摘 要
澳大利亚著名小说家考琳·麦卡罗的《荆棘鸟》自1977年问世后,引起了极大的轰动.该书生动地描述了帕迪·克利里一家三代女性对爱情的执着和对命运的无奈和反抗。小说中的四位主要女性人物在性格上既有相似之处，又个性鲜明。本论文以女性主义的角度分析她们的思想变化和她们反抗的精神，所以，我们要对女性主义和女性意识的定义和发展做一个了解。作者考琳·麦卡罗的作品有她鲜明的个人色彩，而《荆棘鸟》中荆棘鸟这一意象被她赋予了深刻而复杂的含义。小说中克利里家族三代四位女性的成长历程其实就是她们心理变化的过程，自我意识觉醒的过程。这四位女性形象在反抗命运的斗争上非常相似，但是她们的结果却不尽相同。为什么会出现这样的结果，这是本文所要分析的。最后我们可以理解作者所想表达的，即女性应该对自己的命运作出思考，勇敢挑战，作好准备以难以想象的代价去换取，那么最终定能成功。
关键词：荆棘鸟；女性意识；女性形象；命运
ABSTRACT
The Thorn Birds written by the famous Australian writer Colleen McCullough caused tremendous sensation after publication in 1977. The novel gives us a vivid description that the females of the three generations in the Cleary family cling to their love but bend over by their fates and try to struggle against their fates. The four main women in the story have some kind of similarity in their characters ,but they still have their own personalities. This thesis focuses on the feminism in the novel, trying to analyze their changing of minds and their spirit of rebelling. Therefore, we should have a brief comprehension of feminism and female consciousness. The works of the author had her special style. And she gives the thorn bird the profound and complex meaning. In the novel,we can see the growing up of the 4 women’s characters and the process they change their minds and wake up. The four women are vey similar in their fighting against their fates but their result is quite different. How and why it happened is what we are going to analyze. Through analysis, we can find the main idea the author want to tell us is that if women should think about their fates, not be afraid to challenge and ready to pay the unbelievable pain, success will finally come.
Key words：the thorn birds; female consciousness; female characters ; fate
Contents
1. Preface 1
2. Introduction 3
2.1 About the author and background of the novel 3
2.2 The symbol of the thorn bird 4
3. Analysis of the main female characters 6
3.1 Mary Carson 6
3.2 Fiona 7
3.3 Maggie 8
3.4 Justine 9
4. Comparison of the female characters in The Cleary 11
4.1 The similarities in their character 11
4.1.1 The rebelliousness in their character 11
4.1.2 Their attitude to the problems they faced 12
4.1.3 The reason of having the similarities 13
4.2 The differences in their character 13
4.2.1 The rebelliousness degree in their character 14
4.2.2 The final result of each female character 15
4.2.3 The reason of having the differences 15
5. Conclusion 17
Acknowledgements 18
References 19
