进入黑夜的漫长旅行的原型批评解读英文论文

1、作者简介 南京信息工程大学人文社科类省部级预研项目 (SK20090175 资助 。作者简介 张冬梅 , 女 , 南京信息工程大学语言文化学院讲师 , 研究方向 :英美文学、 生态批评 ; 谭东峰 , 女 , 南京信息工程大学语言文化学院副教授 , 研究方向 :英语教学 ; 蔲艳艳 , 女 , 南京信息工程大学语言文化学院讲师 , 研究方向 :英语教学 。The Analysis of The L ong D ay s J ou rney in toN igh t by Archetypal Criti cis mZhang Dong mei, Tan Dongfeng, Kou Yanyan

2、(N anjing U niversity of Infor m a tion S cience &Technology, N anjing, J iangsu, 210044 Abstract The L ong D ay s Journey int o N ight by Eugene O Neill describes a very t ouching fa m ily tragedy . This paper atte mp ts t o inter p ret it fr om the pers pective of archetypal criticis m, with t

3、he pur pose of discl osing that the reas on why such a great work can be co mposed and why readers can be s o moved, t o s ome extent, may be that the p lay t ouches peo 2p le s collective unconsci ous shared in the p sychic inheritance of all members of the hu man fa m ily . Key words Eugene O Neil

4、l; The L ong D ay s Journey into N ight ; archetype; collective unconsci ous 中图分类号 I 106. 4 文献标识码 A 文章编号 167228610(20014202 The L ong D ay s Journey into N ight is one of most fa mous works of Eugene O Neill . The p lay is fa mous f or its consu skill in language, characterizati on, and sy f raw e m

5、oti onal power and es pecially its 2ences . After reading the p a kind of emoti onal . hy it o move the readers or audience? This paper ts o analyze this reas on fr om the ar 2chetypal criticis m pers pective .A rchetypal criticis m is one of the most influential literarycriticis m patterns in the 2

6、0thcentury . A rchetypal criticis m owes much t o the f oll owing three peop le f or their separate contribu 2ti ons:Frazer in the late 19thcentury revealed the recurring myth 2ical patterns in tales and rituals; Jung in 1930s and 1940s devel 2oped a theory of archetypes out of it; and the Canadian

7、scholar Northr op Frye p r oposed, based on the p revi ous t w o, a whole sys 2te m of literary archetypal criticis m in the 1950s .The word “ archetype ” , according t o Jung, was much used in ancient Greek, arch émeaning “ r oot ” and “ origin ” while typos “ pattern ” or “ model ” . The mode

8、rn concep t of the archetype ap 2peared in the late 19thcentury, referring t o the recurring literary phenomena such as motifs, the mes, and narrative designs . Ac 2cording t o Carl Jung, the p rinci pal archetypes come fr om the col 2lective unconsci ous, i . e . , the racial me mory of its p ri m

9、itive r oots .The Canadian scholar Northr op Frye ever said that “ all the for m of literature can t come fr om life, but only fr om the literarytraditi on, and all in all, it comes fr om myths ” 1131and “ myth isthe and all the other pat 2p ” 2827“ M yths are by nature collective they bind a tribe

10、or nati on t ogether in common ogical and s p iritual activities ” . I n The L anguage of Poet 2ry , edited by A llen Tate, Phili p W heel w right exp lains, “ Myth is the exp ressi on of a p r of ound sense of t ogetherness of feeling and of acti on and of wholeness of living ” . It is a dynam ic f

11、act or eve 2ry where fact or in hu man s ociety; it transcends ti m e, uniting the past (traditi onal modes of belief with the p resent (current val 2ues and reaching t oward the future (s p iritual and cultural as p i 2rati ons .3160I n ancient Greek there is a myth of Tantalus, its p l ot is as f

12、oll ows:Tantalus w as ever the inti m ate friend of Zeus, but because of his betrayal to Zeus, he w as punished and sent to the hell w here he w ould suffer eternal thirst and hunger . N o w he hangs fro m the bough of fruit -tree w hich leans over a m arshy lake . Its w aves lap against his w aist,

13、 and so m eti m es reach his chin, yet w henever he bends do w n to drink, they slip aw ay, and nothing re m ains but the black m ud at his feet ; or , if he ever succeeds in scooping up a handful of w ater , it slips through his fingers before he can do m ore than w et his cracked lips, leaving hi

14、m thirstier than ever . The tree is laden w ith pears, shining apples, s w eet figs, ripe olives and po m egranates, w hich dangle against his shoulders ; but w henever he reaches for the luscious fruit, a gust of w ind w hirls the m out of his reach .4270-273Tantalus tragedy, that is, his desire ca

15、n never be satis 2语文学刊 外语教育教学 2010年第 3期fied, in short, we can describe it as such a tragic pattern as “ de 2 sire des pair ” . By analysis of the main characters of in The L ong D ay s Journey into N ight , it is not difficult t o find this ar 2 chetype is the deep structure of this p lay .Ja mesI n

16、 his whole life, Ja mes has been endeavoring t o seek for wealth, but never ceases t o be afflicted with the fear of ending up in the poor house; He had wished thatM ary could be “ an angel of the house ” and hel p exe mp t hi m fr om the app rehensi on out 2 side his work . Actually, Mary has made

17、great sacrifice t o the home, but only t o be reduced t o a mor phine addict, which in turn brings much pain t o the whole fam ily; in additi on, he had wished that his t w o s ons could have decent j obs, but in reality, his older s on Ja m ie suffers fr om never having pursued any call 2 ing . Unl

18、ike his father, he is a non artist, who has held odd j obs in the theater as bit act or and jack -of -all -trades . W ithout any vocati on t o anchor hi m , he experiences a general sense of malaise and has become cynical, even devel op ing a Mephist o 2 phelian kind of sneer; the younger s on, Ed m

19、und, infected with tubercul osis, is a fledgling writer on a s mall l ocal paper .M aryShe ever drea m s of being a p ianist or a nun bef ore her mar 2 riage t o Ja mes, but after her marriage, she has t o give up her own pursuit and lead an unstable and l onely life as a result of her husband s act

20、 or career; what s more, she l oves her husband and her children deep ly, but in reverse, her mor phine addicti on causes great pains t o the m.Ja m ieHe l oves his younger br s “ seizing ” his mother had wished t o use his own behavi or t a examp le which may serve as a less on for Ed mund, but out

21、 of his expectati on, Ed 2 mund p icks up his bad habits; he relies on his mother, since Mary is s o perfect a woman in his m ind . However, his ideal mother is addicted by mor phine, which of course, da mages the perfect i m age in his eyes .Ed mundHe wants t o be a poet, but his fa m ily brings ab

22、out endless pain t o hi m and his fragile body als o s o fails hi m that he will die of tubercul osis .I n Carl Jung s se m inal work on the universal mythol ogical motifs of the p syche (later revised as Sy mbols of Transf or mati on, Vol . V III of Jung s Collected Works , he ever analyzes such a

23、concep t as “ incest fantasy ” , which refers t o the universal desire t o return t o the mother womb . The ter m “ mother ” is underst ood metaphorically as meaning the dep ths of the unconsci ous, and “ incest fantasy ” as describing the p syche s regressive l onging t o be reborn thr ough the mot

24、her .“ Mother womb ” as an archetype shows in The L ong D ay s Journey into N ight in ter m s of “ f og ” , “ sea ” and Mary s past SeaEvery me mber of the Tyr ones hopes t o be in the sea, but only Ed mund has ever done that . W hen he recalls that experi 2 ence, he says “ They are all connected wi

25、th the sea . Here s one . W hen I was on the Squarehead square rigger, bound for Buenos A ires . Full moon in the Trades I lay on the bows p rit, facing astern, with the water f oa m ing int o s pu me under me, themasts with every sail white in the moonlight, t owering high above me . I beca me drun

26、k with the beauty and singing rhyth m of it, and f or a moment I l ost myself actually l ost my life . Iwas set free! I diss olved in the sea, beca me white sails and flying s p ray, beca me beauty and rhyth m, beca me moonlight and the shi p and the high di m -starred sky! . . . ” 5811FogThe fog se

27、rves as the motherMary s sy mbol . She finds the f og, which can hide one fr om oneself, comf orting and the fog 2 horn, which beckons one back t o an un wanted reality, a threat . The f og becomes anal ogous t o the mor phine that she uses t o dull all the pain and retreat fr om the p resent int o

28、the past:fr om ag 2 ing, evidenced by white hair and arthritic hands; fr om guilty me mories, over leaving her s ons t o go on the r oad with her act or husband, and thus perhap s being res ponsible f or their s on Eu 2 gene s death; fr om shame over having found surcease fr om phys 2 ical pain in m

29、or phine; fr om regret over having given up a voca 2 ti on as a concert p ianist or a nun t o marry Ja mes Tyr one .Mary s pastBesides the fog and mor phine, Mary often turns t o the past . Before her marriage with Ja mes, she had her own dream s and lived a m iddle -class life, al m ost all her wis

30、hes could be satis 2 fied by her father, “ I used t o l iano Mother Elizabeth and my more talent than any M f or s pecial less ons . He do I asked . He would have sent o t study after I graduated fr om the Convent . I m ight have gone if I hadn t fallen in l ove with M r . Tyr one . O r Im ight have

31、 become a nun . I had t w o drea m s . T o be a nun, that was the more beautiful one . To become a concert p ianist, that was the other ” 5776-777; since Mary often feels l onely, she often recalls the past when she had many girl friends:“ A t the Convent I had s o many friends I used t o visit them

32、 and they d visit me in my father s home . ” 5764Thr ough the above analysis, it is not difficult f or us t o find that actually The L ong D ay s Journey into N ight is just another “ dis p laced ” Tantalus myth, anther modern “ desire and des pair ” tragedy . The reas on why such a great work can b

33、e composed and why readers can be s o moved, t o s ome extent, may be that the p lay t ouches peop le s collective unconsci ous shared in the p sy 2 chic inheritance of all me mbers of the hu man fa m ily .【 References 】1吴持哲 . 诺思罗普 弗莱文论选集 M.中国社会科学 出版社 , 1997.2赵一凡 , 张中载 . 西方文论关键词 M.外语教学与研究 出版社 , 2006

34、.3古尔灵 , 等 . 文学批评方法手册 M.外语教学与研究出 版社 , 2004.4陶洁 , 等 , 选 . 希腊罗马神话一百篇 M.中国对外翻译 出版公司 , 2001.5Eugene O Neill . Comp lete Plays 1932-1943M.L ibrary Classics of the United States, 1988. (下转第 19页 L I TERAT URE Zhang Dong mei, Tan Dongfeng, Kou Yanyan /The Analysis of The L ong D ay s Journey into N igh t by

35、A rchetypal Criticis mtalk for her and contr ol the power by being the wife of a “ great man ” . A ll in all, the r oot of Ha m ida s tragedy lies in that under the opp ressi on of the patriarchal s ociety, she has internalized the s ocially defined gender r ole designed for her f or s o l ong a ti

36、m e that she has l ost her a wareness as an independentwoman and for 2 gotten how t o exist by herself .Ha m ida, the dancer in gold chains, will all the way contin 2 ue her s olitary dance .【 References 】1Crane, Ral ph J. Ruth Pra wer Jhabvala M.T wayne Pub 2 lishers, 1992.2Showalter, Elaine . A L iterature of Their Own M.Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2004.3Gil m an, Charl otte Perkins . Woman and Econom ics:A Study of the Econom ic Relati on Bet w een Wome