dark romanticism复习讲义.doc

Dark Romanticism a literary subgenre that emerged from the Transcendental philosophical movement popular in nineteenth-century America. Works in the dark romantic spirit were influenced by, but didnt entirely embrace the ideas of Transcendentalism. Authors considered most representative of dark romanticism are Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville and Emily Dickinson. Features:1. Dark Romantics are much less confident about the notion that perfection is an innate quality of mankind, as believed by Transcendentalists. Subsequently, Dark Romantics present individuals as prone to sin and self-destruction, not as inherently possessing divinity and wisdom. 2. Although nature is a deeply spiritual force and it does reveal truth to man, its revelations are evil and hellish.3. Whereas Transcendentalists advocate social reform when appropriate, works of Dark Romanticism frequently show individuals failing in their attempts to make changes for the better. I. Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)An important American novelist and writer of short stories;His novels are significant part of American romanticism, or more specifically, Dark Romanticism. “He can neither believe, nor be comfortable in his unbelief; and he is too honest and courageous not to try to do one or the other. If he were a religious man, he would be one of the most truly religious and reverential; he has a very high and noble nature, and better worth immortality than most of us.” 1. Life Born July 4, 1804 in Salem, MA Father died when Hawthorne was four years old. sent to private school once his relatives discovered his storytelling abilities. 1821, went to Bowdoin College in Maine, where he met Harriet Beecher Stowe, Franklin Pierce and Henry Longfellow. Married Sophie Peabody in 1825 Spent many years in seclusion starving artist. Held many jobs including writer, publisher, working at a customs.house, and consul in England.Throughout Hawthornes life, he was incessantly troubled with a sense of guilt, for his ancestors evil behaviors in the Salem Witches Trials. His great-great-grandfather, William Hathorne, ordered the whipping of Anne Coleman and four others in the streets of Salem. His great-grandfather, John Hathorne, was the magistrate presiding over the trial of the accused witches of Salem (1692).2. Representative WorksTwo collections of short stories:Twice-told Tales (1837)Mosses from an Old Manse (1846)Four Romances:The Scarlet Letter (1850)The House of the Seven Gables (1851)The Blithedale Romance (1852)The Marble Faun (1860)Short Stories:“Young Goodman Brown”“The Ministers Black Veil”“The Birth mark”“Rappaccinis Daughter”3. Themes in Hawthornes works Sense of Evil (1) Evil is at the core of human life. Original Sin & Total Depravity Evil exists in the human heart, human heart is the source of evil. Everyone possesses some evil secret. Evil is mans birthmark. “Young Goodman Brown” Hawthorne is influenced by Puritanism deeply, though was not a Puritan himself; deprived of Emersons optimism.(2) Whenever there is sin, there is punishment. Sin or evil can be passed from generation to generation. Due to his sense of guilt, after his college, Hawthorne added a “w” to his original family name “Hathorne”, thus “Hawthorne” The House of the Seven GablesIn the Preface to the novel, Hawthorne states that its moral is that the wrongdoing of one generation lives into the successive ones and. becomes a pure and uncontrollable mischief. “God,” said the dying man, pointing his finger, with a ghastly look, at the undismayed countenance of his enemy, “God will give him blood to drink!”(3) Evil educates.Achievement is possible only “under the impact of and by engagement with evilthe tragic rise born of the fortunate fall”. “The Ministers Black Veil”(4) disgust in science. One source of evil is overweening intellect.“Dr. Rappaccinis Daughter”4. Hawthornes Aestheticsa. Take great interest in history and antiquity. antiquity Imagination “dream strange things, and make them look like truth” “the poverty of materials” History and antiquity furnish the soil on which his grows to fruition.b. Romance is the best form for America literature. Romance: Originally courtly stories dealing with the three traditional subjects: the legends about Arthur, Charlemagne and his knights, and classical heroes especially Alexander; it involves the suspension of the circumstances normally attendant on human actions (often through magic) in order to illustrate a moral point; from 18th century, it started to embrace some sentimental novels. the poverty of materials His Puritan prudence Romance: “to tell the truth and satire and yet not to offend.”5. Hawthornes Writing Stylesa. The use of symbol.b. Revelation of characters psychology: he is good at exploring the complexity of human psychology. There isnt much physical movement going on in his works.c. The use of supernatural mixed with the actual.d. His stories are parable (allegory)to teach a lesson.e. Use of ambiguity to keep the reader in the world of uncertaintymultiple points of view.Hawthorn flowers6. The Scarlet Lettera. The StoryAlso an example of Hawthornes combination of history and imagination.The story sets itself in the background of a puritan village in the 17th centurys Boston. There are three scenes of Scaffold in the whole novel which separate it into three parts. Dimmesdale Hester Prynne (the spiritual A) (the physical A) Roger Chillingworth Pearl (the real villain) (a concrete A)b. Achievements1. Romanticism vs. Puritanism a romance without much description of love: Love Ten Commandments a duplicate of Adam and Eve Adultery Scarlet letter (Forbidden fruit) (banishment) Evil educates. (Knowledge)American romanticism adapted itself to American Puritanism moralism.1. I am the Lord your God.2. You shall have no other gods before me;you shall not make for yourself an idol.3. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of your God. 4. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.5. Honor your father and mother. 6. You shall not murder.7. You shall not commit adultery.8. You shall not steal.9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.10. You shall not covet your neighbors wife or anything that belongs to your neighbors.2. Illustration of the theme on Sin Hester: a hymn on the moral growth of the woman when sinned against. Sin results in expulsion and suffering, but it also results in knowledgespecifically, in knowledge of what it means to be human. For Hester, the scarlet letter functions as her passport into regions where other women dared not tread, leading her to speculate about her society and herself more boldly than anyone else in New England. Dimmesdale: the “cheating minister”, started in purity and ended in corruption. He suffered from the disintegration between spiritual and physical. “the best policy for man is to be true, honest, and ever ready to show ones worst to the outside world.”3. Symbolism The Scarlet Letter achieves an extraordinary achievements as regards to the usage of symbolism. Examples: i. “A”: adultery able angel (apostle) ii. scaffold: open acknowledgement of personal sin; It also represents the need for public atonement.iii. forest: where evil would live side by side with goodness. vi. Pearl: the concrete symbol of “A”C. ExcerptsThose who had before known her, and had expected to behold her dimmed and obscured by her beauty shone out, and made a halo of the misfortune and ignominy in which she was enveloped. she felt, at moments, as if she must needs shriek out with the full power of her lungs, and cast herself from the scaffold down upon the ground, or else go mad at once. Without any effort of his will, or power to restrain himself, he shrieked aloud; an outcry that went pealing through the night, and was beaten back from one house to another, and reverberated from the hills in the backgroundPearl kissed his lips. A spell was brokenTowards her mother, too, Pearls errand as a messenger of anguish was all fulfilled.“Hester,” said the clergyman, “farewell!”“Shall we not meet again?” whispered she“it was thenceforth vain to hope that we could meet hereafter, in an everlasting and pure reunion. God knows; and He is merciful!.2. Herman Melville (1819-1891) An American novelist, short story writer, essayist and poet, whose work is often classified as part of the genre of Dark Romanticism. An devoted artist never gives up art for anything, as a consequence of it, Herman suffered from oblivion until the “Melville Revival” in 1920s.“unwilling to sacrifice his insights and artistic standards to cater to popular feeling and demand”. “The way to heaven is through hell.” 1. Three things influenced Herman most: a. Sea lifeOn January 3, 1841, he sailed from New Bedford,Massachusetts on the whaler Acushnet. He was later to comment that his life began that day. New Bedford Cape Horn Marquesas Island Honolulu Boston Typee: a brief love affair with a beautiful native girl, Fayaway He reached Boston in October 1844. These experiences were described in Typee, Omoo, White-Jacket, and even Moby Dick which were published as novels mainly because few believed their veracity. b. Marriage with Elizabeth ShawMelville had to write to support his well-born wife as well as his family. He married Elizabeth Shaw (daughter of chief justice of the Massachusetts) on August 4, 1847; the couple honeymooned in Canada. They had four children, two sons and two daughters. In 1850 they purchased “Arrowhead”, a farm house in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. c. Friendship with HawthorneA lonely artist, needing badly somebody to understand and sympathize with his literary work; the two men were philosophically closely related. Moby Dick is dedicated to Hawthornone of the reasons for the purchase of Arrowhead is its vicinity to Hawthornes house.2. Works1) Typee 2) Omoo from his adventures among 3) Mardi the people of the South 4) Redburn Pacific islands 5) Moby Dick6) White Jacket an account of his voyage 7) Pierre to England8) Billy Budd (a sign that he had resolved his quarrel with God) 9) Clarel (a poem)3. Moby Dick Originally misunderstood by its contemporary audiences and critics, Moby-Dick is now often referred to as “The Great American Novel”and is considered one of the treasures of world literature.(1)The storyIt tells the adventures of the wandering sailor Ishmael and his voyage on the Whaleship Pequod, commanded by CaptainAhab. Ishmael soon learns that Ahab seeks one specific whale, Moby Dick, a white sperm whale of tremendous size and ferocity. Comparatively few whaleships know of Moby Dick, and fewer yet have encountered him. In a previous encounter, the whale destroyed Ahabs boat and bit off his leg. Ahab intends to take revenge and therefore the whaleshipis doomed from the beginning. (2) Themes of Moby Dicka. The sense of futility and meaninglessness a Shakespearean tragedy of man fighting against fates. Ahab the name comes directly from Bible, a notorious king also suffers from fates. Man in this universe lives a meaningless and futile life, meaningless because futile. Man cannot overcome nature. Once he attempts to seek power over it he is doomed.b. Alienation The alienation is omnipresent, between man and man, man and society, as well as man and nature. Most of the sailors on the Pequod suffer from alienation of varying levels. Ahab was within “the masoned, walled town of a captans exclusiveness”, which leads him to his doom. “Call me Ishmael”, the very first line of the novel, tells most of the theme of alienation. There, Ishmael tells the reader that he has turned to the sea out of a feeling of alienation from human society.c. suicidal individualism against Emersonian self-reliant individualism “Deathspiritual, emotional, physical”, is the price of self-reliance when it is pushed to the point of solipsism. Ahab: too much individualism to survive in the world; a victim of the extreme individualismd. Rejection and quest to escape from the corrupted present world and find “another world” quest for knowledge and values, Ishmaelstarts out feeling bad hopes to find an ideal life comes to see the folly of Ahab seeking to conquer nature feels the significance of love and companionship learns to accept, an attitude which ensures his survival(3) Symbolism the Pequod: a symbol of doom; named after an extinct native Indian; painted black and covered in white whale teeth and bones. Moby Dick: a symbol which can be explained in many ways, among which the most popular ones are nature, those elements of life that are out of human control, and God (Vishnu, the first incarnat