对《德伯家苔丝》圣经原型研究

1、对德伯家苔丝圣经原型研究 河北师范大学 硕士学位论文 对德伯家的苔丝的圣经原型研究 姓名甄琦 申请学位级别硕士 专业英语语言文学 指导教师宋慧玲 中文摘要 托马斯·哈代是英国诗人小说家他是横跨两个世纪的作家早期和中期 的创作以小说为主继承和发扬了维多利亚时代的文学传统晚年以其出色的诗 歌开拓了英国20 世纪的文学德伯家的苔丝被中外的文学评论家认为是哈代 最好的威塞克斯小说自 1891 出版以来评论家们对这部享誉世界的小说进行 了分析和解读这些理论主要是从哲学的角度社会学的角度以及女性主义的角 度来品评这部小说女性主义批评将注意集中到哈代的爱情观婚姻观以及维多 利亚时期的道德标准 本文

2、从圣经原型批评的角度阐述苔丝中的人物集中体现于对圣经 中原型的分析来解读这部小说中的人物主题结构等在苔丝这部小说中 哈代使用了圣经中的伊甸园救赎再生等原型与主题从某种程度 上说苔丝的故事就是苔丝一步一步地失去伊甸园 的故事即苔丝的救赎 以 及再生 的过程 Tess 丧失伊甸园的原因是因为她所犯的原罪由此也直接导致了她的谋杀罪 她后来所经历的救赎与再生则是她为了自己的谋杀罪所需付出的代价通过救赎 这一痛苦的过程苔丝最后获得了她对亚雷对安吉尔以及她自己的清醒的认识 因此她获得了精神上的再生小说中的主要人物苔丝安吉尔和亚雷就成了 圣经中的人物一方面苔丝被塑造成了爱娃又被比作基督把她比作夏娃 是因为她

3、的纯洁将她比作基督是强调她最终难以逃脱注定的悲惨命运安吉 尔的原型是圣经中的上帝通过对亚雷的描写体现了哈代的宗教观在哈代看来 上帝具有两面性一方面上帝是仁慈的另一方面又冷酷无情亚雷的原型是撒 旦因为亚雷的邪恶本质 在小说的结构方面小说中运用了 圆圈和叙事结构苔丝一生的经历中每 件事情的起点到最后在事情结束时又回到了最初的起点成了最初的状态 在苔丝中哈代使用的原型是多样的通过原型分析这部作品不但可以了 解哈代的意图还可以揭示他对维多利亚时代的传统道德同时也加强了小说的 深刻性和可读性 关键词原型 圣经 道德 基督 6 Abstract Tess of the DUrberville is reg

4、arded by the critics as the best of his Wessex novels After its publication in 1801 the world famous novel was analyzed by the critics in different viewpoints from philosophical aspects to the sociological and feminist aspects Some of the feminists focused on Hardys views on love and marriage and ev

5、en the standard of virtue in the Victoria Age The thesis analyzes Tess of the DUrverbille from the aspect of biblical archetypes of characters subjects and structure In this novel Hardy used The Garden of Eden Redemption etc The story of Tess is the embodiment and procedure of Adam and Eves loss of

6、the Garden of Eden The cause for her loss of the Garden is her original sin which leads to her murdering of Alec Afterwards her redemption and regeneration are the price she must pay for her crime Through the hard process Tess acquired the knowledge of Alec her seducer and Angel her husband and even

7、 the knowledge of herself In other words this is also the way she acquired her spiritual regeneration According to the different archetypes in the novel Hardy created the main characters Tess Angel and Alec on the basis of the biblical characters In this aspect Tess is compared as Eve and Christ Com

8、pared to Eve Tess acquired her purity and her innocence and also she is compared as Christ because she possessed the same tragic ending as Jesus Christ The archetype of Angel is God in the Bible which embodied Hardys viewpoint on religion In Hardys eyes God has both benevolent and retributive aspect

9、s As for Alec with the archetype theory he was created as Satan because of Alecs vicious nature The circular plot structure of the novel is also obviously related to the Biblical archetype Through all her life Tess has inevitably trapped herself in a circle At the very beginning of the circle she st

10、arted with hope but in the end she is mysteriously driven back to the original beginning and unfortunately she found that the state being even worse In the novel Hardy used different archetypes and through analyzing these 4 archetypes it is easy to find that the intension of Hardys writing of the no

11、vel and the condemnation of the traditional morality of the Victoria Age which at the same time made the novel profoundly readable and full of connotations Key words archetype Bible virtue character Christ 5 学位论文原创性声明 本人所提交的学位论文A Study of Biblical Archetypes in Tess of the DUrbervilles 是在导师的指导下独立进行研

12、究工作所取得的原创性成果 除文中已经注明引用的内容外本论文不包含任何其他个人或集体已经发表或撰 写过的研究成果对本文的研究做出重要贡献的个人和集体均已在文中标明 本声明的法律后果由本人承担 论文作者签名 指导教师签名 年 月 日 年 月 日 学位论文版权使用说明书 本学位论文作者完全了解河北师范大学有权保留并向国家有关部门或机构 送交学位论文的复印件和磁盘允许论文被查阅和借阅本人授权河北师范大学 可以将学位论文的全部或部分有关内容编入数据库以便检索可以采用影音缩 印或其它复制手段保存汇编学位论文 保密的学位论文在_年解密后适用本授权书 论文作者签名 指导教师签名 年 月 日 年 月 日 3 I

13、ntroduction Thomas Hardy 1840-1928 is regarded as a famous literary figure in the Victorian Age and is given a high position in the English literary history During his life he published thirteen novels and many short stories and poems He achieved a worldwide celebration by his Wessex novels which ar

14、e considered as one of the important part in English Literature and are welcomed and recognized in the 20th th th century by many readers Hardy is a transitional figure between the 19 and 20 century And in fact he is a Victorian and a modern a traditionalist and a radical The novels at its most dist

15、inguished displays a unique convergence of traditional and modern both impulses in a fruitful entanglement neither in harmony nor in struggle but in a kind of sustaining friction one with the other 1 Even today almost one hundred years after his death his works still attract the attention of the rea

16、ders critics researchers and the film makers Most of his novels were intentionally set in Wessex which is used to be an ancient kingdom in England In his novels Hardy adopted the name of Wessex in order to stress his birth place Dorset where he spent most of his life He had a very strong feeling for

17、 his hometown the beautiful natural scenes the fresh air the conventions and old traditions of the country life the life of peasants and the change in peoples life brought about by the penetration of the Industrial Revolution All these were well integrated in his novels Tess of the DUrbervilles is c

18、onsidered as one of Thomas Hardys most prominent works and it brought him great fortune and worldwide fame Just as the title suggests the novel puts emphasis on a poor country girl Tess who tries her best to make a better living and find a suitable place in the society but fails in the end The whole

19、 novel is divided into seven phases the title of each phase marks the period in which Tess lives It seems that her life is a tragic circle Beginning as an innocent and pure young girl then Tess becomes a fallen woman in peoples eye and finally ends her young life as a murderer During all her life al

20、l of the bad things and misfortunes happened on her are predestined by God or by fate In the beginning of the novel 8 Hardy creates a gifted country girl who is a descendent of an extinct ancient and knightly family that is the DUrbervilles But the reputable family background does not save her from

21、her miserable life Later the old horse is killed in an accident Tess has to leave her home to support her family and she tries her best to pursue a happy life and wants to take the responsibilities of her family But unfortunately her hope in improving her family is always a disillusion Tess is a ver

22、y attractive girl and the novel mainly described such an innocent girls tragic life experience People may raise such questions as why such a beautiful and kind girl is constantly punished There are two reasons in Hardys eyes one is the strict Christian doctrine and the moral convention which is very

23、 popular in the Victorian Era the other is the influence by the environment The two elements lead the pure girl to a tragic death After the publication of Tess of the DUrbervilles criticism on Hardy and this famous work has been diversified Early criticism is mainly focused on his philosophical view

24、points including his views on morality on Christianity on love and marriage Firstly Tess of the DUrbervilles is considered by many readers as Hardys most famous and artistically attractive novel which is full of the richest connotations Even since its publication it has received both praise and crit

25、icism Bernard Paris once complains of its thematic inconsistency and Peter J Casagrande holds the idea that Hardy violates the tenets of tragedy and the expectations of his contemporary readers 2 in his creating of the bad girl as the heroine of the novel He thinks that Hardy is too willing to sacri

26、fice probability to expedience and in the novel the two heroes Angel and Alec are one-dimensional rather than interestingly complex characters in a work of fiction For a long time most people support the idea that Tess of the DUrbervilles is a best embodiment of Hardys tragic views Some of Hardys fe

27、llow writers showed their sympathy with Hardys portrait of Tess and at the same time criticize his understanding and treatment of Christianity and his idea which was clearly declared as the subtitle of the novel that Tess is a pure woman As for the circumstances of the composition of the novel perha

28、ps the single refrain in the criticism of Tess has been the praise for what is called as a poetical 9 description including the praise of its use of language the composition of its structure the narrative coherence and the thematic consistency Secondly this novel was criticized by many critics For e

29、xample Dorothy Van Ghent once said that Hardy imposes elements resistant to aesthetic cohesion but on the other hand he praised Hardy for discovering the symbolic event that is the death of the horse that has the natural grain of concrete fact and irrefutable experience Henry James also complained o

30、nce that Tess of the DUrbervilles is chock-full of faults and falsities praises it for the possession of a singular beauty and charm Despite of the critics Tess of the DUrbervilles remains a famous novel and great work J H Miller said that Tess of the DUrbervilles is not a flawed but an interestingl

31、y indeterminate work of narrative art 3 Michael Millgate and com Stewart call Tess of the DUrbervilles as Hardys greatest work of art 4 Irving Howe said that Tess stands at the center of Hardys achievements 5 Richard L Gallienne claimed that Tess is one of Mr Hardys novels perhaps it is his very bes

32、t 6 DF Hannigan said that Tess is a monumental work it marks a distinct epoch in English fiction he said that The fact remains that Tess of the DUrbervilles is the greatest work of fiction produced in England ever since George Eliot died 7 Most readers think that the greatness of this work lies in t

33、he fact that it can be interpreted from different critical aspects Some debate the elements in the novel as narrative imagery and philosophy in the novel and some have focused on the tragic theme and others look at the traditional and class issues or the language and style of the novel It is clear t

34、hat these critics are diversified and insightful but these viewpoints and angles are far from adequate because few of the critics have explored the archetypes in Hardys novels especially from the aspects of the biblical archetypes D A Dike claimed that Hardy is both realist and symbolist which is to

35、 say that by being intensely and imaginatively realistic he passes beyond realism to discover the archetypal form the timeless categories implicit in an immense context a context which consequently 8 becomes the symbolic utterance of a larger meaning 10 Marlene Springer in her work Hardys Use of All

36、usion discusses the allusions related to the characters and environment in Hardys novels In the book she lists the major allusions in the novel especially the connections with the Holy Scriptures She says that On the most obvious level Hardy uses allusions for all the traditional reasons to evoke in

37、 the reader the pleasure of recognition to impress a learned audience to illustrate his own remarks to buttress an opinion or to give an air of universality to the literature at hand in Hardys case to raise his novels from the level of pastoral romances to the realm of the masterpieces he so admired

38、 She thinks that Hardy uses such a tool to develop the plot and to describe the characters She also says that Hardys allusions are predominantly attaché to characters rather than to action in the 9 novel In fact the three main characters in the novel Tess Alec and Angel are connected with the b

39、iblical allusions with which the symbolic connection with the three characters shows a more common element that is the use of archetypes Some of the critics think that literary works are the expressions or embodiments of recurrent mythic patterns or archetypes this is one of the best ways to interpr

40、et Hardys novels In Tess of the DUrbervilles the use of archetypes is clear Mary Jocobus says that Hardy imposes a mythic tragedy of the exceptional upon a tragedy of the ordinary and Tess is marked out in the novel by a superior sensibility that assimilates her into prototypes in legend and literat

41、ure 10 J B Bullen claims that for the material Hardy drew on Mullers interpretation of solar myth Ruskins view of Greek legend and perhaps most of all Paters fascination with the ancient gods 11 He also points out that The novel has a mythological structure 12 Kathleen Blake said that a system of my

42、thological allusions drawn from nature cults metamorphoses the particular into the general throughout the novel 13 Other critics stressed the origin of the story of Tess 11 In Tess of the DUrbervilles Hardy uses biblical archetypes in the novel he is interested in Bible which is considered the great

43、 monumental work And the Bible also exerts a great influence upon his creation In this thesis the author explores the biblical archetypes in Tess of the DUrbervilles which is considered as a necessary part of its narrative According to Northrop Frye an archetype is a communicable unit a typical or r

44、ecurring image which connects one poem with another and thereby helps to unify and integrate our literary experience Archetypes in Tess of the DUrbervilles are embodied in every aspect of the novel including the themes characters structures plots imagery and symbols In summary Hardy receives so much

45、 hostile criticism with his writing of the Tess of the DUrbervilles the critics especially attracted on the subtitle of the novel A Faithful Presentation of a Pure Woman According to the doctrine preached by Christianity if a woman is seduced by a man she is no longer innocent let alone pure In the

46、Christians mind Tess can not be regarded as a pure woman she is so immoral The subtitle challenges the Christian moral standard and clearly declares that Tess is a pure woman This shows Hardys courage to oppose the Victorian morality Hardy compares his major characters in the novel with the biblical

47、 characters which is the major research work in this thesis Archetype was used by Plato the word originally means the original pattern or model of a work Archetype is a symbol that occurs often in the literary works But it is different from a symbol in which it is original imagery that recalls psych

48、ological events common to all people and all cultures The Holy Scriptures is a classical work of Christianity it is a cultural masterpiece and one of the most important essays in the world Northrop Frye says Western civilization inherited a body of sacred stories mainly from the Bible and from the e

49、arliest days of Christianity this body of stories has already taken the 12 form of what have called a myth of concern In a very short time too it had 14 expanded into a cosmology or view of the natural order As a follower of the Christianity Thomas Hardy is deeply influenced by the Bible and he uses

50、 the biblical archetypes in his writings The thesis consists of three Chapters Chapter one is the analysis of the biblical archetypal themes One of the themes Hardy adopts in this novel is Deterioration that is the loss of the paradise This indicates the heroine Tesss lose of her paradise She loses her innocence her hope love and even her life Next is the theme o