Abstract

The Grass is Singing is Doris Lessing’s first novel. It is a story about the murder of the poor white woman Mary by her black houseboy Moses against the backdrop of South Africa. It is a portrait of the woman’s marriage to the luckless farmer Dick, a union doomed to failure even before they meet. And the country in which they live - South Africa - also catalyzes their tragedy. Domestic and overseas scholars have made amounts of researches on this novel. Most of them mainly focus on image and symbolism, ecological feminism, post-colonialism, psychoanalysis, and patriarchy in the novel. Their criticism about patriarchy usually describes Mary as a victim and attributes patriarchy to Mary’s tragedy. The evidence they give is not complete. At the same time, they ignore the fact that Mary is also the conspirator of patriarchy and she plays an important part in her own tragedy. The paper analyzes Mary from the perspective of patriarchy and discusses her as a victim as well as conspirator of patriarchy.

Keywords: The Grass is Singing; Mary; patriarchy; victim; conspirator

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

1. Introduction-1

1.1 Researches both at Home and Abroad-1

1.2 Studies from Perspective of Patriarchy Combined with Eco-feminism-1

1.2.1 The Conflict between Human and Nature under Patriarchy System-2

1.2.2 The Conflict between Men and Women under Patriarchy System-2

1.2.3 The Conflict between Women and Nature under Patriarchy System-2

1.3 Research Tendency-2

2. Patriarchy-3

2.1 The Definition of Patriarchy-3

2.2 The Theory of Patriarchy-3

3. Mary’s Life under Patriarchy System-4

3.1 Mary’s Childhood-4

3.2 Wrong Marriage with Dick-4

3.3 Failure of Resistance-5

3.3.1 Failure of Runaway-5

3.3.2 Refusal of Dick-6

4. Mary is Conspirator of Patriarchy-7

4.1 Her Unwillingness to Help Dick-7

4.2 Her Obedience to Her Own Role-7

4.3 Mary’s Keeping Away From Others Deliberately-7

4.4 Mary and Moses-8

5. Conclusion-9

Works Cited-10