Priscilla can make a better business. In order to achieve the goal, she puts her energy to Priscilla, planning a “campaign” (Murdoch 1975:69). Bradley feels “pain and shame” (Murdoch 1975:82) for their constantly attempting to penetrate higher class. He is mortally afraid of anyone seeing his mother as absurd or pathetic, a defeated snob (Ibid). The neglects of parents make Bradley detach from family members. In addition, due to the parents’ bad marriage, he fails to learn the effective way to deal with the intimacy. These turn to be traumatic causes when Bradley grows up.
英语论文怎么写
While the false way of communication and icy marital relation on his parents make them neglect children’s needs, the negative interaction in Bradley’s marriage attributes to his trauma, too. In parents’ marriage, Bradley finds that “they could not ‘see’ each other at all.” (Ibid) Father disapproves of his wife’s worldliness, and detests the social scene, while mother “had a continued grudge against the world. This may have originated in, or been aggravated by, a sense of having married ‘beneath’ her” (Murdoch 1975:68). The negative familyenvironment is impossible to generate and pass on the positive communication patterns. Besides, Bradley shares his father’s disapproval and anxiety, which means he dislikes the vain and unwitting women like his mother and Priscilla. In his own marriage, Bradley used to see Christian “as a life-bringer”, but finally she is “a death-bringer” (Murdoch 1975:24-25). The five years marriage also shares the mess and discontent. Bradley’s ex-wife is “a great maker of scenes” (Murdoch 1975:25) like his mother, which he hates. The unhappy marriage of his parents repeats in Bradley’s own life and becomes a cause of trauma. The repetition of the marriage not only testifies the possibility of transmission of transgenerational trauma, but also indicates that family atmosphere and parental relations can shed great influence on children.
...................................
1.2 Aphasia: A Created Housewife
With the writing of Priscilla’s traumatic events, Murdoch shows the real life of women and the bi-sexual oppression of women. The status of women seems to be improving in Murdoch’s time. Two feminist movements bring the changes of women’s social status, self-perception and external environment. Some of their appeals, such as right to education,property and vote, are satisfied. At the same time, more and more women enter job market and earn their own wages. But in Murdoch’s novels, women do not change their life a lot, still at the risk of being marginalized. Although the movement is in full swing, Murdoch understands that in her days, “the structure of society is less interesting and less alive than it was in the nineteenth century” (Murdoch 1998:291). The expectation on women is to make her a good wife and kind mother, but not a female activist with modern education and discourse.
Poverty lifts the mother’s curses and silences Priscilla’s voice. From 1870’s Elementary Education Act to 1944’s Butler Education Act, though Britain is the earliest nations to achieve compulsory education in the world, the dropout rate for poor children remains high. Their parents believe that the sooner they start making money, the easier to lift family burden. Priscilla drops out of school early, too. Interiorizing education and prioritizing money are usually a common cognitive limitation and weakness of the poor. Regretting not able to make good use of her beauty, mother sees Priscilla as a high-quality commodity who can change the poverty. Priscilla “began to lard herself with make-up and haunt the hairdresser” (Murdoch 1975:68-9), but the poverty does not cultivate her an elegant taste. She “was always buying new clothes which made her look like a guy.” (Murdoch 1975:69) “Egged on by her mother, (Priscilla) had ambitions.” (Murdoch 1975:68) During the process of searching for rich man, the emotional needs and the autonomy of Priscilla as an independent inpidual have been neglected. Her right to discourse is deprived by her mother. Even the attention to her is because she might make a “more advantageous buy” (Ibid). “The real lesson to be taught is that the human person is precious and unique” (Conradi 2001:271). No one tells Priscilla she is precious in the family-of-origin.
..................................
2 Mind and Body: The Writing of Acting out Trauma
2.1 Withdrawal: The Cognitive Fixation
“An inpidual’s identity involves a complex interplay of multiple spheres or systems” (Danieli 1995: viii), such as the physical and intrapsychic, the interpersonal-familial, social, communal etc. The involvement connects the lifeline from past through present to future, making a person without regret at the past and fear of the future. However, “victimization causes a rupture, a possible regression, and a state of being ‘stuck’ in this free flow (which I have termed fixity).” (Danieli 1995: ix) After suffering trauma, the established perception and expectation of world, of the other and self are broken, and a new pattern re-constructs, which is the “mental schemata” (Creamer 1995:56). Time is fixed after the event, while the new schemata has also been fixed, which builds on “breach(ing) the attachments of family, friendship, love, and community”, and “shatter(ing) the construction of the self that is formedand sustained in relation to others” (Herman 1992:37). It tends to withdraw from the contingent outside world and shut the self in a safe environment.
In order to stay at the safe environment and devote into writing, Bradley behaves in social withdrawal. Bradley withdraws from kinds of activities, for example, forgetting the appointment with Hartbourne consciously or unconsciously, neglecting Priscilla’s bad health, refusing to meet with his ex-wife. All of these indicate great uncertainty and may disturb Bradley’s peaceful life. He retires earlier than usual age, so he can toil for his freedom to devote all his life to writing. After destroying countless paper, Bradley makes a decision to leave the noisy and disturbing London city to a silent seaside town, beginning his writing. It seems to be reasonable for Bradley to remain fixed bodily and mentally as a sensitive, inferior and high-minded person. Only if he stays in the self-constructing safe environment can he be free from the social norms and avoid the trauma brought by the outside world. As the constructor of the safety, Bradley controls everything. Therefore, he believes that “life and art must be kept strictly separate” (Murdoch 1975:212). Bradley withdraws from life in the name of art, although he has failed for several decades. The withdrawal scatters over his daily life. Before the beginning of the novel, Bradley has already retired from work, earlier than usual age. That is the very beginning of his avoidance. At the start of the novel, he is going to leave for a silent place. When Bradley lives alone and can do anything freely, he decides to have new breath. However, he fidgets when the time for departure comes due to his fear and anxiety about the future journey. His hesitation triggers the following series of events. Bradley wants to escape from the disturbance by fleeing London, but leaving a familiar environment to a strange one generates his feelings of fear and worry. Fear haunts and hurts him.
..................................
2.2 Hysteria: The Unclaimed Feelings
The unclaimed painful feelings and horrified experiences put women into hysteria, while the sexual antagonism and the patriarchal discourse system build up barriers for women to receive understanding, resonance and support. Murdoch visualizes women’s traumatic experiences, based on writing female living condition in various periods and classes. This panorama nearly completes by Priscilla’s body movement and postscripts. “We are exhorted to be women, remain women, become women.” (De Beauvoir 1956:13) One may ask what is a woman? “Woman is a womb.” (Ibid) From the first feminist movement, to the publication of The Black Prince when is undergoing the second movement, this opinion still exists. It is normal and acceptable for women being oppressed, torn and abused by their husbands. Afterthe atrocity, intrusive symptoms emerge most prominently in the first few days. Meanwhile the uncontrolled memory repeatedly stimulates victim’s nerves. And then constrictive symptoms come to predominate (Herman 1992:34-5). The symptoms do not have order, but appear simultaneously or alternately. Based on analyzing the progression of Priscilla’s symptoms, her condition is deliberately deteriorated by others’ intention and neglect. Even suicide fails to raise little attention. Women experience the “repetition compulsion” (Herman 1992:29), detesting men and women, and blaming others for their own unhappy life. With the continue hyperarousal and repeated intrusion, Priscilla finally turns to be constrictive, numbing and absence.
With the writing of hysteria, Murdoch demonstrates that hysteria is the cry from traumatic women who cannot speak, and the challenge of male-centered ethics. It is not just an important representation of the psychological trauma. Hysteria has long been stigmatized and neglected, considered as “a disease proper to women” (Herman 1992:6). In 1980s, the authority chooses to support the research on hysteria out of political needs. It comes to the first climax of the research. Among numerous researchers, Freud is the most prominent one. Based on the clinical research and psycho-analysis, the publication of The Aetiology of Hysteria discloses the root of hysteria, which is childhood sexual exploitation. The furthest unrecognized reality of women’s childhood trauma has been first time exposed. The conclusion undoubtedly crosses the limits of social credibility and morals. After all, hysteria is not only a signal of asking for help, but also a demonstration of patriarchal violence and horror. Freud’s conclusion challenges the ethics and immediately provokes a strong ostracism. It unveils the cover of male abusive behaviour, which does not involve with class, education, religion or culture. It is possible to happen in any family. The intense reaction forces Freud to repudiate the traumatic theory of hysteria. Therefore, the hysterical women retreat from the stage and become absent.
..........................................
3 Self and the Other: The Endeavour to Work through Trauma ............................. 31
3.1 The Salvation from Love and Art ................................ 31
3.2 The Powerlessness of the Dissolved Subject ........................ 35
3.3 The Elimination of Connection ................................ 40
Conclusion .................................. 44
Major Findings ............................ 44
Limitations ...................................... 45
3 Self and the Other: The Endeavour to Work through Trauma
3.1 The Salvation from Love and Art
Living alone is one of Bradley’s choices to establish safety. “Establishing safety begins by focusing on control of body and gradually moves outward toward control of the environment.” (Herman 1992:113). After the porce, Bradley lives alone “in a ground-floor flat in a small shabby pretty court of terrace houses in North Soho” (Murdoch 1975:22), where constructs his body safety. With the self-appraisal of a traditional and sensitive ascetic,Bradley devotes himself into writing, regardless of his scarce output. The ascetic in religion means to refuse any entertainment, including but not limited to the pursuit of food, sex and money. The puritans in ancient society aim to purify their soul, while Bradley is more inclined to withdraw from reality and gain consolation. He even believes that job is a kind of wasting time. Art is a god for Bradley, while writing is to shine the halo. According to the analysis of Nietzsche, Diken discovers that “there is a fundamental search for the feeling of power in ascetism, too”, which is obtained from the suffering of the other and self (Diken 2009:22). Facing a poor living condition and the gap in social status, Bradley creates a safe environment with the excuse of asceticism, which prevents him from the insidious trauma, and attains feelings of satisfaction and pride. Therefore, he reject most of social activities, like forgetting the appointment with Hartbourne. And he can comfort himself spiritually. For example, even if his flat is in a small shabby pretty court of terrace house and his bedroom can look on to dustbins, yet Arnold’s villa is in a good class housing estate in Ealing, he “prefers this genteel metropolitan poverty to the styleless surburban affluence favoured by the Baffins” (Murdoch 1975:22). With the evaluation of puritan, staying at home and devoting to writing are Bradley’s way of working through trauma physically and psychologically. However, Bradley’s behaviour is not consistent with Herman’s idea, and the safety turns out to be the cave where enslaves the man in Plato’s cave metaphor. “Because no one can establish a safe environment alone, the task of developing an adequate safety plan always includes a component of social support.” (Herman 1992:113)
英语论文参考
....................................
Conclusion
Major Findings
Through the writing of trauma, Murdoch constructs the life condition of victims in family and society, demonstrating her art opinion that good art is to speak reality and give enlightenment, and showing her musings on the relationship among trauma, love and art. With the construction of the three characters’ life condition, Murdoch displays the imbalance of parent-children relationship and emotional indifference within family, in which parents abuse their children, and characters only pays attention to their own needs without consideration about others. Through the description of the three characters entering into society, Murdoch unveils the root that causes the imbalance and indifference, which is the lack of love and the prejudice against particular groups in society. During the process to find the effective way of healing trauma, Murdoch validates the salvation of love, for which Bradley ultimately gets rid of his reverie, discovering the essence of others and reality, and writing down the experience truly to help readers. However, Priscilla commits suicide because her needs to love and be loved fail to satisfy, while Francis cannot establish the reliable connection due to the loss of ability to love. In The Black Prince, characters suffer from trauma because of lack of love, while Bradley is cured by the return of love. At the same time, Bradley’s art viewpoint that good art is truth has not come true until he works through his trauma. Therefore, through trauma writing, Murdoch connects love and art, interpreting the concept of love and practicing her art.
Through trauma writing, Murdoch interprets the concepts of love and good art. The three characters illustrates that they can “love” others when they endeavour to save themselves. Priscilla is to give everything to her husband; Francis is to let anyone walk over him; Bradley is to elope with the lover regardless of sick sister and morals. These “loves” not only fail to cure trauma, but also hurt others. Murdoch’s concept of love means to see the true others, but not realized by the reverie. Through the talk with his cellmate and the writing, Bradley discovers his reverie and blindness caused by trauma, and he finally comprehends love, which is to see the essence of others and things, but not cast his own reverie on others. After the discovery, Bradley finishes his dream work that is The Black Prince. Through truly writing down his traumatic experience, Bradley not only works through his own trauma, but also enlightens readers who may suffer the same torture.
reference(omitted)