（英语语言文学专业论文）《玻璃动物园》之悲剧意识探究.pdf

2 内容摘要内容摘要 玻璃动物园这部戏剧是美国著名剧作家田纳西威廉思的一部被公认为 是自传型的作品。这部戏剧以美国大萧条时期为背景，从小人物入手，深入描述 了一个濒临崩溃家庭从对生活充满希望， 继而在现实生活中遭遇致命的打击以至 于最后希望破灭导致整个家庭离散的结局。母亲，阿曼达整日沉浸在对旧日浪漫 生活的美好回忆； 汤姆， 这个剧本的叙述者， 在剧中作为儿子出现， 他酷爱作诗， 经常幻想去探险，但是由于家庭成员父亲的缺失，他肩负起了养家的重担，然而 最终由于厌倦了现实生活中的种种纷繁复杂，终于在彷徨之后决定离开；女儿, 劳拉，由于一场大病后成了残疾，这给她心灵上造成很大伤害，她也因此变得自 卑，内向，不愿与人交往，唯一的爱好就是收藏玻璃制品。本文通过分析作家个 人的生活经历对剧作的影响，从舞台道具的象征主义角度，人物心理的矛盾冲突 角度分别探讨了这部剧本的悲剧意识。 剧作家为我们展现了一部生动的社会生活 画面，即在现实生活中每个人都会有理想，有希望，甚至有时候会有幻想，然而 过分地幻想，沉迷其中，不能在现实生活中找到自己的位子，或是不切实际地过 分追求理想的生活必然会导致在现实中迷失自我，为整个悲剧的基调奠定了基 础。这是一部充满了悲剧色彩和被压抑气氛所笼罩的戏剧作品，本文由人物性格 的矛盾冲突引出的三大悲剧主题深入地探究了玻璃动物园这一剧本的悲剧意 识，反映出田纳西笔下人物的悲剧不仅仅是人物性格特征的异常表现，同时也具 有一定的社会含义， 即反映了理想和现实的冲突及如何在现实生活中不会迷失自 我的探讨。 本文一开始着重介绍作家作品以及他所生活的家庭背景,而且对以往的研 究作了详细的回顾，并表明了本文的写作目的。 玻璃动物园是一部自传体戏 剧。剧中温斐尔德阿曼达和她的两个孩子劳拉和汤姆居住在位于圣路易斯的 一套破旧的公寓房里，实际上它的原形就是作者一家在圣路易斯的住所。剧中 所有人物在现实生活中都有其原形。因此玻璃动物园不仅仅是对一个家庭的 生活状况的描写;它也是威廉姆斯那个时代美国人民悲惨生活的写照。尽管该剧 并不是以人物的死亡而结局，但是它仍不失为一部完整的悲剧。在第二部分，本 文集中探讨了剧中出现的道具实物的象征意义,作家通过象征主义手法的运用来 暗示悲剧的主题，为整个剧本的悲剧结论奠定了基础。第三部分主要从人物性格 方面分析其矛盾心理及悲剧的成因， 通过该剧中体现的三大悲剧要素凸显出希望 与幻灭的这一悲剧主题。最后得出结论，在现实生活中人们不切合实际地盲目追 求梦想必然导致失败的结局。 关键词：悲剧 错位，逃避，绝望，玻璃动物园, 冲突 1 abstract the glass menagerie, it is acknowledged that one of autobiographical works by tennessee williams. the drama which set a background of great depression, depict a falling apart family which every one is full of good expectation for future, however, in reality their good illusion can not realize, finally, the story ends with amanda and laura trapped in despair and tom choose to leave. mother, amanda always indulges in romantic old memory of her times and is unwell to face reality. tom, the son loves romantic poet and go out to adventure, but in order to make living for the family, he has to give up his ideal. at the end of this play, tom is tired of this kind of upset life and determines to run away. the laura has a little cripple because of a bad illness, from then on, she became very shy and reluctant to get along the outside world. this paper is divided into five parts. chapter one is introduction, including two parts, one is author and his play; and the other part is about literal review. chapter two focus on the authors own experience in his youth, and the great influence which his growing up experience on his creation of works. chapter three mainly discussed the tragic meaning from the view of symbolic meaning in the play. chapter four is about a study of tragic theme such as: illusion, disappointment and escape. the last part come to a conclusion that when the illusion meets reality, and the two can not identify totally, the tragedy generated. key words: tragedy, escape, misfit, desperation,“the glass menagerie, conflict 3 a study of tragedy awareness in “the glass menagerie” chapter one introduction 1. 1 tennessee williams and his “the glass menagerie” thomas lanier williams, or more famous for us is his pen name “tennessee williams”, is an outstanding american playwright after the world war two. williams was first named thomas lanier williams but he changed the rather dull thomas to tennessee in 1939, the year in which his pen name tennessee williams, was first used in the blue childs field, which was published in the magazine of novel, because he thinks his original name sounds like an author who is only crazy about sonnet, which is usually sing the praise of spring. as one of the most influential playwrights, tennessee williams who once win the pulitzer twice for drama occupies an important position in american drama. usually, many works of williams set a background of south. he is good at describe people who always struggles in their contradictory heart, and his plays often show the shortcomings of human nature with sharp view. in my opinion, this is a sort of tragic idea. this main idea is especially obvious in the glass menagerie. tennessee williams is one of the most prolific american dramatists after eugene o neill, excepting for talent for the description of vivid character in real life, in the glass menagerie, a lot of symbolism and effect of stage take a ground for the tone of tragic idea. because of his innovation, he is credited as “the poet of the theater”. in his literature career over forty years, williams created a total of more than twenty plays, more than twenty one-act play, two novels, two books of poetry, and a certain number of short stories. in addition to the above mentioned outside of the literary awards, in 1952 he became the academy of arts and in 1969 won the academy gold medal, received the 1973 medal of st. johns years, representatives of the cultural sector in 1979 was the highest honor of john f. kennedy medal of honor. the glass menagerie, is a pessimistic play of williams, which according to one of willams short story named portrait of a girl in glass, and as soon as the play was written and especially after being created on the stage of the theater, it made the great popularity. the play shows a tragic family, even unwholesome family about wingfield family living in a shabby and run-down apartment. all of members of this 4 family are hopeful for the future, however, their life is full of variety, and they constantly suffer from misfortune, as if they are always misfit in the reality. amanda, the southern belle, was unmercifully abandoned by his husband jim, so in order to continue to live she has to earn their living by called customer and do magazine subscriptions. her daughter, laura, because of a bad illness became a cripple, which influences on her life seriously. finally, she becomes shy, self-contemptuous. the most hobby of her is to collect glass animals, and then she places herself into her own delusion world to find a comfortable and safe life. the poor tom, as only male in the family, he is no exception of tragedy figure. in real life, he could not realize his life goals, such as to be a romantic poet and go for an adventure; he has to do the tedious thing over again. so he lives an unhappy life under big pressure all day. finally, in order to escape the cruel reality, he left. tension of the family gradually strength when tom becomes more and more discontent with his tedious work , in addition, amanda gave him constant and harsh demands for him to seek a excellent husband for laura neglecting the actual condition. the arrival of jim, a gentleman caller, for the wingfield family, he could be a sign of hope, at the same time a sign of disillusion of the whole family as soon as heard of his engagement. under the background of great depression, by the play of the glass menagerie, williams show reader a scene from realistic point of view like everyone has good dream, but in actual life, when good expectation of individual meet the strong and cruel social reality and form a kind of inevitable conflict, human being is weak, and they always are broken by reality. at the same time, williams devote himself to research writing skills and style, following the principles of realism, having drawn from the real life and personal experience and making good use of symbolism, and finally create the character laura, amanda, and tom. this paper is divided into five parts. chapter one is introduction, including two parts, one is author and his play; and the other part is about literal review. chapter two focus on the authors own experience in his youth, and the great influence which his growing up experience on his creation of works. chapter three mainly discussed the tragic meaning from the view of symbolic meaning in the play. chapter four is about a study of tragic theme such as: illusion, disappointment and escape. the last part come to a conclusion that 5 when the illusion meets reality, and the two can not identify totally, the tragedy generated. 6 chapter two influence of authors grow-up experience on play according to majority view in critical field, williamss own life experience supply a lot of rich materials for the glass menagerie. when he was young, he once lived in a shabby apartment in a slum, which is essentially similar to that he portrays in his play. when he was eight years old, because of his father was promoted to sales manager of shoe company, so his whole family moved to st. louis. for williams, it was a painful move experience. during their years of living in st. louis which is a worn and overcrowded flat. there is full of dark and gloom in his memory, especially for his sisters room. he would remember the small and apartment where his sister room looked like a death valley over from above. their furniture was painted with white color and white curtains were hung in order to make the gloom and dark house bright a little. where there is the whole life for the family, as if they always live in the dark. however, in his memory, just only thing to put little glass animals in order, could change this kind of boring model of life and make him happy. these little glass ornaments were the collection of his sister and was placed on shelves around the room. tennessee williams was born a typical declining aristocrat in 1911, in southern mississipi in the united states. when he was young, he was weak and small for his age. during that period, because of one of his legs was a little paralyzed and he could not play games, which result in he was nicked as “sissy” by schoolmates. in addition, owing to his strong accent and ways of southern, williams was laughed at by the boys at school, so tom felt huge miserable and painful, totally losing himself in his school days. meanwhile, his family also gave him big blow in his growing-up. there are five people in the family, his father was a salesman, and his mother was the daughter of an episcopal clergyman. his father who is bad temper and with vulgar words, always said to him with bitter sarcasm, which made sensitive williamss self-esteem wounded greatly. at university, because of poor family condition, williams forced to drop out of school for earning their family living. and then, after trying so hard in the university of iowa, he finally finished the course. williams mother is a typical southern woman, like all the other ordinary women, she married and had children. although what she has to do is dealing with all different chores in family life, there is 7 always unforgettable beautiful past memory in her mind. just only in this good recollection, she could find a happy world belongs to her. in williams the glass menagerie the nagging amanda is the true portrait of his mother na win. owing to the real character of his mother, author creates a vivid figure of amanda in the play. in fact, amanda is the central figure, the whole play is around her, and the rest of members in the family were influenced by the figure seriously, such as, lauras personality, toms escapism, and even the fate of family. williams has an older sister rose and at that time they are on very intimate terms, they two have similar character: sensitive, nervous, vulnerable, and both of them all love art. because of the rose, williams sincerely felt love, consideration, and care. but in real life, rose suffered many mishaps. since his sister rose could not draw her fathers attention, and she became more and more less confidence and even a bit of odd in her personal character. in the indifferent world, rose began to retreat herself from the real world which makes her frightened. this escapism caused schizophrenia later, while williams mother took her to the hospital for a brain lobotomy, from then on, rose never return to normal state. unfortunately she permanently spends her life in a missouri state asylum, which gave williams a big blow, so he has run away from home and never returned since then. williams gave much sympathy and considerable understanding in his sister, so the fragile and shy girl was the model for laura in the glass menagerie. many sad experiences of tennessee williams in his childhood supply him a lot of material for his future writing. all these suffering force williams to try his best to struggle in the world and at the same time to escape from the cruel real world. so he began to like writing, and he found that in writhing world he could set himself free and enjoy his life, and as a place of shelter isolating from outside world. at the same time he also began to go to cinema frequently, where he can image him as some brave figure and experience a kind of exciting adventure of unreal life. so this is an important clue that tom, the narrator in the play had the same first name of tennessee williams. as a matter of fact, there are a lot of shadows of williams in the figure of tom, from another angle, we can say the narrator tom is the symbol of author. the whole play was recalled by tom, as if he is not a spectator, but in actual he is the creator of the play, because the whole story was in his memory. when we come back 8 to williamss world, it is not different to see that the theme of illusion, misfit, and escapism haunts williams in every part of his life. his personal life experience an suffering played a very important role in his works as well as the formation of his motif tragedy theme in his plays. as a result, many researchers who study on the works of william agreed that the the glass menagerie is an autobiographical content. so if we want to study the works of his, we must acknowledge detailed personal experience on him, which can help us to understand the theme better. williams is a master at understanding the human conditions; williams believed the fact that if you want make your character more realistic and you must be closed the life. we could say thats true of the play the glass menagerie. 9 chapter three: discussion of promotion of tragedy idea from view of symbolism 3.1 literature meaning of symbolism in the glass menagerie symbolism is the use of multiple symbols representing differentiated terms in a system which conveys meaning. symbolism is the systematic or creative use of arbitrary symbols as abstracted representations of concepts or objects and the distinct relationships in between, as they define both context and the narrower definition of terms. in a narrow context, symbolism is the applied use of any iconic representations which carry particular conventional meanings. the term symbolism is often limited to use in contrast to representationalism; defining the general directions of a linear spectrum wherein all symbolic concepts can be viewed in relation, and where changes in context may imply systemic changes to individual and collective definitions of symbols. symbolism may refer to a way of choosing representative symbols inline with abstract rather than literal properties, allowing for the broader interpretation of a carried meaning than more literal concept-representations allow. all forms of language are innately symbolic, and any system of symbols can form a language; at the minimum using only two arbitrary symbols in a binary system. human language is based in the use of phonemes as representative symbols, and the analogous written forms are typically deferential to the phoneme. the written word is therefore symbolically representative of both the symbolic phoneme and directly to the cognitive concept which it represents. the field of cognitive linguistics explores the cognitive process and relationships between different systems of phonetic symbols to indicate deeper processes of symbolic cognition. many cultures have developed complex symbolic systems, often referred to as a symbolic system which assigns certain attributes to specific things, such as types of animals, plants or weather. a religion can be described as a language of concepts related to human spirituality. symbolism hence is an important aspect of most religions. the interpretation of abstract symbols has had an important role in religion and 10 psychoanalysis. as envisioned by sigmund freud and carl jung, symbols are not the creations of mind, but rather are distinct capacities within the mind to hold a distinct piece of information. in the mind, the symbol can find free association with any number of other symbols, can be organized in any number of ways, and can hold the connected meanings between symbols as symbols in themselves. jung and freud diverged on the issue of common cognitive symbol systems and whether they could exist only within the individual mind or among other minds; whether any cognitive symbolism was defined by innate symbolism or by influence of environment. by analysis of symbolic meaning of objective in stage, we can see that an obvious clue to tragedy was implied in the work. as a matter of fact, author gives the object in the stage a kind of symbolism of disillusionment. the good use of symbolic meaning in the play promotes the main idea of tragedy well. 3.2 a study on two symbolism image of title 3.2.1 image of glass in title the achievement of the glass menagerie not only shows reveal the shortcomings of human nature in real life, the good usage of symbolism also as a literature style foretell the miserable fate of character. when i was read the title of the glass menagerie at the first time, a sign of symbolism occurred into my mind. the first symbolic image is the “glass”. as we mention glass, all of us will think of a kind of shining, easy-to break, sheer and beautiful thing. it is right the creation aim of author to use the title of “glass menagerie”. using the title author vividly describe that the fate of figures in the play is just like the beautiful glass. as we all known, the glass is not only transparent, but also sheer. in my opinion, the glass is a kind of beaut