摘要《夜色温柔》是由美国“爵士时代”的杰出代表人物菲茨杰拉德写成并发表于20世纪30年代。小说主人公迪克为了自己的幻想付出了全部的精力,这是他的悲剧。迪克的悲剧不仅是个人的悲剧,也是时代的悲剧。该小说表现了菲茨杰拉德对该时代社会生活最深刻的反省与思考。《夜色温柔》是他吟唱的一曲爵士时代的悲歌。本文旨在通过解读《夜色温柔》主人公迪克的悲剧命运,从性格因素和社会因素两方面,探讨导致他悲剧命运的原因。正是他的悲剧命运,给人带来一些启示,对处于多元文化冲突的当今社会也提供了很好的借鉴。20434
关键词: 《夜色温柔》;“爵士时代”;菲茨杰拉德;悲剧命运
Contents
摘 要 i
Abstract ii
I. Introduction 1
II. Fitzgerald and His Work 2
2.1 About the Author 2
2.2 About the Novel Tender Is the Night 3
III. Analysis of the Tragic Fate of Dick 5
3.1 On the Complex Character of Dick 5
3.1.1 The Positive Qualities in His Character 6
3.1.2 The Weaknesses in His Character 7
3.2 On the Social Background in Jazz Age 8
3.2.1 Dick’s Inevitable Disillusionment of Idealism 8
3.2.2 Dick’s Irresistible Conflict with the Upper Class 9
IV. Reflection from Dick’s Tragic Fate 11
4.1 Tragic Effect 11
4.2 Enlightenment 12
V. Conclusion 13
Bibliography 15
Acknowledgements 16
Abstract
Tender Is the Night is written by Fitzgerald, the outstanding representative figure of “the Jazz Age”, which was published in the 1930s in America. The protagonist Dick devotes his whole energy for fantasy, which is the aesthetic significance of his tragedy. His tragic fate is the representative of Fitzgerald and the whole Jazz Age. This novel shows Fitzgerald’s most profound reflection and consideration about the society in the Jazz Age, which is a most tragic elegy of the Jazz Age. This paper aims to explore the reasons for the tragic fate of Dick Diver from the two perspectives — the character of Dick and social background in which he lived. It is his tragic fate that can bring the people some enlightenments and that is worth of using as a reference for the present multicultural conflict in modern society.
Key words: Tender Is the Night; the Jazz Age; Fitzgerald; tragic fate
On the Tragic Fate of Dick in Tender Is the Night
I. Introduction
Tender is the Night is a novel which is written by the outstanding writer, F. Scott Fitzgerald. As a representative novelist of the “Lost Generation” in America, F. Scott Fitzgerald was highly regarded as one of the greatest writers in the history of American literature and the most distinguished spokesman of the Jazz Age.
Tender is the Night as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s fourth novel was published in the 1930s in American. Although Fitzgerald wrote this novel in a high spirit and with great ambition, there were many kinds of criticism after its publication in April, 1934. Many readers and critics made comments that the structure of the novel was rather confusing; the plot was full of loopholes; and the clue was not clear. Different critics paid their attention to the novel from different aspects, most critical essays were focused on the structure of the text itself, the Freudianism, the American Dream of that time and the symbolic expressions reflected in the novel.
Mary M. Colum in The Psychopathic Novel published in the 1930s wrote, “He call summon up terrors and pathos, but what pity and tragedy are he does not know, for he has never really meditated on life.” Milton R. Stem considered it as “one of the most beautiful and significant major novels in the history of American literature”. In China, more and more scholars also paid their attention to this novel in recent years. On the study of Fitzgerald, written by Wu Jianguo, is the first work that studies specially F. Scott Fitzgerald and his works in our country. Wu Jianguo says the typical feature of Tender Is the Night is the tragic effect embodied between the lines gradually. Furthermore, Wang Ning studies the novel in terms of psychoanalysis. Chen Xiaoju considers that the novel reveals Fitzgerald’s excellent modern art style in terms of the structure, shift of perspectives, and characters portrayal. Zhang Qin reads the novel from the point of feminism. 浅析《夜色温柔》中迪克的悲剧命运:http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_12210.html