An Analysis Of The Female Images In Wang Shuo’s Novels

Wang Shuo was a popular writer in the 1980 s and 1990 s,creating many female characters,yet not much research had been done on his portrayal of women.This paper attempts to examine these images from a feminist perspective,to discover the sense of contradiction and the source of contradiction behind them,and to try to analyze the author’s reasons for writing in this way.First of all,the above-mentioned characters presentation was the result of the entanglement of female self-actualization and emotional dependence.On the one hand,women had the need to realize their self-worth,but on the other hand,they were voluntarily tied to men psychologically,and their images revealed a hidden sense of contradiction.Coupled with the fact that men’s expectations of women had not changed with the changing socio-economic structure,the sense of ambivalence had deepened.Male characters occupied the absolute dominant position in Wang Shuo’s novels,while female characters were more often used as tools and showed the patriarchal trap behind them.The female figures in the novel existed in the form of foils,symbols and mirrors,or as green leaves to set off the male protagonist’s tallness and tragedy.They were either a sign of a pure heart to guide the hero on his way,or a projection of the hero’s own psychological state,all of which were distinctly symbolic and hardly stood on themselves as "persons".Wang Shuo’s work was inextricably linked to traditional patriarchal consciousness and his own upbringing and experiences,with patriarchal consciousness being relatively more evident and the’spiritual compound’ deep in his psyche being to some extent the root of his portrayal of these characters.In his creation,he always tries to preserve and restore the "countryside" that he remembered as the faith of a generation of courtiers,and the female characters played a "purifying" role in this.