Ai Gu: A shackled advancer

Mr. Lu Xun wrote 33 novels in his lifetime, in which more than 40 female characters appeared.

The five novels "Tomorrow", "Trouble", "Blessing", "Sorrow" and "Divorce" all have female characters as the main characters.

Among the female characters created in these works, the image of Aigu in "Divorce" is different from the other four women, and her difference is a major driving force for her destiny. .

She has the resistance of women in Mr. Lu Xun's works, but her resistance is always a little passive and "unwilling". She is a complex of contradictions.

Therefore, we call Aigu a "shackled advancer."

"Divorce" is a short story written by Lu Xun and later included in the novel collection "Wandering". "Divorce" tells the story of Aigu, a rural woman with a spontaneous and ignorant sense of resistance who wanted a divorce, but there was no result for three whole years. Finally, Aigu's husband's family invited seven powerful men to mediate. When Ai Gu first met the Seventh Master, she still had illusions, thinking that he could uphold justice. However, the "justice" that the Seventh Master upheld was the patriarchal system and the entire feudal order with husband's power as an important content. Facing the mysterious power of the adults, Aigu's illusions were shattered, and her struggle ended in failure.

First of all, we need to understand that Ai Gu's origin is different from rural women such as "Xianglin Sister-in-law", "Shan Fourth Sister-in-law" and "Qijin Sister-in-law". She was born into a powerful and powerful family in a place. family.

Zhuang Musan, the head of the banker family, is quite powerful in the local area. His name is, "Who doesn't know about the 368 Villages along the coast?" Usually the residents along the coast are somewhat afraid of him. . He is a leading figure who "can get into even the richest families and has broad steps".

At the beginning of the novel, it is written that when Zhuang Mu and his daughter got off the boat, people "congratulated" and "kicked" them, and "vacated seats for four people" for them to sit. The scene left a deep impression on people:

Zhuang Musan is not an ordinary person, at least he is a local gentleman. And Aigu herself also enjoys the status and status benefits that this class brings to her.

Secondly, Aigu is not a new woman with awakening awareness of human rights. Unlike Zijun who wants to break through traditional family ethics, Aigu is exactly an advocate and supporter of feudal ethics and traditions.

The "lower your head in, bow your head out, and never miss a courtesy" approach that she agrees with is exactly the orthodox feudal ethics. Her struggle based on this is not essentially about "human rights" but just "human rights". The "slavery" of being a stable slave for the time being. She said, "I came here with three teas and six etiquettes, and I was carried in a sedan chair! Is it that easy?"

Her dissatisfaction with her husband's behavior is not that he is disloyal to marriage and family. , but because the husband divorced the young widow without any reason after they fell in love with her, which shook her status and dignity as a head wife.

Aigu is obsessed with feudal etiquette, keen on the struggle for interests between feudal families, regards feudal ethics as the norm of life, and contends for the prosperity and decline of her old family as the true meaning of life.

She placed her judgment on fairness and justice on the Seven Great Men, the rulers and spokespersons of the feudal system, which meant that she voluntarily gave up her freedom and power. Her persistence in ethics is the shackles she voluntarily puts on herself.

She is shackled, but she is not a death row prisoner, but a mover.

As a woman, Aigu is different from the women in the feudal gentry class family in the past: Aigu is fierce, powerful, and outspoken, just like a "tiger".

Therefore, Lu Xun's description of Ai Gu here is also different from others. He shows Ai Gu's behavior more as arrogant, arrogant and extremely funny. Different from the gentleness and obedience of other conservative women living in rural areas, this is a subversion of the traditional female image.

She made the Shi family restless, and women became the leaders in changing the family. This also implies that women have an impact and resistance to male dominance.

Unlike Zijun, who chose to escape to break away from the shackles of the patriarchal family, she chose to face confrontation when faced with the patriarchal neglect of her demands: she was not satisfied with the way the Shi family handled it for the past three years. She keeps fighting and never loses. She wants to be respected and recognized as a human being.

Faced with Master Qi’s unreasonable judgment, she complained and cried out surrounded by male power. Regardless of the outcome, at least women have turned from passive surrender to active and frontal attackers.

It can be seen that Aigu's obedience to the ethics and ethics also changes part of the connotation of the ethics and ethics, challenging some "red lines" in social ethics and morality, and challenging the absolute authority of men's rights. In society, Adapt and twist forward in the changing situation.

For Ai Gu, there are only two fates for shackled travelers: either they give up on the way and fend for themselves, or they are re-detained and tortured by the rulers.

Some people may ask, won’t anyone kidnap prisoners? All I can say is, I think too much!

There is no possibility of her being rescued, because Aigu’s uniqueness means that she cannot find a suitable position for herself in the team of old and new women, and of course she does not have the same interests. Ask the person to help her.

Ai Gu’s resistance was ultimately brought to naught by Master Qi’s words of “ninety yuan”.

Aigu finally gave in and was divorced (divorced) and took 90 yuan home with her. A divorced woman will depend on her father and brother for her future life, and her personality is extremely small for the possibility of remarriage. .

The situation of a woman who lost her husband in a feudal family is extremely sad. Aigu's transformation from being perverse before to becoming docile in the end creates a strong dramatic conflict and ironic effect in the story.

The end of the divorce drama is also the beginning of Aigu's life journey from the pride of being doted on by her father and brother to destruction and abandonment.

The so-called "divorce" process in the whole story is like a farce, but it makes people unable to laugh after reading it, but makes people feel depressed.

In less than a day, a strong woman underwent a complete reversal, and her resistance collapsed under the suppression of powerful forces.

Lu Xun's setting of the ending of the novel "Divorce" is different from the ending setting of other novels.

In other novels, the author has a clearer direction towards female characters, or to be more precise, there is a slight tendency to favor women (there is still a little hope in misfortune) allusion):

For example, in "Blessing" the author arranges for Xianglin's wife to die. This ending is much better than her continuing to be tortured by ethics and ethics and becoming neither a human nor a ghost;

In "The Storm", although Sister-in-law Qijin has gone through changes, her life is still good;

In "Tomorrow", Sister-in-law Shansi may dream of Baoer when she falls asleep, and she also There is tomorrow and the future, and she still has some expectations for life. Zijun died, but Juansheng still missed her.

However, Aigu’s ending is stagnant and without any attitude. At the end of the novel, Aigu returns home in a complete reversal of character and attitude. The future is unknown and there is no hope. And that A tomorrow without hope is doomed.

The author's noncommittal ending implies that Ai Gu's future may be more miserable than others.

This is also the author's complicated feeling about Aigu: he regards Aigu as a clown, disgusted with all her actions, but arranged the most tragic fate.

When those who should not be sympathized win the sympathy of others, the tragedy is often more intense.

Ai Gu does not provide readers with more emotional catharsis, but it guides us to think about how a woman should live through the art of satire.

This may be more profound than those few tears.

——end