从《老友记》看美国人的友情观和爱情观

1、americans attitudes toward love and friendship in friendsapplicant:lin lisupervisor:long nifaculty:english department may 10, 2011universitycontents摘 要iabstractii1. introduction11.1 the significance of topic11.2 research methods12. the main character of friends23. americans attitude towards friendsh

2、ip from friends33.1 inclusive33.2 supportive53.2 independent74. americans attitude towards love from friends94.1 free94.2 respect114.3 loyalty125. conclusion14bibliography16摘 要老友记是一部美国的情景喜剧，描述六个好朋友在纽约这座大城市发生的一些有趣的事，它从1994年拍到2004年，长达十年的时间。老友记得到了很多好的评论，在同期的情景喜剧里一直是最受观众喜欢的情景喜剧之一。老友记主要讲的是六个单身的好朋友（罗斯，乔伊，

3、钱德勒，莫妮卡，瑞秋，菲比），十年间在他们身上或身边发生的有一些浪漫的感情纠纷，他们事业的起起伏伏，以及友谊的曲曲折折。期间，他们有结婚了的，有离了婚的，也有有了孩子的，他们总喜欢聚在中央咖啡馆边喝咖啡边聊天。本论文旨在通过老友记让观众看到当代美国年轻人的友谊观,爱情观和人生态度。在老友记里，我们充分的感受到了友情和爱情这两种感情的伟大，它让我们看到了另一种和我们一样普通的生活,形形色色的人因为情感、原则、利益、地位等问题产生矛盾、闹出笑话,同时,友情、爱情也在这里升华。关键词：友情 爱情 老友记 情景喜剧abstractfriends is an american sitcom about

4、a group of friends in the greenwich village area of manhattan, new york city. it was originally broadcast from 1994 to 2004. friends received many positive reviews throughout most of its run, becoming one of the most popular sitcoms of all time. friends follows the lives of six (initially) single am

5、erican (ross, joey, chandler, monica, rachel and phoebe) as they navigate romantic relationships, career ambitions and the ups and downs of friendship. along the way, they get married, get divorced, have kids and drink a lot of coffee at popular hangout central perk. this thesis aims to via friends

6、to tell audience the attitude toward love and life in contemporary young american. in friends, we fully feel of the friendship and love. friends lets us see another kind of ordinary life like us, people have problem because of emotion, principles, interests and status. meanwhile, love and friendship

7、 accumulate as time goes by.key words: friendship, love, friends, sitcom 1. introduction 1.1 the significance of topica situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features recurring characters in a common environment such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as

8、part of the dialogue. such programs originated in radio, but today, sitcoms are found almost exclusively on television as one of its dominant narrative forms, and art forms. a situation comedy may be recorded before a studio audience. another feature is a laugh track. friends is an american sitcom a

9、bout a group of friends in the greenwich village area of manhattan, new york city. it was originally broadcast from 1994 to 2004. it was created by david crane and marta kauffman, and produced by kevin s. bright, marta kauffman and david crane. the show has been broadcast in more than one hundred co

10、untries and still continues to attract good ratings for its episodes in syndication. there are a lot cultural backgrounds behind the scene. you cannot understand their attitudes towards love and friendship in friends if you are not familiar to the american culture. from this point we need strengthen

11、 our understanding of american culture. only adequate background knowledge does enable us to fully enjoy this serial.1.2 research methodsthe main methods for the study are watching friends to look up different kinds of materials. ill get more into the way that the research of friends and analysis of

12、 americans attitude of love and friendship. through careful reading collected relevant data to understanding the view of american friendship and love of friends reflect in six friends. through the comparison and analysis of the friends, well see the cause and significance of friendship and love, and

13、 inductive similarities and differences, exploring, finally concluded.2. the main character of friendsrachel green, a fashion enthusiast and monica gellers best friend from high school. rachel and ross geller are involved in an on-again-off-again relationship throughout the series. rachels first job

14、 is as a waitress at the coffeehouse central perk, but she later becomes an assistant buyer at bloomingdales and a buyer at ralph lauren in season five. at the end of season eight, rachel and ross have a daughter named emma geller-green in the one where rachel has a baby (2). monica geller, the moth

15、er hen of the group and a chef, known for her obsessive-compulsive and competitive nature. monica is often jokingly teased by the others for having been extremely overweight as a child, especially by her brother ross. monica changes jobs often throughout the show and marries chandler bing in season

16、seven. phoebe buffay, an eccentric masseuse and self-taught musician. phoebe is ditsy but street smart and writes and sings (badly) her own quirky songs, accompanying herself on the guitar. she has an evil identical twin named ursula. in the last season, she marries mike hannigan. joey tribbiani, a

17、struggling actor and food lover who becomes famous for his role on days of our lives as dr. drake ramoray. joey is a womanizer with many short-term girlfriends throughout the series, and falls in love with rachel in season eight.chandler bing, an executive in statistical analysis and data reconfigur

18、ation for a large multi-national corporation. chandler quits his job and becomes a junior copywriter at an advertising agency during season nine. chandler is known for his sarcastic sense of humor and bad luck in relationships. chandler marries monica in season seven and adopts twins.ross geller, mo

19、nica gellers older brother, a paleontologist working at the museum of natural history, and later a professor of paleontology at new york university. ross is involved in an on-again-off-again relationship with rachel throughout the series. ross has three failed marriages during the series: rachel, em

20、ily, and carol, a lesbian who is also the mother of his son, ben (cole sprouse). he and rachel have a daughter at the end of season eight.3. americans attitude towards friendship in friends3.1 inclusivethe six friends are all have their problems. monica suffers from ocd. she likes controlling all th

21、e things. phoebe lives a miserable life in her childhood. because of her miserable life, she becomes weird. although her singing is hard to stand, her friends always give her courage to singing. sometimes, phoebe is a little crazy with his hot temper, the other friends still contain her shortcomings

22、. at the first few seasons, rachel cannot live by herself, lacking of ability, and hard to deal with. and she is extremely selfish with the bad temper. she even do not know how to empty the trash .but the other friends still help her a lot. they help her how to live by herself, and they forgive her

23、bad temper. from finally several seasons, we may see rachel have become a strong-minded and concise office lady. ross is too pedantic, and always saying some inappropriate jokes make everyone lull. he is often chatting with friends about his academic research, and makes you sleepy. and sometimes, ro

24、ss is a little mean, for instance if he stay in the hotel, he will leave in final five minutes. sometimes speaks too clear, and also likes correcting others grammar, regarding of these, other friends sometimes making fun of him, but they have never angry with him. chandler reflects agile, he never l

25、et go of any chances to making fun of other people by the mean jokes. in fact, because miserable memory of his childhood, chandler is extremely need for the security, so he like to making jokes with others and himself to protect himself. joey is a playboy and greedy for food, and he always lacking o

26、f money, so he always borrow money from chandler. nevertheless, we can learn a lot from their friendship. the solid friendship among them doesnt just result from the demand of plots. the real reason is they know the greatest principles of friendship: inclusive. they trust each other and tolerant oth

27、ers shortcoming and mistakes. the most impressive part in my heart is chandler and joey. in my opinion, the deepest friendship in friends is chandler and joey. although the two of them have been close friends ever since they knew, but even good friend also have the contradiction. in the third season

28、 chandler has fall in love with joeys girlfriend kathy, and kathy also love chandler, chandler kissed kathy under the hormone intense, but they had not have sex. chandler decided to tell joey, but after joey knew chandler had kissed kathy, he felt angry and sad, and he thought it was unable to forgi

29、ve chandler. then joey decided to move out of their apartment. chandler asked joey what did he do that he can forgive him, joey said that if he can lock himself in the box for six hours and cannot speak, then he can forgive him, chandler promised. but later kathy says good-bye with chandler before l

30、eaving new york, chandler wanted to detain kathy, but in order to making up with joey, he did not speak anything in the box. their conversation goes as follows： “joey: (starting to cry) open the box! (run over to do so.)rachel: what?!joey: he can still catch her! come on, get out of there! (he opens

31、 the box) get out of there!chandler: so?joey: yeah, were gonna be fine! get out!chandler: yeah?joey: yeah, you did some real good thinking in there.chandler: man, this is (joey says something unintelligible and they hug.)joey: now go!”from above, we know joey has forgiven chandler finally. therefore

32、, towards the friend, containing your friends is very important, because, people are not sages, who can be without faults?3.2 supportivea friend is not just someone to whom you say hello. a friend is a tender shoulder on which you can softly cry. a friend is a well into which you can pour all your t

33、roubles down. a friend is a hand which pulls you up from darkness and despair when all your other so-called friends have helped to put you there. in friends, the six friends always help each other a lot. when friends need our help, it is bounden that we should give the support, this also reflects in

34、 friends many times. for instance, in fifth season, chandler decided to move to monicas apartment, then joey had to pay for rents by himself. because joey is an extra and he earn less profitable. chandler is a manager, and his salary is higher than joey, therefore chandler always helping joey to pay

35、 for rents by. even joeys actor classs training fee is also chandler salary. if chandler moved out, joey did not have money to afford varieties of bills, chandler wants to help joey to pay the house rent as well as other bills, but he is afraid of hurting his pride, so he decided to playing game to

36、lose money, but on the contrary he won joeys money. finally chandler had another idea. their conversation goes as follows：“chandler: still broken?joey: this sucks man! the last night youre here and i lose the two most important things in my life, the foosball table and $500.chandler: well, there are

37、 other ways of winning back your money, how about a little uh, a little blackjack? (hold up a deck of cards.)joey: nah, not my game.chandler: okay, uh, how about, how aboutyouve know what? we could play a new game. a new game, its fun.joey: well, whats it called?chandler: cups.joey: i dont know how

38、to play cups.chandler: ill teach ya! come on, come on, its really easy and really, really fun.joey: all right.chandler: okay, here you go. (he deals out two cards each.) i have two queens, what do you have?joey: a two and a five.chandler: ho-ho, you win! 50 dollars!joey: really?!chandler: oh yeah! o

39、kay, lets play again. (he deals out two cards each again.) what do you got?joey: a four and a nine.chandler: youre kidding right?joey: no. why?chandler: well thats a full cup! (pays him again.)joey: damn! i am good at cups!”finally, chandler created the cups to lose money for joey, and he has not hu

40、rting joeys self-respect. i feel friend is not accompany you and sharing your happiness, but also the people who help you when you are in difficulty. therefore, supporting your friend is one of important property towards friendship. certainly support is not only chandler helps joey to pay the house

41、rent, but also reflects in many aspects. when you were down, a friend will dip you out of sadness, this is also a kind of support. the human all have their difficulties, the friend is a person stand in your side when you are in trouble. for example, joey dont have a stable job, he cant afford the de

42、monstration lesson and rents, bills. chandler always helps him afford different kind of bills. as the friend, chandler always stands by joey, but he was afraid he may be hurt his pride, so he loses the contest on purpose to give joey money. from what has been listed above, we can know the attitude o

43、f american towards friendship. 3.3 independentthe six friends are all have their works and they have different habit, but they respect each others life habit, everybody has his own life, they never interfere in other peoples life. they are very independent, when they are in trouble, they like solve

44、it by themselves. but, when friend needs help, they will give a support. towards friends, but also intimacy to have personal space and respect each others privacy. friends should have economic independence has personality independence. this reflects in friends many times. the most independent people

45、 in friends is phoebe. in this drama, there are multiple scenes that six friends have dinner, they often have dispute several times because of dinner. we can easily find that almost every time dinner they insist in their aa system, though phoebe, joey and rachel poor in the first few seasons. but th

46、ey insist on pay their share of the bills. though others are willing to help other friends and mind to pay for the costs, but they know friends must economic independence, everyone cant always rely on friends, such ability get friends respect. for instance, in second season, phoebe and rachel, joey

47、s wages are low compared to other several persons, but they still persisted the aa system, even in order to economize, they chose the cheapest vegetable. so in the soap, phoebe, joey and rachel are reluctant to point vegetables, because the rest of the three choice of restaurant too expensive. their

48、 conversation goes as follows：ross: (using calculator) plus tip, divided by six. ok, everyone owes 28 bucks.rachel: um, everyone?ross: oh, youre right, im sorry. joey: thank you.ross: monicas big night, she shouldnt pay. monica: oh, thank you!ross: so five of us is, $33.50 apiece.phoebe: no, huh uh,

49、 no way, im sorry, not gonna happen.chandler: whoa, whoa, prom night flashback.phoebe: im sorry, monica, im really happy you got promoted, but cold cucumber mush for thirty-something bucks? no! rachel just had that, that, that salad, and, and joey with his like teeny pizza! its just.ross: ok, phoebe

50、! how bout well each just pay for what we had. its no big deal.phoebe: not for you.monica: all right, whats going on?rachel: ok, look, you guys, i really dont want to get into this right now. i think itll just make everyone uncomfortable.phoebe: fine. all right, fine.joey: yeah.”although finally the

51、y even had the dispute because of paying money, but phoebe and rachel, joey still persists to pay money by themselves, from here, we can know they are independent towards money. in the entire ten seasons, they are all making money by themselves. and they never ask their parents for money. 4. america

52、ns attitude towards love4.1 freein china, many parents like to interfere in their childrens marriage. therefore, love is not so free in china. but in america, love is free. in friends, the six friends have many lovers. from the beginning, the six friends change their lover frequently. male and femal

53、e friend possible become lover. if you had not determined serious, both of you are free, even if you are not married, love is still free. for instance, ross and rachel fall in love with each other, and break up. at last, they get together. if you are enough careful, you find that it hasnt involve in

54、 parents. americans are very focused on their inner feelings, if they are in love, they will love each other very much, once no longer love, can separate. chinese couples are not so free, if they are married, and have a baby, it can be difficult to separate. for example, rosss first wife is gay, she

55、 fell in love with susan, then ross and his wife split up. later, ross also pursue his rachel. and when rachel and ross have children later, they are not married because of children, because they wont bound his own heart. the free of love also displays in the age. in the american the age of lover is

56、 not limit. for instance, monica and richard falling love with each other, richard is big enough to become monicas daddy, and richard and monicas parents were good friends, if in china, this kind of affection possibly could only conceal the truth, but monica was very earnest to richard, at the birth

57、day party of monicas father, monica finally had the courage to tell the parents the truth. their conversation goes as follows： “monica: well, actually, im already seeing someone.mrs. geller: oh?richard: oh?ross: oh.mrs. geller: she never tells us anything. ross, did you know monicas seeing someone?r

58、oss: mom, there are so many people in my life. some of them are seeing people and some of them arent. is that crystal?mrs. geller: so, whos the mystery man?monica: well, uh, hes a doctor.mrs. geller: a real doctor?monica: no, a doctor of meat. of course hes a real doctor. and hes handsome, and hes sweet, and knows youd like him. she puts her arm around richard.mrs. geller: well thats wonderful. . . ”although monicas parents do not support monica and richard, but they has not made excessively