莉莉．巴特與《歡樂之家》中的女性情誼

Lily Bart and Female Relationships in The House of Mirth

本文試圖將伊底絲‧沃頓1905 年出版的小說《歡樂之家》中的女主人翁莉莉‧巴特歸類為「女性三十」的小說之列，並辯證在沃頓的刻畫下，莉莉‧巴特成為一位被囚禁在既定的社會、經濟與慾力產物的固定狀態上，並且無力做出任何替換的熟齡女性。接著，文章試著分析對沃頓小說寫作背景有重大影響的一個因素：美國十九世紀所謂的女性同性社交文化的形成與演變，以及此一同性社交文化對《歡樂之家》文本中異性戀婚姻主軸與女性同性情誼副軸兩者的互動，所造成的一些深遠影響。接著，文章中針對女性同性情誼副軸詳加分析，論述焦點主要是放在莉莉‧巴特與與幾位親人：母親、姑媽、表姊，以及幾位女性友人：茱蒂‧崔納、蓓塔‧朵塞、歌蒂‧法瑞琪與涅蒂‧史陀瑟等人之間的關係上。分別就下列幾個子標題作詳細的文本分析：「母愛匱乏／區隔與個人化的不完全：莉莉‧巴特的女性至親」，「善良母親與邪惡後母：莉莉‧巴特的貴婦好友」，「新女性與勞工階層：莉莉‧巴特可能的救贖」，以瞭解莉莉與周遭女性至親好友之間所形成的女性情誼，以及莉莉因欠缺充足的母愛，而不斷地在其女性至親好友中，努力追尋女性認同與母親替代者的過程。本文最後的結論為：莉莉身為製造她的文明的一個產物，因此，早已被禁錮在一些既定的社會、經濟與慾力產物的固定狀態上，並且無力做出任何更換，死亡似乎成為她唯一的選擇。

This essay tries to delineate Wharton’s The House of Mirth as a “novel of the woman of thirty” and maintain that its female protagonist Lily Bart has been portrayed as one who is locked into fixed positions which are social, economic and products of the libido. Thus, she is incapable of making any change concerning her destined fate. Then, the essay attempts to illustrate one important factor having some bearing on Wharton’s writings: the female homosocial culture in late 19th and early 20th century America, and to see how this culture affects the interaction between the heterosexual marriage plot and the homosocial female subplot of the novel. Due to the fact that critical essays concerning the female relationships—mother-daughter relations, female same-sex relations—have been relatively few, this essay focuses on the “female circle” around Lily Bart and makes a detailed textual analysis of her female relatives as well as friends.