This is the style of a great artist, with meticulous brushwork. Sometimes you use ink like a splash, sometimes you cherish ink like gold, and you can do whatever you want; We remember that in Qi Baishi's sketches of flowers, birds and cordyceps, flowers and plants are often freehand brushwork, while small insects and birds are particularly fine and furry, which can be seen clearly. The same is true of writing novels.
Although Mrs. Loizai has lived for many years, the only day that determines her fate for the rest of her life is 1 month 18, and the only day that can explain her fate is the day when she met Mrs. Frais Festival ten years later. The critical moment in life is never a few days. The narrative should be detailed and appropriate, the rhythm should be clear, and we should dare to jump and choose. This is not just a matter of artistic techniques. This requires a writer to have a deep understanding of the characters in his works, and then "know them by their knowledge", so as to "see them very carefully" and "do them very carefully" (Tang Biao's reading composition).
If it is difficult to grasp the details, it will be even more difficult to keep the balance of the full text. This requires that the detail part should have a sketch, and the sketch part should also have considerable details. It is not appropriate to skim or arrange big gaps like historical works. Mo Bosang wrote the newly-married Mrs. Loizawa with a simple pen. Although it is a big outline, she mentioned that she is not interested in broth, and when she thinks about people's dreams blindly, she still has a delicate touch, which makes readers have a deep understanding of her dream of wealth. If it is a general author, it may be as simple as making an overview in rough language. Later, the author wrote that during the 10-year catastrophe, Mrs. Loizai lived a poor life, and she was also a little meticulous, coarse and fine-
You have to wash the dishes, pots and pans yourself. Her pink nails were banging on greasy pots and pans. The hair is messy, the skirt is crooked, the hands are red, the voice is hoarse, and the floor is washed. But sometimes when her husband is still in the office, she sits by the window and remembers the previous party. She was so beautiful at the dance that she really caused a sensation.
There are such meaningful details in the summary, which is simple but not rough. On the contrary, there are simple strokes in the details. For example, at the party on 1 month 18, the author did not take advantage of the ladies and gentlemen at the meeting, social activities and charming scenery, but only focused on describing how Mrs. Loizai, who had enough limelight, was carried away by victory.
It seems that macro details and micro details may be intertwined, forming a tense cooperation, thus having a sense of depth and maintaining the strategic balance of the full text. China's classical novels pay attention to "long words and short words". Since there are no words, why should there be "short" instead of "nothing"? I'm afraid it is also necessary to maintain a certain macro balance.
Until the end of "The Necklace", the reader and the owner Haiwei Wa Dhaif learned at the same time that the diamond necklace that helped her become an instant hit and made her suffer greatly turned out to be a fake and shoddy product worth only 500 francs. Originally, readers may still have considerable respect for Mrs. Loizai's heroic spirit of paying attention to credit and never shirking responsibility and enduring humiliation. At this point, it is inevitable that she will suddenly change her point of view and think that she actually deserves it. Who told her to be so vain!
Knowing that the diamond necklace turned out to be fake, many plots in the last part have new and rich meanings. For example, she borrowed a necklace. She chose a pair of fakes without looking at anything high-end, which must have surprised Mrs. Frais, so she readily agreed to lend it to her. Later, I heard that it was broken-it was being repaired (actually it was lost), of course, there was no hurry; When Mrs. Loizai went to return the necklace, she looked unhappy and said that she might use it. It seems that she is just joking with her poor friend. In fact, she didn't even open the box. This is your ladylike gesture. Mrs. Loizai dreams of living an elegant and luxurious life all day, but in fact, she knows nothing about elegance and luxury. At the beginning of the work, she wrote down her daydream. The living room, furniture, tapestries and banquets in the dream are rich enough in Mrs. Loizai's mind, but in fact they are completely petty and have nothing to do with real elegance and luxury.
Since Madame Loire's discerning eyes can only see the radiant light of fake diamond necklaces, and since she can't tell the difference between hundreds of francs and tens of thousands of francs, her heroism in compensating necklaces has changed from sublime to ridiculous, from respectable to ridiculous. The tragedy of her life is full of comedy.
Compared with such a magical ending, almost all of the above can be said to be cold foreshadowing, with profound meaning everywhere. For example, when Mrs. Loizai returned the necklace, the problem could have been easily solved if she had told the truth, but the heroine's character determined that she would not lose face in front of her friends and would rather have her front teeth knocked out and swallowed. In retrospect, it was not difficult for Mrs. Loizai to avoid a tragic fate. She can't go to the dance at all (but such a good opportunity must not be missed! ), or just bring a flower (that would be too shabby, it is better not to go! ), or dance well and go home calmly, then there will be no trouble; It's a pity that her husband was too considerate of her, afraid that she would catch cold, and sent her clothes home. In order to maintain the hard-won glory of publicity, she was forced to flee in a hurry. Who knows that she lost her necklace in this hasty escape! Character is fate. Until finally, after learning that the necklace turned out to be fake, she might wake up from her dream-maybe she still didn't wake up. This is the end of the work, leaving readers a lot of room for rethinking.
It is generally believed that the profound point of The Necklace lies in its criticism of petty-bourgeois vanity, which is of course reasonable, but vanity is not only owned by petty-bourgeois women, and the significance of the novel seems to be more than that. It actually reveals a certain philosophy of life.
In class, Mr. Lu Xun once introduced the analysis of The Necklace by the famous Japanese literary theorist Kitagawa Shiramura: "Taking a momentary illusion as the reality of life phenomena leads to a tragic situation and affects the fate of life. This philosophical implication makes readers wake up like a dream after reading it, making it an immortal masterpiece. " 2
This analysis is very enlightening. The obvious plot in the work is to borrow a necklace, lose it and pay for it, while the illusion of ups and downs of Lu Vasov people runs through her bones. The two lines should be combined to be fascinating and thought-provoking. By the end of the novel, the truth came out: the necklace turned out to be a fake, and the happiness pursued by Mrs. Loizai for half her life was not like this fake necklace, but an illusory thing! People who are addicted to hallucinations should learn excellent lessons from them.
Mrs. Loire is so deeply immersed in vanity illusion that it is actually a morbid state. Medically speaking, she has neurosis and needs psychotherapy. According to the neo-Freudian school, a person's self can be divided into three aspects: ideal self, true self and true self. The true self is the center of life and the id; The ideal self is a perfect or even absolutely perfect idealized image established by a person to meet his inner needs; The true self is a synthesis of states under objective conditions, specifically, a person's actual behavior. People with mental health can consciously integrate and coordinate the three to make them develop in a harmonious and balanced way, so their personality is unified. Patients with neurosis (or psychosis) lose this balance and form abnormal development of personality. If it is more serious, it may develop into personality disintegration-that is, it is not neurosis but psychosis, and it is impossible to maintain a normal life.
Although neurotic patients can live like ordinary people at ordinary times, their functional symptoms will come out once they encounter certain things and have any twists and turns. The most common situation is that the ideal self is too inflated, and he will plunge into his idealized dream and look a little "neurotic" to others. "Self-idealization is inseparable from self-praise, which brings others a sense of meaning and superiority, but it is by no means blind and arrogant. Everyone builds his ideal image through his special experience, past fantasies, personal needs and his talents. " Mrs. Loizai constructs her ideal image with beautiful natural beauty, so she thinks she should naturally live an elegant and luxurious life; Unfortunately, the actual situation is extremely out of step with this. She married a small secretary and could only live a plain and simple life. To this end, she constantly feels infinite grievances and pains. She always cries bitterly, so she falls into fantasy to seek comfort and often daydreams with rich and concrete contents. In the dream, she is elegant and luxurious-this is a typical symptom of neurosis and obsessive-compulsive disorder. A large number of cases show that in order to realize their "ideal self", neurotic patients always unconsciously produce compulsive demands and needs, thus falling into fantasy and becoming increasingly divorced from reality and "true self"; The patient constantly strengthens himself, which often forms a "self system" with his personal characteristics. "When the ego system is still unresolved, he will feel real pain".
Attending the dance and making a splash, Mrs. Loizaghi's conceit system was temporarily satisfied. Unfortunately, the good times did not last long. The loss of the necklace gave her a very heavy blow, and the conceited system quickly collapsed. At this time, her "ideal self" had to shrink greatly, and her "true self" was resurrected. Facing the reality, she once adjusted her personality system: "Mrs. Loizaghi understands the hard life of the poor, and she suddenly shows heroism and resolutely decides. She wants to pay off this terrible debt. She tried to repay ... "The great change of life shattered her fantasy and redefined her direction; Modern psychotherapy is nothing more than using scientific methods to help patients get rid of delusions and reposition themselves so as not to pay a heavy price in real life.
Neo-Freudian school points out that if it is only an "disillusionment process" without constructive steps,
Then they can't and will never have a complete and permanent liberation effect. This is exactly what happened to Madame Loire. After ten years of hard work, her appearance has changed a lot, but her functional symptoms have not been completely eliminated. At this time, Mrs. Loizai looked very old, although she was very tired. "But sometimes her husband is still at work, and she sits at the window and remembers how beautiful she was at the party. She really showed off enough. " It turns out that this lady is still busy, reliving old dreams. It is not easy for a terminally ill neurotic patient to completely get rid of hallucinations.
Mo Bosang broke Mrs. Loizai's illusory "ideal self" with a fake and shoddy diamond necklace, and it was wonderful to fight poison with poison. The novel transcends the categories of psychology and pathology and rises to the height of philosophy, which is the eternal charm of this novel.
Young people are full of vigor and ideals, and at the same time, they may be the most dreamy period. It is a very realistic thing how to keep down-to-earth progress under the guidance of lofty ideals and prevent people from getting into trouble and tragedy because they are addicted to fantasy. The Necklace can still give us many useful inspirations in this respect.
(1) Mo Bosang Meitang Nighttalk is how to write this book, Translation of Classical Literature Theory, Volume 8, People's Literature Publishing House, 1964.
(2) Quoted from Sun Xizhen's How Lu Xun taught us first, in Collection of Centennial Commemorations of Lu Xun's Birth, Hunan People's Publishing House, 198 1 edition.
(3) Karen Henny's Self-Struggle, China Folk Literature and Art Publishing House (1986), p. 22.
④ As cited above, page 159.