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Robber Bride
作者Author  /  Margaret  Atwood  瑪格莉特.愛特伍德

The Robber Bride

 
Why Zania? 


"I was sitting around one day thinking to myself, Where have all the Lady Macbeths gone?  Gone to Ophelias, every one, leaving the devilish tour-de-force parts to be played by bass-baritones.
Or, to put it another way: If all women are well behaved by nature--or if we aren't allowed to say otherwise for fear of being accused of antifemaleism--then they are deprived of moral choice, and there isn't much left for them to do in books except run away a lot.  Or to put it another way: Equality means equally bad as well as equally good"
(Atwood qut in Hengen 276; emphases added)

 
 
 Characters & Plot Summary
  Allusion of  the title-- to "The Robber Bridegroom" by the Brothers Grimm (remote link), in which an evil man seduces three maidens into his lair and devours them.  (The first allusion to this fairy-tale is on the first page of the novel, when Tony imagines where Zania is from.)  (Leonora Yang's explanation)

But in Atwood's version, the monster is interestly a woman (Zenia), not a man (see Atwood's explanation above.  Do you see her idea as feminist?)  She not only cheats the three female protagonists, but also robs their man from them.  Zenia performs different roles in front of the three women, as if she herself is a mirror, reflecting (evoking) the weak parts in them. 

Two central questions we can ask of the novel are: (See below for questions about our reading.)
  • How are the three  women victimized by Zania and how do their experiences reflect their personalities? 
  • How do they survive their experience of victimzation?   In hatred?  By trying to seek revenge?  Or . .  .?
  • Since Zenia is the central fiction in a novel which is a lot to do with history, it's important to examine the author's view of the inrerelationships between history/reality and fiction.
  • Why does Atwood use the fairy-tale as an intertext?
Characters: 
Tony-- a college military historian/professor with the habits of collecting souvenirs from historical war fields and spelling words backwards.  [West -- Tony's husband and a musician--is actually called Steward, changed to "Stew," to "Wets," and then to "West."] 
Roz-- a business woman running a magazine [Roz's runnaway husband Mitch]
Charis-- a hippie from the 60's, [Billy--Charis's boyfriend]

All the three of them were friends in their college life.  With their different personalities, they view Zenia differently: 

    For Tony,  Zenia is 'a lurking enemy commando.' 
    For Roz, Zenia is 'a cold and treacherous bitch.'
    For Charis, Zenia is a kind of zombie, maybe 'soulless.'"
1. Onset  pp. 1-4  Zenia in history and the "present" of the novel: Oct 23, 1990 
2. The Toxique Tony, Charis and Roz meeting in Toxique, seeing Zenia by accident. (The story told respectively from the three characters' perspectives.)
Chap 2. Tony's house and West
Chap 3. the funeral (which happened 5 years ago); Tony and war and West
Chap 4. West  and Tony's appearance; her office and department
Chap 5. Toronto
  . . . 
3.  Black Enamel  Tony's childhood and her experience with Zenia
4. Weasel Nights Charis's childhood and her experience with Zenia  
5. The Robber Bride Roz's childhood and her experience with Zenia
Chap 39: (Oct 23, 1990) Roz in her office and back home after meeting Zenia.  Roz in the cellar. 
Chap 40: (May 1983) Roz and her husband Mitch
Chap 41:  Roz and Mitch's knowing each other and their marriage.   (May 1983) p. 354 -- meeting Zenia
Chap 42: Roz in the cellar. Roz's childhood with her mother in their rooming house.  Her school's Catholic education.  Roz's missing her father. 
Chap 43: Roz's father back from WWII.  Roz getting to know about anti-Semitism. 
Chap 44: the Father's mistresses and his getting rich.  Roz takes on a Jewish identity.  Roz as a hybrid (388-90).
Chap 45: Roz after marriage, finds out about her father's money.  Roz, WiseWomanWorld and Mitch.  (May 1983) Why she wants to meet Zenia again. 
Chap 46: (May 1983) meeting Zenia.  P. 404  Zenia's stories
Chap 47: Zenia joins WiseWomanWorld.  Mitch's betrayal and Zenia's disappearance p. 418-. 
Chap 48  Mitch's return.  1986 March Zenia's death and then Mitch's.  Roz's nervous breakdown. 
Chap 49:   (Oct 23, 1990) Roz on the cellar floor and then back up to the living room, comforted by the twins.
6. The Toxique the three women go to meet Zenia respectively, facing her challenges (seduction and denial).  Zenia's death. 
7. Outcome
 
 
 Main Themes in Chapter 39-49
 
 Roz's obsession 
  • with Zenia:  p. 325; want to seek revenge (dead or ugly) 326;
  • with Mitch: p. 326; 327; 329; 
  • with being wronged: p. 332.
  •  Roz vs. Mitch (1) before marriage pp. 345 - 54 
  • Roz's concerns: her age; appearance 345; 348; Letting her drive her car 350; Mitch for money or not?  352-54; 
  • Mitche's  tactics: flower, planned to have sex on the first date?351    frustration 351-52
  •     Roz vs. Mitch (2) after marriage 1 pp. 335- 337;
  • Mitch as a robber bridegroom (or womanizer) 335; 
  • Roz's tolerance: he needs it to avoid facing aging. 336
  •     Roz vs. Mitch (3) after marriage 2 pp. 339 - 42 adopt apparent absent-mindedness; love him too much 340
  • play games with him 337 - 39; 
  • Roz's concerns with appearance: "baggy" 333; what her figure means to M 335; not showing her figure in daylight 335; her dental floss 339; her perfumes, etc. 340; 
  • motherly to Mitch -- needs a maid to share her work for her children 341
  • distrust him; 340 smells the aftershave; 
  • adore him p. 340; 
  • Mitch: directive 339
  •     Roz vs. Mitch (4) Mitch with Zenia
  • Roz: pretends to be composed 421-22; having flings with men; hiring a detective; hardens her heart after his second departure but still cries 425; rejects Mitch after his second return but not rejecting his photos 428-30; 
  • Mitch back 423; Mitch leaves for London 425; 
  • Zenia wants the pleasure of winning, while Mitch is concerned with helping her 424
  • suicide of Mitch 433; of Roz 435
  •  Roz's identity a mother
  •  her motherly, protective love of her children 341
  • (Roz's own mother: strong when her husband is away, subdued and speechless after he comes back. 375; 359)
  • Roz's ethnic identity
  •  Roz's father: 334; 346; 
  •  Recieves Catholic education; gets called DP 365-66; 
  •  The conflicts between Jews and Catholicism 367; (conversion of the Jews.)
  •  Roz as hybrid: 388-90
  •  feels inferior to Mitch  329; 344; 
  •  finds out about the money: 393
  • sucked into the women's movement in the 70's.
  •  Roz vs. Zenia
  •  reasons for Roz's listening to Zenia: her pride pp. 399-40; 408;
  •  Roz's wings: 411-12
  • Roz's feeling inferior to Zenia: appearance 415;
  • Roz's and Zenia's different ways with Zenia 419-- Zenia as vacancy.
  •    Zenia's identity  p. 3;    421; her resume 414; what the detective finds out 420-21 
      Roz's problems: jealousy and concern with appearance --> 
    insecurity 
  •  jealousy: pp. 326; 421
  •  concern with appearance: mirror pp. 326-27; 442; not blonde; 
  • contemporary feminisms 1. the twins' insistence on using "she." pp. 330-31
    2. WiseWowanWorld supported by Roz: the need for "a friend" 395; like sleepover parties she misses 395; 
    3. from overalls to dress for success 398; 
    4. promotion and commercialization of the magazine's business 417-18
      Roz's survival  1. Roz's strengths: putting on a clown face 346; her good will 339; 
    2. Her criticism of Mitch: sex-stereotyping; concerned with her money 352; 
    3. self-knowledge and knowledge of contemporary gender relations: "the Zenias of the world" 442; cannot be extremely good or evil 442-43. 
    4.  influence of her mother as an older woman; "stop woolgathering" 439;
    5. good wil between her and her friends and daughters 435-37; 443-44; her genuine concern for Tony 441; for the twins 444.

     

     
       
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