Alice Munro’s father was a fox and mink farmer and her mother was a school teacher who had taught Alice Munro literary writing at a young age. Alice Munro was admitted to the University of Western Ontario in 1949 to study English and journalism under a two-year scholarship and published her first story the Dimensions of a Shadow the next year. During her college years she worked as a tobacoo picker, a waitress and a library clerk to support her study, which had accumulated her abundant experience in her later writings. In 1951, Alice Munro married her fellow student James Munro and became a housewife, during which she continued with her writing. And in the following years she published several works and won many prizes. Munro has entered the prime period of creation since the1980s. A pile of works came out, stablizing her status as a short-story writer. Such as the Moons of Jupiter(1982), the Progress of Love(1986), the Friend of My Youth(1990), Runaway(2004), the View from Castle Rock(2006), Too Much Happiness(2009), Dear Life(2012). Her collections have been translated into thirteen languages.
Nettles is an article selected from a collection of short stories, Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, which was published in 2001. Upon its release, the anthology attracted universal acclaim. Similar to Munro’s early creative style, the short story concentrated on the insoluble dilemma which the females confronted with and decipher the intricate emotional entanglements and sudden changes in life. This short story has an implied theme in it: a middle-aged woman’s puzzlement(Liao 121). The subject of Nettles is about the crisis of a middle-aged woman, who is threatened with passions, betray, confusions, marriage and dilemmas(Yu 16). Therefore , the title Nettles has double meanings here. For one thing, nettle is a kind of wild plants which grows in clusters and has a sting. For another thing, “Nettles” is used for its implied meaning that something in life can hurt us accidently and badly. As Hoy put it: life is full of mystery(88). 艾丽丝•门罗《荨麻子》主人公情感危机(2):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_41865.html