The Forming of Miss Jean Brodie’s Tragic Personality in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

【摘要】《布罗迪小姐的青春》是英国现代女作家穆丽尔·斯帕克最著名的作品,自1961年出版以来就受到了外界的密切关注。该书主要描写了二战期间，爱丁堡女子学校的一位年轻女老师试图打破沉闷社会桎梏的经历。本文从不同层次和方面，即作者自身背景、宗教、女权主义来分析吉恩·布罗迪悲剧性格的形成,进而更加深入透彻地理解这部小说，解读二战后当代女性作家的心理和文学走势。

【关键词】悲剧性格；吉恩·布罗迪；女性主义;

1.Introduction

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is the best known book by novelist Muriel Spark. This novel was set in a girls high school in Edinburgh. In 1930s, the whole novel portrays a female teacher how to teach her pupils with her own unique teaching method. On one hand, the teaching method of Miss Jean Brodie enlightened them; but on the other hand, it has deprived of students freedom. As a tragic result, her most favored student betrayed her in her prime, leading to her early retirement and final death.

2.The influence of the author

2.1 Life background

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is the only one she set her hometown as the background. Muriel Spark was also studying in a girlsschool in Edinburgh from 1930 to 1937.

Interestingly, this novel models the true story of Spark herself. Muriel Spark was born in Edinburgh; she attended what was then James Gillespies High School for Girls, the model for the Marcia Blaine School in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. There was one teacher in particular called Miss Christina Kay who influenced Muriel Spark a lot. And Miss Kay was somewhat the original figure for Muriel Sparks most famous creation–the Edinburgh school Miss Jean Brodie.” Spark had also pointed out in his autobiography: in one sense, Miss Christina Kay doesnt like Miss Jean Brodie, because she is more charming than Miss Jean Brodie. Muriel Spark based on her own life experience as the archetype of the character, in fact we can find that Miss Kay is the prototype of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark is a member of the Brodie Unit, and the story was happened in her elementary school, it was not a coincidence.

We dont know how Miss Kay influenced Muriel Spark in detail, while writing the novel, Miss Kay image must be lingering in her mind.

2.2 Religious conversion

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a novel deeply rooted in the authors own religious experience. In 1953 Muriel Spark was baptized in the Church of England but in 1954 she decided to join the Roman Catholic Church, which she considered crucial in her development toward becoming a novelist.

Penelope Fitzgerald, a fellow novelist and contemporary of Spark, wrote that “Spark had pointed out that it wasnt until she became a Roman Catholic that she was able to see human existence as a whole, as a novelist needs to do.” (Hal Hager, 1999: 141)

With regard to religion, Miss Jean Brodie was not in any doubt, she let everyone know that God was on her side and so she experienced no difficulty or sense of hypocrisy in worship while at the same time she went to bed with the singing master. Feeling her fated one way or another, Brodie acts as if she transcends morality.

3.The influence of feminism

Feminism is a collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights for women. There are a number of brilliant woman writers whose works gave voice to the feelings and aspirations of the educated women of their age. Charlotte Bronte is one of the greatest women writers, and her Jane Eyre is undoubtedly an outstanding womens declaration of independence and love.

Jane Eyre is a typical and magnificent representative in English literature because the novel throbs with the heart-beats of all female beings. In The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Miss Jean Brodie always reads Jane Eyre to her students. Both Charlotte Bronte and Muriel Spark identify with patriarchy and rewrite the stereotypes of women stipulated by men, which reflects the authors identity anxiety while writing the works.

As we see earlier, Brodies understanding of freedom is absolutely subjective and arbitrary, which is totally against the existentialistic point of view. Therefore, it is reasonable to believe that she is a selfish teacher. However, if we consider it deeper, we will find that the motive of Miss Brodies doing so is just because she feels unsafe about herself. As a woman, she wants to grasp something valuable in her life, especially in the crucial stage of her “prime” years.

4.Conclusion

In The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark showed the piteous, sad, distressing and sentimental plots by describing some tortuous or complicated events. This thesis analyzed the forming of Miss Jean Brodies tragic personality from different aspects, we find that though Miss Jean Brodie has reasonable motivation, wishes, ideal, or passion which may indicate a victory or success. But finally she failed. With a bad ending, tragedy often contains a certain philosophy of life. Muriel Spark was a prolific and excellent writer. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a successful novel, Miss Jean Brodie is a successful character, from which we can feel the atmosphere of tragedy brought by complicated factors

【References】

[1] Bold, Alan, Muriel Spark. An Odd Capacity for Vision. London: Vision Press Ltd, 1984.

[2] Hal, Hager. About Muriel Spark. New York: Harper Perennial Press, 1999.

[3] Mc Quillan, Martin. The Same Informed Air: An Interview with Muriel Spark. New York: Pal grave, 2002.

[4] 李晓青.后现代视角下的缪丽尔·斯帕克[J].湖北广播电视大学学报，2008(10):61-62.

[5] 李维屏.缪里尔·斯帕克的后现代主义小说艺术[D].上海外国语大学,2009.

作者简介：冯欣，现在曲阜师范大学。