Appeal For New Relations Between Man, Woman And Nature

Nathaniel Hawthorne was of the best writers of American Romanticism in the19thcentury. Most of his works use the New England of the colonial period in the UnitedStates as background, reflecting the social reality at that time.So far,“Rappaccini’s Daughter” has mostly been analyzed from the perspective ofdeconstruction, which deconstructs the ideas of Male-centeredness, Scientific Mythand Reason Theory in Hawthorne’s works. Instinct theory and character theory ofPsychoanalysis are also commonly used to exhibit those imperfect and immaturecharacters in his works. While “The Birth-Mark” has mainly been approached from apure feminist view, exposes hero’s hidden verbal violence, and reflects the exploitationof woman in patriarchal society. Some scholars combined Aylmer with Captain Ahabin Moby Dick, regard both of them as driven by death and the victim of paranoid.Although Chinese scholars have explained “Young Goodman Brown” in view ofhistory, religion, Sociology, Psychology, Semantics, Mythical Archetype Theory,Symbolism, Allegory, Deconstruction, research from perspective of Eco-feminism stillneed to be excavated.Hawthorne’s unique symbolism and the theme of original sin have already beenprobed by the academic circle, while analyzing these three stories from the perspectiveof Eco-feminism is still lacking. This paper will explore the common destiny betweennature and woman in this patriarchal society from the perspective of Eco-feminism,and reveal that over-exploitation would only bring disaster to them.The thesis is divided into seven parts. Chapter One is a brief introduction, giving abrief introduction of Hawthorne and general plot of his works:“Young GoodmanBrown”,“The Birth-Mark” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter”. Chapter Two introduceswestern and domestic research on Hawthorne. Chapter Three is about the theory of Eco-feminism, its process of development and a brief statement of Eco-feminism’score concept. It provides a theoretical basis for this thesis. Chapters Four, Five andSix are the body parts of the thesis. And this thesis is attempted to observe theprotagonists’ experience from the perspective of Eco-feminism: women and society.In Chapter Four, the author analyzes the experience of three heroines separately.Chapter Five mainly introduces men’s over development of nature, revealing thesimilar destiny between women and nature--both under oppression but having nopower to rebel. Chapter Six discusses the necessity of the establishment of a newsocial relationship, which should develop in a harmonious and sustainable way, andrequires the equality among men, women and nature. After the above discussion, inChapter Seven the author comes to a conclusion that through analyzing Hawthorne’sthree short stories from the perspective of Eco-feminism, we can reveal Hawthorne’seco-feminist ideas--to build an equal and harmonious relationship between humanand nature, men and women. Men’s attempt to control women and nature shoulddefinitely be abandoned.