英语论文萨克雷笔下的利倍加

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1、第 12 页 共 12 页1 IntroductionVanity Fair is Thackerays masterpiece. It gives a comprehensive view of English society in the early 19th century. The author intends to paint a vivid picture of egoistic and hypocritical society, and Rebecca is the product of this era. The subtitle of the book is A Novel

2、without a Hero, but Rebecca is always been regarded as the heroine, because the author describes the ruthless and darkness of the capital society based on the description of Rebeccas whole life.1.1 The Author and His WorkThackeray was a representative of critical realism in the 19th century English.

3、 He was born in Calcutta, India, in the family of an English official. (Zhao Hongying, 2006) His father died when he was three, and Thackeray was sent home to England in 1817. Thackeray was educated at Charterhouse, where he was not happy, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He left Cambridge in June

4、 1830 without taking a degree. He then trained as a lawyer, purchased and edited a periodical, the National Standard and, when it failed, spent a period studying art in Paris, he was later to illustrate much of his own work, including Vanity Fair. He then took up a career as a journalist, contributi

5、ng particularly to Frasers Magazine.In 1847, Frasers Magazine published the first installment of Vanity Fair, which became his most popular and celebrated work. As each monthly part came out, ecstatic praise was heaped on the book. The critical enthusiasm was not entirely reflected in the sale, but

6、Thackeray was suddenly famous. Vanity Fair was Thackerays first major novel and marked the peak of his literary career. This book, completed in the year 1848, was a social panorama of English upper -middle classes, satirizing their heartlessness, snobbery and pretentiousness at the height of their p

7、rosperity. Besides novel, Thackeray wrote a number of ballads and poems, but he is remembered a novelist. It is perhaps unfortunate that, whereas no single Dickens, novel can be said to overshadow the others. Vanity Fair is the book written by Thackeray that everyone knows, for all his serious works

8、 have a great deal to offer. Because of the critical and often sarcastic description of the English upper -middle class of the first half of the 19th century, Thackeray is regarded as one of the most outstanding representatives of the English critical realism.Vanity Fai is Thackerays masterpiece, wh

9、ich was first published in monthly installments in 1847-1848. The novel is principally built around the parallel careers of two characters, Rebecca (Becky) Sharp and Amelia Sedley, and at the same time gives a panoramic view of the English high society in the first half of the 19th century. (Gui Yan

10、gqing, 2005: 133) The novel is a caustic satire upon the aristocratic-bourgeois society of the time, which is compared to the Vanity Fair described in Bunyans allegory The Pilgrims Progress. The characters in the novel are portrayed with great vivacity in a life like a manner, and Becky Sharp, a tal

11、ented and resourceful woman, but also an adventuress embodying the many vices of a mammonist society, has become a proverbial figure in English Literature.In this book, Thackeray wrote about the social life of upper-classes of England 170 years ago, at the time when Napoleon Bonaparte was threatenin

12、g the peace of Europe. There is one clear, overarching theme in Vanity Fair. A Novel without a Hero and Thackeray telegraphs it in his title and subtitle. In the pages of Vanity Fair, all is vanity and all are vain. Some are vainermore obsessed with self and with the ephemeral treasures of social po

13、sition and moneythan others, but none, in the authors estimation, can be called heroic. (Su Miya, 2010: 161)The title of this great work comes from John Bunyans famous book The Pilgrims Progress. Bunyan describes a year-long fair held in that town, where hawkers sold fine houses, land, position, tit

14、les, kingdoms, evil pleasures, and delights of all kinds. The prose Vanity Fair now means the world with its glittering temptation and pleasures which always deceived human beings. The subtitle “A Novel without a Hero” makes people think a lot. We could see that: In this novel, there are no exactly

15、positive characters, that is to say, in this Vanity Fair; people are all bad or faulty. No one here is good enough to be a hero. The society here is corrupted. Moreover, this is a novel not about individuals singly but about a society-the upper middle class society. Besides, it can be a book concern

16、ing with women instead of men. The women, particularly Becky Sharp, are the heroines at the Centre of life while the male characters are but mean and tool in their climb or search for position and money.1.2 Literature ReviewRebecca is the main character of Vanity Fair; her image is controversial in

17、literature. Some scholars believe that Rebecca is the victim of that society, all she has done is to survive. Some of her behaviors can show her charming characteristics, she is an absolutely brave, smart and strong woman. Just like Zhang Shengzhen has mentioned in Analyzing Rebeccas Other Side, in

18、which he wrote, Rebecca lived in the hypocritical society, where is full of Venality, merciless, bully and oppress, greedy, timeserve and money talks. This is a vanity and gain market, in which everything can be sold for fame, money and status; everything can be betrayed, such as friendship, love, r

19、elationship between fathers and children and personal dignity; everything can be used, such as wrest, cheat, rascally, blackmail and even murder. (Zhang Shengzhen, 2001: 63)According to the last asking in reply sentence, Zhang Shengzhen has cleared his standpoint. He stands on the side with Rebecca.

20、 In a word, Rebecca is the products of that society. There is another example as followed,Rebecca Sharp has always been a controversial figure in Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray. The heroin Rebecca bears both the rich artistic quality and obvious characteristics of the time. She is a spar

21、kling beauty with intelligence, strong will and independence. A positive aspect of Rebecca Sharp provides us with brand new enlightenment. (Wang Guiyun, 2009: 76) At the same time, there are much more scholars against her. Taking Jang li for example, in her eyes, Becky was an absolutely villain. She

22、 thought Becky was selfish, hypocritical, greedy and fickle. Meanwhile, there are many scholars who did not point out their clear view, they admit Beckys positive sides, such as she was smart, brave and so on, and they also opposed to her negative sides, for example, Ling Qing. This paper analyses t

23、he characteristics of Beckys attitude which is selfish, indifferent, hypocritical but also confident and compassionate; volitional characteristics is clear target, grittiness but also sometimes blind and changeable; emotional characteristics is emotionormal, optimistic but also sometimes cachexia It

24、 is not reasonable to define Becky as “good” or “bad”, she is a complicated role. (Lin Qing, 2006: 26)1.3 Significance of the ThesisAs is mentioned above, the Vanity Fair and Rebecca has been studied for hundreds of times. This paper still pays attention to Rebecca, but from a totally different aspe

25、ct. Many scholars analyze her characteristics and define she is good or not. This paper analyzes Rebecca from her whole life and feeling experiences. It is obvious that Rebecca has not dealt well with the limitation when she is pursuing vanity and consequently without a good ending. This thesis is v

26、ery inspiring and worthy of being learned.This paper is mainly divided into six parts. The first part is the introduction, which briefly introduces the author William Makepeace Thackeray and the novel Vanity Fair. The second part is about the theory of New Criticism. Next is the most important part,

27、 which is the comprehensive analysis of Rebecca, especially, focusing on her life and feeling experiences. The following three parts are conclusion, acknowledgments and bibliography.2 Theory of New CriticismThis paper mainly adopts the theory of New Criticism to analyze the main character, Rebecca,

28、combining with the text close reading.2.1 DefinitionNew Criticism is a type of formalist current of literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature function

29、ed as a self-contained self-referential aesthetic object.New criticism developed in the 1920s-30s and peaked in the 1940s-50s. The movement is named after John Crowe Ransoms 1941 book The New Criticism. New critics focused on the text of a work of literature and tried to exclude the readers response

30、, the authors intention, historical, and cultural contexts, and moralistic bias from their analysis. Their aesthetic concerns were initially in essays like Pansoms Criticism, Inc.” and Allen Tates Miss Emily and the Bibliographeres.” New Critics often performed a close reading of the text and believ

31、ed the structure and meaning of the text are intimately connected and should not be analyzed separately. (Joel, 1910)2.2 Intensive Reading This paper analyzes the character profoundly by closely reading the text with the theory of New Criticism. Through the intensive reading, the image of Rebecca is

32、 showed vividly. Becky has strong glamour color, she is one of the most successful characters in Thackeray works. (Jiang Li, 2010) She is full of contradictions which makes her become a fresh role. The paper shows Beckys endless pursuits for the upper-class life to turn out to be emptiness by descri

33、bing her life and emotional experience. Through the close reading, it is not difficult to evaluate the heroin. Her motives to pursue fame and fortune are not pure, the money which should be used back to people. Meanwhile, pursuing fame and money should comply with the social norms and through hard w

34、ork. Money is not everything. Facing with the choice between fortune and family, it is obvious that family is more important. But Rebecca couldnt master the point. She has ever owned a happy family with a husband who loved her very much and a lovely son, but eventually she was utterly isolated due t

35、o her dissatisfaction and insistence for vanity.3 Comprehensive Analysis of Rebecca3.1 Social BackgroundIn the British society of the first half of the 19th century, a persons social state determined his or her family and property (Chen Guihua, 2003: 80). The society of that time was full of Vanity

36、and hypocrisy. Under the gay mask of the balls and parties, the world is shown as full of all kinds of vanity, especially snobbery, duplicity of social- climber, and the weakness of human nature. It shows that vanity of man is universal and ever present.” ( Zhang Boxiang, 1988: 303)Rebecca is a clev

37、er unscrupulous and scheming girl, the orphaned daughter of a poor artist and a French opera-dancer. At the social background, such kind of birth background is not acceptable by upper-class. Rebecca determines to move into good society in her later life when she suffers bully and under great oppress

38、ion. Rebecca tries her best to fulfill her ambition without considering what she can and what she cant do. Eventually, her husband abandons her and her son doesnt admit her. It is such kind of money talks and power supreme society that creates the complex artistic image, Rebecca, a selfish, indiffer

39、ent and hypocrisy typical 19th woman.Rebecca was born in that society. She was the orphaned daughter of a poor artist and a French opera-dancer. She was alone and left without any assets. Her father died when she was 17 years old and committed her to Miss Pinkerton. (Wang Hengen, 2010) Because she c

40、ould not depend on anybody, Rebecca still found some work to do when she studied at school. Meanwhile she was discriminated and cold-shouldered. The personnel changes and poor life pushed her to deeply realize the importance of money and power in the hypocritical and cruel society. At that time, she

41、 determined to step into upper-class by all kinds of means. In order to stay in upper-class, she would never let go of any opportunities. Driven by the desire of material and power, Rebecca tried her every effort to seduce the upper-classs dignitaries. After a few years efforts with her brilliant in

42、telligence and tough personality, eventually she succeeded to ascend to the select society. Meanwhile, the hard life turned Rebecca to be a shrewd, competent and independent woman. She was proficient in French, English, music and playing piano. After Rebecca graduated from Miss Pinkertons Academy, B

43、ecky was invited for a short stay at the Sedlys where she tried to capture Amelias brother Joseph for husband, but failed. Then, she came to the home of Sir Pitt Crawley as a governess and warmed her way into the heart of old baronet, who, upon the death of his wife, proposed to her. This brought to

44、 light of the secret marriage of Becky and Caption Rawdon, Sir Pitts second son, a profligate and gambler, and the favorite of his aunt, Miss Crawley. Infuriated, the wealthy aunt disinherits Rawdon. A few years later, Rawdon Crawley, accompanied by his wife, went to the Continent with the British a

45、rmy to fight against Napoleon. The war was over, Becky and Rawdon stayed for some time in Paris, making a living mainly on his cheating in gambling. After their return to London, Becky won her way into the highest society. But then she was caught by her husband in her flirtations with the vicious ol

46、d Lord Steyne, who she secretly received large sum of money from. In a terrible scene, Rawdon broke with Becky and went to the West India, where he died for fever. Becky, now disgraced and almost penniless, left England to wander alone on the Continent.Admitting that pursing fame and money is a quit

47、e normal phenomenon,. They can be regarded as the motive power. But at the same time, it will be necessary to master the limitation. Rebecca is not an absolutely negative character, for her, she pursues a better life which is very reasonable, but she doesnt make a right decision when she is facing w

48、ith the choice between family and vanity. For fame and money, she ignores her husband and son, cheats her best friend, so that the miserable ending is reasonable.3.2 Vaulting AmbitionRebecca was a victim of the society. From the very beginning of Beckys life, she is attacked and despised by the soci

49、al snobs. Beckys sharpness is the effect and cause of twisting social morality. In other words, what she does can boil down to the social injustice and at the same time deteriorate the environmental situation of social moral. Becky was born with a low rank family at the times. Her father was a cleve

50、r, talent and complaining artist that had given lessons of drawing at Miss Pinkertons school. Her mother was an opera girl. (Wu Guangjun, 2008: 121) As Thackeray mentions in The Works of William Makepeace Thackeray in those ages, the decent jobs are attorney, judger, doctor, priest, or soldier. As a

51、 person who takes a job of letters or artistry, he will be despised by so- called upper class. Therefore, Becky will surely be disliked by social snobs.Undoubtedly, the unhappy life in early years exerts a great influence on her, and forms her pushy and tricky character in later life. Even to the su

52、mmit of Vanity Fair, her origin has cast a shadow on her, for she is kicked out when people know she was born in a low family and pennilessness. In a word, the society is not fair to her, because she has no money, no high rank. So she is described low or amoral. It is social in justice based on fort

53、une and titles that urges her to become Shrewd. On the other hand, Becky is also the cause of rotten social ethics. In order to step into upper class, she does almost nothing good. Everything she does is for the benefit and purpose of climbing upwards. In the Sedleys and Queens Crawley, except the p

54、erson she thinks to be useless, such as the second Mrs. Crawley, Sir Pitt Crawleys wife, she disgustingly pleases everyone, even the principal servants. She has no real feeling except at time when Sir Pitt Crawley provides her with a position as the third Mrs. Crawley. She unscrupulously deceives ev

55、eryone and sometimes bullies the weaker people including her useless gentle friend Amelia. She keeps a vague relationship with Lord Steyne who is taken advantage of as a sugar daddy of Becky s. Essentially, what Rebecca does is to inject poisonous element into the muscles of society which has been v

56、ery rotten., no matter what she did, she has beyond the limit.On her way to pursue fame and money, there are many people who are targeted. Of course, they have many in common. All of them are rich and have power or they have the potential capacity to bring her into upper-class.3.2.1 Rebeccas First T

57、argetAfter Becky graduated from Miss Pinkerton Academy and was invited to Sedleys, she found her friend Amelias brother, Joseph was very rich and he was still alone, so that she chose him to be his target. The meaning of the above series of queries, as translated in the heart of this ingenious young

58、 woman, was simple this: “If Mr. Joseph Sedley is rich and unmarried, why should I not marry him? I have only a fortnight, to be sure, but there is no harm in trying. And she determined within herself to make the laudable attempt. She redoubled her caresses to Amelia; she kissed the white cornelian

59、necklace as she put it on; and vowed she would never, never part with it. (Zhou Jin, 2006: 23) From the quotation, it is obvious that the most important factor for Rebecca to choose her husband is wealth. Besides, it also showed how shrewd Rebecca was when she was still very young. 3.2.2 Rebeccas Hu

60、sbandRebecca won the rich Miss Crawley trust with her smart, intelligence and resourceful and became her closest companion. From the old wealthy woman, she knew who would be the most possible one to get her property. It is Rawdon, who is always Miss Crawleys lowest nephew. Therefore, she started to

61、pay attention to Rawdow. When she found he liked her, she has made a decision. This was marriage. She married him in secret. But she made a big mistake; Miss Crawley did not forgive their behavior, and cancelled his right of inheritance. This was Rebecca has never thought about, and since that time

62、she left with Rawdon and continued her journey.3.2.3 Rebeccas Upper-class SaviorRebeccas innocence becomes a major issue in the novel when Rawdon discovers her alone with Lord Steyne. A great deal of planning goes into making Steynes tete-a-tete with Becky possible; her son is placed in a boarding s

63、chool, Miss Briggs is sent to Steynes country house, and Rawdon is arrested for debt. Her indifference to his welfare becomes clear to Rawdon when he receives her letterbeautiful in appearance, heartless and superficial in content. Rawdons suspicions of Becky are reawakened and he is desperate to be

64、 released. His suspicions are confirmed when he finds Steyne and Becky alone. Becky, frightened, Steyne vehemently denies her innocence; he has spent thousands of pounds on her. 3.2.4 Rebeccas Last ChoiceRebecca struggled in the upper-class. Eventually, she was abandoned by her husband. Suddenly, sh

65、e lost everything, her husband, her son and her friends. At this time, she lost her faith and dream; she was totally addicted in the wasted life.By accident, she met with Amelia, and again she tried to capture Joseph. And this time, she succeeded. But she would never find the happy life back anymore

66、. On the way to pursing fame and money, she lost too much.Beckys struggle for the upper-class is very hard. She seduced her best friends brother with her beauty and wisdom, although she actually despised this stupid man. She ever left London to play up to Miss Crawley and secretly married to Rawdon, who h