悲剧理论解析《了不起的盖茨比》 .docx

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1、 密级 公开 编号 30905010 论 文 题 目 一部荡气回肠的悲剧 一用亚里士多德诗学中的悲剧理论解析了 不起的盖茨比 A Soul-stirring Tragedy An Interpretation of The Great Gatsby from the Perspective of Aristotles Theory of Tragedy in The Poetics 研 究 生 ： _ 孟静 学 号： _ 30905010 所在学院： 外国语学院 专 业： 英语语言文学 研究方向： 美国文学 指导教师： 袁芳 2012 年 5 月 21 日 分类号 _ UDC _ A Soul

2、-stirring Tragedy An Interpretation of The Great Gatsby from the Perspective of Aristotle Theory of Tragedy in The Poetics by MENG Jittg Supervised by Professor YUAN Fang Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts English Department Foreign Language College

3、 Inner Mongolia University May 2012 原 创 性 声 明 本人声明：所呈交的学位论文楚本人在导师的指导下进行的研究工作及取得的研究成 果。除本文已经注明引用的内容外，论文中不包含其他人已经发表或撰写过的研究成果，也 不包含为获得 内蒙古大学 及其他教育机构的学位或证书而使用过的材料。与我一同 :|:作的同 志对本研究所做的任何贡献均己在论文中作了明确的说明并表示谢意。 指导教师签名： 日 期： yn- r- v 在学期间研究成果使用承诺书 本学位论文作者完全了解学校有关保留、使用学位论文的规定，即：内蒙古火学有权将 学位论文的全部内容或部分保留并向国家有关机构

4、、部门送交学位论文的复印件和磁盘，允 许编入有关数据库进行检索，也可以采用影印、缩印或其他复制手段保存、汇编学位论文。 为保护学院和导师的知识产权，作者在学期间取得的研究成果属于内蒙古大学。作者今后 使用涉及在学期间主耍研究内容或研究成果，须征得内蒙古大学就读期间导师的同意；若用 于发表论文，版权单位必须署名为内蒙古大学方可投稿或公开发表。 学位论文作者签名 : 日 期 : 指导教师签名： 日 期 :乂 ， vj Declaration I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of m

5、y knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person or material which has to a substantial extent been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at any university or other institutes of higher learning, except where due acknowledgement has be

6、en made in the text. Signature: I Name: MENU Jing Date: May 21,2012 Acknowledgements After nearly one years hard work and intensive research， my thesis is finally competed. It is really a process of great joy and pain at the same time. I would like to express my sincere grateflilness to those who he

7、lped me a lot with my thesis. First of all, I wish to thank my supervisor who always gives me valuable instruction and encouragement and support. Without her great help and constructive advice, I would never have finished this thesis. Second, my gratitude also goes to all the professors and teachers

8、 in the English Department of Inner Mongolia University. Their rich knowledge and rigorous scientific approach benefit me a lot. Last but not the least, I would like to extend my thanks to my classmates who have given me gieat help in various aspects and I also have learned a lot of things from them

9、. Abstract A Soul-stirring Tragedy An Interpretation of The Great Gatsby from the Perspective of Aristotle5s Theory of Tragedy in The Poetics Meng Jing Francis Scott Fitzgerald is known as the spokesman for the Jazz Age of the 1920s. His masterpiece The Great Gatsby is considered to be uthe first st

10、ep that American fiction has taken since Henry James”（ Nowlin， 2007: 60). The novel is hotly discussed from the aspects of writing skills, the theme, the main characters and the literary theories. As an outstanding tragedy, The Great Gatsby has not been studied from the perspective of theory of trag

11、edy. Based on Aristotle5 s The Poetics this thesis tries to analyze The Great Gatsby from the perspective of Aristotles theory of tragedy. From the analysis, we can easily get the conclusion that The Great Gatsby is a soul-stirring novel in terms of theory of tragedy. Therefore, the novel can be mor

12、e widely accepted and appreciated as a tragedy. Fitzgerald embodies and meanwhile develops Aristotles theory of tragedy in The Great Gatsby. The novel is an imitation of the social atmosphere and the people in the 1920s America, which coincides with Aristotle definition of tragedy. He says that trag

13、edy is a form of imitation. Fitzgerald, however, enlarges the imitation from merely actions to a broader scope. The whole society, the character of people and the experiences of people become the object of imitation. Following the law of probability and necessity, which Aristotle stresses in The Poe

14、tics, Gatsby5 s fortune changes from good to bad and the whole story is arranged properly. In The Poetics, Aristotle thinks that a tragedy should include some elements. Fitzgerald5s The Great Gatsby embodies and develops the elements of a tragedy: The story of The Great Gatsby, as whole, has a begin

15、ning, a middle and an end to achieve the unity of plot; Gatsby as the protagonist is well descried as a not ii eminently good and just man in character; Symbolism as a form of diction, instead of metaphor is widely used in the novel. Since the spectacle is least connected with literature, this thesi

16、s will not do any deep analysis on it. The above elements create a tragic atmosphere of the novel and they strengthen the tragic emotion of the reader, in addition, they are beneficial to highlight the effect of tragedy. Besides the definition and elements of tragedy, Aristotle offers in The Poetics

17、 that the aim of a tragedy is to arouse fear and pity. In The Great Gatsby, through the arrangement of Complication and Unraveling, Reversal and Recognition, Fitzgerald reaches the aim of arousing the emotion of fear and pity. KEYWORDS: Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, theory of tragedy, The Poetics 摘要

18、 弗朗西斯 斯格特 菲兹杰拉德被誉为爵士时代的代言人，他的代表作了 不起的盖茨比被誉为是 “ 美国小说自亨利 詹姆斯来迈出的第一步 ” （ Nowlin, 2007: 60)。这部小说引起了人们从写作主题、写作技巧、人物分析以及文学批 评理论等方面的激烈讨论。了不起的盖茨比作为一部杰出的悲剧，迄今为止 还没有人从悲剧理论的角度分析它。本文运用亚里士多德在诗学中关于悲剧 的理论阐 释了不起的盖茨比，进而得出了不起的盖茨比是一部荡气回肠 的悲剧的结论，因此了不起的盖茨比作为一部悲剧能够更加广泛的被人们接 受并欣赏。 菲兹杰拉德在体现亚里士多德悲剧理论的同时对其进行了发展。了不起 的盖茨比是对 20

19、 世纪二十年代的社会氛围以及人物的模仿，这一点符合亚里 士多德对悲剧是模仿的一种形式的定义。然而，菲兹杰拉德把亚里士多德模仿的 范围从仅仅是行动的模仿扩大到对社会以及对人物性格和经历的模仿。遵循亚里 士多德在诗学中强调的可然律和必然律的原则，盖茨比的命运实现了从好到 坏的转换， 而且在该原则的指导下整个故事得到了合理的安排。 在诗学中，亚里士多德认为悲剧需包含一些要素。菲兹杰拉德在了 不起的盖茨比中运用并发展了这些要素：了不起的盖茨比作为一个完整的 故事有头有身有尾，这就完成了情节的统一；作为悲剧的主人公盖茨比不十分完 美和公正的性格得到了很好的描述；象征作为言辞的一种取代了隐喻，在了不 起的

20、盖茨比中得到了广泛应用；由于亚里士多德认为形象在悲剧中发挥的作用 不大，本文也不再对此做详尽的分析。悲剧的这些因素营造了小说的悲剧氛围， 强化了读者的悲剧情感，有利于悲剧效果的 产生。 除了悲剧的定义和成分外，亚里士多德在诗学中指出悲剧的目的是引 起恐惧和怜悯。菲兹杰拉德在了不起的盖茨比中通过对结和解以及突转和发 现的合理安排成功实现了引起恐惧和怜悯的目的。 关键词：菲兹杰拉德；了不起的盖茨比；悲剧理论；亚里士多德 ; 诗学 CONTENTS Acknowledgements . i Abstract . ii m m . . . iv Contents . v CHAPTER 1 INTRO

21、DUCTION . 1 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW . 6 CHAPTER 3 ARISTOTLES DEFINITION OF TRAGEDY DISPLAYED IN THE GREATGATSBY . 9 3.1 Modes of Imitation . 10 3.1.1 . Imitation as a Means to Represent Certain Aspects in Society . 10 3.1.2 GatsbyAn Imitation of Fitzgerald. 12 3.1.3 DaisyAn Imitation of Both Gin

22、evra King and Zelda Sayr . 15 3.2 The Law of Probability and Necessity Applied in The Great Gatsby. 16 3.2.1 The Law of Probability and Necessity Applied in Changing from Good to Bad . 16 3.2.2 A Wider Use of the Law of Probability and Necessity . 17 CHAPTER 4 ARISTOTLES ELEMENTS OF TRAGEDY APPLIED

23、IN THE GREAT GATSBY. 22 4.1 Plot as the Most Important Element of Tragedy . 22 4.1.1 Beginningthe Root of Tragedy . .23 4.1.2 Middlethe Immediate Cause of Tragedy . . 24 4.1.3 Endthe Disaster . 25 4.2 Gatsby as a Not Eminently Good and Just Man in Character . 27 4.2*1 Goodness in Gatsbys Character.

24、28 4.2.2 Weakness in Gatsby!s Character . 30 4.3 Symbolism as a New Form of Diction Used in The Great Gatsby . 32 4.3.1 The Color Green . 32 V 4.3.2 Valley of Ashes . 34 4.3.3 East Egg and West Egg . 35 4.3.4 The Color White . 36 CHAPTER 5 ARISTOTLES EFFECTS OF TRAGEDY REFLECTED IN THE GREAT GATSBY.

25、 . 38 5.1 Complication and Unraveling Properly Arranged in The Great Gatsby . 38 5.1.1 Complication . 38 5.1.2 Unraveling . 41 5.2 Reversal and Recognition . 43 5.2.1 Reversal . 43 5.2.2 Recognition . 45 5.3 The Aim of Fear and Pity Aroused by Common PeopleGatsby . 47 5.3.1 Fear . 48 5.3.2 Pity . 50

26、 CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION . 52 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 54 Chapter One INTRODUCTION Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald is the third greatest modem American novelists, only next to Earnest Hemingway and William Faulkner95 (Ding, 2002: 1). Fitzgerald was bom in a poor family. In 1917, in order to serve in the First World

27、 War, he left Princeton. Before going to the war, the love between Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre made him feel hopeless. Discharged from the army in 1919, he took a job and married Zelda in 1920. After the publication of This Side of Paradise, Fitzgerald and Zelda attempted to spend and consume at unpr

28、ecedented levels. They swam in public fountains in New York, rode to parties in the hoods of taxis, fought with waiters and danced on dining tables. Their lives had become a long cocktail party. In the 1930s Zelda began to suffer a series of mental breakdowns. Battered by the illness of his life? by

29、 his own alcoholism and by the failures of his writing, Fitzgerald could only work in Hollywood. He continued to engage in periodic drinking bouts and grew seriously ill. In November, 1940, he suffered a heart attack and a second one a month later. On December 21, 1944, he died at the age of forty-f

30、our. During his life time, he wrote lots of novels. The Great Gatsby is considered to be Fitzgerald masterpiece. The setting of the story was the Roaring Twenties that was the Jazz Age. “Fitzgerald described the American tide of pursuing money and enjoyment in the Jazz Age and made introspection of

31、the spirit crisis which existed in the reality and ostentation and the disillusionment of American Dream”（ Fu， 1988: 55). He wrote the novel in 1922, when the First World War was just over. On one hand, American economy was prosperous. On the other hand, the post-war young generation realized that t

32、he war which they had believed to fight for democracy was only a swindle. They thought what they would do was meaningless. To them everything was not real, they did not know what tomorrow would be, and this was a sorrow to the youth, to their families, to the society and to that age. They felt they

33、were deceived and became depressed and lost. Under such circumstances, the empty spirit and prosperous economy made the young generation live in a particular living style. They resisted all the traditional ideas and lived in an unconventional and unrestrained way. Fitzgerald was one of them. He sinc

34、erely had this kind of feeling. So he was able to mould Gatsby to be a successful character in the novel The Great Gatsby. He recorded the characteristics of that age, reflected the loving atmosphere of that age and wrote the sadness of the young generation of the age. Thereby he described the trage

35、dy of that age. Gatsby was a poor young man. When he was seventeen, he entered Oxford University and afterwards he joined the army. When he was trained in the south, he fell in love with a local rich girl, Daisy. But this was a hopeless love, because she was a rich girl, but he was a poor young man

36、and he did not have a comfortable family to support him. The First World War broke out. So Gatsby was sent to fight in the war. He did extraordinarily well in the wan Five yeas later, when he came back from the war, Daisy had married Tom. Determined to win back the past romance， Gatsby engaged in bo

37、otlegging and many other illegal activities, and therefore got a lot of money. With the money he bought a luxurious mansion opposite to Daisys so as to catch Daisys attention. Finally, Gatsby met Daisy, but Daisy driving Gatsby car killed Myrtle who happened to be Toms mistress. Daisy plotted with Tom to shift the blame on Gatsby. At the end of the story， Gatsby was wrongly killed by Myrtles husband. Aristotle5s The Poetics is the earliest-sui*viving work of theory on tragedy and the first extant philosophical treatise to focus on li