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摘 要赫尔曼•麦尔文尔是美国浪漫主义时期的杰出作家，他的代表作《白鲸》是美国文学史上的一部经典之作。这是一部描写人与自然斗争的小说，作品讲述了亚哈伯船长对一条曾经咬掉他一条腿的叫做莫比•迪克的白鲸的疯狂追击。小说最鲜明的特点就是象征主义，其创造了《白鲸》的永恒魅力和超时空的文学价值。本文不仅研究了小说中具体事物的象征意义而且对小说的主题象征意义即人与自然的关系也做了分析，有利于读者对小说主题的理解，能够让读者更好的体会到小说的艺术价值。19321
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关键词：象征主义；《白鲸》；自然
Abstract Herman Melville was a famous American novelist in Romantic period, whose masterpiece Moby Dick is regarded as a classical novel in the history of American literature. Moby Dick is a novel about the struggle between human and nature which tells the story of Captain Ahab’s crazy chase about a white whale Moby Dick who has torn off one of his legs. The novel is famous for symbolism which makes the novel rich of permanent artistic charm and immeasurable literary value. This paper not only studies the major symbols but also gives an analysis of the symbolic meaning of the theme which mainly talks about the relationship between human and nature. Thus readers can have better understandings of the novel and can appreciate the artistic value of the novel well.
Key words: symbolism; Moby Dick; nature
On the Symbolic Meaning In Moby Dick
Contents
摘 要 i
Abstract ii
I. Introduction 1
II. Moby Dick and Symbolism 2
2.1 Research on Moby Dick 2
2.2 Symbolism 4
Ⅲ. Symbolism in Moby Dick 5
3.1 Symbolic Meaning of Moby Dick 5
3.2 Symbolic Meaning of the Sea 7
3.3 Symbolic Meaning of Pequod 8
3.4 Symbolic Meaning of Ahab 9
3.5 Symbolic Meaning of the Hunting 10
Ⅳ. The Relationship Between Human and Nature 11
Ⅴ. Conclusion 13
Bibliography 15
Acknowledgements 17
I. Introduction
Herman Melville was a great American writer in Romantic period, in particular for his masterpiece Moby Dick, a great book with heart-shaking whaling experience, philosophical meditation of realism and fantasy, vested with the poetic coloring of romance. Moby Dick was first published in 1851, but it was overlooked in its author’s time. So Melville never achieved the recognition until the 1920s. Due to the ubiquity of symbolism and persity of theme, the novel has aroused heated discussion among critics. Some critics hold it the greatest American novel and they assert that there is no other character as commanding Ahab and no other as full of such action, religion, philosophy, detailed information about a way of life, democratic beliefs, humor, tremendous variety of style and allusions. Therefore, Moby Dick has been studied and analyzed from different angles by hundreds of writers. Some writers focus on the protagonist Ahab, who is seen as the tragic hero, while some writers study the relationship between human and nature which is also Melville’s constant theme. This paper takes Melville’s symbols as the subject matter.
But what does it make him become a master of symbolism? It relates to his experience and culture background.
Herman Melville was born in New York City in 1819. His childhood was happy to the age of eleven when his father died in debt. He had little education and began to work early. He was a bank clerk, a salesman, a farm-hand on his uncle’s farm and a school teacher. When these all failed to offer him a decent livelihood, he went to sea at about 20. These early sailing experiences aroused his desire for adventure. In 1841, Melville went to the South Seas on a whaling ship, working as a Whaler, about the lowest of sailors. In the following three years, Melville served on three different whalers, where he gained abundant raw materials for most of his major fictions, including Moby Dick.