On The Development Of Idealism In Creation Of George Sand’s Novels

As the leading figure of French romantic literature in the 19th century, George Sand expressed her ideal on love and marriage, society, nature and humanity through her novels. According to different themes, Sand’s novels can be divided into four types:feminist novel, social novel, pastoral romance, fairy tales and fantasy fictions, which testified the development of author’s feminism, socialism, deism and humanism. Nowadays, George Sand and her works have become a cultural phenomenon and spiritual symbol in western world. Compared to the mature theory system of "sandism" in the Occident, the studies of George Sand and her works in China have always been scattered, unilateral and discontinuous. In this sense, a comprehensive summarization and a detailed analysis of Sand are not only necessary, but also urgent. Therefore, it’s essential to grasp author’s train of thoughts which makes all her novels an organic entirety and permits a deep and continual research.Based on the texts of George Sand and theories of literature, history, sociology, linguistic, aesthetic and psychology, this dissertation examines author’s experience and her main novels, analyses the development process of her idealism. The augmentation combined of literature and history helps to put the microcosmic studies of Sand into the macroscopical system of French literary researches. This dissertation consists of six parts:introduction, four chapters as the body of analysis and conclusion. Introduction begins with a review of international and domestic research progress as well as existing studies of George Sand and her works. Then, it legitimates the choice of subject, summarizes objectives, process, significance and values of this study.Chapter one focuses on Sand’s ideal of love and marriage which is expounded in four parts. First is about her rebellion and democratic thoughts provided from her childhood, education and marriage. Then, through the analysis of "romantic trilogy", author’s resistance for true love and the state of women is revealed. The third part reveals the modernity and limitation of her feminist ideas. At last, with a comparative analysis of the love tragedy Sand-Musset and Mauprat, love story which involved social problems, explains the reason why George Sand fixed her eyes on socialism after the disillusion of love.The second chapter deals with Sand’s social ideal, meaning communism. The first part clarifies what is exactly author’s "socialism", showing the images of proletarian people created by Sand. The second part reviews a series of author’s political practices guided by her communist theories, analyzes one of her communist novel, which indicates that Sand’s communism isn’t able to solve fundamentally social contradictions, but remains "ideal". The third part focuses on Sand’s "most important work" Consuelo, which shows how the author combined her social ideal with love ideal, and how she united the beauty of words with that of music.Chapter three mainly discusses Sand’s pastoral romance which represents "her highest level of art" and reflects her deism as well as humanism. In the first part, Sand’s feminism and political thoughts are summarized. Focal point is the limitations of her communist ideology. Thus, the underlying causes of her return to rustication are found. Then it’s up to concrete analysis of the "country trilogy" in both artistic and mental aspects. At last, it points out the utopian socialism of Sand’s pastoral romance, affirms the literary, linguistic, aesthetic values and significance of her folklore.The forth chapter takes as subject Sand’s fairy tales and fantasy fictions of which the importance has been often ignored by educational circles, and which displays the sublimation of her idealism. Divided into three parts, it studies firstly Sand’s attitude toward parent-child relationship, friendship and love in her later years, which reveals the regression, development and sublimation of her spirit. Secondly, the fairy tales and fantasy fictions are examined in literary and psychological perspectives, disclosing author’s thoughts on the dialectical relationships between nature and human, reality and imagination. At the end of this chapter, Sand’s whole life is summarized; her idealism is accomplished and immortalized by her death.In the conclusion, the development process of Sand’s ideals and the main features of her novels are summarized. The writer’s idealism, beginning with freedom of marriage and equality of two sexes, passing by communism and pastoralism, has achieved at last "summum bonum", realizing the leap from traditional belief to personal faith. That’s why her thoughts are so foreseeable, full of vitality and everlasting through her novels until today. It’s based on this point that the studies of George Sand is far from being outmoded, and deserve continuous and profound work.