英語語言文學碩士學位論文-蘇菲的選擇

1、摘要威廉斯泰倫是當代美國文壇的杰出代表，之所以能飲譽美國文壇，?蘇菲的選擇?功不可沒。書中跌宕起伏的故事情節(jié)，迂回曲折的敘事手法，細致入微的人物刻畫，等等，都使這本書堪稱美國文學的經(jīng)典。?蘇菲的選擇?是一部深刻揭露納粹大屠殺罪惡的文學作品。它有著豐富的哲學意義和社會現(xiàn)實意義。本文主要通過分析心理學中人類原型的“陰影和“自我作為理論工具來分析納粹主義對處于集體無意識狀態(tài)下的個人行為的影響。全文共三章。第一章是理論背景。介紹了本文所采用的理論工具，容格的原型理論和弗洛伊德的俄狄浦斯理論。第二章以容格心理學中的“原型和“自我為理論測量工具，蘇菲的選擇的過程和以后余生的懺悔，以及相伴而生的罪反感等等一

2、系列心理因素的變化是異常復雜的?！霸秃汀白晕易鳛樯顚哟蔚臒o意識狀態(tài)是產(chǎn)生外現(xiàn)，可意識到的心理反映的根底。第三章從蘇菲所面臨的道德困境入手對蘇菲所做的選擇，不僅她對孩子的選擇，更是她一生重大的選擇進行分析，結合當時的社會現(xiàn)實，探究社會壓力對人性的影響。 。 關鍵詞： 原型 自我 陰影 AbstractMany readers feel that Sophies Choice has essentially guaranteed Styrons reputation as an important American novelist. Its virtues have made this boo

3、k a classic: its suspending plot, tortuous narration, exquisite characterization, etc. Sophies choice as a great work related to holocaust literature has many social and philosophical significances. A good approach to read this book is to read it in light of philosophy and psychology. This is the pu

4、rpose to which my thesis is devoted.In the book, the moment for Sophie to make the choice is also the moment of absolute evil. William Styron intends to reveal it to the public. In the thesis, Sophies choice is analyzed philosophically through examining the philosophical background which helped the

5、creation of evilNazi holocaust. And then my focus is on Sophie herself. It is worth considering the psychological factors for Sophies choice. This thesis consists of three chapters. Chapter one introduces the theoretical background. This chapter introduces the theories applied to the analysis of Sop

6、hies choice in detail. Chapter two concentrates on the psychological analysis of Sophies crime and the study of another character, Rudolf HossCommandant of Auschwitz. Sophie was a victim in the concentration camp while she was also regarded as an accomplice with the Germany commandant. In this chapt

7、er, we will analyze some psychological elements individually and collectively, based on Carl Gustav Jungs Archetype theory. Chapter three, through Freuds psychological approach, compares the universal maternity with masculine nature. The intention of this thesis is to analyze humans psychological co

8、mplexity responding to the cruel environment (Nazi holocaust), which are also the intentions of many other holocaust writers. Key words: Archetype Self ShadowTable of ContentsIntroduction.6Chapter1 Theoretical Background: Archetype. 10Archetype .10Understanding the Psychological Shadow of Human Bein

9、g 15Interpreting the “Self in the context of collective unconsciousness.17Chapter 2 Main Characters Representation In Light Of Archetype.232.1 SophieVictim and Accomplice in the Holocaust. .23 Rudolf HossThe Symbol of Shadow. 272.3 The Self Loss .29Chapter 3 Moral Dilemma and Human Nature33 3.1 Mora

10、l Dilemma Reflected in Sophie 3.2 The Conflict of Human Nature and Societal PressureConclusion Reference .Bibliography IntroductionSophies choice is a courageous, in some ways masterly book, a book very hard to review for the simple reason that the ploteven the double entendre in the titlecannot be

11、given away. Certain things can be said without too much harming the novels considerable effect: William Styrons novel Sophies choice offers an insight into the lives of two very different individuals, Sophie, a Polish woman and an Auschwitz survivor, Nathan, a Jewish man, who is a paranoid schizophr

12、enic growing more mentally unstable. The story is told through the eyes of a young writer named Stingo and tells of his interactions with the couple. Sophie Zawistowska, a gorgeous Polish woman living in the same house as Stingo, is a troubled survivor of the concentration camps during World War = 2

13、 * ROMAN II. Throughout the book her story is revealed, through long monologues and stories Stingo, the narrator, tells. The title of the book is Sophies Choice, but not until the last few pages is it told what Sophies choice is. Sophie is shown as a vulnerable character, a lover of music and her bo

14、yfriend. Sophie, the fun-loving Polish girl, has been twice widowed and lost two children. On top of these disasters she is sent to a concentration camp. In the final pages of the novel she is given the ultimatum by a Nazi officer.One thing that gives her hope for true happiness is Nathan, a man she

15、 meets in the library one day. Nathan plays the role of her hero. He is a biologist who has plenty of financial resources. He nurses her back to health and the two become lovers. However, there is one glitch in this wonderful chance meeting. Nathan is a paranoid schizophrenic. He is addicted to the

16、drug Benzedrine Sulfate, and drinks excessively. More than once he is thrown into a rage, caused by a chemical imbalance in his brain, where he hits and screams at Sophie and anyone else near him. He threatens to leave. These stresses add to Sophies struggles to maintain a normal life. Nathans probl

17、ems expand past his effect on Sophie and into his own personal life.Nathan is presented as a biologist for a successful company. He may be opinionated and have a temper, but he has money and appears to have everything in his life together. However, things are not always as they seem. Anger is not Na

18、thans only problem. Certainly there is a lot of hate in him for many different types of people and events. On this occasion, Sophie discovers the severity of Nathans problems. After taking six amphetaines and snorting two lines of cocaine, Nathan is out of control. He gets into a car, speeds, and en

19、ds up in a car chase. Sophie, who is along for the ride, screams for him to stop the car, but like many who suppress their problems, once over the brink, there is no turning back. This event however, is not the one which leads to Nathan and Sophies untimely demise. The internal pressures resulting f

20、rom suppressing ones feelings inevitably lead to misfortune or catastrophe, and this case is no different from others. The last pages of the book are littered with shocking details of Sophie and Nathans fates. After a spontaneous and intimate night with Stingo, the narrator and participator in this

21、tragedy of a love story, Sophie leaves Stingos farm in Virginia to return to Brooklyn, and to Nathan. Sophie states:“I love Nathan but now feel this Hate of Life and God. Fuck God and all his Hande Werk. And life too. And even what remain of Love.1In what would be considered a suicide letter, Sophie

22、 apologizes to Stingo, and leaves another mountain of issues that will never be resolved. Her anger finally burst inside of her and all of the issues within her could no longer be suppressed. When Stingo returns to Brooklyn he finds police, an ambulance, and a room of shocked people.Nathan and Sophi

23、e took their own lives by taking sodium cyanide together. The papers write the suicide off as a statement of love and devotion. This final effort to avoid any suggestion of sadness is another example of how people choose to sugar-coat problems and live the “good life. Stingo decides to move on and f

24、orget Sophie, and this attitude is the one that is reflected in this book. The fortunate element of this is that Stingo chose to write out this story, instead of bottling it up inside until it controlled him. William Styron put a lot of thought and time into the development of Sophies choice. The to

25、pic of the novel was generated by the novel Five Chimneys by Olga Lengyel, a Hungarian who survived Auschwitz1. She tells how through her ignorance she let her children be led to the gas chamber. She regrets not lying about their age because then they may have been salvaged as workers. She also tell

26、s a story about a Gypsy who, like Sophie, was forced to choose which of her children she wanted to keep. Styron also knew an actual person on which he based his Sophie character. This woman, Sophie, was a beautiful blonde with a tattoo on her arm. She had come back from Auschwitz and was in love wit

27、h the man upstairs. This woman lost her father, husband, and two children to the gas chamber. Many of Styrons characters are based on real people. Sophie, as mentioned above was based on an actual woman named Sophie who went through similar problems. Styron based Nathan on the man who lived above hi

28、m who the real Sophie was in love with. This of course left Styron himself as Stingo. Stingo is very autobiographical. Both Styron and Stingo worked in the publishing house, McGraw Hill, they both found the work terribly boring. Styron refused Kon-Tiki, a bestseller by Thor Heyderdahl, Stingo also r

29、efuses this book in the novel. Both men were dismissed from the publishing house for their casual attitude, and because they refused to wear a hat to work. Most important, both men fell in love early in life and the girl committed suicide. Styron also recounts his mothers death accurately in the nov

30、el. Styron was adamant about providing a novel of truth. Since truth, to him, equals authority, he did not want any historical errors whatsoever. To achieve this he read books about the holocaust and Auschwitz. He reached a point, however, where he was uncomfortable writing anything else without see

31、ing the place where it happened. Because of this, he visited Auschwitz during the same season his character, Sophie would have been there. He described it as horrible beyond belief. In conclusion, Styron did not write Sophies Choice to change the world or its views. He does not believe that literatu

32、re can change the world, but it can penetrate deeply into human consciousness and give them new ideas to think about.As Sophie cried “take my little girl!, the intense feeling made her even crazy. We can see that in Sophies mind there is still the nature of maternity. Unfortunately, during this mome

33、nt the nature of maternity was defeated by the existence of the son. So, in this respect, Eve is incapable of defending her brothers masculine nature.The precise nature of this conflict becomes clear when we look once again at Sophies choice(Sophies crime). Sophie preferred her son rather than her d

34、aughter. She saved her son and pushed her daughter to death in the meantime. This has two consequences. For one thing, her son still alive due to her instinct as a mother; for another, her daughter was sent to gas chamber just because of her decision as a woman(not mother). So, what inner conflict d

35、oes this produce?First, every time Sophie starts thinking about her choice she touches upon her own repressed wishes. For this choice is the one Sophie herself unconsciously wants to make. To reflect on her choice, on possible way to re-determine which of her two children will go, the result would b

36、e the same. However guilty she feels and pains she bears, undoubtedly she made her final choice from unconsciously level. Second, by condemning the Nazi crime, Sophie would in effect condemn herself. That is, to accept the ethical proposition that Nazism must be eradicated would be to accept that sh

37、e, Sophie, must die too because her daughters death is linked to her decision. Third, preferring her son would be equivalent to killing her daughter, for this is a dilemma to take. Committing this ultimate sin is something that Sophie both desires and abhors.Fourth and last, Sophie is torn by the di

38、mly conscious knowledge that by making this choice she would not only save her son temporarily but also paving the way for the miserable fate of her own daughter. In this sense, Sophies choice would be to honor the maternity and besmirch it at the same time.Nazi holocaust triggered a variety of cons

39、iderations in the respect of philosophy and psychology. This thesis aims at the psychological interpretation to Sophie as individual and other characters in the context of holocaust. The process during which Sophie made her choice entailed many psychological varieties. And also the people, Jews and

40、non-Jews during the holocaust period experienced great psychological shock. With the help of C.G. Jungs archetype and its sub-terms shadow and self, this thesis probes into the psychological analysis of the people on an unconscious level during the time of holocaust. This thesis tries to build a cer

41、tain relationship between social reality and human nature and explains the relations in detail. This thesis includes three chapters. Chapter one concentrates on the theoretical backgrounds on which this paper builds upon. Chapter two focuses in the analysis of main characters in “Sophies choice at p

42、sychological level. In chapter two, Shadow and Self as notions in analytic psychology are used to interpret the variety and complexity of Sophies psychological activities. Chapter three mainly discusses the relationship between human nature and social reality, tries to explain the psychological conf

43、lict resulting from both of them. Chapter I Theoretical Background: Archetype and Oedipus1.1 Archetype Carl Jung was one of the creators of modern depth psychology, which seeks to facilitate a conversation with the unconscious energies which move through each of us. He contributed many ideas which c

44、ontinue to inform contemporary life: complex, archetype, persona, shadow, anima and animus, personality typology, dream interpretation, individuation, and many other ideas. He had a deep appreciation of our creative life and considered spirituality a central part of the human journey. His method of

45、interpretation of symbolic expression not only deepens our understanding of personal material, opening the psychodynamics of our personal biographies and dreams, but the deeper, collective patterns which develop within culture as well. In his memoir, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Jung wrote that me

46、aning comes “when people feel they are living the symbolic life, that they are actors in the divine drama. That gives the only meaning to human life; everything else is banal and you can dismiss it. A career, producing of children, is all maya (illusion) compared to that one thing, that your life is

47、 meaningful.2Jungs theory divides the psyche into three parts. The first is the ego, which Jung identifies with the conscious mind. Closely related is the personal unconscious, which includes anything which is not presently conscious, but can be. The personal unconscious is like most peoples underst

48、anding of the unconscious in that it includes both memories that are easily brought to mind and those that have been suppressed for some reason. But it does not include the instincts that Freud would have it include. But then Jung adds the part of the psyche that makes his theory stand out from all

49、others: the collective unconscious. You could call it your psychic inheritance. It is the reservoir of our experiences as a species, a kind of knowledge we are all born with. And yet we can never be directly conscious of it. It influences all of our experiences and behaviors, most especially the emo

50、tional ones, but we only know about it indirectly, by looking at those influences. There are some experiences that show the effects of the collective unconscious more clearly than others: The experiences of love at first sight, of deja vu (the feeling that youve been here before), and the immediate

51、recognition of certain symbols and the meanings of certain myths, could all be understood as “the sudden conjunction of our outer reality and the inner reality of the collective unconscious.3 Grander examples are the creative experiences shared by artists and musicians all over the world and in all

52、times, or the spiritual experiences of mystics of all religions, or the parallels in dreams, fantasies, mythologies, fairy tales, and literature. The contents of the collective unconsciousness are called archetypes. Jung also called them dominants, images, mythological or primordial images, and a fe

53、w other names, but archetypes seem to have won out over these. An archetype is an unlearned tendency to experience things in a certain way. Where do the archetypes come from? In his earlier work, Jung tried to link the archetypes to heredity and regarded them as instinctual. We are born with these p

54、atterns which structure our imagination and make it distinctly human. Archetypes are thus very closely linked to our bodies. In his later work, Jung was convinced that the archetypes are psychoid, that is, “they shape matter (nature) as well as mind (psyche)3. In other words, archetypes are elementa

55、l forces which play a vital role in the creation of the world and of the human mind itself. The ancients called them elemental spirits. How do archetypes operate? Jung found the archetypal patterns and images in every culture and in every time period of human history. They behaved according to the s

56、ame laws in all cases. He postulated the Universal Unconscious to account for this fact. We humans do not have separate, personal unconscious minds. We share a single Universal Unconscious. Mind is rooted in the Unconscious just as a tree is rooted in the ground. Imagine the Universal Unconscious as

57、 a cosmic computer. Our minds are subdirectories of the root directory. If we look in our personal “work areas, we find much material that is unique to our historical experience-could only have happened to us-but it is shaped according to universal patterns. If we humans have the courage to seek the

58、 source to which our account belongs, we begin to discover ever more impersonal and universal patterns. The directories of the cosmic computer to which we can gain access are filled with the myths of the human species.The mother archetype is a particularly good example. All of our ancestors had moth

59、ers. We have evolved in an environment that included a mother or mother-substitute. We would never have survived without our connection with a nurturing-one during our times as helpless infants. It stands to reason that we are “built in a way that reflects that evolutionary environment: We come into

60、 this world ready to want mother, to seek her, to recognize her, to deal with her. So the mother archetype is our built-in ability to recognize a certain relationship, that of mothering. Jung says that this is rather abstract, and we are likely to project the archetype out into the world and onto a