《茶花女》读书报告A Book Report on The Lady of the Camellias.docx

茶花女读书报告A Book Report on The Lady of the Camellias A Book Report on The Lady of the Camellias Lowliness of humanity under the coat of hypocritical love As the author of The Lady of the Camellias, Alexander Dumasfils, says in the very beginning of the book, this story might arouse many controversies. To be honest, I am the one that is full of critical thoughts towards this story. Whether it is because of my living conditions, educational background or something like my special love view, I can hardly agree that the love between Marguerite Gautier and Armand Duval is pure and moving. What they called “love”, is simply a strong desire to find someone to rely on and possess him or her completely in that luxury and dissipated society. However, this kind of desire is eroded by the inner fragile, lowliness and external environment again and again. No matter from Marguerite and Armands attitude toward their romance or trust between each other, there is no evidence to say that the happening and developing of their “love” is reasonable. All Marguerites “great sacrifices”, in my opinion, is completely a good way to hide her inferiority feeling. The tragedy of the lady of the camellias is inevitable and it is very nature to see Marguerite and Armand to suffer from the bitterness. That is the cost of what we called “hypocritical love” in the subtitle. Why I showed a great disapproval towards the story which is praised by so many famous people? Is that mean that I am a person who is lack of sympathy and kindness? The answer is absolutely no. To be honest, I am easily moved by some literature works or movies, however, the only feeling the story leaves me is boring. Then I will illustrate why the “love” between Marguerite Gautier and Armand Duval cannot be called a true love from two aspects. First, the flaws show in their characters. We were all born with more or less character flaws, or something distinct from others. This is the very base on which contradiction arise between one and another. However, different from ordinary instances, Marguerite and Armand have a surprisingly similar character flaw, that is, deeply self-abased, although the roots of their self-abased feeling are very different. In this way, the author successfully gains a general sympathy and compassion from readers. But I think it is unacceptable to pay our sympathy and compassion to Marguerite and Armands miserable “love” which is generated from a similar character flaw. For this kind of story is completely unworthy. As far as I am concerned, Marguerites strongest self-abased feeling comes from her identity as a courtesan. On one hand, she has the habit of spending money extravagantly and she cannot give up the life which every man might be her lover. Just as the story tells us: On the large table standing against one wall, it measured a good six feet by three, shone the finest treasures of Aucoc and Odiot. It was a magnificent collection, and among the countless objects each so essential to the appearance of the kind of woman in whose home we had gathered, there was not one that was not made of gold or silver. But it was a collection that could only have been assembled piece by piece, and clearly more than one love had gone into its making. Reading the text above, it is not difficult to understand if Marguerite leaves this kind of life, she cannot satisfy her desire and will not pay her high debt. On another hand, the identity as a courtesan becomes the biggest stumbling stone in the two young peoples love. Demanded by Marguerite, Armand swears that he will love her forever once and once again. And Marguerite also uses a lot of exaggerated words to express her love towards Armand. However, Marguerite shows extremely uneasy when Armands father asks his son to meet him in Paris. Though Marguerite just buries the feeling of self-abased deeply in her heart, she never gets rid of it. She knows clearly what her “honor history” in the past means to her and obviously she feels shameful because of that. No matter how beautiful she is, no matter how many times she is flattered by men, those stains will end the “love” between herself and Armand. That is why when Armands father persuades Marguerite to leave his son, without a lot of talking, her thoughts was easily swayed. She asked the old father to kiss her once as he would kiss his daughter, and in this way, she can stand against her love. To be honest, however, the bigger her sacrifice is, the deeper her self-abased is. However sincere the kiss is, marguerite fails her “love” and ignore Armands feeling. Armand, as a young man, was born into a common family which means that his family is not too rich or not too poor. However, just this kind of family might has a strict demand on the probity of the family. As the result of that, on one hand, Armand has not such a economic power to meet Marguerites demands on the substantial life, let alone repaying those high debts for her. On the other hand, the great oppression from Armands family is one of the inevitable difficulties for Armand. The honor of the whole family, the future happiness of his sister and the fervent hope of his father become a heavy burden on poor Armands shoulder. Compared with Marguerites lovers in the past, he is completely a poor guy. As a consequence of that, Armands thought of regarding Marguerite as a common girl and monopolizing her is preposterous. Each time he finds Marguerite meets other lover and becomes extremely angry. This action is also ignorant and naïve. The deeply self-abased feeling in Armands heart is generate from there. Lacking of confidence and be self-abased, though Armand and Marguerite have a good time in countryside, he always has a distressed and unconscious opinion towards their “love”. And that is why when Marguerite leaves a letter in which it says she wants to get rid of him, without too much suspicion, Armand accepts the fact. He just tries to meet Marguerite once, but she rejects to meet him. After that Armand suddenly transforms his great “love” into great “hate” and starts his crazy revenge. In my opinion, the reason why Armand changes so fast on his attitude is that he cares about Marguerites identity as a courtesan. He cannot forget it at all so he afraid that Marguerite would do that job again. Armand is self-abased and selfish, he cannot bear the truth that Marguerite sells all her jewelry without telling him. He has a shallow vision and he is out of his mind because of his “love”. What he really cares about is the fact that Marguerite has abandoned him. He even never considers whether Marguerite has her unutterable reasons. Seriously lacking of trust, should we still call this kind of emotion a true “love”? The answer is absolutely no. Second, a fault has been made at the very beginning of their “love”. Armand falls in love with Marguerite at his first sight. There is no omen as well as reason for this. Armand behaves very silly in front of Marguerite and this makes him feel extremely disgraced. After that, Armands “love” lasts for several years and during this period, his strong feeling of “love” is weakening gradually. To be honest, he himself also starts to be suspicious of his “love” towards Marguerite. We can make a conclusion that during this long time, Armand only knows that Marguerite is a courtesan and there is no other further understanding and emotional foundation between Armand and his lover. So I think that Armand just appreciate Marguerites beautiful appearance and he is just pay more attention on that than other people. After Marguerite has accepted Armands “love”, without any reasonable bedding, they fall in hot “love” with each other very soon. As a courtesan, having experienced a lot, Marguerite has made many of her young lovers becomes bankruptcy. In light of this, marguerite must have been accustomed to the “love” of Armands style, let alone Armand is a penniless guy. Whats more, Marguerite knows nothing about Armand. How can she possibly give her sincere “love” to such a stranger? It is completely unbelievable and ridiculous. For a long time, people regard The Lady of the Camellias as the classic book in literature. Moved by the story, many of them shed tears and believe that it is a great and gracious love. Having read some of the remarks of this work, I find many people are in praise of the humanity shown in it. Some of them even involve the issue of gender bias. It might be a great pity that I cannot understand Marguerite Gautier and Armand Duvals pure “love”. In my opinion, the love view in the authors time is very different from that of mine. I feel that there are no difference between this work and those boring and ridiculous soap opera. Some details of vital importance in my view are not given by the author. There is another saying that the work itself is based on the real story of the author and a courtesan. This arise more questions in my heart. All in all, to be honest, I do not enjoy The Lady of the Camellias, and all the opinions written above are only my personal views. I hope my readers will not feel angry after reading what I have written.