Abstract: The concept of love and marriage in Zhang Ailing's novels has a strong sense of tragedy, which can be reflected in her love novels from three aspects: lovers' unmarried, mutual utilization, calculated love and morbid or even abnormal love. Her tragic consciousness is rooted in her double sense of loss: the decline of her family and the misfortune of her childhood, which directly affects her novel creation. That is, novels are mostly set in declining aristocratic families, and this family atmosphere is unhealthy.
Keywords: Zhang Ailing's tragic consciousness and desolate view of marriage and family
Zhang Ailing was the most popular female writer when Shanghai fell in the 1940s. Her works had little to do with the bloody China at that time, and had little to do with the Japanese occupation of Hongkong and Shanghai. The work does not exaggerate the national sentiment and the atmosphere of the war of resistance against Japan, but says, "Please find out the moldy bronze incense burner handed down from your family, light a furnace of agarwood crumbs, and listen to me tell a story about Hong Kong before the war." . Through her narration, 1 can peep into the chaotic and helpless spiritual world of modern citizens, and the almost unchanging sad atmosphere that pervades her works.
The background color of Zhang Ailing's novels is desolation. The tragic consciousness of her works can also be summarized in this way. Lu Xun's novels and prose poems also describe the desolation of the world. "That kind of desolation is because of the decay of tradition, and the numbness of the human heart destroys and suppresses the awakening of human nature. People's world is full of ghosts, gloomy and cold, and people's voices are as lonely as wolves. This is the desolation observed by Lu Xun. " 2
The prosperity of A Dream of Red Mansions sets off another desolation. "This is the tragedy of time. When I was a teenager, I was expelled from Eden. Family changes have taken place in the vulgar and desolate adult world. " three
Lu Xun's desolation is allegorical and the product of thinkers. The desolation of A Dream of Red Mansions has a daily color and is the product of the writer's experience. Zhang Ailing is undoubtedly close to A Dream of Red Mansions, and the bleak tone in her works is based on the description of daily life, which is a tireless description.
Zhang Ailing's desolation is a pessimistic sigh. "This tragic consciousness is like a microscope, scanning the helpless decline of the old China era in semi-colonial and semi-feudal society with a mirror covered with tragedy-the humbleness, darkness and emotional emptiness of human nature are undoubtedly revealed." There are only two characters in Zhang Ailing's works: one is a man and the other is a woman. Since the ambiguous relationship between men and women can better reveal the comprehensiveness of life, we will seek a real human gesture in this unrestrained life state, determine the theme of marriage and love, and the basic trend of marriage and love.
Love and marriage in Zhang Ailing's novels are basically lacking in sincerity. "Born in this world, there is no emotion without holes" 5 is Zhang Ailing's own expression of emotion. The marriage between Mr. Mi and Deng Feng is like this, the marriage between Georgie and Deng Feng is like this, and so are others. "The aesthetics of the creative subject directly affects the style of the works, which makes Zhang Ailing's works free from ups and downs of madness, great sorrow and joy, but she can always find a way to impress the public more easily than tragic in the emotional world of ordinary people, that is, the beauty of desolation." The tragic spirit of the subject also branded the three trends of his view on marriage and love with tragedy.
One of the basic trends of Zhang Ailing's view on marriage and love: lovers can't get married.
In Zhang Ailing's works, there are many descriptions of sincere, lingering and touching love between men and women, such as Eighteen Springs, How Much Hate, Red Rose and White Rose, etc. But these are just a dream, a layer of ethereal yarn, which can't stand the light tear of reality and will be shattered before, because the tragic consciousness has gone deep into it. Zhang Ailing has long been used to exerting external destructive power on the marriage and love that could have been successfully achieved, which eventually led to its collapse. Seven ingenious ways to prevent women from getting married in Golden Lock: The failure of Chuanchang's marriage in Flower Xie is due to sudden consumption. In Eighteen Springs, Man Zhen and Shi Jun were congenial lovers, but the framing of his own sister and brother-in-law led to their separation for eighteen years. It can be said that all shall be well, jack shall have Jill, but marriage is not necessarily a lover. Although Qiao Long and Ge in The First Stove of Aquilaria Resinatum are husband and wife, they have their own worries and intend to find a way to divorce. The marriage between Bai Liusu and Fan Liuyuan in Love in the City is not their true feelings, but the fall of Hong Kong. After the victory, Bai Liusu was "still a little disappointed", which is also a strong evidence of Zhang Ailing's tragic consciousness.
The second basic trend of Zhang Ailing's view of marriage and love is the mutual calculation of love for the purpose of transaction.
"Zhang Ailing's characters have no friends, no relatives and no' love'. Even men and women who come together in the name of love make a lot of trouble. " The love in Zhang Ailing's works is no longer the embellishment of an affair, nor is it the lingering of two of a kind's life and death. Instead, it is the struggle between "compassion" and "serial" to make a living, which is a bargaining chip at the gambling table, and even just a means to deal with the boredom and emptiness of tram blockade. "Under this basic trend, love not only does not have the basic conditions necessary for its production, but takes profit as the ultimate goal of marriage. Such a state of marriage and love can only be pale and empty. The tragic consciousness of love and marriage in Zhang Ailing's works has penetrated into every cell of her works.
Ge Weilong in The First Pot of Aquilaria Resinatum was originally a smart and romantic girl. In order to continue her studies, she turned to her aunt for help, but she gradually fell into the circle of money and wine. In the end, even she didn't want to jump out of this big dye vat, knowing that the end of marrying the prodigal Giorgiya would be to make money for her aunt and Giorgiya, but she was still willing to sink and bury her youth clearly. In Glazed Tile, Mr. Yao, whose family is well-off, wants to use the marriage of his seven daughters as a bargaining chip, climb to power and attach himself to your wealth. It turned out to be counterproductive. One of his daughters failed to live up to his expectations and he was always disappointed. Finally, his wife gave birth to another daughter. In this farce, she showed the tragic consciousness in her bones.
As a woman, Zhang Ailing said, "Women live for men. For most people, love means being loved. "