UnitHermanMelvillePPT课件

1、LifeLifeMelville was born in New York City. Both his parents came from well-to-do families, but later their family business failed. Melvilles childhood was happy to the age of 11, when his father died in debt.第1页/共33页 Little education and began to work early. He drifted into various occupations: a b

2、ank clerk, a salesman, a farm-hand on his uncles farm and a school teacher, and finally, in 1839, he signed on a British merchant ship, the St. Lawrence, and set sail for Liverpool England. Unhappy marriage with Elizabeth Shaw.第2页/共33页 His death from a heart attack on September 28, 1891 went entirel

3、y unheeded by the general public. Melvilles literary reputation remained in decline until he was rediscovered in the 1920s, when a generation, disillusioned by the Great War began to appreciate the depth of Melvilles spiritual struggles and the modern experimental style of his stories. 第3页/共33页Melvi

4、lles Major Works 1) Typee 泰皮 2) Omoo 欧穆 3) Mardi 玛地 4) Redburn 雷得本 5) White Jacket 白外衣from his adventures among the people of the South Pacific islandsan account of his voyage to Englandhis life on a United States man-of-war第4页/共33页Melvilles Major Works 6) Pierre 皮埃尔 7) Billy Budd 比利巴德(a sign that h

5、e had resolved his quarrel with God) Clarel 克拉莱尔( a poem)第5页/共33页Melvilles Major WorksMoby-Dick 白鲸，莫比狄克 an encyclopedia of everythinghistory, philosophy, religion, the whaling industry a Shakespearean tragedy of man fighting against fates第6页/共33页Moby DickMoby Dick Type of work: symbolic novel First

6、publication: 1851 Author: Herman Melville Setting :Most of the book takes place on various oceans, such as the Atlantic, the Indian, and the Pacific, in the early to mid 1800s. However, a good deal of the first part of the novel takes place in New England inside and around Nantucket. 第7页/共33页 Princi

7、pal CharactersPrincipal Characters : Ishmael schoolteacher and part-time sailor; a Presbyterian, like schoolteacher and part-time sailor; a Presbyterian, like Melville, he projects Calvinistic thinking tempered by his Melville, he projects Calvinistic thinking tempered by his background in literatur

8、e and philosophy. He discusses such background in literature and philosophy. He discusses such issues as free will, predestination, necessity, and damnation. issues as free will, predestination, necessity, and damnation. He is the sole survivor of the He is the sole survivor of the PequodPequod. . 第

9、8页/共33页 Captain Ahab A man who is obsessed with the killing of a white whale that has maimed him. He has a scar which extends from his head to his leg. Starbuck He the first mate, is bold enough to criticize Ahabs vengeance, considers mutiny but fails. Stubb He is the second mate who is carefree, in

10、different, and fatalistic. 第9页/共33页 Moby Dick It is the White Whale; the worlds largest creature. It is powerful, legendary image of nature. It swims peacefully in the sea until disturbed by humans, then shows a terrible fury and anger. For Ahab, Moby Dick is the symbol of evil. 第10页/共33页Moby Dick -

11、Chapter 41 Ishmael compares the legend of Moby Dick to his experience of the whale. He notes that sperm whale attacks have increased recently and that superstitious sailors have come to regard these attacks as having an intelligent, even supernatural origin. In particular, wild rumors about Moby Dic

12、k circulate among whalemen, suggesting that he can be in more than one place at the same time and that he is immortal. Ishmael remarks that even the wildest of rumors usually contains some truth. Whales, for instance, have been known to travel with remarkable speed from the Atlantic to the Pacific;

13、thus, it is possible for a whale to be caught in the Pacific with the harpoons of a Greenland ship in it. Moby Dick, who has defied capture numerous times, exhibits an “intelligent malignity” in his attacks on men.第11页/共33页Moby Dick -Chapter 41 Ishmael explains that Ahab lost his leg when he tried t

14、o attack Moby Dick with a knife after the whale destroyed his boats. Far from land, Ahab did not have access to much in the way of medical care and thus underwent unimaginable physical and mental suffering on the ships return to Nantucket. Ishmael deduces that Ahabs madness and his single-minded dri

15、ve to destroy the whale must have originated during his bedridden agony.第12页/共33页 Chapter 41 is full of philosophical statements. There is no conversation, no plot in it, but the author describes Moby Dick in great detail. Though few have seen it in person, many have heard of it. It is supernatural,

16、 fierce, cunning, malignant, and ubiquitous. To Ahab, it is a symbol of evil. After Moby Dick shears off his leg, he has not only bodily woes, but also intellectual and spiritual irritations.第13页/共33页Symbols in Moby Dick1). The Pequod1). The Pequod2). Moby Dick2). Moby Dick3). Queequegs Coffin3). Qu

17、eequegs Coffin4). Ahab5). StarbuckStarbuck6). the Doubloon6). the Doubloon7). Sea7). Sea 8).8). Voyage of the PequodVoyage of the Pequod第14页/共33页1. The Pequoda symbol of doomnamed after a Native American tribe in Massachusettsdid not long survive the arrival of white men (extinct)is painted gloomy b

18、lack and covered in whale teeth and bonesthe mementos of violent deathlike a primitive coffin第15页/共33页2. Moby Dickis hidden all the timemirrors its enviormentunknown and unknowable truthsonly the surface of the ocean is available for human observation and interpretationthe depths conceal unknown tru

19、thsa metaphor for the human relationship with the Christian God: God is unknown and cannot be pinned downinscrutable, mysterious第16页/共33页2. Moby Dickvarious symbolic meaningsto the pequods crewa concept onto which they can display their anxiety about dangerous and frightening jobsto Ahaba manifestat

20、ion of all that is wrong with the worldIt is his destiny to get rid of this symbolic evil第17页/共33页3. Queequegs Coffin Queequegs coffin alternately symbolizes life and death. Queequeg has it built when he is seriously ill, but when he recovers, it becomes a chest to hold his belongings and an emblem

21、of his will to live. He perpetuates the knowledge tattooed on his body by carving it onto the coffins lid. The coffin further comes to symbolize life when it replaces the Pequods life buoy. When the Pequod sinks, the coffin becomes Ishmaels buoy(浮标), saving not only his life but the life of the narr

22、ative that he will pass on.第18页/共33页 4. Ahab Symbol of solipsism唯我论, revenge and then evil. 5. Starbuck Symbol of good and noble. 6. the Doubloon西班牙金币 Symbol of the lure of evil and enticements to greed. 7. Sea Symbol of vastness, loneliness, and isolation. 8. Voyage of the Pequod Symbol of the purs

23、uit of ideals, adventure, and the hunt in the vast wilderness.第19页/共33页The novel can be understood from three levels 1. It is a novel of journey and whale catching. 2. It is a conflict between Captain Ahab and Moby Dick. 3. It is a stor y of Ishmael, his thought about human bodys ego realization, th

24、e relationship between man and nature, man and God, man and man, etc.第20页/共33页Themes of Moby DicknMelvilles bleak view (negative attitude): the sense of futility and meaninglessness of the world. His attitude to life is “Everlasting Nay”Man in this universe lives a meaningless and futile life, meani

25、ngless because futile. Man cannot overcome nature. Once he attempts to seek power over it he is doomed. 第21页/共33页Themes of Moby Dickthe adventure of killing Moby Dick is meaningless. Ahab tries to control it, which leads to his doom. the embodiment of naturemodern life the loss of faith, the sense o

26、f futilitywell expressed in Moby Dick第22页/共33页Themes of Moby Dick2) alienation (far away from each other) exists between man and man, man and society, and man and nature. Ahab cuts himself off from his family, stays away from his crew, hates Moby Dick and becomes a devil rushing to his doom. He was

27、within “the masoned, walled town of a captains exclusiveness”,which leads him to his doom.第23页/共33页Themes of Moby Dick3) loneliness and suicidal individualism (individualism causing disaster and death)the basic pattern of nineteenth-century American life Moby Dick is a negative reflection upon Trans

28、cendentalism Ahab: too much of a self-reliant individual to be a good human beinga victim of extreme individualismThe price of self-reliance is death.第24页/共33页Themes of Moby Dick4）rejection and questVoyaging for Ishmael has become a journey in quest of knowledge and values.starts out feeling badhope

29、s to find an ideal lifecomes to see the folly of Ahab seeking to conquer naturefeels the significance of love and companionshiplearns to accept, an attitude which ensures his survival第25页/共33页Themes of Moby Dickthemes the sense of futility and meaninglessness alienationloneliness and suicidal indivi

30、dualism rejection and quest第26页/共33页The Style of Moby Dick 1.His writing is consciously literary. 2. There is a threefold quality in his writing; the style of fact, the style of oratory celebrating the fact, and the style of meditation. 3. His style is highly symbolic and metaphorical. 4.The novel h

31、as many non-narrative chapters, and this is how Melville changed an adventurous story into a philosophical novel. 5. He used the technique of multiple views to achieve the effect of ambiguity.第27页/共33页Writing styleHis works are symbolic and metaphorical.voyage- search and discovery, the search for the ultimate truth of experience. the Pequod -the ship of the American soul Mob