In many of Zhang Ailing's novels, the influence of repressed female slave consciousness on marriage and love has attracted much attention. The reason why women are conquered and become slaves in a patriarchal society is that their physical strength is not as good as that of men. But men's physical strength is not as good as wolves, tigers and leopards. Why don't they give in to animals? The root of this view of marriage and love lies in Zhang Ailing's heart, but the whole era at that time also had an irresistible relationship.
Zhang Ailing's novels are mainly set in colonial Shanghai in 1930s and 1940s, when new and old cultures alternate. Although the capitalist commercial culture at that time impacted people's lives, and the New Culture Movement liberated many women's personalities, and maintained the ancient feudal moral system to a certain extent, they still could not extricate themselves from their attachment to the traditional old family. In the patriarchal society for thousands of years, women in China have generally become tools and accessories of men, losing their independence economically and spiritually. Economy is the external cause of women's life tragedy, but the internal cause is the deep-rooted "slave psychology" of women in China. In this materialized marriage relationship, women are obviously passive, which makes them unable to grasp the track of their own happiness at all and can only be at the mercy of fate. On the issue of marriage and love, they were enslaved by feudal consciousness, and their servile psychology of obedience to men from generation to generation made them live in a habitual prison that they could not get rid of, and they voluntarily relegated themselves to men's feet. It turns out that half of the history of miserable women is willing to be slaves. Whether Ni, who has a low social status, Gu Manlu, who is good at singing and dancing, or Cao, who runs a sesame oil shop, these women are strangled by the feudal consciousness passed down from generation to generation, succumbing to and even longing for the control of the male world, and never want to be an independent person, which doomed their status as female slaves in marriage and love.
Zhang Ailing was born in a declining family in Shanghai. Her father, a Manchu widow, inherited all the characteristics of lewdness, cruelty and despotism. On the other hand, her mother is a woman from a new school. She has been abroad and likes music and literature. This deformed family, composed of the old and the new, has no love at all, but endless struggles and conflicts. After her parents divorced, Zhang ailing was tortured by her father. Parents without love and home without love cast an unforgettable shadow on Zhang Ailing's childhood mind, making her sensitive and precocious. The lack of maternal love in childhood, the divorce of teenage parents, the teenager's going to Hong Kong to study, the sudden death in his later years, and his special experience made her pay more attention to the family and marriage life in troubled times, but less attention to the secular life. She looked at this complex secular world with a calm and sharp eye and analyzed the bitterness and helplessness of women in this complex secular world from a female perspective. Behind this bitterness and helplessness, Zhang Ailing saw women's material dependence on men and strong vanity gradually formed in the long patriarchal society. This psychological chronic disease is the root of women's difficult escape from their tragic fate.
In Zhang Ailing's novels, marriage has always been investigated in various social and economic relations. Their love and marriage are mostly economic problems and survival problems. The existence of marriage is not the result of pure love, but an economic need. In modern society, money is the basis for people to stand on their own feet for a long time and pursue as much freedom as possible. After Zhang Ailing's mother studied in France, her aunt's plight made Zhang Ailing more convinced of the importance of money. Then most of the women in her novels are trapped by money and material things, and they do not hesitate to make up for it with love and marriage. Her view on women: "Pleasing healthy people is the oldest occupation in the world, and it is also a very common occupation for women. Women who make a living by getting married can completely fall into this category. " This is the case in Love in the Whole City, and so is Cao in The Golden Lock. This reminds us of two unfortunate marriages of Zhang Ailing. If the combination with Hu Lancheng is a pure love between women and men, then it seems that there are some benefits to remarry with Yala. All these experiences have laid the groundwork for the tragedy of women's character and fate in Zhang Ailing's novels. There is no warmth, only marriage. To this end, Ni Xi in the cartoon has been fighting for a marriage certificate all his life; Gu Manlu in Half-Life is right. The only way to live is to marry a little beggar. Bai Liusu and Fan Liuyuan in Love in the City finally succeeded in breaking Fan Liuyuan's battle of love and marriage. In The Golden Lock, Cao traded his youthful life for a pair of gold shackles. These female groups are too dependent on men economically and are doomed to be imprisoned in the economic chain of marriage.
In Zhang Ailing's works, marriage and love are always full of hardships and more or less shortcomings, so the works are full of imperfect and even sincere love and marriage, but love is the ultimate goal of marriage profit. In cartoons, Ni flirts with different men and lives, but it always comes to nothing. There is a sincere and touching love description in Half Life, but it is only a dream, and it will be shattered if it can't stand the light tear of reality. In Love in a Fallen City, the fall of Hongkong made Bai Liusu's marriage, but not her love. At the end of the novel, it reads: "Hu Qin is playing dumb, playing again and again in the night with lights on, endless sad stories-don't ask!" After reading the book, I feel sad, melancholy, fateful and sad. In The Story of the Golden Lock, Qiao Qi tries her best to block her children's marriage, which leads her children who are full of hope for marriage and love to the same marriage tragedy as her. Abnormal soul, false love, loveless marriage, trivial life and distorted human nature can be seen everywhere in his works, describing all kinds of human beings and vicissitudes. Zhang Ailing deeply analyzed the weakness of human nature, the suffering of life and the imperfection of marriage and love. However, the different marital status in her works has produced similar results. Marriage is a money transaction and a woman's attachment to a man, which reflects the incompleteness of women's ideological emancipation in the May 4th Movement.
The ancient women written by Zhang Ailing seem to have lived for centuries, or never really lived. Their misfortune lies not only in the vision of society, but also in choosing their ideal destination according to traditional ideas. More importantly, all their upbringing and efforts are for a man's preset preparation. No matter what kind of men they choose, their fate can only be "slaves" and only "sex", and they are slaves to men's lust or their own lust. Throughout Zhang Ailing's works, she accurately and meticulously wrote the marriage relationship of ordinary people in life with her keen observation of women. Although there is no romantic love, the realistic performance has brought great impact to people's hearts, as if they were accidentally peeked into a dark heart. With a calm and helpless style, Zhang Ailing deeply analyzed the weakness of human nature, the suffering of life and the imperfection of marriage and love.