论盖茨比悲剧的必然性_周新平.docx

《论盖茨比悲剧的必然性_周新平.docx》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《论盖茨比悲剧的必然性_周新平.docx（59页珍藏版）》请在淘文阁 - 分享文档赚钱的网站上搜索。

1、 硕士字位论文 . On the Inevitability of Gatsbys Tragedy A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the M. A. Degree in English Language and Literature (on American Literature) By Zhou Xinping Postgraduate Program Department of English Language and Literature Central China Normal Uni

2、versity Superviser Deng Xuxin Academic Title Associate Professor Signature Approved April 2002 硬士字位论文 F A S T E R 1 T H E S I Acknowledgements First I would like to thank all the teachers in the English department of CCNU, to whom I owe much of my knowledge in the English language, linguistics, tran

3、slation, and especially in English and American literature. My heartfelt thanks goes to Mr. Zeng Qingqiang, Mr. Li Xijian and Ms Chen Lihua, whose illuminating lectures greatly aroused my interest in literature. My most sincere appreciation goes to my supervisor, Prof. Deng Xuxin, without his illumi

4、nating instructions, invaluable suggestions and constant encouragement, this thesis would not have come to this form. 内容摘要 弗 司各特 菲茨杰拉德是二十世纪二十年代美国文坛上杰出的作家，素 有“ 爵士时代 ” 的代言人和桂冠诗人的称号。他那充满名利及浪漫，忧郁而又 短暂的一生不仅为其小说提供了最生动的创造素材，而且也成为美国战后整个 “ 迷惘的一代 ” 悲惨命运的 一 个缩影。菲茨杰拉德的作品给人们生动地再现了 爵士时代的生活气息和社会风貌。小说了不起的盖茨比被公认为是他最

5、优 秀的作品。评论界普遍将它看作是一部关于二十年代美国社会现实的小说。对 于其 “ 美国梦的幻灭 ” 这一主题探讨甚多，许多评论家认为这是一部关于美国 梦的经典之作，从浪漫的理想及理想的破灭等方面对作品进行分析。其次是评 论小说的写作技巧，还有对尼克 卡罗威的叙述视角的许多争论。而在人物分 析方面，除了具有双重视角的叙述者尼克这一角色之外详尽地对作品中的人物 进行剖析的文章却不多见。至于盖茨比悲剧的必然性，虽有一些文章提到，但 也仅仅是一笔带过，未见 有具体而详细的分析。 本论文从人物分析着手，从社会、历史、以及作者自身的经历和世界观等 多方面探讨导致主人公盖茨比梦毁人亡这一悲剧的必然因素。盖

6、茨比悲剧的必 然产生不仅有其深刻的社会历史原因，且与其个人性格中的自我毁灭因素也是 分不开的。通过分析我们可以看出盖茨比之梦的历史渊源和实质，盖茨比性格 中的天真单纯和不谙世故以及以汤姆、黛西为代表的美国社会的冷酷无情和道 碎士字位论文 MASTER 1L THESI ： 德沦丧。这些从根本上决定了盖茨比的失败与毁灭。本文主要通过人物分析来 分析作品的主题，并将二者有机地统一起来，意在较全面深刻地解读作品的内 涵。 关键词：司各待 菲茨杰拉德了不起的盖茨比必然性梦想 項士学位论又 夕VIASTEP. 1 ： HES： Abstract F Scott Fitzgerald, the famou

7、s American novelist in the 20th century, is known as the spokesman and laureate of the “Jazz Age” America, whose works give us an accurate picture of the aura of the American twenties. The Great Gatsby is thought to be his finest work. It is generally viewed among critics that it is a novel about th

8、e American society in the 1920s. A lot of essays on it were focused either on its quintessential vision of the American dream, romantic hope and romantic disillusion or on the narrative techniques, and there are discussions on the role of the dual-visioned narrator Nick Carraway. Character analysis,

9、 except the analysis of Nicks role as a narrator, remains far from thorough and pointed. Although some critics have mentioned the inevitability of Gatsbys tragedy in their essays, thorough and detailed analysis has not been found. This dissertation analyzes the inevitability of Gatsby tragedy from s

10、ocial, historical and authorial perspectives by examining the origins and essential nature of Gatsbys dreams, the naivety and innocence in his personality and the cruelty of the Jazz Age society epitomized by the ruthless and immoral Buchanans, for a combination of these elements defines Gatsbys fai

11、lure and destruction in the end. Theme discussion in this paper is basically done through character analysis. Key Words: Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby inevitability dream iv 項士字彳立论文 M A S I L ? . 1 T H K S ; Contents Acknowledgements . i Abstract in Chinese . ii Abstract in English . iv I. Intro

12、duction . 1 II. Backgrounds . 3 2.1 Biographical Background . 3 2.2 Historical Context . 10 2.3 Critics and The Great Gatsby. 11 III. Inevitability of Gatsbys Tragedy . 14 3.1 A Look Into Gatsbys Dream . 15 3.1.1 Origins of Gatsby*s Dream . 15 3.1.2 Essence of Gatsbys Dream . 20 3.1.2.1 Elements of

13、Gatsbys Dream . 21 3.1.2.2 A Dream with Its Elements in Conflict . 23 3.2 Inadequate Embodiment of the Dream . 26 3.3 Naivety and Innocence in Gatsby5s Character. . 31 3.3.1 Dreaming of Pure Love . 32 3.3.2 . Naive Belief in the Power of Money to Help Him Realize His Dream . 36 3.3.3 Conviction in t

14、he Possibility to Repeat the Past . 38 3.3.4 Lack of a Critical Eye for the Essence of the Established Rich . 41 3.4 Cruelty of the Society Epitomized by the Immoral Buchanans . 43 IV. Conclusion . 50 Bibliography . 51 硕士学位论文 MASTER* S THESIS I. Introduction In the history of American literature, th

15、ere is probably no writer who is more identified with a decade than Scott Fitzgerald is identified with the 19205s. He so vividly captured the mood and manners of his age and successfully drew a portrait of the American twenties through his works that he is always remembered as the spokesman and lau

16、reate of the Jazz Age. An important reason is that he lived the era and was an integral part of it. And he wrote into stories and novels his very experiences or his keen observations of the Jazz Age America. Today Fitzgerald is regarded as one of the best writers in American literature, but it was o

17、nly after his death that people generally accepted him as a serious and ambitious novelist. At the time of his premature death in 1940, the judgment passed by most of the critics about him was that he shortened his life by dissipation and wasted his fine talent on umvorthy projects. There are two im

18、portant facts that undoubtedly shaped critical attitudes towards his works: first, he produced an enormous number of slick stories for the high-priced magazines, including two of his four novels This Side of Paradise(l920) and The Beautiful and the Damned(l922); second, he became a literary celebrit

19、y too early and too richly in his career. These, together with his unrestrained way of life, made him unpopular, especially to the critics. However, after his death, with the publication in 1945 of his autobiographical essays The Crack-up edited by critic and his life-long friend Edmund Wilson， eval

20、uation on his works revived. People gradually realized his greatness and uniqueness as a writer. Most of the significant criticism on Fitzgerald was written in 1950s and 60*s. His stories and novels have been rediscovered through out America and other countries. The Great Gatsby, published in 1925,

21、was highly praised by critics and considered to be his finest work of all. It has been discussed and admired as any of the 20th century American novel. Critical interest in it was greatly stimulated during the 1940s and 1950s. It seems that most critical essays were focused either on the formthe nar

22、rative techniques, ingenuity in weaving past and present together, careful control of tone and point of view, or on what are supposed to be bigger topicsits quintessential vision of American dream, romantic hopes and romantic disillusion. Character analysis, however, except the analysis of the role

23、of the narrator Nick Carraway, remains far from thorough and pointed. In this thesis, Gatsby, the main character, is the writer major concern. He was betrayed and finally destroyed by the dream he pursuited for so many years. As the last of the romantics in such a hedonistic society, Gatsby5s death

24、remains to be a poignant and pathetic one. Being a in such a careless and immoral society, Gatsby, a naive dreamer with an unworthy ideal, is bound to be a failure. An analysis of the inevitability of Gatsbys tragedy is what the writer attempts to make in this thesis. The body of the thesis consists

25、 of four chapters. The first chapter is a summary of the previous critical reviews on Fitzgeralds works and an introduction of the writers purpose of writing the thesis. The second chapter is an introduction to the life and works of Fitzgerald and the historical context which Fitzgerald and Gatsby l

26、ive in. The third chapter analyzes the inevitability of GatsbyJs tragedy by studying the nature of Gatsbys dream, cruelty of Jazz Age society and naivety in Gatsby character, because a combination of the three eventually destroys him, and then follows the conclusion. 2 硕士学位论文 MASTERS THESIS II. Back

27、grounds 2.1 Biographical Background The story of the legendary Fitzgerald of the twenties usually begins with the picture of the newly married, handsome Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald dancing around or jumping into the fountain of the Plaza Hotel. This pastoral scene may be usefiil in reminding us that

28、the Fitzgeralds were not native New Yorkers. She was from the deep South, from Montgomery, Alabama. He was a Midwesterner. (Unger 1972). Edmund Wilson, one of Fitzgeralds closest literary friends, insisted on the important influence of St. Paul, Minnesota in determining the direction of his art and

29、the growth of his sensibility. It is clear that many of his basic attitudes were defined by the upper middleclass financial and social position that he inherited. On September 24, 1896, Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was bom into a St. Paul middleclass family. His maternal grandfather was an Irish imm

30、igrant who did well in the wholesale grocery business. At his death, an estate over one million dollars was left to be shared by Fitzgeralds mother and the other children. This inherited money gave young Scott Fitzgerald his expensive education in private schools and at Princeton. But he was always

31、sensitive to the ambiguous family position inherited from his mothers side, neither “aristocrats” nor “nobodies.” The other half of his inheritance was more pleasing to his keen sense of himself. He put his admiration for his gentlemanly but unsuccessful father into both 77ie GVefl/ (1925) and Tende

32、r Is the Night (1934). In Fitzgeralds own description of one of the houses in which he lived as a St. Paul teen-ager: it was, he says, “a house below the 项士字 li论文 C-V EASIER : THESr - average on a street above average. Thus the young Scott grew up in the kind of environment that has been characteriz

33、ed as 1 士学注 又 MAS； ER and preserves, of the freshness of many clothes, and of Daisy, gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor.”（ p.95) As a matter of fact, Gatsby fails to marry her. Gatsby learns a lot from the fact: that he loses her simply because cthe had no comfo

34、rtable family standing behind him” and “he had no real right to touch her hand;” that he must have the same statra” as herself and enough money to give her “a sense of security （ p. 95) in order to win her back. So during the followed years since their parting, Gatsby works even harder to amass weal

35、th through every possible means without the least sense of guilt, for his whole heart has gone to the idea of repeating the past with Daisy. It was a dream with such “a colossal vitality” that “it had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown into it with a creative passion, adding to it all

36、 the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted its way.,(p.61-62) As analyzed above, Gatsbys dream is multileveled. His prior dream was of wealth and advancement, which was aspired in his more adolescent years by Benjamin and Alger. The meeting, affair, loss, and subsequent dream o

37、f regaining Daisy all happened eleven years later. Lockridge writes that Gatsbys dream has three basic and related parts: the desire for money, the desire to repeat the past, and the desire for incarnation of unutterable visions in the material earth.”（ Lockridge 1968: 38) For Gatsby, Daisy is the e

38、mbodiment of all these dreams. Her house epitomizes the wealth and status to which the boy James Gatz aspired, his desire to repeat the past is centred on recapturing an experience with her, and she represents the material earth on which his “vision” has become focused. However, for Carraway, it is

39、the romantic desire to defeat time which is at the heart of the dream. Gatsby refuses to accept the passing of time, so he continues to believe he can regain Daisy and repeat the past, which is crucial in causing his tragedy. 22 硕士学泣论文 MASILR THESi 3.2.1.2 A Dream With Its Elements in Conflict In Th

40、e Great Gatsby, it is obvious that Fitzgerald is critical of the American dream itself, seeing it as 4tan illusion of liberty and openness, but which has always been historically ineffectual. It was invalidated by its crude association with materialism.(Matterson 1990: 33-34) This is strongly repres

41、ented in the career of Gatsby, who as known is the true heir of the American dream. It is true that materialism is an important feature in Gatsbys dream, but it is not sheer materialism but a uniquely romantic “materialism” in which Gatsby attempts to create a glowing ideal from material acquisition

42、, trying to convince himself that one can define reality according to their hearts desire. The confusion of the romantic ideal with the mere making of money is a first conflict in the dream. And the gap between the intensity of Gatsbys devotion and the “cause” to which he is devoted is not to be neg

43、lected. And above all, as an embodiment of the American dream, Gatsby5s dream is fatally in conflict with the rigid reality. t4It has often been observed that Gatsby is in the line of the heroes of romance， （ Bloom 1986: 30) “He has committed himself to the following of a grail， ” Nick tells us. This is especially evident in his worship of the “green light” on the dock of Daisys house, with a pious trembling gesture. The fact is that Gatsby, since his boyhood, has been in the pursuit of a kind of glowing future of some vaguely imagined suc