《了不起的盖茨比》中默特尔形象分析.docx

目录Acknowledgements1摘 要3Abstract41. 41.Introduction52. Literature Review72.1 Previous studies on The Great Gatsby overseas72.2 Previous studies of The Great Gatsby in China73. The Descriptions of Myrtle94. The Beauty and Vulgarity of Myrtle115. Comparisons Between Gatsby and Myrtle146. American women like Myrtle in 1920s177. Conclusion19Works Cited21Beuka Robert. American Icon: Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby In Critical and Cultural Context. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 201121Dickstein Morris. Critical insights: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Pasadena, Calif. : Salem Press, 201021AcknowledgementsUpon the completion of the paper, no words can express my heartfelt thanks to Miss Zhou, my mentor and supervisor, whose patience and encouragement will accompany me all through my life and learning during the journey of BA study. Not only has she inspired and influenced me upon how to write the paper, but also enlightened me as to the approach of teaching. And she has provided me with a lot of resources and instructive guidance in modifying my topic and essay and in preparing the material pertinent to topic and in writing the thesis. Without her generous help, I couldnt even complete the thesis, let alone present it with perfect form to the thesis defense committee.Furthermore, I owe a debt of gratitude to many teachers in Wuhan Business University. What I have acquired from their courses and lectures has widened my horizons in English learning and teaching. Finally, I wish to extend my gratitude to my family whose support and encouragement is an indispensable part along my journey of academic pursuit.摘 要了不起的盖茨比是美国20世纪20年代“迷惘的一代”代表人物菲茨杰拉德所写的一本著名小说。这本1925年发表的小说描写了19世纪20年代经济腾飞的美国社会。在一个空前繁荣和物质过剩的时代，这是对美国梦瓦解的一种极具象征意义的思考。在这片论文中，作者主要从默特尔的书中描写，性格中的“美丽”与“丑陋”以及她的生活背景的角度分析了配角默特尔。作者从各方面对比了默特尔和主角盖茨比。由于盖茨比是书中的主角，他不顾一切得去追逐他的梦想。同时，读者和评论家们都倾向于更关注盖茨比的悲剧而忽略了默特尔。虽然作为配角之一默特尔被书中大多数角色所鄙视，她也被读者和评论家们所忽视。然而，作者认为，默特尔在书中扮演重要角色，她不仅衬托盖茨比从而凸显主题，更代表了19世纪20年代中下层阶级的美国女性。通过上述分析，作者希望帮助读者建立对小说人物情感上的认同，并增进他们对这部作品的理解。关键词：了不起的盖茨比；菲茨杰拉德；默特尔；美国梦；悲剧人物形象AbstractThe Great Gatsby, considered one of the great masterpieces in American creature, was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, who is commonly regarded as a member of the “Lost Generation.” The novel, published in 1925, depicts American society during the "roaring" 1920s as the economy soared. It is a highly symbolic meditation on disintegration of the American Dream in an era of unprecedented prosperity and material excess. In this thesis, the author mainly analyzes the supporting character Myrtle from the perspectives of her description, beauty and vulgarity. The author compares Myrtle and the protagonist Gatsby in many aspects. As Gatsby is the main character, who has tried his best to pursue his dream, readers and critics tend to pay more attention to his tragedy, while Myrtle, disdained by most of the characters in the novel, has been largely ignored by readers and critics. However, the author argues that Myrtle plays a key role in the book not only to serve the theme as a foil to Gatsby but to represent lower-middle class American women in the 1920s. By such analysis, the author hopes to help readers build an emotional understanding of the characters and deepen their understanding of this masterpiece.Key words: The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald, Myrtle, American dream, tragic character1.IntroductionAs one of the most well-known novels in the world, The Great Gatsby was published by F. Scott Fitzgerald, who is one of the most famous chroniclers of Jazz Age and one of the most representative American novelists of the 1920s. The masterpiece is about a lovely and romantic story revealing money and statues describing that the people pursued “the American dream” but doomed to be a failure end. The great thinker H.L. Mencken also praised that the masterpiece is full of charm and beauty which reveals Fitzgeralds sharp social sense. The Great Gatsby describes the demise of American dream from the social, historical and authorial perspectives. In 1920s of America, the United States had an unprecedented economic prosperity after world-war 1, the quality of people showed an uprising trend, while their mental world was descending sharply under the brand new social environment. Frankly speaking, the American dream was deluded in that these young generations pay all their attention to materials when ignoring mentality. They were addicted to hedonism putting away the traditional religious beliefs and morality. F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) was one of the most representative figures of 1920s, and a mirror of the exciting age in almost every way. As an active participant of his age, he never failed to remain detached or foresee the failure and tragedy of “the Dollar Decade.” Thus he was often acclaimed as the literary spokesman of the Jazz Age. He is widely regarded as one of the twentieth centurys greatest writers and a member of the “lost Generation” of the twenties. Myrtle is a distinct and classic woman figure in The Great Gatsby and her beauty and vulgarity are so impressed on our readers. Myrtle is the wife of Wilson and the mistress of Tom. Wilson owns a run-down 1 garage in the Valley of Ashes. Myrtle herself possessed a fierce vitality and desperately looked for a way to improve her situation. Unfortunately for her, she chooses Tom who treated her as a mere object of his desire (Ma Hui-xian 183). When her husband demanded to know who her lover was, she ran out of the room and onto the road. She recognized the yellow car driving by, thinking that Tom was behind the wheel. Then she was killed by the car in the end. Through this novel, we find Myrtle is a tragic figure under the patriarchal society. She married to Wilson because he cheated her that he was rich. But when Myrtle found Wilson was poor and coarse, she cannot stay with him for a moment and she lost faith in this society through marriage. So she went after Tom and she thought that will make her become close to an upper-class woman. However, she finally becomes a victim in the consumption society in the end. This paper aims not to discuss the main character Gatsby or the narrator Nick but to discuss the supporting character Myrtle, a mistress of Tom. She only appears in the Chapter two and Chapter seven, but she plays a very important role in this novel. As a represent of a middle-low class woman, she goes for her dreamsto be an upper class womanbut it failed in the end. And she also paid much price for her dream. That is a tragedy in the society. This is also the disillusion of American dream. Through the analysis of Myrtles character, we can know better about the theme of this novel and American dream.2. Literature Review2.1 Previous studies on The Great Gatsby overseasThe Great Gatsby is the most famous masterpiece of Fitzgerald. But when it was published in 1925, it was ignored and criticized by most of critics. Until 1960s of America, the novel came to be focused by many critics and readers, and finally became famous. The Great Gatsby has been studied in foreign countries especially in the United States for a long and torturous process over the past few years. The first printing text of The Great Gatsby was published by Scribners standardly, which has experienced for nearly 100 years. So there are so many researchers and critics who have read and studied this great masterpiece for various times to explore the novel from many different perspectives. In 1997, Ronald Berman wrote The Great Gatsby and Fitzgeralds World of Ideas which analyzes the influences of the process of commercial culture and the materialism of the society to the language and development of a novel. Furthermore, he used the first-hand historical documents in 1920s to explore the theological concepts in The Great Gatsby. And at the same time, Nicolas Tredell compiled F Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, 1997. He commented on the criticism and reception of the novel from 1920s to 1990s. In 2011, Beuka Robert compiled the book American icon: Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby in Critical and Cultural Context, which mainly analyzed the influence of social and historic currents on American literature and depicted the history and development in researching the masterpiece. (Beuka 2011) Barbara published The Great Gatsby and The Obscene Word which is collected papers about The Great Gatsby. (Dickstein, 2010 ) In America, most of researchers and critics have studied the tragedy of Gatsby and the American dream. in the past few years. With time goes by, women became the theme of new studies in the research of the novel. Lena Sanderson analyzed the stylish women in The Women in Fitzgeralds Novel who became a kind of cultural icon at that time.2.2 Previous studies of The Great Gatsby in ChinaCompared to the studies of foreigners, The Great Gatsby was ignored by most of Chinese critics for the poor and turbulent society in 1920s. In 1974, the first Chinese translation of the novel was published by American scholar George in Hong Kong. And the first translation of the novel in the mainland of China was translated by Professor Wu Linkun. From then on, The Great Gatsby was gradually caught by most of scholars in China.In the research of The Great Gatsby, some scholars began to praise and accept this novel in the late 1970s. In A Brief History of American Literature, Zhu Hong and Shi Xianrong objectively confirmed the statues in American Literature. Now the number of research and critical articles on the novel is up to 1215 in the HowNetan academic web site in China, and it is increasing gradually. Most of Chinese people also studied the novel from the perspective of the theme, the American dream, the main character, and the specialty of the era. Some scholars compared the American dream and Chinese dream. In “Consumerism Embodied in The Great Gatsby and Its Implications for Todays Chinese Society”, Ma Huixian analyzed the consumption phenomenon, consumerism and its characteristics in the novel and he looked history as a mirror to enlighten Chinese society to solve current related problems. In “Disillusion of American Dream-analysis of Symbolic Meanings of Colors in The Great Gatsby”, He Wenbin analyzed the novel from the perspective of color symbolic meanings.With the reform and opening up policy, the research of American literature was more and more popular in China. And there will be more studies and critic comments about the novel. In 2008, Wu Jianguo published The Analysis of Fitzgerald, which analyzed representative novels of Fitzgerald. In 2007, Peking University Press published the New Essays on The Great Gatsby, which was written by Matthew J. Bruccoli. The book includes new essay and thesis about The Great Gatsby overseas. Furthermore, professor Yu Jianhua wrote The High Tide of American Literature published by Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press which analyzed Fitzgerald from the perspective of commercial culture and young culture. His idea is in a leading edge and breaks the traditional viewpoint and angle like American dream. These study and research in The Great Gatsby contribute the development of American literature and its spread in China.3. The Descriptions of Myrtle In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald describes three women characters: Daisy, Myrtle and Jordon. They compete with the depressive and materialistic world. They are all tragedy in the patriarchal society because they try to find freedom in personality but they failed in the end. (姚进 王一镭,2013:62) Daisy are pursuing a romantic love and loyal marriage based on material basis but Jordan are longing for stable life. Different from both of them, Myrtle wants to uphold her social statues in order to being respected by others.(杨光，2006：189 )Myrtle provides striking key points in the plot of the book. In some degree, Myrtle is the protagonist among all supporting role. She is a typical example in the 20s which is the consumption age and most of woman like her uphold money and statues and try to be a noble woman. As a lower-middle class woman, she is impressed by most of readers and she is also charming and attractive even when she died which is caused by a car accident. The description of Myrtle shows the creation and particular style of F. Scott Fitzgerald. When it comes to Myrtle, most of readers are impressed by her coarse and beautiful appearance. As is learned in Oxford Dictionary, Myrtle is “a bush with shiny leaves, pink or white flowers and bluish-black berries.” The name is from flowers, and it will fade and has a black and violet fruit which indicates the tragedy of Myrtle.(汪云 万连,2013:46) Myrtle is just like a pink and white flower. She is beautiful and pretty, sometimes a little coquettish, but she finally dies like the wither and fall of a flower. She desires to own so many things such as money, statues, love, passion and so on. She is so curious to the rank and fashion, but she cant integrate into the upper ten. Wilson is a spiritless man. His face is ashen. Myrtle cheats him taking him as a ghost. (Xu Lihong, 2017) And they live in a “white ashen dust veiled his dark suit and his pale hair.”(Fitzgerald, 1992:35) When Myrtle comes out, she blocks out the light from the office door, and she is faintly stout and ticklish. She smiles slowly and vitally. Her voice is soft and coarse. Nick said: “vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smoldering. (Fitzgerald, 1992:30) Myrtle is so beautiful when she wears gorgeous skirt. Furthermore, her post, her laughter, her utterance are so artificial. Because she didnt turn around to see Wilson when she speaks to her husband, she just talks to her husband as if he were a ghost. As the author describes, “She was in the middle thirties, and faintly stout, but she carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some women can. Her face, above a spotted dress of dark blue crepe-de-chine, contained no facet or gleam of beauty but there was an immediately.” (Fitzgerald, 1992:26)When she comes on the stage, Nick hears footsteps on the stairs and in a moment the thickish figure of a woman block out the light from the office door. We dont see the woman but we heard her voice which made Myrtle more mysterious for us. Myrtle cares more about her appearance when she changes her dresses again and again. This is feeling of inferiority because she awares that she is born in the lower class. She wants to be a rich woman but what she only can do is to be a mistress of Tom. So she tries her best to polish her appearance. Then, more important one is the deep mentality of Myrtle. Myrtle thinks she marries below her class when she says George 'wasn't fit to lick her shoe'. This is clear from the way she speaks - she uses non-standard grammar and 'obscene' language. She says to his husband with