The-Horse-Dealer’s-Daughter.doc

The Horse Dealer’s Daughter 小组成员：马艳 苗茜茜 王慧婷 邹林妮娜ModernismModernism spans the period from the end of the 19th century to the middle of 20th century. Modernism is a very vague and confusing term. It includes imagism, cubism and existentialism and so on. Difference from Victorian Age, it emphasizes the need to move away form the public to the private, from the objective to the subjective, preferring the subconscious to the selfconscious, and stress passion and will over reason and intellection.About the authorDavid Herbert Lawrence is a Famous British writer and poet in the 20th century. He is Britain‘s most unique and one of the most controversial writer who is regarded as one of the greatest writers in English literary historyLawrence thoughts that man’s spirit was thwarted by industrialized Western culture, emphasized his intellectual attributes rather than his natural or physical instincts. His great novels, Sons and Lovers(1913), The Rainbow(1915), and Women in love(1921),concern the consequence of trying to denying man’s union with nature.Summary of the story The story begins with a conversation between three Pervin brothers and their sister Mabel whom they call “bull-dog”. The three Pervin brothers were asking their sister what she intends to do with her life after she left the ranch house. But the consultation was intrigued by the disaster of their life--their father’s death. They had to find a place to settle themselves down. Joe, the eldest brother, was lucky to find he married a rich woman and her father could provide him with a well-paid job. Fred Henry, the second oldest brother strongly required Mabel to live with her sister Lucy. Malcolm, the youngest among the three, asked Mabel to be trained as a nurse while he would go with Fred to the south. They left no sympathy to their innocent sister, which made their sister depressed about life and herself. Later, Mabel went to the ceremony, tending to her mother’s grave while Dr. Jack Fergusson, a physician and friend of the brothers, saw she was in the ceremony. He followed her to a pond and, with continuing fascination, watched her walk into and finally disappear under the murky water. He ran after her, dragged her out of the pond, and took her home. There, he undressed her, rubbed her skin dry, and warmed her next to the hearth fire. Mabel awakened in a daze, recognized the doctor, and asked him what he had done. Realizing her nakedness beneath the swaddling blankets, she asked him, “Do you love me, then?” and became certain of the answer herself: “You love me. . . . I know you love me, I know.” The doctor, who “had, really, no intention of loving her,” is horrified at her words and her kisses, yet he felt overwhelmed and must embrace her and admit that her words are really true. Mabel’s joyful assurance of his love soon passed, however, and she sobbed, “I feel I’m horrible to you.” “ ‘No, I want you, I want you,’ was all he answered, blindly, with that terrible intonation which frightened her almost more than her horror lest he should not want her.” Both Mabel and Fergusson fell in love with each other. They decided to get married on the second day. The end of the story left uncertainty to the readers because it was Mabel’s gratitude ignited the doctor’s love for her. Fergusson, a physician doctor, was accustomed to the naked body. But his love broke out under the particular circumstance. The love was exuberant but transient. No one knew whether it was the true love or not. The “reality” would make them calm down and face the “real” life. Mabel is still lonely and helpless until the end of the novel.Character analysisJoe 冷漠unwilling to take care of families自私He don’t care about anything, since he felt himself safeAfter his father died, as the leader of the family, he should take the responsibility of taking care of little brothers and sister. Mabel:内心温柔善良：carefully clipped the grass from the grave and arranged the pinky-white small chrysanthemums in the tin cross and sponged the marble headstone and the coping-stone.When Mabel decided to end her live, she didn’t forget her dear mother. And the last thing she could do for her mom is to clean her tomb carefully.After experiencing the heart-break of losing her mother and having a step-mother, the little girl got no love from her families. And she felt alone without any sense of security. She isolated herself from other and refused to feel this world. However, this kind of situation made her being moved by kindhearted person. That was why when the doctor saved her from lake the little girl being touched and passionately in love with the doctor.勇敢地追求爱情：After being saved by doctor, she thought that there still someone love。