英语专业毕业论文 On Symbolism in A Farewell to Arms 永别了武器.doc

英语专业毕业论文 On Symbolism in A Farewell to Arms 永别了，武器 西安文理学院毕业论文 题 目: On Symbolism in A Farewell to Arms 浅析永别了,武器中的象征主义 院 (系): 外国语学院 专 业: 英语 学生姓名: 学 号: 指导教师: 职 称: 2012年5月 Abstract A Farewell to Arms is a masterpiece of the famous American writer Ernest Hemingway. It is a novel related to war and love. From the experience of the hero, Lieutenant Frederic Henry on the battlefield and the love story between the hero and the heroine, Catherine Barkley, Hemingway aims at delivering the double themes to the readers: anti-war theme and tragedy-love theme. Symbolism, as a literary technique, has a great tradition, and it plays an important role in the novel. Hemingways use of symbolism is not accidental, but intentional and organic. Hemingways profuse use of symbolism makes a great contribution to the richness of the double themes of the novel. The use of symbolism in A Farewell to Arms can be categorized into two kinds: symbols associated with nature, including rain, snow, plain, mountain and water; and symbols associated with people, including Catherine, Rinaldi and the nameless priest. The present paper focuses on the symbolism concerned in A Farewell to Arms from the two main aspects, which provides readers with an in-depth understanding of the themes.Key words: Hemingway; A Farewell to Arms; symbolism; anti-war; image摘 要 永别了,武器是美国著名作家厄内斯特?海明威的代表作。小说讲述了一个关于战争与爱情的故事。作者对小说男主人公亨利的战场经历的描写及对男女主人公爱情故事的讲述,旨在向读者传达着这部小说的双重主题:反战和悲剧性的爱情。象征主义手法作为一种文学技巧,有着良好的传统, 而其在永别了,武器这部作品中也起着十分重要的作用。人们普遍认为,海明威在小说创作中对象征主义的运用决不是偶然的,而是有意而为的。海明威对象征主义独具匠心的运用,极大地丰富了小说的内涵与意蕴。象征主义在永别了,武器这部小说中的运用可以被大致分为两类:自然象征和人物象征。其中自然象征的意象包括:雨,雪,平原,高山和水;人物象征的意象则为女主人公凯瑟琳,男主人公的朋友?雷纳第和无名的意大利教士。本文拟通过对永别了,武器这部小说中具有象征意义的意象的分析,帮助读者更好地理解该小说的主旨。关键词:海明威;永别了,武器;象征主义;反战;意象ContentsIntroduction.1Symbolism.2Themes of A Farewell to Arms.44Symbolism in A Farewell to Arms4.1 Symbols associated with nature. 5 4.1.1 Rain.5 4.1.2 Snow.7 4.1.3 Mountain.7 4.1.4 Plain.8 4.2 Symbols associated with people. 9 4.2.1 Catherine.9 4.2.2 Rinaldi and Priest.95Conclusion.10References.11Acknowledgements.12Introduction Ernest Hemingway is one of the most celebrated novelists in American literature history. He is generally regarded as the representative of “The Lost Generation”. Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois. He experienced WWI and also witnessed the Spanish Civil War and World War II. All those experiences have helped him in his writing. The other masterpieces of Hemingway are The Sun Also Rises, The Old Man and the Sea and For Whom the Bell Tolls, etc. Hemingway was productive during his life, his talent and creativity in novel and short story was widely admired and drew much attention at that time. His popularity went on to grow even after his death. Hemingways special style makes him outstanding in modern literature. In his works, it is easy to find his distinct features of writing skills. For example, the use of simple sentences and conversations makes his works easier for the readers to understand. Especially in his work A Farewell to Arms, the writing skills are colorful. From its initial publication, A Farewell to Arms has attracted much attention and received high praise. Critics such as Malcolm Cowley and Carlos Baker, treat Hemingway as a writer of symbolism. In A Farewell to Arms the writer deals with the war and love directly and there are obvious autobiographical origins. During the First World War, Lieutenant Frederic Henry is an American ambulance driver in Italian army. In fact, Henry does not feel that his life and future will be affected by the war. His life is busy with pleasures, drinking and sex, which is hedonistic lifestyle. Catherine Barkley is a nurse at a nearby British hospital. These two young people meet by chance, and then fall in love with each other. Since Henry is wounded in the head and legs at the front during a bombardment and is then moved to a hospital in Milan, where Catherine comes to look after him during his recuperation and their relationship develops. Henry professes his love for Catherine. From then on, Catherine works the night shift and they have sex with each other. They have a happy and peaceful summer together while Henry recuperates after a successful operation. At the end of the summer, Henry gets a letter from the army, which calls him back to the front. Then in that autumn, Catherine announces that she is already pregnant, which makes them both excited, but unwilling to marry him. Henry returns to the front and finds that the conditions have grown more cynical than before. Things have not been going well for the Italians. The war has become much more serious and threatening. And even the priest tells him about his desperation. The Italian army has to retreat after the Austrians attack for several days. Henry and other people all bear horrors and great tribulations when they retreat miserably. At the time the battle police tell Henry that they doubt his identity and he will be mistaken for a spy because of his foreign accent, he deserts his post. Henry escapes by jumping into the river. But when he goes to find Catherine in the hospital, he is told that Catherine has left for Stresa. So he goes to Stresa to get together with Catherine. The couple lives a short happy life there. But one night the Italian officers warn that they are planning to arrest him, therefore, Henry leaves for Switzerland with Catherine the next morning. In Switzerland, they have a peaceful life without the disturbance of the war. Then they move to Lausanne in the winter, awaiting the birth of their baby. But the baby is stillborn and Catherine dies. Finally Henry is left alone in the world. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway has its own values and artistic features in the literature history. In the past days, many learners have studied this novel from many respects. For example, the anti-war theme, the inevitability of the tragedy, the arrangements of conversations in the text, and so on. Learners indeed make great contribution to the study of this novel and they present different aspects of A Farewell to Arms to the readers. The present paper makes a further study of its use of symbolism. Symbolism According to American Heritage Dictionary, symbolism has five meanings: a. the practice of representing things by means of symbols or of attributing symbolic meanings or significance to objects, events, or relationships. b. A system of symbols or representations. c. A symbolic meaning or representation. d. Revelation or suggestion of intangible conditions or truths by artistic invention. e. The movement, theory or practice of the late 19th-century symbolists. As a literary movement, the beginning of symbolism is often ascribed to the publication of Charles Baudelaires poems Les Fleurs du Mal Flowers of evil in France in 1857.As suggested by Baudelaires title, symbolism explored the darker, more introspective aspect of human emotions through mythical or religious themes and reveled in dreamlike or allusive imaginary. Symbolism is defined by Kennedy and Gioia (1983)as a “visible object or action that suggests some further meaning in addition to itself.” Symbolism uses an evocative kind of specific image to show the abstracts. In other words, the word or the phrase in a certain situation, not only refers to a concrete object, scene, or action, but also has some inferred meaning or further significance, “something you can see that has taken on meaning beyond itself” Guth, Rico.For example, water, rose, plain, and bridge are always used as symbols in some literary works, through which, the author could deliver his ideas or views in a special way and the reader could understand the theme of the art work clearly and deeply. It is usually not proper to say that a literary symbol “stands for” some idea as if it were just a substitute for a certain meaning, actually, it is usually a substantial image in its own right, around which further significances may gather according to different interpretations. When you think of a symbol, think of something tangible, something you can touch with your hand, something you can see with your eyes, something you can hear with your ears .If the things can not be known by certain sense, you can eliminate it from consideration as a symbol. When we look at symbolism in literature, we are looking at a specific meaning the symbol represents. Kennedy: “In literature, a symbol might be the word flag or the words a black cat crossed his path or every description of flag or cat in an entire novel, story, play or poem” Kennedy, Gioia Joseph Conrad, the author of Heart of Darkness, is good at using symbolism in his works. And the symbolism indeed helps him to express his points of view. He is a forerunner of the modern English novelists in his careful creation of symbolical significance. He makes extensive use of symbols in his fiction. An element of a story like plot, event, or character, or a common object like ship, river, silver mine, or even butterfly, can be used by Conrad to establish the symbolical meanings through the expansion of their inherent properties. In Heart of Darkness, The story-teller is Marlow. During his voyage in Africa, Marlow gets some information about Kurtz, which make him feel sad and depressed because of evil and cruelty. When it comes to the symbolism in Heart of Darkness, it is obvious that the title has the symbolical meaning. Firstly, darkness refers to Africas poverty and European colonists cruelty. Secondly, heart is another key word. It means that the figure of Africa continent likes heart, and also, it symbolizes that the European colonists, such as Kurtzs heart is filled with greed, evil and cruelty. In the novel, there are many symbols. Taking “white” as example, the first person Marlow meets in the trade station is white. The whites clean and tidy clothes make Marlow think that hi is a respected person. But soon the reader could find that the white aims at seeking elephant teeth in Africa. He is actually indifferent. It seems that Conrad want to reveal the hypocrisy of the white, who grows up under the civilization. In the whole, the use of symbolism in Heart of Darkness strongly reveals a heinous soul. Nathaniel Hawthorne is a representative writer of symbolism. His The Scarlet Letter is a masterpiece, which makes his fame and gives to American literature its first symbolic novel. The theme of the novel is depicting sin and its consequences, around which the moods are created, are those of remorse, sorrow and despair. There are many symbolic images in this novel. Those images help the author develop the plot and the readers understand the theme of the novel. To start with, the main characters names are all symbolical. The heroine, Hester Prynne, gathers many symbolic meaning from the author. The name implies beauty, self-respect and endurance. “And never had Hester Prynne appeared more lady-like, in the antique interpretation of the term than as she issued from the prison.” It is her personality that makes her live bravely under the cruel rules of the Puritans. Her partner and pastor, Arthur Dimmesdale, the abbreviation of which is AD, also is the abbreviation of adultery. From this, the author means to tell that Dimmesdale is the father of Pearl. Thus, it implies that Dimmesdale is dim-interior. Finally, Roger Chillingworth. His family name is made up with two parts, “chilling” and “worth”. “Chilling” is “chilly”, which means cold; standing for that chillingworth is a relentless avenger. The letter “A” has different symbolic meanings. Firstly, it stands for “Adultery”. Secondly, it symbolizes Adam, referring to the original sin. Finally, “A” also stands for “Able, angel”, showing Hesters tender mercy and kindness. To conclude, symbolism is widely used in literary works and is useful to deepen the themes of the novels.3. Themes of A Farewell to Arms Symbolism is a distinct feature of A Farewell to Arms. It stimulates the delivery of the themes. In order to see to the effect of the symbolism in the novel, it is better to analyze the themes of it. The anti-war theme and the tragedy-love theme are the double themes of this novel, which are heightened by the use of symbolism. So the symbolism indeed functions well in deepening the themes of the work. It is believed that A Farewell to Arms has anti-war theme and tragedy-love theme. It can be studied from many aspects. The title “A Farewell to Arms” is a pun, which can be understood as “goodbye to the war” and “goodbye to love”. In the novel, many officers and soldiers hate the war very much, especially the soldiers, some of them even get hurt intentionally in order to escape from the damn war. The battlefield is like hell for many soldiers. It changes their attitudes and values for life and world. There is an impressive plot, making readers clearly see that soldiers fear and hatred for the war. One of the injured soldiers does not want to be back to the front, so he refuses to use the plaster to fix his legs and kicks his own head consciously. And some other soldiers even tend to make themselves disabled through alcoholism. The common people also dislike this war. No matter the boss or the waiter of the bar, or Henrys friends, all give hands to Henry, which implies peoples antipathy to the war and the sympathy for the injured people. And the hero-Henry, who joins the army voluntarily, but then he finds that the war is so horrible that he tends to escape form the terrible battlefield. In his eye, the soldiers in the battlefield are like the “ants on the burned wood, some escape; some are burned, either; while some dont know where to go and have to die in the fire”. Faced with the horrible war, Henry begins to love the common life. When he meets Catherine, he just falls in love with her crazily. However, their later life does not peaceful because of the war. The end of the novel is sad-Catherine dies and Henry lives alone in the world. It is a tragedy. Actually, their lives are not peaceful all the time. The conversations between the characters, the expression of the settings and the symbolic images all serve as the tool to show the authors attitude towards the war and to predict the tragic ending of the love story. Through the plot writing and the environment expression, readers can catch the novels themes-anti-war and tragedy-love. Obviously, symbolism plays a great r