本文是一篇英语论文，为了更好地理解伍尔夫的隐含意义，本文基于消费主义理论，从她的短篇小说《公爵夫人与珠宝商》中探讨了英国社会的消费主义。通过对工业革命后英国贵族、背景和英国消费主义的消费价值的分析，我们可以知道小说的主人公参与了消费社会的发展过程，并通过商品的外在象征价值和表面上人为的人的尊严来确立自己的地位。这是他们讽刺生活的真正原因。他们最终沦为消费主义的奴隶，深陷泥潭。
Chapter One The Formation of British Consumer Society
1. The Origin and Development of the British Aristocracy
The British aristocratic system has always been an important political legacy that cannot be ignored in western society. Its origin can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon era more than 1000 years ago(Yan, 2015:10).
Military aristocracy was the earliest form of the British aristocracy. Since the middle of the 5th century, the Germanic invaders gradually established the military aristocratic system by utilizing fighting. The war in the Anglo-Saxon era gave birth to military aristocrats. Then the emergence of the feudal state and private ownership of feudal land gave birth to the feudal aristocratic system. In the middle of the 7th century, the royal family began to formally handle the formalities of granting land in documents, so the military aristocrats gradually evolved into land aristocrats or secular aristocrats.
英语论文怎么写
With the establishment of Britain, the British aristocracy also gradually formed a relative system. For a long time, the British aristocrats had privileges in military, political, and economic fields. They had the most fertile land, the best manors, and the maximum wealth in the country. For instance, after the Norman conquest(1066), the real estate income of the King‟s brother was 1,690 pounds per year, and the estate income was 3,450 pounds per year; besides, the annual real estate income of the Montague Morley family was 1,240 pounds, and the estate income was 1,160pounds(Yan, 2015:30). After gaining the territory, the prominent nobles can enfeoff their subordinates in exchange for military support and necessary equipment. Therefore, they no longer had to participate in work or war by themselves but devoted themselves to the struggle for political power, and gradually formed the prototype of the British Parliament. However, the British Parliament and social structure have been changed with the economic reform.
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2. The Industrial Revolution and Consumerism in Britain
If the British aristocracy was the breeding ground of consumerism, then the Industrial Revolution has been a significant turning point for the emergence and development of consumerism. The revolution brought a steady stream of wealth to Britain and initiated the financial reform in the country. It has further caused the pision of social classes and major changes in social structure.
The long-term war has caused severe losses to the old-style land aristocrats in Britain. In order to protect their property and status, they were encouraged by the low interest rates of domestic loans to buy more land, and limited the inheritance of heirs. Besides that, the old aristocrats used their positions and influence in the Parliament to launch several Enclosure Movements. With these measures, farmers lost their land and were forced to enter cities and towns to make a living. But in fact, the Enclosure Movements provided much laborers for factories in towns and indirectly promoted the occurrence of the Industrial Revolution and the spread of consumerism.
Apart from occupying more real estate to mark their class status, another purpose of the old aristocratic enclosure was to have more grazing places. In order to ensure the development of domestic industry, the British government in the 18th century has put forward a series of measures to prohibit the export of raw wool, immigration of skilled workers, and import of textiles. Even the dead can‟t be buried without wearing wool textiles. These stipulations meant that sheep breeding and wool textile industry can bring high profits. The old-style land aristocrats seized the opportunity to encircle the land in order to obtain high profits. On the surface, the Enclosure Movement made many farmers lose their livelihood, but this seemingly condemned behavior marked the improvement of land productivity. The loss of farmers‟ cultivated land meant there were fewer people struggling to survive. Just like T·S Ashton said, “once fewer and fewer people needed to provide the means of survival, the living standard of a country have been improved”(T·S Ashton, 2020:33), this marked the beginning of British consumerism.
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Chapter Two The Embodiment of Consumerism in the Story
1. The Western Visual Idealization
Human senses play a vital role in the analysis and criticism of the fiction The Duchess and the Jeweller, among which visual sense is one. Philosopher Karl Marx Wotovsky puts forward a description of vision. He believes that vision is the product of human collective will. As an animal standing on its hind legs every day, human beings have long been superior to other species in developing and using vision. Except for the study of vision‟s physiological function, most of the visual studies in literature are based on the visual metaphor analysis of common languages. In this thesis, we will mainly focus on the visual idealization, which in short, refers to a process in which the spiritual picture is finally realized in the objective material. In other words, visual idealization is the ideal result of combining cultural material environment and visual function. However, in consumerism, vision is relieved of its essential function. On the contrary, vision is confirmed for political and social purposes. Visual idealization thus turns to be the dominant significance in the modern world.
1.1 Vertigo of Reality-- Oliver Bacon:You are where you live
For Britain, the expansion of overseas colonization and the rapid development of science and technology led by the Industrial Revolution are the reasons for the great improvement of the British economy. Its most enormous profit comes not from export or re-export, but a large number of imports. And it causes a boom of consumption. At the beginning of the fiction, we can see the author‟s description of his apartment: he lives in a top-class apartment overlooking the Green Park. In this apartment, the sofa with brocade covers properly fills the gap in front of the window floating with satin.
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2. Olfactory Perception
Today‟s history is deodorized, which means that it is difficult for us to trace the dissemination of material culture in history from the perspective of smell. As a part of the sensory empire, the Olfactory Enlightenment plays a vital role in the main theories of life, disease, atmosphere, and health technology from the mid-19th century to the heyday of the intellectualists. It evokes the mysteries of love, fantasy, and memory. In psychosemiotics of smell, the smell of the body can stimulate people‟sdesire for protection, strength, and sexual impulse. Most importantly, a person‟s smell is a unique identity “fingerprint”. It is both material and literary. For example, perfume art is no longer a mask for people‟s body odor, but a secret means to reveal their inner identity. The smell in literature reveals the social problems contained. So the study of olfactory perception can help us make more comprehensive conclusions in the process of the fiction analysis.
2.1 The Symbol of Status-- The Duchess’ Artificial Smell
Deodorization strategies appear very early in Europe, but the earliest deodorization strategies are to prevent diseases caused by strange smells. Even the earliest perfume is regarded as a medicine for treating diseases. For a long time, smell has been one of the criteria used to measure human health. However, with a lot of scientific and chemical experiments conducted by two chemists, personal odor has became a tool to identify oneself. Especially after people discover that workers will carry a smell related to their jobs, thus smell has became one of the symbols of people‟s identification. With the improvement of sanitary conditions, the grading system has became more sophisticated and complex, “once all the smells of excreta had been got rid of, the personal odors of perspiration, which revealed the inner identity of the „I‟ came to the fore.”(Alian Corbin, 2013:143) So, although the improvement of sanitary conditions and the method of cleaning the body distinguish the poor from the rich, the standard that laypeople cannot detect further disperses the wealth world.
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Chapter Three The Protagonists‟ Indulgence in the Consumer Society ......................... 40
1. What is the Leisure Class ........................ 40
2. A Dim Peacock-- The Duchess as a Fallen Leisure Class ................... 42
3. The Lure of Status-- Oliver Bacon as a Jew .................... 45
Chapter 4 The Influence of Consumerism ......................... 49
1. Lack of Love ............................... 49
2. Breakdown of Human Relationships ....................... 50
3. Fake Pearls-- The Abused Jewelry ............................... 51
Conclusion ............................ 56
Chapter 4 The Influence of Consumerism
1. Lack of Love
According to the law, marriage generally refers to a social phenomenon in which men and women voluntarily combine in economic life, spirit, material, and other aspects, and are recognized by law, ethics, medicine, politics, and other aspects. Both parties jointly produce, live and form a family, thus forming a social combination or legal constraint of interpersonal kinship. However, since the Middle Ages, the marriage of noble children has permanently been attached with great importance to their family status. In feudal times, the marriage of aristocrats was agreed upon by parents or guardians of both parties. In the negotiation process, power and economic interests were the primary considerations of both sides. For most aristocrats, an ideal marriage increased their real estate and improved the political status and social influence. Until the 19th century, the marriage between them became a pure exchange of interests. This phenomenon is clearly reflected in The Duchess and the Jeweller.
英语论文参考
The Duchess of Lambourne marries the Duke‟s family with a large amount of dowry, from an earl‟s daughter to the Duchess. Her marriage with the Duke brings a win-win situation: she brings honor to her mother‟s family and a great deal of property to her husband. However, she is regarded by her parents as traded commodity. The marriage between the Duchess and the Duke does not bring happiness because of her plentiful dowry, especially when she gives birth to three daughters without a male heir. As an outsider, the Jeweller can also see her misfortune in this marriage, “the Duck is straight as a poker; with side whiskers; Would cut her off, shut her up if he knows.”(Virginia Woolf, 1993:52) Although the marriage is wretched, the harsh porce conditions and aristocratic identity restrictions make it difficult for the Duchess to get rid of the shackles of this unfortunate marriage. It can be said that the Duchess‟s marriage is a complete tragedy under the exchange of interests.
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Conclusion
As a famous modern British writer, Virginia Woolf‟s work The Duchess and the Jeweller is an abstract reflection of the whole British society in the early 20th century. It is marvelous in describing a simple story of jewelry trade which sharply reveals declining aristocrats‟ situation and consumerism in Britain. The country in the 20th century is in an era of rapid development of science and technology, and the development leads to speedy economic growth. Thus, it has consolidated its ruling power-- the ideological rule of consumerism in a more secret way. Under the rule of consumerism ideology, as a Jew who lives in Britain since childhood and suffers from discrimination, Oliver Bacon is naturally infiltrated by western ideology. This foreigner becomes a puppet in the British consumer market. Apart from the Jeweller, what attitude should the readers take towards the Duchess? For her, Virginia Woolf has a deeper and more unique view as a scion of declining nobility. Like the mirror of Oyllen Spiegel(The mirror of Oyllen Spiegel. Oyllen Spiegel is the devil in the movie Student Von Prag Der). He asks the protagonist Balduin to stand in front of a worn-out full-length mirror when he serves Balduin a loan to squander. So the devil can summon the evil image in the mirror to substitute for the real Balduin. , Woolf shows readers not only the reckless consumption in British society at 1930s but also the reality of our society today.
In order to understand Woolf‟s implied meaning better, based on the theory of consumerism, this thesis explores the consumerism in British society from her short story The Duchess and the Jeweller. Through the analysis of the British aristocrats, background, and consumption value of British consumerism after the Industrial Revolution, we can know that the protagonists of the fiction participate in the development process of the consumer society and establish their status through the external symbolic value of goods and the artificial dignity of people on the surface. It is the real reason for their ironic lives. They eventually become slaves of consumerism and stuck in the mire.
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