文學(xué)論文定稿

1、論 文 專 用 紙. . A “Lost” Theme:An Analysis of A Farewell to ArmsAuthor: CUI YouweiSupervisor: DAI Kuihua, Associate Professor (College of Foreign Languages, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian 271018) Abstract: In A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway combines austere realism and poetic language to

2、present a powerful argument against war and to tell a touching love story at the same time. Possessed of the most remarkable time sense of the period between wars, his disillusioned temperament and technical skill have influenced a whole generation of writers. Based on the analysis of the novels wri

3、ting background, plot development, character portrayal in the novel and the relationship between war and love，the present paper arrives at a conclusion that the novel reflects Ernest Hemingways attitude after World War. The war is the root of the love tragedy of the leading characters and life trage

4、dy of the “l(fā)ost generation”.Key Words: lost; theme; analysis; characters“迷惘”的主題評(píng)析永別了，武器摘要: 在永別了，武器中，海明威通過(guò)把嚴(yán)峻的現(xiàn)實(shí)主義與富有詩(shī)意的語(yǔ)言相結(jié)合，對(duì)戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)進(jìn)行了有力的抨擊；同時(shí)敘述了一個(gè)扣人心弦的愛(ài)情故事。由于對(duì)兩次大戰(zhàn)之間那個(gè)時(shí)期具有特別杰出的時(shí)間觀念，他的那種看破紅塵的氣質(zhì)和熟練的技巧影響了整個(gè)一代作家。本論文從永別了，武器這部作品的寫作背景，情節(jié)發(fā)展,人物塑造及戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)與愛(ài)情的關(guān)系等方面進(jìn)行評(píng)析，得出結(jié)論:該作反映了第一次世界大戰(zhàn)后海明威迷惘的心理，戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)是造成小說(shuō)主人公愛(ài)情悲劇及戰(zhàn)后“迷惘的

5、一代”的根源。關(guān)鍵詞：迷惘; 主題; 評(píng)析; 人物1. Introduction1.1An Introduction to Ernest HemingwayWho is the greatest man of fortitude in the literary circles? And who put the double-tube hunting gun into his mouth and pulled the trigger? That is Ernest Hemingway, the outstanding representative of the realistic literat

6、ure in America. He was a hero in the battlefield, with medals hung all around his chest. And he also was a refined and tasteful talent who indulged himself into drinking but still had brilliant writing ability. His life was full of sufferings and defeats. Hemingway is a representative writer of the

7、Lost Generation after the World War I. His philosophy 裝訂線. . . 第 1 頁(yè) 論 文 專 用 紙. . on life approximates to the theory of the jungle justice and survival of the fittest. He believes that the life is incomparably cruel, and the peaceable period is just the continuation of the war, it is also cruel and

8、indifferent. But he still believes that there are many beautiful things, which could use to ease the sadness in the world. Even if the bloody massacre of the war, love can also serves as a go-between to get rid of the pain. Hemingway is a writer of remarkable gift, rigorously confining himself to th

9、e matter in hand, refusing the aid of literary artifice; Hemingway extracts an amazing richness from his rare excursions below the surface of the narrative. Hemingway surely knows how to stir the soul; he grabs the attention of all his audiences by writing with matters of the heart. His unique and r

10、enowned style of writing provides the reader with essential facts for understanding the novel, while allowing some room for the readers imagination. There is total acceptance by both, and the backdrop of the story, World War I, seems to disappear from view as the love between hearts taken over. And

11、Hemingway is not known for either unbridled optimism or happy endings, and a farewell to arms, like his other novels, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Sun Also Rises, and To Have and Have Not, offers neither. What it dose provide is an unblinking portrayal of men and women behaving with grace under pres

12、sure, both physical and psychological, and somehow finding the courage to go on in the face of certain loss. The author Ernest Hemingway himself was just one of the “l(fā)ost generation” and called the “l(fā)eading spokesman” of them who always put his own feeling and experiences into fiction. He took part

13、in World War I and experienced a lot in the war, which provided him with vivid subject matters in his literary works and can be also traced in the novel. A Farewell to Arms，as a novel with obvious autobiographical origins，inevitably contains the authors war experiences and thoughts，so a good underst

14、anding of the background of this novel is necessary for a good understanding of the work.1.2 An Introduction to the NovelLieutenant Frederic Henry was a young American attached to an Italian ambulance unit on the Italian front. An offensive was soon to begin, and when Henry returned to the front fro

15、m leave he learned from his friend, Lieutenant Rinaldi, that a group of British nurses had arrived in his absence to set up a British hospital unit. Rinaldi introduced him to nurse Catherine Barkley. Between ambulance trips to evacuation posts at the front, Henry called on Miss Barkley. He liked the

16、 frank young English girl in a casual sort of way, but he was not in love with her. Before he left for the front to stand by for an attack, she gave him a St. Anthony medal. At the front, as Henry and some Italian ambulance drivers were eating in a dugout, an Austrian projectile exploded over them.

17、Henry, badly wounded in the legs, was taken to a field hospital. Later he was moved to a hospital in Milan. After his operation, Henry convalesced in Milan with Catherine Barkley as his attendant. Together they dined in out of the way restaurants, and together they rode about the countryside in a ca

18、rriage. Henry was restless and lonely at nights and Catherine often came to his hospital room. 裝訂線. . . 第 2 頁(yè) 論 文 專 用 紙. . Henry returned to the front with orders to load his three ambulances with hospital equipment and go south into the Po valley. Morale was at low ebb. Rinaldi admired the job whic

19、h had been done on the knee and observed that Henry acted like a married man. War weariness was all-pervasive. At the front, the Italians, having learned that German divisions had reinforced the Austrians, began their terrible retreat from Caporetto. Henry drove one of the ambulances loaded with hos

20、pital supplies. During the retreat south, the ambulance was held up several times by wagons, guns, and trucks which extended in stalled lines for miles. Henry picked up two straggling Italian sergeants. During the night the retreat was halted in the rain for hours. During the rest of the fall and th

21、e winter the couple stayed at an inn outside Montreux. They discussed marriage, but Catherine would not be married while she was with child. They hiked, read, and talked about what they would do together after the war. When the time for Catherines confinement approached, she and Henry went to Lausan

22、ne to be near a hospital. They planned to return to Montreux in the spring. At the hospital Catherines pains caused the doctor to use an anesthetic on her. After hours of suffering she was delivered of a dead baby. The nurse sent Henry out to get something to eat. When he went back to the hospital,

23、he learned that Catherine had had a hemorrhage. He went into the room and stayed with her until she died. There was nothing he could do, no one he could talk to, no place could he go. Catherine was dead. He left the hospital and walked back to his hotel in the dark. It was raining.1.3 Hemingway and

24、“l(fā)ost generation”Hemingway became one of the “l(fā)ost generation” after World War I. Charged with enthusiasm by war propaganda with its catch words like democracy，patriotism and glory，Hemingway was off to World War I as an ambulance driver and infantryman with the Italian army. But the war turned out t

25、o be a “trap” and “dirty trick” which hurt him seriously both spiritually and physically. Hemingway was severely injured in the war. Hundreds of artillery fragments were taken from his body，but there were some still left permanently. He also suffered from a long-standing insomnia. The unbearable phy

26、sical ailments not only broke down his body but also affected his emotions so badly that he could not stop worrying and fearing whenever once his old illness broke out. The more worse is the collapse of the traditional moral values. Glory and dreams were replaced by wounds，ideal and hope by vacancy.

27、 The young people at Hemingways age became pessimistic，disappointed and despaired. They hated the war but did not have clear target of life. From detest against war and doubt of society，they built up a kind of attitude of believing in nothing except their personal feeling for they felt bitter to num

28、b. One of the famous American woman writers Gestured Stein even said，“You are all a lost generation.” As one of them，Hemingway was no exceptional. But a new system of moral values had not been set up yet just after the war. Hemingway had nothing to pursue and follow，and disillusionment and loss occu

29、pied his mind at that time. When his novel The Sun also Rises, another novel on the “l(fā)ost generation”, was published，he even became the leading spokesman for the generation.裝訂線. . . 第 3 頁(yè) 論 文 專 用 紙. . A Farewell to Arms is a record of Hemingways war experiences and a reflection of his mental conditi

30、on in the 1920s. After World War I，Hemingway was at loss at first，then he began to think soberly. He decided to take up writing as a profession，using his pen to write the mentality of their generation. His second best work A Farewell to Arms expatiates upon the war directly and upon the formation of

31、 the lost ones. Hemingway had a lot of war experiences that were set in his mind deeply and firmly thus provided him with substantial writing materials for his works. Hemingway served in the Italian Army and was badly wounded in the legs. So did his hero Henry. The vivid description of Hemingways be

32、ing wounded and the great retreating scene both came from what had happened to the author and what he had seen in the war. Like his private experiences were used in his work，his mental attitude was also implied in the late 1920s when Hemingway was deep in pain from war. He was still in the state of

33、loss and disillusionment，so his work was inevitably affected by and reflected his idea about life and the world at that period. Hemingway could not express any positive ideas but to include disillusionment and his feeling against war in this novel. And the author pessimistic thoughts decided the the

34、me of A Farewell to Arms a pessimistic one.2. The Analysis of Major Characters2.1 Lieutenant Frederic HenryFrederic Henry, an American ambulance driver and a lieutenant in the Italian army, is the narrator and protagonist of the novel. However, he does not feel strongly about the cause, and certainl

35、y is not out for glory. He turns from the horrors of war to a passionate, escapist love affair with Catherine Barkley, and the all-consuming love helps distract him from the brutality around him. Still, he is good at his job; a cool-headed, unselfish man who exercises grace under pressure when he is

36、 injured and when he must shoot a deserting engineering officer, Henry fulfills the code of the “Hemingway hero.” He makes his “separate peace” when he decides that he no longer has any obligation to the army and that his loyalty is to Catherine. The focus of the novel revolves around his love with

37、Catherine Barkley as well as his steady disillusionment with the war. Henry is characterized initially by a sort of detachment from life-though well-disciplined and friendly, he feels as if he has nothing to do with the war. These feelings of detachment are pushed away when Henry falls in love with

38、Catherine and begins to realize the hostile nature of the world. In this way, Henry serves the function of a character that becomes initiated in Hemingways philosophy of an indifferent universe and mans struggle against it.2.2 Catherine BarkleyA British Voluntary Aid Detachment (a second-tier nurse)

39、, Catherine is in grief over her fiancé's recent death at the start of the novel. Henry offers a tempting rebound, and she dives into this new diverting love. She later admits that she was slightly“crazy”when she first met Henry, and her behavior backs this up: she gives herself so readily

40、to a near stranger, and her games of flirtation and teasing border on the juvenile. However, she gains some measure of independence later on, as when she helps裝訂線. . . 第 4 頁(yè) 論 文 專 用 紙. . Henry rows the boat across the lake for their escape, but she is typically submissive and eager to please with He

41、nry for a nights simple pleasures. But an active sex drive does not explain why Henry returns to Catherinewhy he continues to swear his love even after Catherine insists that he stop playing. In his fondness for Catherine, Henry reveals a vulnerability usually hidden by his stoicism and masculinity.

42、 The quality of the language that Henry uses to describe Catherines hair and her presence in bed testifies to the genuine depth of his feelings for her. Furthermore, because he allows Henry to narrate the book, Hemingway is able to suffuse the entire novel with the power and pathos of an elegy: A Fa

43、rewell to Arms, which Henry narrates after Catherines death, confirms his love and his loss.2.3 Hemingway and the main charactersWith the purpose of writing out his mental attitude，in addition to expressing disillusionment in A Farewell to Arms，Hemingway also conveyed implicit1y his belief in a set

44、of particular morals in a disordered world，which makes a bright side in his pessimistic theme. As one of the “l(fā)ost generation” who were pessimistic，suspicious and despaired after World War I，Hemingway certainly put his idea of this kind into his work，especially in A Farewell to Arms，written in 1920s

45、 when the author was deeply lost. In his pessimistic works，Hemingway still makes positive affirmation: though life is meaningless and aimless，man should behave according to particular principles and live on sincerely，bravely in his own style. Although the old traditional morals which had led people

46、collapsed，Hemingway believed there were some good virtues which never corrupt and are worthy to follow and persist. Hemingway believed in a set of particular moralities such as honesty，bravery，integrity and endurance. In his novel，these moralities are always embodied in some common characters who ar

47、e intimate friends of the hero. In A Farewell to Arms，Lieutenant Rinaldi，the priest and the heroine Catherine are the common but also particular characters manifesting these moralities. Rinaldi，the surgeon in the army，is a simple and honest person. He whole-heartedly rescues the wounded soldiers in

48、the front，making big contribution with good sense of responsibility. All summer and all fall he operates. He works all the time，doing everybody's work，and doing all the hard ones others leave to him. The war robs him of the normal life pleasure, and overwork brings him weariness. In the end of n

49、ovel he appears as a very nervous and pitiable man，nearly broken by the environment and the disease he gets. But at this time，he still insists in his position and does not give up. The priest，sincere and amiable，though is usually made fun of by other officers，stays all along in the army disseminatin

50、g Christian love. In the army he is a humble character, but he never complains. When Henry goes on holiday，he earnestly suggests that he go to his hometown Abruzzi. When Henry is in the hospital，he makes big preparations to see him. What he does is dedication. Merely in his talk with Henry，he leaks

51、a little of the bitterness in his heart.Henry，“Maybe the war will be over.”“I hope so.” “What will you do then?”裝訂線. . . 第 5 頁(yè) 論 文 專 用 紙. . “If it is possible I will return to the Abruzzi.” “You love the Abruzzi.” “Yes，I love it very much.” “You ought to go there then.” “I would be too happy. If I c

52、ould live there and love God and serve Him.” “And be respected.”“Yes and be respected. Why not?” “No reason not. You should be respected.”“It doesn't matter. But there in my country it is understood that a man may love God. It is not a dirty joke.” (Hemingway,1992:23) Catherine，the best one of t

53、hem，gentle and kindhearted，brave and romantic，gives all her love to her lover. When Henry goes to the front, she gives him a Saint Anthony，hoping that he will be safe in the fight. When she is pregnant，she soothes Henry “not worry or feel badly” and tells him that she “will try and not make trouble

54、for him”. Later in a stormy night，she unhesitatingly flees to Switzerland with Henry，not caring about herself at all. Even just before death，struggling for many hours to give birth to her child，she still comforts Henry，“I will come and stay with you nights.” These characters cannot change the pessim

55、ism in the theme，but their existence makes the theme not a complete pessimistic one. The moralities rising from them are so beautiful that readers cannot help respecting and sympathizing with them. And in the disillusionment extended from the novel which is full of depressing air，what these characte

56、rs act out reflects what Hemingway believes in which makes up some bright and positive elements in his heavy theme.Still, even though Catherines excessive desire to live a lovely life may, at times, make her more archetypal than real, it is unfair to deny her the nuances of her character. Although C

57、atherine alludes to her initial days with Henry as a period when she was slightly “crazy,” she seems perfectly aware of the fact that she and Henry are, at first, playing an elaborate game of seduction. Rather than being swept off her feet by Henrys declarations of love, she capably draws the line,

58、telling him when she has had enough for the night or reminding him that their budding love is a lie. In fact, Catherines resistance holds out much longer than Henrys: even after Henry emphatically states that he loves her and that their lives together will be splendid, Catherine exhibits the occasional doubt, telling him that she is sure that dreadful t