The Awakening Of Females’ Rebellious Spirit

In the first half of the nineteenth century,great changes had taken place in the American society with technological advancements,but millions of women were oppressed behind the prosperity of industrial capitalism.During this period,there were not only traditional women who take care of their husbands and children at home,but also working-class women in the urban space.Unfortunately,they exist,without exception,as the "other" under the control of patriarchal ideology,suffering from both physical and mental torture during their lifetime.Definitely Poe’s short stories unintentionally recorded the secret of women’s life.The spatial theory,which emerged at the end of the twentieth century subverts the traditional concept that time is superior to space,considering that space not only includes the concrete material form,but also an abstract spiritual construction.In addition,it also provides a new research method for the study of female characters in Poe’s short stories.With the analyses of women’s identity in the physical space,mental space and social space,this paper explores the construction of women’s identity in Poe’s short stories,and,therefore,reveals the survival dilemma of the nineteenth-century American women in the patriarchal society.The physical space in Poe’s short stories can be roughly divided into two categories,namely,the private space in the form of home and the public space in the city.However,whether in the private space or in the public one,most of Poe’s women are facing the threat of confinement;even urban women,who enjoy more freedom,are vulnerable in the public spaces.Therefore,women become the direct victims of male-dominant physical space.In the mental space,Poe’s male characters objectify women through male gaze in order to realize the identity confinement of women.In the social space,women have been marginalized for the purpose of positioning them in the alienated group.Brutal oppression of women in the social space is manifested in the abnormal relationship between husbands and wives,between fathers and daughters,and between women and members of society.Although Poe’s women were suffering from the above triple oppression of patriarchal society at that time,some of them gradually grew the rebellious consciousness and begin to subvert the traditional female identity.This kind of rebellious spirit is embodied in the extraordinary volition of Morella and Ligeia,in Marie’s independent life style,and in the violent resistance of the heroine in "The Tell-Tale Heart".Therefore,the revelation of the construction of female identity in the patriarchal society and the awakening of women’s consciousness behind oppression are still of great significance to the liberation of women in the new century.