The heroine in the story is a rural woman, Aigu. Compared with most female characters in Lu Xun’s other works, such as Xianglin’s wife, Aigu is very special because she is full of struggling spirit. After her husband “jumped into bed with that young widow”, she went back to her maiden home to show her strong dissatisfaction, instead of enduring calmly as most traditional Chinese women did. She asked her father and six brothers to flatten her husband family’s stove to revenge his affair. And she calls her husband and father-in-law “pigs” when chatting with other villagers and even when arguing face to face with them in Mr. Wei’s house. All her actions are contrary to feudal code of ethics which requires women to submit themselves to the rule of their husbands. Aigu is violent-tempered and stubborn, and dares to struggle against feudal ethics.
But finally, Aigu’s struggles do not succeed and become hopeless. The reason is the limitation of her struggling spirit. Her confidence in challenging against her poor marriage is the trust in Mr. Qi. She believes that Mr. Qi is “an educated man” and always emphasizes that “educated people are always on the side of justice.” However, Mr. Qi himself is a representative for feudal system. He is a squire, which is a kind of special class in Chinese feudal society. Squires usually comprise local landlords, retired small governors, clan elders and other influential and prestigious figures in the countryside. The final result proves that Mr. Qi does not “speak out for the underdog” as Aigu imagined before. He just says “Peace brings prosperity. You’ve me to thank for your extra ten dollars – this is already over and above. If his parents are telling you to go, you don’t have much choice”, and persuades Aigu to accept ninety dollars and stop to cause trouble. He still takes sides in Aigu’s husband and maintains the absolute authority of the feudal morals.
Aigu hopes a representative of feudal system to support her challenges again feudal ethics. This idea itself is ironic and this is a significant limitation of her struggling spirit. Her struggle is destined to fail because of her blind and false belief in Mr. Qi.
Questions:
- The author describes what Aigu saws when she entered the guest hall in details, including Mr. Qi’s appearance and his plaything “anus-stopper”. What does the author imply by doing so?
- Why does Aigu become afraid and think “all was lost as if she had fallen into an abyss through her own clumsy footing” when a colossal imperative, “En… ter!”, erupted from Mr. Qi’s scantily bearded mouth?
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