英语本科毕业论文邪恶与救赎 ─《好人难寻》与《小伙子布朗》的对比研究.doc

忻州师范学院2012届本科生毕业论文 题 目 邪恶与救赎 好人难寻与小伙子布朗的对比研究 姓 名 学 号 201002112001 系 班 外本0804班 专 业 英语 指导教师 职 称 讲师 CONTENTS汉语提纲I中文摘要IIIAbstract:11 Introduction12 The contrast on the authors faith22.1 Flannery OConnor22.2 Nathaniel Hawthorne33 The contrast of character images33.1 The evil images in A Good Man Is Hard to Find33.2 The evil images in Young Goodman Brown54. The contrast of redemption actions64.1 The redemption in A Good Man Is Hard to Find74.2 The redemption in Young Goodman Brown75. Conclusion8Notes9References10Acknowledgements12毕业论文（设计）任务书13毕业论文（设计）开题报告14毕业论文设计指导记录表18毕业论文设计成绩评定表（指导教师用）19毕业论文设计成绩评定表（评阅教师用）.19毕业论文设计成绩评定表（评阅教师用）20邪恶与救赎好人难寻与小伙子布朗的对比研究（提纲）1. 引言 邪恶、救赎是国内外学者对奥康纳、霍桑作品一直以来的研究主题,但少有人将两者进行对比研究,尤其是他们的短篇之作好人难寻与小伙子布朗，本论文就是从这方面着手的。首先提出邪恶与救赎的中心论点，然后通过作者信仰的对比，作品中人物形象的对比以及人物救赎行为的对比来阐释作品共同的主题 人人皆邪恶，因邪恶而需救赎的因果之道。2作者信仰的对比虽然奥康纳与霍桑处于不同的时代背景，不同的家庭背景以及不同的生活经历之下，但是他们同样深受宗教思想的影响。对于基督教的原罪观的认可，有着惊人的共鸣。所以不难发现他们的作品往往向读者呈现出一个罪恶无所不在，罪恶人人皆有的罪人世界。3. 作品的对比 好人难寻讲述了一个平凡的六口之家外出度假途中被枪杀的离奇、诡异故事。小伙子布朗叙述了一个单纯的年轻人布朗因经不住诱惑而奔赴魔鬼的森林之约的寓言故事。这一部分就是两部作品的对比，主要从两方面进行探究的：3.1 作品中的人物形象的对比描述、分析好人难寻与小伙子布朗中的典型意象，通过人物形象与心理的分析来揭示人物的性格特征。比如，老祖母、不合时宜以及布朗。老祖母极度的自私、虚伪。她为达目的，用尽方法。面对亲人的离去，却只顾求全自我；不合时宜是个冷酷无情的杀人魔。他视生命如草贱，认为生活没什么乐趣可言；布朗在诱惑之下参加了魔鬼的盛宴，从此活在了痛苦、不信任、精神错乱的世界里。不同的人物形象揭示出的是隐匿于每个人心中的邪恶因子的存在。3.2 作品中的人物动作行为方式的对比 故事中都有罪，都有恶，但同样也有救赎。读者可以通过人物的动作、言语行为来解读救赎。有关于老祖母、不合时宜的救赎，有关于布朗的救赎。可能他们救赎的方式，救赎的程度不同。但就是这样的救赎行为警示人们，因为罪，因为恶，而需救赎的因果之道。4. 结论 通过对好人难寻与小伙子布朗的对比研究，探索出它们共同的主题 邪恶与救赎，不同的故事揭示给读者的是人人皆邪恶，因恶而需救赎的因果之道。邪恶与救赎 好人难寻与小伙子布朗的对比研究系班：外本0804 姓名：王晓玲 学号：201002112001 指导教师：杨东升摘要：好人难寻是美国杰出女作家奥康纳的经典短篇小说，小伙子布朗是霍桑的出色短篇之作。许多评论家都曾尝试着从不同的角度解读这两部作品，而多数人还是将眼球集中于邪恶、救赎之上。本论文旨在通过两部作品的对比来探求邪恶与救赎的观点。尽管奥康纳与霍桑家庭背景不同，宗教信仰不同，但他们都有着宗教情结，对原罪观有着惊人的共鸣。因此不难从他们的作品中发现邪恶的意象与救赎的行为。通过这两方面的对比，读者能够更好地理解它们共同的主题 人人皆邪恶，因邪恶而需救赎的因果之道。关键词：弗兰纳里·奥康纳, 那撒尼尔·霍桑, 原罪, 邪恶, 救赎 The Evil and Redemption A Comparative study on A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Young Goodman Brown系班：外本0804 姓名：王晓玲 学号：201002112001 指导教师：杨东升Abstract: A Good Man Is Hard to Find is a classic short story wrote by the outstanding American female writer Flannery O Connor. Young Goodman Brown is one of the best fictions of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Many critics try to read these stories from different angles, while most of them confine their eyes to the evil or redemption. This paper is mainly on the contrast of the two works, attempting to explore and summarize the issue of evil and redemption. Although O Connor and Hawthorne have different family background and different faith, they both have the deep religion complex and have the common sense of original sin. So its easy to find so many evil character images and the redemption actions in the two stories. By the contrast of these aspects, readers can easily understand their common theme everyone is born with evil, which needs to be redeemed.Key Words: OConnor, Hawthorne, original sin, evil, redemption1 Introduction Evil or redemption is the common theme of A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Young Goodman Brown. In recent years, many scholars at home and abroad have studied it in many ways and also reached a considerable height. However, they seldom make contrast between the authors and the two works, and study evil and redemption together. Only the domestic scholar, Fang Jie, has published a paper on the contrast of original sin and redemption in O Connor and Hawthornes works. This paper is mainly on the contrast of A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Young Goodman Brown, attempting to explore and summarize the issue of evil and redemption, which is mainly analyzed under the character images and the redemption actions. It reveals a world of evil, a world of sin, and a world needs to be redeemed. The whole paper consists of four parts. It begins with the introduction to the theme, the authors and their works. Then it makes a contrast on the authors faith from their family background and life experience. Next, it focuses on the contrast of works. In this part, it will be presented the contrast from two aspects: the character images and their redemption actions. The last part makes conclusion on the evil and redemption.2 The contrast on the authors faithAlthough Flannery OConnor and Nathaniel Hawthorne live differently in the different family of different times, they are deeply influenced by the Christianity. They have the common sense of original sin. So it's not hard to find a world of evil, a world of sin or a world needs to be redeemed in their works. 2.1 Flannery OConnorFlannery OConnor was born on March 25, 1925, in Savannah, Georgia, the only child of devout Roman Catholics from prominent Georgia families. Savannah is the oldest intellectual centers of Georgia, which has a strong flavor of Catholics. And O'Connor is a Southerner, coming from a family with deep roots in the religion and deeply influenced by the mid-century Catholic Revival. So she is rooted with the strong faith of Christian Orthodoxy from the bottom of heart. She completely accepts the Christian view of original sin and redemption. Shed like to connect everything around her with her faith. She writes with a solid belief in all the Christian dogmas.On August 3, 1964, Flannery O'Connor died of lupus, the degenerative disease that was inherited from her father. She was thirty-nine years old. Flannery O'Connor did not live long, but she lived deeply, and wrote beautifully, as one critic noted. She is good at depicting the darker side of human beings. In her works, a good man is really hard to find. The themes of O'Connors stories are related to original sin, the mystery of grace and redemption, and the fear of God, so she has been labeled to an established author. Just as Robert Drake asserts, she is a writer who has only one story to tell”. All of her works are close to religion. In order to share her faith with readers, O'Connor always chooses to depict redemption through shocking, often violent action upon characters that are spiritually or physically grotesque. In her eyes, violence can adjust peoples view of themselves as well as their religious beliefs and bring them spiritual redemption. She is a born Catholic and death has always been brother to her imagination. To her, the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ are the most significant facts of human existence.2.2 Nathaniel HawthorneNathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804, in a ruined aristocratic family, in the city of Salem, Massachusetts. His ancestors were all puritans, including John Hathorne the only judge involved in the Salem witch trials who never represented of his actions. So Nathaniel later added a “w to make his name “Hawthorne “in order to hide this relation and show his position. His father died when the young Nathaniel was four years old. Then he lived a puritanical monastic life with his mother and two sisters. So Nathaniel Hawthorne was deeply influenced by Puritanism. Nathaniel Hawthorne is the descendent of the pilgrim, having a strong belief in moral decree. He is considered an important representation of Puritanism. He is interested in the lonely and dark side of man, and in the mans need to look into his own soul. He is also deeply influenced by the original sin of Puritan. Much of Hawthornes writing centers on New England, many works featuring moral allegories with a puritan inspiration. His fiction works are considered part of the Romantic Movement, and more specifically, dark romanticism. His themes often center on the inherent evil and sin of humanity, and his works often have moral messages and deep psychological complexity. This is Hawthorne, who has the complicated feeling on Puritanism, and believes that “man is basically sinful and evil is the nature of mankind.”3 The contrast of character imagesThere are different character images in the different works. In A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Young Goodman Brown, some images are very typical. They have different characteristics and some in common the evil in heart. Under the contrast of character images, it reveals that man is born with evil. Moreover, the way to present the images in the two stories is very different. The former is mainly showed by actions and words while the latter is by psychoanalysis.3.1 The evil images in A Good Man Is Hard to FindIn the story A Good Man Is Hard to Find, almost everyone is born with evil, the grandmother, the baby or others. The grandmother is an extremely selfish and hypocritical old lady. She is a contradiction of complex structure in inner and exterior world. The grandmother is outwardly wise and selfless but inwardly foolish and selfish. She dressed up like an elegant old lady, but she did nothing like that. And she is the indirect murderer who killed the whole family. So, to some extent, she is the most evil character. She uses others to serve her own purpose. In the beginning of the story, the grandmother didnt want to go to Florida. In order to change her son Baileys mind, she mentions about the escaped convict The Misfit and says, “I wouldnt take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldnt answer to my conscience if I did.” On the journey to Florida, when she recalls the plantation that she once visited in the neighborhood of Toombsboro and wants to see it again very much, then she uses the children again. She says to children, “There was a secret panel in this house.” She said craftily, not telling the truth, but wishing that she were.” This life arouses the interest of the children to see the plantation and let Bailey turn to round that she points to. When confronting with The Minister, the grandmother tries every means to save herself. As The Minister instructs his accomplices to murder the family one by one, the grandmother begins pleading for her own life by flattering The Misfit, but not being grieved and furious.The grandmother is still capricious and foolish. She stealthily carried her cat on the car, which eventually directly caused the accident. During the trip, the old lay settled herself comfortably, removing her white cotton gloves and putting them up with her purse on the shelf in front of the back window. The childrens mother still had on slacks and still had her head tied up in a green kerchief, but the grandmother had on a navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print. Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady.” The whole paragraph mainly depicts that how appropriately the grandmother dresses herself. But the last sentence shows that how stupid she is.The Misfit is a cold-blooded, criminal. He is frightening, as to him, killing a man is only a piece of cake like “take a tire off his car.” He is the Satan and devil in the real world. But he looks like a scholar with a pair of silver-rimmed spectacles. In fact, The Misfits personal experience and personality are very complex. He is a strong-willed, cruel person who could not believe in something he has never seen, especially God. He has “been in the arm force, both land and sea, at home and abroad, been twice married; been an undertaker, been with the railroads, plowed Mother Eather, been in a tornado, seen a man burnt alive oncet and even seen a woman flogged.” He is a kind of person who has strong opinions towards people, society and even God. He thinks “its no pleasure in life.” He seriously questions the meaning of life and his role in it. He thinks the only worthwhile thing to do in life is to “ enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can-by killing somebody or burning down his house or doing some other meanness to him. No pleasure but meanness. He knows he isnt a great man, but he also knows that there are others worse than him. “the crime dont matter ” is a kind of normal philosophies in his world. From all above, we can find that The Misfit is an abnormal psychological person and extremist. Obviously he is also an evil character in the story.There are also some other characters in the story. For example, Bailey, the son of the old lady, is indifferent to his mother. As the head of the family, he did nothing in the disaster. Baileys wife, a young woman, whose face is as broad and innocent as a cabbage. She is almost invisible in the family. When her turn to die comes, she sits dangling her left arm at her side while holding the baby with the other arm. The Misfit says,“ Lady，would you and that little girl like to stop off yonder with Bobby Lee and Hiram and join your husband?” Her astonishing response is“ Yes，thank you.” John Wesley and June Star are rude and savage. They are hellions with sassy tongues, but their parents show no inclination to discipline them. So, it seems its true that a good man is hard to find in the story.3.2 The evil images in Young Goodman BrownIn the story, you can find that all those people were all induced by evil to attend the gathering in the forest and so did Goodman Brown. Brown starts out as a good, happy, decent man. He is married; he seems very content. All of these change when he decides to accept the invitation from a mysterious traveler, one that shocks and disillusions him. He is tempted by the devil and succumbs because of his curiosity and the weakness of his faith. Unfortunately, Brown accepted the devils invitation. This meant that his faith began to vacillate. When he found that his wife, Faith, was brought to be devil and declared her faithfulness to evil, he said: “My Faith is gone!” Here, Faith does not only mean that he lost his wife but also mean that he lost his faith in the religion he believed in, Puritanism. So he said: “There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come, devil! For to you is this world given.” From then on, he trapped in spiritual and psychological torment; lost every bit of happiness he previously passed; and stepped closer to the devil. He couldnt accept the fact that his father, grandmother, Goody Cloyse, the minister, Deacon Gookin, and even Faith were all leagued with the devil. They all had sold their souls for money, power, prestige or others and allied with Satan. At last, he became depressed and extremely suspious. His brain became addled day and night, and he ended the rest of his life in sorrow. Brown changed from good into devil, sinking into the abyss step by step. He was destroyed by his own obsession: “Evil is the nature of mankind.”