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The main content of Sartre’s existentialist philosophy consists of four aspects. First is the idea that “existence precedes essence”. People determine their nature and characteristics through self-selection. Second is that “the world is absurd, and life is painful.” The whole world has no reason at all and life is a process full of painful struggle. Third is the “freedom of choice”. No matter what kind of life it is, they are the results of the trajectory of inpidual freedom of choice. Fourth is that “hell is other people”. There are full of conflicts and contradictions among people. Existentialism advocates putting personal life, liberty, existence into the first place in order to show the negative attitude towards the ugly realities of capitalism, and to treat it as the eternal absurdity existing in the world. It advocates a living philosophy of nothingness and explains that man is alive without a purpose and all human activities are in vain. Existentialism reflects both the resentment and disgust towards the ugly reality of capitalism, and also promotes the subjective idealism and inpidualism which regard oneself as center, as well as beautify pessimistic philosophy of life in the name of “freedom”.
According to the article written by Wang Lan in Western Literary Key Words, “anti-hero” is a relative concept with “hero”. It is a type of role in movies, dramas or novels. Authors performed on traditional values “falsification” by changing the fate of such roles, which marked the publicizing of personal ideology, the labefaction of traditional moral values and people’s query towards ideals and beliefs. “Anti-hero” is not a “villain” or a synonym of “negative” roles, but a collectively known name of the characters in certain literary works. Observed from the surface, they may be humble and always take the attitude of indifference, anger, insensibility towards social politics and morality, but their motivations are not evil which reflects the author’s decomposition and removal of the concept of “Hero”. It can be said that the “anti- hero” comes into being with the generation of “hero”. “Anti- hero” in literary works can be roughly classified into the following four categories. The first category is the “positive ordinary people”. These anti-heroes are some enterprising and mentally healthy ordinary people, who possess self-confidence and are no longer attached to any value system. They are the masters of their own. They are confident, optimistic and always keep moving forward. One example is Jane Eyre. She treats everyone as a distinctive inpidual. Her observation and behaviors suggest her understanding and care of humanity. Jane Eyre indicates the human-oriented humanism. The second category is “people who suddenly wake up from the illusion”. Their “mentally healthy activities” are influenced by the ideology of the times so they attempt to pursue some seemingly lofty heroic dreams or beliefs. But once these beliefs are proved to be false, they will calm down, or even become distorted; that is, their grand visions are disillusioned. Such disillusion often brings profound moral reflection. Don Quixote is a typical representative of this category. He implies the author’s awareness of social responsibility and the crisis of human’s existence. The third category is “modern people who lose faith”. They indicate modern society’s lack of beliefs. Such anti-heroes are cynical and indifferent due to absence of clear goals and positive values. They cannot understand what rich common life is. As the researching subject of this paper, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is this kind of “anti- hero” masterpiece, and therefore, the protagonist Arthur Seaton also belongs to the category of “modern people who lose faith”. The fourth category is “people on the wasteland”. Critics in late 20th century might be inspired by The Waste Land (1922) written by Eliot, naming modern people as “people on the wasteland”. In works which describing such characters, the concept of “man” fades away and becomes hollow. One such book is Waiting for Godot. It embodies the world’s absurdness and lack of meaning as well as the loss of ego. As the subject of the “anti- hero” of this paper, Arthur Seaton belongs to “modern people who lose faith”. This paper shall analyze the “anti-hero” in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning according to the above four main aspects of Sartre’s existentialism. As the analysis subject of this paper, Arthur Seaton belongs to the third category. “Anti- hero” can often indicate a universal problem and it reflects a social survival contradiction and crisis of values. By studying the “anti- hero” of the novel, this thesis is able to warn us people who live in the present society that we should have definite goals and beliefs.