Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself. For Lucy had her work cut out for her. The doors would be taken off their hinges; Rumpelmayer’s men were coming. And then, thought Clarissa Dalloway, what a morning—fresh as if issued to children on a beach.
What a lark! What a plunge! For so it had always seemed to her when, with a little squeak of the hinges, which she could hear now, she had burst open the French windows and plunged at Bourton into the open air. How fresh, how calm, stiller than this of course, the air was in the early morning; like the flap of a wave; the kiss of a wave; chill and sharp and yet (for a girl of eighteen as she then was) solemn, feeling as she did, standing there at the open window, that something awful was about to happen; looking at the flowers, at the trees with the smoke winding off them and the rooks rising, falling; standing and looking until Peter Walsh said, “Musing among the vegetables?”—was that it?— “I prefer men to cauliflowers” – was that it? He must have said it at breakfast one morning when she had gone out on to the terrace – Peter Walsh.
--Virginia Woolf Mrs Dalloway (1925)
戴洛維夫人說,她要自己去買花。
因為,綠喜已經搶先一著,把工作都給做了。門的鉸鏈必須取下,阮波眉的工人來了。珂樂麗莎‧戴洛維心想,這個早晨多麼美好啊清新得像海灘上專門湧現給小孩子的!
多麼有趣!多麼令人欣喜的投入!因為,在布頓,猛地打開法國式落地窗,投入新鮮空氣中時,她總是有這種感覺。她現在聽得到鉸鏈一聲吱嘎。多麼清新,多麼平靜,當然要比這兒靜謐,是清晨的空氣;像波浪之拍擊、波浪之親吻,寒冷、銳利,卻很(對當時才十八歲女孩的她來說)莊嚴。她覺得自己彷彿在那兒,站在敞開的窗戶前,一件可怕的事就要發生了;看花,看煙霧迷濛的樹,白嘴鳥飛翔、滑落;佇立凝視,直到比德‧偉旭說:「在花園裡沉思啊?」是那樣說嗎?「拿人和花椰菜比,我還是比較喜歡人。」是那樣說嗎?那一天早晨,吃早餐時,他一定說過那麼一句話的,那時她正出門走向陽臺比德‧偉旭。
陳惠華譯 / 志文出版
不同於內心獨白,意識流小說省略了主詞「我 / I」,直接進入角色的思維。亨利‧詹姆士(Henry James, 1843-1916)開創以「第三人稱有限觀點」描寫角色的內在想法,使得角色彼此間無法有效溝通,讀者因無法獲得全知觀點的描述,只能根據小說內提供的有限線索做推斷,此種進入角色內在,大量描寫人物內心想法的敘事手法,進而影響了意識流小說的發展。
《戴洛維夫人》開頭第一句“Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself” 為作者以客觀的口吻娓娓道來,卻沒有加以說明戴洛維夫人是誰以及解釋她為何得去買花的原因。第二句 “For Lucy had her work cut out for her” 採取「自由間接文體」進入角色內心,讀者在突如其來的狀態下,直接進入角色的內在思維。角色直呼女僕的名字,而非經由作者引介,加入「戴洛維夫人心想」的轉述語。第四句稍稍回到作者的口吻,說明女主角的全名:“And then, thought Clarissa Dalloway, what a morning—fresh as if issued to children on a beach”。
下一段開頭突然脫口而出的話語:“What a lark! What a plunge!”看似女主角面對清晨的西敏寺準備採買花束的內心獨白,其實是戴洛維夫人憶起自己十八歲時,在布頓猛地打開法式落地窗,吸吮新鮮空氣時的感覺。她現下此刻彷彿聽見當年窗戶敞開的聲音,感受到當時那股清新的空氣,對當時的她來說空氣宛如波浪的拍擊與親吻,寒冷、銳利卻很莊嚴。過去與現在、回憶與現實交織在一起,思緒互相牽絆,現實中的珂樂麗莎因為記憶的不確定感,不斷詢問自己「是那樣說嗎?」思緒流動的過程中帶出當年她在布頓認識的男子比德‧偉旭。
參考書目:
《小說的五十堂課》大衛‧洛吉著/ 李維拉譯 (木馬文化)
文章標籤
全站熱搜
