论盖茨比悲剧的必然性

1、论盖茨比悲剧的必然性 abstractthe great gatsby is a novel written by the famous writer f. scott. fitzgerald in the 1920s， which is about disillusionment of american dream, and it is still a piece of language endowed with deep connotations and full of metaphors and mottoes. this paper analyzes gatsbys tragedy b

2、y examining the essence of gatsbys dream, the potential destructiveness in gatsbys characters and the social-historical backgrounds leading to gatsbys destruction. fitzgerald once summarized peoples characters at that time as “all gods have died, all the wars have been over, and all the faiths have

3、faded away.”(fitzgerald, 1991: 253) american people living in jazz age looked down on the traditional faiths and betrayed moralities and customs that their ancestors used to abide by. at the end of the novel, gatsbys lonely funeral ceremony and peoples indifference completely reflected humanities co

4、olness and ugliness in the society of u.s.a in 1920s. at the very beginning, gatsby was destined to be isolated helpless and to fail in the end in this society.key wordsgatsby; the american dream; tragedy; personification 摘  要了不起的盖茨比是20 世纪20 年代美国著名作家菲茨杰拉德的一部反映美国梦破灭的小说,也是一则被赋予了深刻含义,充满譬喻和警句的

5、语言。本文从盖茨比之梦的实质、盖茨比性格中的不足以及社会原因等多方面探讨了导致盖茨比梦毁人亡这一悲剧必然因素。 菲茨杰拉德曾这样那个时代的特点：一切神明都统统死光，所有战争都已经统统打完，所有信念都已经统统完蛋。爵士乐时代的人蔑视一切传统的价值观念，反叛老一辈人所遵从的道德风范。 小说结尾，作者更是以人们的冷漠和盖茨比葬礼的冷冷清清彻底反映了20 世纪20 年代美国社会人性的冷酷与丑恶。在这样的社会，盖茨比从一开始就注定是孤立无助，注定是要失败的。关键词盖茨比; 美国梦; 悲剧; 化身 introductionscott. fitzgerald is a prominent nove

6、list in the american literature, owned the title of the spokesman of the jazz age and the laurel of poet. from the contents and thoughts, the creative traits, his book the great gatsby is a real masterpiece of fitzgerald, which made him get success in writing. as soon as it was published publicly in

7、 1925, the great gatsby gained many critics affirmation and praise, becoming as one of the most excellent works in the 20th century. “the famous poet and critic aerate said that the great gatsby took a great progress in american novels since henry james.”(donaldson, 1984: 283) in this novel, with a

8、brief and serious style, the author vividly described a tragedy caused by american dream, and successfully molded a suffered figure gatsby. he was the authors favorite character, in that they had many things in common such as many experiences and spiritual virtues that are different from the compreh

9、ension and chase to american life of common people. gatsby owned marvelous genius, incomparable resolute romantic volition to his dream as well as his loyalty to his ideal, which won high praise of the author. the essay, on one hand, gives deep sympathy to gatsby about his tragedy, on the other hand

10、, it indicates that it is vain and dangerous to seek american dream at that time.the paper is analyzing the inevitability of the hero gatsbys tragedy by examining the essence of gatsbys dream, the potential destructiveness in gatsbys characters and social-backgrounds that lead to gatsbys destruction

11、.  i. description of gatsbys dreama. origin of gatsbys dreamgatsbys dream originated from the american dream, and the so-called “american dream”, in american society, especially in the period of exploiting the new continent, formed and developed a rather commonly attracting ideal. it has long h

12、istory dating from the period of european emigrants exploiting the new continent, and this dream owns tremendous enough connotations of american desire and hope to spirits and materials. consequently, many people defined it as the synthesis of wealthy dream, transcendent dream and love dream. benjam

13、in franklin, the first and well-known embodiment and advocate of american dream in the world, edified and encouraged people how to enrich their families and to fulfill american dream by their struggle, especial in his autobiography. from the birth of it to 1920s, american dream of owing the success

14、in materials to the individual virtues and struggles, was always publicized by the people as powerful as possible, and then without doubtness it became the ideal which average american people tried their best to struggle for day by day, and the fundental spiritual strength which prompted american ca

15、pitalism prosperity and maintained capitalism-social system generation by generation. gatsbys american dream originated from his childhood:“then he returned the wallet and pulled from his pocket a ragged old copy of a book called hopolong cassidy “look here, this is a book he had when he was a boy.

16、it just shows you.” he opened it at the back over and turned it around for me to see. on the last fly-leaf was printed the word schedule and the date september 12, 1906 and underneath:rise from be 6.00 a.mdumbbell exercise and wallscaling.6.15-6.30a.mstudy electricity, etc.7.15-8.15 a.mwork 8.30-4.3

17、0p.mbaseball and sports.4.30-5.00p.mpractice elocution, poise and how to attain it 5.00-6.00p.mstudy needed inventions.7.00-9.00p.m” ( fitzgerald, 2002: 206)above-mentioned shows that on the last fly-leaf of hopolong cassidy gatsby used to read were recorded his transcending decision and a piece of

18、strict timetable for working. over so many years, gatsby always persisted in it and observed it. from the schedule, as everyone knows, franklin and addison, giving a good example, depended on the struggle by themselves and got a success at last and their stories, which made every one believe that ea

19、ch youth could become a millionaire or the president of u.s in the future. in their age, the novels describing american dream were best-sellers, but they gave the preaching contents: as long as one person was honest, patient and independent, he would have the equality with every one to do everything

20、, namely, it is possible for him coming from the poor family to become a rich and noble person, while gatsby was one of the believers of it. the dream which seemed to happen in fairy tales was the endless infinite power that encouraged gatsby struggle for it. the author contact gatsbys pursuit with

21、european emigrants ancient desire to new continent, and franklin, representing american dream and its invert forms later, defined gatsbys tragedy as huge historical background and deep typical senses. the traditional model of american dream, as many critics and writers pointed out, were full of fals

22、ity, especially under the condition of capitalism developed rapidly, and polarization intensified increasingly. it made a point of evidence that gatsby made a fortune, relying on personal virtues, diligence and frugality. since his childhood, gatsby used to abide by franklins teaching, and try to pr

23、actice the main inquire of the traditional model, following his own comprehension and the background of 20-century society in u.s. it is vagary for one person to come to the fore, who only depended on virtues, diligence and frugality, however, gatsbys story of getting rich just certified it. when he

24、 was young, gatsby could not gain any appropriate consequence that he wanted to get, so that he was surrendered by his beloved lover daisy, for he was penniless and fameless at that time. and later he absurdly became a millionaire. obviously, it ought to be tremendous irony for him to believe in ame

25、rican dream. by all appearances, as were same with other magnates at that time, gatsby still understood and practiced following principles. theoretically, borderland, (here referred to the whole american) were equal paradise to every one, and the reward completely owed to diligence, frugality and go

26、od luckiness, but in fact, the rewarding often depended on trickiness, greed and mercilessness, as well as cruel ruthlessness and completely rotten means. it is the american dream, but it is the origin of gatsbys dream.b. essence of gatsbys dreameven if his dream originated from american dream, the

27、essence of gatsbys dream is the essence of american dream. with his growing, gatsbys american dream went by an evolution when he was young. he dreamed making a good fortune, transcending common people and getting rid of poorness as much as the heroes written by ben franklin and horatio alger. later

28、he met daisy by chance and then lost his heart to her, thus daisy became the personification of his perfect ideal and the embodiment of concentrating his entire ideal, and the he endeavored to do everything in the direction of them. because in his mind, daisy represented all beautiful creatures of t

29、he upper class society in america, and in his memory, the first love between daisy and him seemed to be a human fairyland, whereas, the cruel reality was that he lacked rich family supporting him and his love. the great disparity of their status made him sense that he had no right to touch her hand.

30、 “gatsby was overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth impressions and preserves, of the freshness of many clothes, and of daisy, gleaming like silver, safe and proud above hot struggles of the poor.” (fitzgerald, 2002: 98)so having lost daisy, he desperately earned much more money,

31、and fantasized about recapturing his beloveddaisy with money when he was rich enough, afterwards, he really made a fortune. “once i wrote down on the empty space of a timetable the names of those who came to gatsbys house that summer, including film stars, boarders, duke, prince, etc. (fitzgerald, 2

32、002: 13)” , while the narrator nickels finn servant informed me that gatsby dismissed every servant in his house a week ago and replaced them with half a dozen others. gatsby became very rich beyond peoples imagination, nearly owned magical power, could gather all rich men and dismiss servants and e

33、mploy any one, and even made west egg become a constant magnificent feast. surely, what have been finished was not to depend on the traditional teaching but illegal deals in gangdom or underworld, however, luxurious life could not bring gatsby a little happiness, since in essence, he was different f

34、rom those who sought for benefits and fames. in jazz age, wealth was not the most significant to gatsby, while what he only recalled was to repeat the past with daisy day and night and to get the lost pure love. after he got rich, he bought a luxurious mansion in front of daisys house across the bay

35、. “if it wasnt for the mist we could see your house across the bay,” said gatsby, you always have a green light that burns all nights at the end of your dock.” (fitzgerald, 2002: 110) almost five years, gatsby never stopped recalling his first lover daisy. “he had thrown himself into it with a creat

36、ive passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. no amount of fine or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.” (fitzgerald, 2002: 113) as a result, the more perfect his ideal became, the more far away reality was.c.

37、 symbol of gatsbys dreamin the novel, the green light represented that innocent gatsby looked forward to the future, and at the same time longed for the history, namely, the green light represents his dream. “gatsby believed the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before

38、 us. it eluded us then, but thats no mattertomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.and one fine morning. so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” (fitzgerald, 2002: 188)american dream actually originated from the past, and made him sincerely

39、persist in the traditional ideal foundation; however, when he was borne back ceaselessly into the past, he made efforts for exploring various possibility in the future. to some extent, gatsbys love to daisy reflected his wonderful memory of the past. four years before, he realized her and then loved

40、 her. it was deeply engraved on his mind of original love. in the long time, to the love of missing daisy, gatsby memorized that daisy fantastically became a beautiful miracle story in his mind, a historical event with wonderful experiences and a fairy maiden in a mysterious vail. he desired to make

41、 the historical past transform to the future with same historical meaning through his own persistent efforts. and this green light representing his good ideal echoed with a fresh green breast of the world mutually at the end of this novel, which made gatsbys experiences indicate the whole americas o

42、nes; nevertheless, after five years when gatsby met daisy again, the miracle daisy had lost her original glory. the distinction between ideal and reality was huge.“and she doesnt understand,” he said: “she used to be able to understand. wed sit for hours”he broke off and began to walk up and down a

43、desolate path of fruit rinds and discarded favors and crushed flowers.“i wouldnt ask too much for her,” i ventured, “you cant repeat the past.”“cant repeat the past?” he cried incredulously. “why of course you can!” he looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his h

44、ouse, just out reach of his hand. “im going to fix everything just the way it was before,” he said, “nodding determinedly shell see.”(fitzgerald, 2002: 130-1)through these words, author gave highly emphasis to the figure of gatsby, as if american dream between golden past and golden future always su

45、ffered from the realistic betrayal and crushthe realistic world appearing in front of people was bleakness and dejection that “it was full of fruits rinds and discarded favors and crushed flowers” here and there. gatsby could not build his hope future on the basis of cruel reality. he uniquely recal

46、led the past, only to make the past illusion take place of the reality and future. he could not face squarely the reality of uniting the past with the future in the realistic environment. these reflect the essence of gatsbys dream. ii. ideal personification: unworthy of namegatsby ideal personi

47、fication in his mind is daisy, because she was just a beautiful woman and the gatsbys first lover. surely, he loved her very much; however, daisy was rather earthly woman and bad virtue.a. a worldly beauty  woefully, daisy was not as perfect as gatsby always imagining in his mind, and his ideal

48、 personification that gatsby desperately sought was only a badly worldly beauty with a good appearance and empty soul. in a cocktail party once held by gatsby, when daisy with her husband tom came to gatsbys mansion together, gatsby, being a host, of course serving them, especially serving daisy, in

49、troduced all customers to them one by one. when they came to the front of a pair of outstanding ones, he gave them a special introduction and description:“perhaps you know that lady,” gatsby indicated gorgeous, scarcely human orchid of a woman who sat under a white plum tree. tom and daisy stared, w

50、ith that particularly unreal feeling that accompanies the recognition of hitherto ghostly celebrities of memories.“shes lovely,” said daisy.“the man bending over is her director.” (fitzgerald, 2002: 120)seen from the surface, it is a very elegant picture, as the famous drawing in the world was excit

51、ing, while observed from the essence, the picture was none of deep sense. the scene of the movie picture star and her director never appeared in reality but in a rehearsal. after the author finished introducing other scenes, he took readers attention to the pair of figures again, giving readers a st

52、atic and wonderful image, as if readers went to the back of the white plum tree and saw another scene.“it was like that. almost the last thing i remember was standing with daisy and watching the movie picture director and his star. they are still under the white plum tree and their faces were touchi

53、ng except for a pale, thin ray of moonlight between them. it occurred to me that he had been very slowly bending toward to her all night this proximity, and even while i watched i saw him stoop one ultimate degree and kiss at her cheek. “i like her”, said daisy, “i think shes lovely.” (fitzgerald, 2002: 127)but the rest offended herand inarguably, because it wasnt a gesture but an emotion. daisy liked the movie picture star, because the star had no any virtual thought and connotation. she, who was just a furnishing, a p