A Contrastive Study of Lao She’s Crescent Moon and Sophocles’ Oedipus the King and Antigone from the Perspective of Feminism

Zhao+Xiaohong

Abstract：This article mainly discussed the similarities and differences of characters in Lao Shes Crescent Moon and Sophocles works from the perspective of feminism. The self-realization of the female character in Lao Shes Crescent Moon was repressed and she finally give up her struggle in a male-dominated society，. However， in the works of Sophocles， which are mainly Oedipus the King and Antigone in discussion in this paper， the female characters manifest heroism. The symbolization of females challenge to the male-dominated society is also exposed in many ways in Sophocles works.

Key words：Feminism， female， male-dominated society

【摘要】本文從女性主義視角探討老舍的《月牙》與索?？死账沟摹抖淼移炙箛酢放c《安提戈涅》中主人公的相同點(diǎn)與不同點(diǎn)。老舍的《月牙》中，女主人公的自我意識(shí)被壓制，并最終屈服于男權(quán)社會(huì)。然而在索?？死账沟淖髌分?，女性角色身上體現(xiàn)出了英雄主義，其作品中多處表現(xiàn)了女性向男權(quán)社會(huì)的挑戰(zhàn)。

【關(guān)鍵詞】女性主義；女性；男權(quán)社會(huì)

I. Feminism in Crescent Moon

Crescent Moon is the masterpiece of Lao Shes short stories. Lao She， a son brought up by a mother who had worked as a prostitute， understood best how poor an unlicensed prostitutes life could be. An unlicensed prostitute is looked down upon by the whole society， even the prostitutes themselves. They live at the bottom level of the society. He wrote this story to illustrate what a human-eaten society could do to turn an innocent and righteous girl into an unlicensed prostitute. The whole story is congested with pathetic experiences of a mother and her only daughter. This is a poor family. The heroine is the daughter of an unlicensed prostitute who is beautiful and innocent. Everyone who finished the story would feel heartfelt sympathy for this woman and hate the society which buried a beautiful soul with beautiful dreams. I think this is where the beauty of tragedy lies in. Just as Lu Xun has said “tragedy is to destroy what people believe valuable right before their eyes.”

Besides the feminism described in the novel， there are other pure symbolism descriptions in the Crescent Moon. Every description of the crescent moon appeared in the works is different. The differences of the moon imply different subjective feelings at the time. And there are also lots of other symbolism meanings. The moon is incomplete， which symbolizes the fate of this pathetic womans life which could never end up in happiness. The moon light is so week， which symbolizes the struggle of the heroine， which will end up in vein. The loneliness of the moon symbolizes the heroines wretchedness and hopelessness. The darkness around the moon symbolizes the situation she is facing， which is mainly caused by man. She is hopeless and has no one to resort to in a male-dominated society.

II. Feminism in Oedipus the King and Antigone

Sophocles wrote Oedipus the King between 430 B.C. and 420 B.C. The book has no villains， and all the characters are good men and women who are trying their best to help the city， Thebes， escape from the plague. Each of them acts naturally and truthfully， but because of their lack of integration of knowledge， their stories， and the book， become a tragedy.

Antigone was also written by Sophocles， which tells the story of Antigone， one of the daughters of Oedipus. She insisted on burying her brothers body. His brother， Polyneices， has been considered as a traitor of the nation whose burial was denied by the king， Creon. So， Antigone， disobeying the kings decree and bury the body of Polyneices， was sentenced to death by Creon.

In Sophocles works， feminism could be manifested as follows：

First， in Oedipus the King， Oedipus could be considered as a representation of the females， even though he himself is a man in nature. After he realized all the crimes he committed， he got instructions from the goddess of fortune， and was forgiven by the goddess of Vengeance， and finally he died in the embrace of the goddess of the earth. His relationship with those goddesses symbolizes that women could find and realize their powers in the man-dominated society. Thought these woman images are not directly written in Sophocles work， but peoples worship for those goddesses tells something.

Second， the fact that Oedipus killed his father is another symbol of feminism. Father is the symbol of power in the male-dominated society. As Ive asserted above， Oedipus is a representative of females. Killing the father is the females greatest announcement of challenging the most powerful authority of man.

Third， in Antigone， Antigone herself is a lively character to represent a females challenge to the authority of male-dominated society. She directly denied the authority of the king Creon by disobeying the order of the king and buried her brother according to her own free will. The death of Antigone also symbolizes females disobedience to the authority and it also means the price of females have to pay for her own belief in the male-dominated society. To go through the pains is the only road which the females have to take to fight against authorities in male-dominated society.

III. Conclusion

In the Crescent Moon， we saw a woman who is innocent and beautiful became an unlicensed prostitute. Her tragedy was caused by man. While in Sophocles works， many kinds of characters both male and female are presented to express feminism. The new angle of the contrastive study of the two works from the perspective of feminism. The opinions in this paper may not be mature， but I wish other intelligent scholars who do research on these works could share their precious ideas.

Reference

[1] Lao She. Crescent Moon[M]. Jiangsu Literature and Art Publishing House. Nanjing， Jangsu Province， 2006.

[2] Sophocles. Oedipus the King[M]. Peoples Literature Publishing House， 2001.

【作者簡介】

趙曉紅（1978—），女，內(nèi)蒙古烏蘭浩特市人，碩士研究生學(xué)歷，內(nèi)蒙古工業(yè)大學(xué)外國語學(xué)院講師，主要研究方向：翻譯理論與實(shí)踐。