本篇論文聚焦於瑪莉蓮‧羅賓遜四本小說《管家》、《遺愛基列》、《家園》和《萊拉》，作品中女性角色和空間的關係。從女性的精神空間開始，分析婦女在不同的家庭空間或外部空間的發展。女性角色藉由各種空間，促進精神與心靈之成長。全文分為三部份，第一章回顧十九世紀在居家空間的女性角色，女性在居家空間扮演妻子、母親和管家的角色，受到傳統社會眼光的束縛，女性能接觸到公共空間是有限的；第二章談及瑪麗蓮‧羅賓遜作品中女性改變的居家角色，其中包含在家裡傳統女性居家角色的改變，承受外力影響婦女在居家空間的生活，羅賓遜提供給予女性打破邊界之機會；第三章試圖討論外部空間的精神冥想，論述羅賓遜的女性角色如何尋求獨處在野外、靜下心來。愛默生和梭羅的啟發，羅賓遜的人物成為局外人。此外依據加爾文的宗教背景，家庭成員在羅賓遜的小說中獲得歸屬感、穩固家庭。

This thesis explores women’s relationships with space in American novelist Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping, Gilead, Home, and Lila. Starting from women’s spiritual space, I discuss women’s different developments in domestic and outside spaces. In different spaces, Robinson’s female characters have chances for spiritual growth. My thesis is divided into three chapters. Chapter One focuses on fiction from the 19th century and the depiction of women’s roles in domestic space, including how women play domestic roles of wife, mother and housekeeper; how women suffer the pressure from the traditional social gaze; and how women have a limited exposure to public space. Chapter Two analyzes women’s changing domestic roles in Robinson’s works, in order to show how traditional female domestic roles change in the home, how outside forces influence women’s experience in domestic space, and how Robinson offers her female characters the chance to break boundaries. In Chapter Three, I discuss spiritual meditations in outside spaces. I argue that Robinson’s female characters seek solitude in the wild so they can meditate. Inspired by Emerson and Thoreau, Robinson creates characters who become outsiders. Furthermore, I suggest that with influence from Calvinism in American history and Robinson’s own background, family members in Robinson’s novels gain a sense of belonging and strengthen their family.

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