四川大学本科毕业论文范文.pdf

本科生毕业论文 设计 本科生毕业论文 设计 题 目 The Romantic Elements in Mark Twain s 题 目 The Romantic Elements in Mark Twain s Children NovelsChildren Novels 学 院 外 国 语 学 院 学 院 外 国 语 学 院 专 业 英 语 专 业 专 业 英 语 专 业 学生姓名 陈 丹 学生姓名 陈 丹 学 号 0341052050 学 号 0341052050 年级 2003 级 年级 2003 级 指导教师 高 红 指导教师 高 红 教务处制表 二 年 月 日 教务处制表 二 年 月 日 马克吐温儿童小说中的浪漫主义成分马克吐温儿童小说中的浪漫主义成分 英语专业 学生 陈丹 指导老师 高红 不论是美国文学史还是世界文学史上 马克吐温都享有很高的声誉 由于他 自己出生贫苦 深知生活在底层社会的人们的苦难 他的作品 大部分都是如实 的体现当时的社会现状 马克吐温被视为现实主义的杰出代表 他的作品也都充 满了马克吐温式的幽默 迄今为止 关于马克吐温的研究数不胜数 主要都集中 探讨他的幽默和现实主义思想 但是 他的作品并不仅仅都是 现实 的 很少 有人注意到他作品中揉和的浪漫主义成分 本篇论文旨在通过分析分析马克吐温 的两部作品 汤姆索亚历险记和哈克贝利芬历险记 来探讨马克吐温作品中的 浪漫主义成分 并从一个全新的视角对其进行诠释 总的说来这篇论文可分为两 大部分 第一部分讨论了两本书的主题 第二部分讨论了其文体风格 两本书所 要表现的一个重要主题就是对 善 的渴望 体现在文中主人公对自然的向往及 对美德的追寻 文体方面 本篇论文主要从其充满想象的描述进行分析 关键词 关键词 马克吐温 浪漫主义 现实主义 自然 想象 ABSTRACT Mark Twain enjoys high reputation in American literature history and the world literature history Since he himself came from the low class and most of his stories are about the life he is rather familiar with he is regarded as a remarkable representative of American realistic literature Meanwhile His works are full of Mark Twain s humor Until now a lot of studies on Mark Twain are either in his humorous style or his realistic ideology However his works are not purely realistic Yet few people studies the some romantic elements blended in them This thesis aims to analysis the romanticism in Mark Twain and to interpret him in a new angel through his two children books the Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Generally it can be divided into three parts In the first part it gives a definition on realism and romanticism In the second part the author probes romanticism from the view of the theme of these two books and the third from the style The main theme of the novels is the yearning for goodness which is indicated from the pursuit for nature and the searching for virtue As for the style the analysis lies into the imaginative description and the romantic arrangement of the plot Key words Mark Twain Romanticism Realism Nature Imagination Contents Introduction 1 Part One Definitions of Realism and Romanticism 3 Part Two Desire for Nature 4 1 1 Tom Spokesman for Human Nature 5 1 2 Huck Son of Nature 6 1 3 Mississippi Nature Itself 8 Part Three Moralization Significance Achievement of Virtue 9 Part Four Romanticism in Technique Abundant Imaginations 11 Conclusion 13 Bibliography 15 Acknowledgements 16 四川大学本科毕业论文 马克吐温儿童小说中的浪漫主义成分 Introduction Mark Twain was a great writer in end of 19th century His genuine and indulgence brought him high reputation among the Americans and even the world He is regarded as one of the three true American writers by many scholars because his works truly reflect the typical American people s life the characters and their spirit have become a symbol of an independent nation William Dean Howells praised Twain as the Lincoln of American literature Mark Dawidziad 1996 6 H L Mencken regarded him as the true father of American national literature the first genuinely American artist with royal blood Mark Dawidziad 1996 6 William Faulkner said Mark Twain was the first true American writer and all of us since are his heirs we descended from him Chang Yaoxin 1997 191 Bernard Devoto literary critic and Twain scholar agreed he Mark Twain wrote books that have in them something eternally true to the core of his nation s life Bernard Devoto 1932 3 He called Mark Twain the greatest of all American writers not just of western American writer Mark Twain pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens was brought up in the small town of Hannibal Missouri on the Mississippi River which was the setback of his most novels He was twelve when his father died and he had to leave school and educated himself In order to make his own living Mark Twain successively worked as a printer s devil a tramp printer a silver miner a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River and a frontier journalist in Nevada and California Colorful life experiences provided him plenty materials for his writing later On May 1st in 1852 his first work The Dandy Frightening the Squatter appeared in The Carpet Bag a weekly humor magazine in Boston Since then he wrote his way up into the ranks of great American writers His boy book the Adventures of Tom Sawyer lays claim to being America s most popular And later its sister novel the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was regarded as the masterpiece of Mark Twain In the studies on Mark Twain either from China or abroad most of them focus on the realistic elements Plenty of researches are about his humorist and localism but 1 四川大学本科毕业论文 马克吐温儿童小说中的浪漫主义成分 the fact that there are also romantic elements in Mark Twain s works is always neglected This thesis will mainly analyze the romantic colors in Mark Twain s realistic novel from the theme and character In order to reveal the romantic elements in Mark Twain this thesis mainly focuses on the above two representative stories the Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Tom was never a good boy he fought with other boys told lies to his aunt escapes from schools One day Mischievous Tom and his friends Becky and Huck happened to see a murder by a bad Indian Joe Repressing his terror he successfully attested in the court for innocent Potter and exploded the real murder Later after a serious adventures Tom and his friends helped a window out of the trip of Joe and finally get Joe s hidden property in a cave where they had been lost before And Joe dramatically died partly out of their adventures In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn outcast white boy of about the age of thirteen called Huckleberry Finn helped the black slave to escape from slavery the story attached great important on the relation how Huck Finn floating along with Jim and helping him as best he could changes his mind his prejudice about black people and comes to accept Jim as a man and as a close friend as well 2 四川大学本科毕业论文 马克吐温儿童小说中的浪漫主义成分 Part One Definitions of Realism and Romanticism These two novels above are classified as Realism in American literature What is Realism Realism is regarded as a literature movement against the lie of romanticism and sentimentalism The original definition of realism by Sir P Harvey source was a loosely used term meaning truth to the observed facts of life especially when they are gloomy It stressed sincerity as opposed to the liberty proclaimed by the romantics it insisted on accurate documentation sociological insight an accumulation of the details of material fact an avoidance of poetic diction idealization exaggeration melodrama etc net 1 William Dean Howells who was a typical representative of the new school felt that he must write what he observed and knew He can only write of what his fleshly eyes have seen Henry James says of him 1987 117 In Engles eyes realism besides the actual details also requires the true typical environment and typical characters Net 2 Therefore a lot of the realistic writers who were living in a society with great changes and violent conflicts focused on the miserable lives of the people or the suffering from loneliness and loss in their inner heart out of the overthrow of the conventional concepts Thus accidents grave illness serious family problems and violence are frequently appeared in those realistic books In addition to their selection of subject matter generally they also differ in the choice of characters Characters of realism always come from the actual life many from the low class Realistic writers always expressed their concern for the world of experience of the commonplace and for the familiar and the low 常耀信 2003 117 However as a literature school after romanticism some realistic stories also combine the romantic elements Distinguishing features of romanticism are embodied in them Either active romanticist who were conservative and reflected the idealized life of the Middle Ages or passive romanticists who expressed the aspiration of the labour classes and set themselves against the bourgeois society and ruling class with an intensive love for liberty they all revealed aspiration and ideals in sharp contrast to the common sordid daily life under capitalism Their writings are their writings are filled with strong willed heroes or even titanic images with the active romanticists 3 四川大学本科毕业论文 马克吐温儿童小说中的浪漫主义成分 symbolic pictures represent a vague ideal of some future society Net 3 Romantic writers are worshippers of nature especially the sublime aspect of a natural scene They read in nature some mysterious force 罗经国 2005 4 As human beings were part of nature they believed every human being is worth being praised The Romantic Movement is characterized by a humanitarian idealism They had a version of the ultimate freedom of human spirits 罗经国 2005 5 Except these general features American Romanticism had the features of their own Under the influence of American Puritanism it tended more to moralize than their English and European brothers Many of the writings intended to edify more than they entertained The ideals of individualism and political equality and the dream that America was to be a new Garden of Eden for man were distinctly American 常耀信 2003 42 43 Thus we can see in one word realism and romanticism are of great differences in theme realism is much more like the copy of real life It stressed much importance on truth romanticism focused on nature and idealism and in American also its moralization and pursuit for equality In techniques realistic writings try to avoid poetic diction idealization and exaggeration romantic writings are always filled with imaginations Part Two Desire for Nature Although the subject matter of these two novels came from the real life Mark Twain s concern about the people from low class are based on the philosophy that these people will have the chance to be happy if they have realistic expectations if they can tell the bad and good in the real society And indeed to some degree it is never possible to cut off romanticism with real life Blinskiin holds that Romanticism should display idealism based on real life with abundant imagination and fervency 1999 47 And for Hawthorne the field of romance is a world of balance or reconciliation what he describes in The Custom House in Scarlet Letter as a neutral territory somewhere between the real world and fairy land where the Actual and the Imaginary may meet and each imbue itself with the nature of the other 1980 7 In his two books Mark Twain broke away from this pessimism and 4 四川大学本科毕业论文 马克吐温儿童小说中的浪漫主义成分 chose brightness and hope in life through these children what s more many places are likely to contain some excitement romance and optimism Real materials are just to serve the romantic theme the desire to live according the law of nature and the constant pursuit for nature 1 1 Tom Spokesman for Human Nature Everyone who has read the Adventures of Tom Sawyer would be impressed by this mischievous and naughty boy Tom if judged by our social standards and evaluation system absolutely is not a good boy worse more even a bad boy He plays hooky from school cheats to collect Sunday school tickets fights with other children lies to his aunt pursuits the little girl Becky to be his girl friend and tricks someone to brush the fence for him Although he is almost challenging all the concepts built by the adults especially in the education system or trying to get rid of them yet Mark Twain obviously hold a rather positive attitude toward him Under his pen Tom has become the national icon Louis J Budd 2001 1 On the other hand children who have been well civilized are not approved like Sid who is sly sneaky and who is the good boy in adults eyes There was strong conflict between these two boys as for Sid he likes to sneak on Tom and gets Tom into trouble while for Tom Sid is among those whom he loathed because he often plays pranks on others with a malicious and mean intention that He was not the model boy of the village He knew the model boy well enough and loathed him And this kind of conflict comes more intensive in the middle through the description of a boy who almost becomes an idiot after reciting three thousand Bible verses without stopping a boy of German parentage had won four or five tickets He once recited three thousand verses without stopping but the strain upon his mental faculties was too great and he was little better than an idiot from that day forth a grievous misfortune for the school for on great occasions before company the superintendent had always made his boy come out and spread himself Mark Twain 1992 22 The model boys stand for civilization and the other for the natural human as he had never been successfully educated by the morality system and all those shown in 5 四川大学本科毕业论文 马克吐温儿童小说中的浪漫主义成分 him is just come from his natural values of his own The contempt from this bad vulgar child to the rigid social concepts is just spontaneous expression of his heart It is easy to see whose side the author was taking We can better understand this natural spirit embodied in this book from the experience of Mark Twain himself which set the model for Tom When Mark Twain was a schoolboy the rules of conduct that first day interested little Sam He wondered how nearly he could come to breaking them and escape And he got a lesson from his teacher Mrs Horr He told his mother at noon that he did not care for education that he did not wish to be a great man his desire was to be an Indian and scalp such persons as Mrs Horr Justin Kaplan 1966 50 And once in a moment of inspiration Sam wrote Cross by name and cross by nature Cross jumped over an Irish potato He instigated his friend John to write the fine couplet on the blackboard at dinnertime and soon later John had to pay handsomely for his publishing venture 袁春艳 2003 15 We can see clearly the rebellious and disobedient personality is very much like that of Tom And this was all set on the basis of the philosophy to live naturally as the desire to be an Indian and scalp such persons as Mrs Horr Maybe it is also one of the reasons why people so strongly loved Tom he holds the nature they have lost but admired Despite all the conventions living as his own master Tom s ideal life is to live following his inner heart desire 1 2 Huck Son of Nature In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the pursuit for nature is even better revealed than in the former one If Tom is a spokesman for human nature in the civilized world Huck is the son of nature Besides the wish to live according the law of nature he even strongly desire to live isolated from the civilized world As an outcast by the civilized world he have left the rich home of the widow for his simple and free life without care like a wild animal He is cultured and educated by the nature which provides him true sense of humanity At the very beginning of this novel 6 四川大学本科毕业论文 马克吐温儿童小说中的浪漫主义成分 Huck has already made his stand clear he said The Widow Douglas she took me for her son and allowed she would civilize me but it was rough living in the house all the time considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways and so when I couldn t stand it no longer I lit out I got into my old nags and my sugar hogshead again and was free and satisfied she put me in them new clothes again and I couldn t do nothing but sweat and feel all cramped up Well then the old thing commenced again The widow rung a bell for supper In fact she rung a bell for everything Mark Twain 1979 11 Here we can see that Huck was so impatient for this kind of life which represents the civilized society He is rather reluctant to be seized by the civilized society What he want is to be in rags and comfortable to get back to the nature and most important to be free and this kind of freedom always seduces him continue to be a runaway This freedom enables people the right to do what you want to do without being controlled or restricted by anyone However in Huck s society it is only a good wish during the capitalization when people are more often to be engaged in the pursuit for material wealth on the price of this freedom It was the people s right to live according to human nature rather than being rigidly controlled by those religious doctrines and Huck had never stopped struggles for this right He wants to live freely like a real human being When in nature Huck is totally in a great different mode compared to the life in the widow s house When he reached the Jackson Island I laid there in the grass and the cool shade thinking about things and feeling rested and ruther comfortable and satisfied I could see the sun out at one or two holes but mostly it was big trees all about and gloomy in there amongst them There was freckled places on the ground where the light sifted down through the leaves and the freckled places swapped about a little showing there was a little breeze up there A couple of squirrels set on a limb and jabbered at me very friendly Mark Twain 1979 44 So compared to Tom Huck s pursuit for nature is much further not only for 7 四川大学本科毕业论文 马克吐温儿童小说中的浪漫主义成分 human original nature but also for the big natural environment to live in His escape from the widow Douglas and actually is the escape from civilization His change of attitudes toward Jim indicates his beginning of true natural growth by going to the adventurous life itself That s why he is the son of nature 1 3 Mississippi Nature Itself In these two books Mississippi river is set as the large background for the life of these two boys They live by it and enjoy it Especially in Huck stories are developed following the floating experiences of Huck and Jim It is the place where Huck completes his metamorphosis The civilized world is full of evil criminals and crooks only the River only nature holds the ability to wash off the social prejudice and social discrimination and led him to the final truth as the natural River is still pure and safe which keeps the vio