「她們的丈夫是英雄嗎？」：試析薩克雷《名利場》中喬治與羅頓的身分定位

＂Are Their Husbands Heroes?＂: Examining George and Rawdon's Identities in Thackeray's Vanity Fair

許多評論家把《名利場》的副標題（“A Novel without a Hero＂）定義為〈一部沒有（男）主角的小說〉，而筆者卻傾向把Hero此字定義為英雄，意指一具有超凡勇氣、高貴情操和傑出能力者。《名利場》故事重點在於兩位女主角缺乏安全感的婚姻生活，以及她們進出名利場的態度。在筆者的閱讀中，不管副標題如何被定義，威廉‧杜賓（William Dobbin）應該被視為小說中唯一被隱蔽的英雄，也應是女主角們在名利場無所不在的影響下，為保全自己家庭生活而應該選擇的那種好丈夫。然而，這位主人公的形象，以及在家庭生活中所扮演的英雄身份，直到故事結尾才被兩位女主角充分認同。杜賓可被看作是故事中唯一的英雄和正派的丈夫，而其他兩位丈夫──喬治．奧斯本（George Osborne）和羅頓．克勞利（Rawdon Crawley）──由於他們不英勇行為，則應被視為反英雄。本文擬採用諾斯羅普．弗萊（Northrop Frye）的小說模式（fictional modes）理論來評估《名利場》中反英雄概念的運用，並觀察威廉．薩克雷（William Thackeray）如何通過顛覆傳統英雄敘事來批判維多利亞時代的社會價值觀。通過對英雄原型框架下的反英雄人物進行調查，小說呈現雙重目的：一方面展示兩位女英雄的悲慘婚姻生活與其不同經歷，另一方面以同理心看待兩位反英雄不智的行為，因這是一部號稱沒有英雄的小說。筆者想證明的是，當名利場裡所有邪惡行徑已徹底坦白地在小說中被揭露之後，也許薩克雷所冀望的是：他的讀者們都能夠反思善行與惡行共存的本質。

While many critics define the word ＂hero＂ in Vanity Fair's subtitle ＂A Novel without a Hero＂ as the principal character in a literary work, I instead regard it as a man distinguished by exceptional courage and nobility and strength. In my reading, despite the subtitle, William Dobbin should be regarded as the only and concealed hero in the novel, and also the kind of good husband that the heroines should choose if they wish to secure their domestic lives under the ubiquitous influence of Vanity Fair. Yet, this image of the competent husband, and heroic identity in domestic life, is not thoroughly recognized by the two female characters until the end of the story. While Dobbin can be seen as the only hero and decent husband in the story, the other two husbands, George Osborne and Rawdon Crawley, should be regarded as antiheroes because of their un-heroic conducts. This paper intends to employ Northrop Frye's theory of fictional modes to evaluate the application of the antiheroic concept in Vanity Fair and observe how Thackeray criticizes Victorian social values through the subversion of conventional heroic narrative. By investigating the antihero characters through the framework of the heroic archetypes, the novel serves a double aim: to demonstrate the two heroines' tragic marital lives and their different experiences in Vanity Fair on the one hand, and empathize with the two antiheroes' unwise conduct on the other, since this is a so-called novel without a hero. I like to prove that, after all the wicked conduct in Vanity Fair has been thoroughly and frankly revealed in the novel, it is Thackeray's wish that the essence of good conduct that coexists with the bad should be reflected on by his reader.