Abstract A Doll’s House is Ibsen’s classic work. It has been called “the declaration of women’s liberation movement”. Lu Xun, whereas, went further for the question in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. He revealed Chinese Nora’s runaway and miserable fate, and also implied that it was suffering and difficult to break the puppets of fate. Based on feminism theory, this thesis compares two bold and independent female protagonists, Nora and Zijun, and finds the similarities: the awakening of women’s inpidual consciousness and the rebellion against patriarchal society. In the meanwhile, this thesis explores the fundamental difference: A Doll’s House reflects the initial awakening of female consciousness, while Lu Xun in Shangshi points out the correct way of the realization of women’s liberation. It also reveals the practical significance that women can achieve true liberation only by economic right.62040

Key words: A Doll’s House; Shangshi; women’s liberation; economic right

摘要《玩偶之家》是易卜生的经典作品，被称为“妇女解放运动的宣言书”。鲁迅在《伤逝》中揭示了“中国娜拉”出走后的悲惨命运, 暗示女性挣脱玩偶的命运之路是艰苦卓绝的。本文主要以女性主义理论为基础，对娜拉和子君两位勇敢独立的女性形象进行比较分析，找到了相似之处，即女性自我意识的觉醒以及与父权社会的对抗，同时也发现二者的根本差别：前者反映了妇女个性意识的初步觉醒，而后者却指出了一条获得女性解放的正确道路，即取得经济权，具有现实意义。

关键词：《玩偶之家》；《伤逝》；女性解放；经济权

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 1

3. An Introduction to Feminism 2

4. The Contrast in Feminism in A Doll’s House and Shangshi 4

4.1 The Awakening of Feminist Thoughts in A Doll’s House 5

4.2 The Maturity of Feminist Thoughts in Shangshi 7

5. The Reasons for Different Feminist Thoughts in Two Works 8

5.1 Social Backgrounds 8

5.2 Writing Intentions 9

6. Conclusion 11

Works Cited 13 

1. Introduction

Ibsen’s works were introduced into China in the May Fourth Movement, which at that time caused huge shock, especially his play A Doll’s House, almost influenced a generation of young intellectuals in China, arousing their inpidual consciousness and rebellion spirit. The protagonist Nora became the most familiar character in the Chinese literature realm. Under the influence of Ibsen, there appeared many types of characters like “Nora” on the literary world in May Fourth Movement. Shangshi, written by Lu Xun in October 1925, was one of the deepest novels. A Doll’s House and Shanghai, though produced in different countries and related to different historical backgrounds, both of them put forward important social problem of the women’s liberation. But the difference was: A Doll’s House only reflected the initial awakening of the women’s inpidual consciousness, while Lu Xun in Shangshi pointed out the right road for women’s liberation. It showed that even women fought for the freedom of marriage, they would not get rid of tragic fate if they had no autonomy in economy.

2. Literature Review 

A Doll’s House was considered a masterpiece for social problem and the emancipation of women after it was a first appeared in 1889 in London. The play was integral in establishing realism as a theatrical form, and continued to be a provocative portrayal of a woman suffering in a man’ s world. The British people regarded Ibsen as a preacher and scoffed the readers, professing that his preach was meaningless and offensive to social morals. In perspective of work significance, Joseph Gibaldi argued that the play’s theme was not women’s rights, but the need of every inpidual to find out the kind of person he or she really was and to strive to become that person. (Gibaldi, 1985: 18) In 1891, the Norwegian poet, Knut Hamsum who won the Nobel Prize of literature in 1920, made comments on the Norwegian literature development of A Doll’s House. In 1997, William L.Urban studied the drama structure in his paper Parallels in A Doll’s House. Since A Doll’s House was introduced to China during the May Fourth Movement, many critics have written a large number of comments on Ibsen and his works. This opened people’s horizons, and the play A Doll’s House has been studied in various aspects. Among lots of studies, the focus was the theme, the characters or the writing skill. Zheng Hansheng studied the theme and the social influence in his paper Discusses Nora of A Doll’s House to Leave in a Hurry. In A Doll’s House and the May Fourth’ Impact, Sun shourang just analyzed the role of the woman.