外國語學(xué)院推薦學(xué)報文章zytransitivity analysis on edgar allan poes the tell-tale heart

1、Transitivityysis on Edgar Allan PoesThel-Tale HeartZHANG Xiao-ming(School of Foreign Language Department, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China)Abstract: Edgar Allan Poe is a distinctive author in literature history. This thesis aims at thetransitivityysis of theme of Thel-Tale Heart, espelly th

2、e realization of unity of effect.The thesis focuses on the prosysis and circumstantial elementysis, with which wecan discover how Poe achieves the effect in his comitions. We dig up the evil and dark side ofhumanity, thus we can feel the horror created by the storyally on the scene.he end, thethesis

3、 approves Poes influentialition in literature history again.Key words: transitivityCategories:H059Literature Identifier: Aysis; unity of effect; thel-Tale HeartPr Id: 2013121153研究方向：系統(tǒng)功能語法I.roductionEdgar Allan Poe isnot well received or understood by Americans.According to Griswold, Poe was devoid

4、of honor, devoid of morality, devoid of any and allanAmerican authorwhose writingsincludecriticism. His works areverse,fiction andquite unique in theelevatingal qualities (Hayes, 2009).literature history. They are written in beautifulThe mean-spirited man even asserted Poes rich imagination was base

5、d on hisevents.tawords and exquisite styles, whats more,thecontent are alwayrprising and fascinating.A roduction of Edgar Allan PoePoe is perhaps the most controversial author in literature: on one hand, he is named as the originator of detective story, forerunner of science fiction and horror ficti

6、on, and pioneer of gothic short stories. Bernard Shaw (1909) once said, there are two great writer in AmericaEdgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain; Tennysonconsidered Poe as the most original American genius, and Yeats put him as the greatest AmericaWhateveoples opinion is, no Americanauthor has influenced

7、 the history of literature andthe arts moren Poe. The profound influence ofhis works soon showed up after they weretranslatedo different languages. They werereceived by the European readers warmly andwholeheartedly. Spel gratitude should be givento another forerunnerBaudelaire,great writer: the expl

8、orer andofFrenchsymbolism,Charleswho saw Poe askindred spirit, o prose manybut had yet topoet, a greyric poet of the world; on the othersomeone who had crystallizedideas he had imagined himselfhand, because of the contemptible means ofobituary Rufus Wilmot Griswold who largelyarticulate.nks to his t

9、ranslation, Poes solidshd Poes repuion after his death，Poe wassus in literature was not only admitted but alsoarisinghe decades to come. He was admired收稿日期：2013 年 6 月 20 日as the gallant hero who dares to breako the導(dǎo)師簡介：(1971-)，女，籍貫陜西西安，航空航天大學(xué)of human beings evil spirit and the anchor who provides fi

10、rm foundation for American literature. In a word, Poe is undeniable the greatwriter whose commitment to literature is外國語學(xué)院，研究方向為筆譯理論研究與實踐。作者簡介：（1991-），女，籍貫黑龍江大慶，航空航天大學(xué)外國語學(xué)院，研究方向為英語筆譯。awe-inspiring.B. Plot Summary of theelements: the pros,the participant andl-Tale Heartcircumstance. Following Hallida

11、ys influentialThel-Tale Heart is a short story writtenysis of transitivityresearchersWilliam Goldings The Inheritors, ysis has been adopted by manyto investigate the discourses andby Edgar Allan Poe. It is a-narrativeof an unnamed narrator about how the narrator murdered the old man with a vulture e

12、ye. The narrator was not insane but suffered fromover-acuteness of the sense. He loved the old man,proved to be applicable anderful to revealthe thematic and aesthetic significance of thetexts. Is evene one of the most widelyhowever, the old mans vulture eye a palueused methods to dissect literary w

13、orks.Poes concept of unity of effect is aeye made him feel distressed. The murder iscommitted with sagacity and calm: for seven nights the narrator opened the door of the oldsignificant comitional theory which pos outt a short story shouldsess a fundamentalmans room and placed his heado the opening,

14、unity, all elements working together toward asingle effect. According to Poe, a skillful author should construct a tale without fashioning hisa pros which would take him an hour! Finallyby the eighth night, the old man woke up when the narrator was performing his usual night ritual. Then the narrato

15、r heard the old mans heart beating louder and louder, he suddenly led o the room and killed him at once. He dismembered the corpse and concealed them under the floor. He felt reved from the terror which had haunted him day and night before. Theold mans scream was heard by a neighbor whothoughts tomo

16、date his incidents. Heshould, however, conceive the plots and words with deliberate care, thus a certain unique or single effect shall be wrought out ( Poe, 1842).Both the system and the theory arefrequently appdo theysis of literaryworks, yet there is hardly anyone who tries tocombine them together

17、. Thel-Tale Heart is acalled the. Being sure aboutt theytypical exle to demonstrate Poes theory, thuswouldnt find any evidence, the narrator brought them chairs confidently and sit right on the floor where the corpse was hidden, however, he began to fancy a ringing in my ears, and it becamegrowingly

18、 distinct and he considered they knewthis essay shallyze the transitivity of theshort story in order to find out how Poe achievedhisuniqueterrorbydctingcharacters,arranging the plots and strengthening the themethrough his linguistic choi.the fact! Then he shrieked his crime to the.Looking through th

19、e description, the murder was calculated with caution and dissimulation, and he was as clever as horrible. The way he confessed his crime and proved his sanity seized the readers with endless terror. The story was pushed not by his insistence on innocence but on my sanity. This is, at the same time,

20、 self-destructive in attempting to prove his sanity. He gave up thechance to defense and admitted his guilty fully.II. Literature reviewSince the early 20th century, there set oboomof study of Edgar Allan Poe in the European literature, the study on Poe and his works has been lasting for more n one

21、and a half century in western academia, and variety of literary schools has taken Poes literature o their theoretical framework, which has developed Poes repu ion and s us in United S es and even in world literature. Poe has been recognized and acclaimed as an influential poet, a prose tale master a

22、nd an outstanding literary critic for his unique importance. His influence is world-widein modern literature. Poe and his works haveC. Significance of the Transitivityysisof Thel-Tale HeartTransitivity system is one of the ideationalmetafunction of language. It divides the textos,six promentalses: m

23、aterial pros, relational proproands,verbalpros,behaviorale the center of the criticism, such as the psychothe structuralism, even themodern literary ysis criticism,Marxist literaryprosexistential pros (Halliday &Matthiessen,2004). Each system has threecriticism, etc. By now, Poe and his works havene

24、arly already obtained the extensive researchachieve the unity of effect.andysis.（Chen，2009）. The study on TheIII.TransitivityysisofThel-Tale Heart can be dividedo three kinds:l-Tale HeartTransitivityysis on the theme andagethehe article,article, thethe psychologylinguistic study.ysisonysis isaerful

25、tool tothe text. Eachreveal the theme and effect of1.ysis on the themeandage in thedeep and betterpros and circumstancehel-Tale Heart isarticle. People try to give aarranged by Poe with clear pure. This part willunderstanding of the article. Such as in eye Is the Window of Workthe Multi-meaning of t

26、he l-Tale Heart (Di, 2011), the eye reveals theal tragedy and complicated humanity. In Evolution of the Gothic Tradition in Edgar Allan Poes works (Chen, 2009), the writer tries tostudy the Gothic literature and promotes thefocus on theysis of the two elements in orderto show the unity of effect.A.

27、The ProsysissesThere are 228 pro categories go as below:Table 1his text and theirThe Prosesdevelopment and innovation of Gothierature.It searches for the root of fear, explores themystery of deaall his life.nd pursues the supernal beauty2. The psychologyysis on the article Thiskindofstudycombinesthe

28、psychologicaltheoriessuchasstorywiththeFreud are articlesIt is easy to findt the number of materialproproses takes up the most among all thepsychoyticality. Thereses.he text there are 40 proses insuch as The Rationality of Absurdityysis ytic Freud fromdeathwhich the narrator is the actor. This shows

29、 how the narrator tried to reproduce the scene of hiskilling the old man, putting the readero aon thel-Tale Heart from the Psychoality（Zhang，2008）.Employingpsychothree-levelyticality, the pr,situation in which they can see the pros fromalitystructureandevery slight behavior of the murderer. Among th

30、einstinct , thoroughly and deeply dissects thecauses of protagonists insanity and reveals the40 material proses, 30 of them have goals, forexle:(1)rationalityofhistragedy,andsolI was never kinder to the old mannsignificance of Edgar Allan Poes The Heart.3. The linguistic study. There are onlyl-taled

31、uring the wholehim.k before I killeda few(2)I turned the latch of his door and opened itoh, so gently!I moved it(lantern) slowlyvery, very slowlyI undid the lantern so cautiouslyoh, socautiouslycautiouslyarticles on this kind and most of them focus onthe translations and rhetorics. There are article

32、s such as the Form and Functions of the Language(3)of Novela Systemic-Functionall-Tale Heart (Huang, 2007), the pysis of ther attempts(4)toyze the discourse features of the story from(5)I then replaced ths so cleverly, sothe Systemic-Function Approach, thus to get thepotential meaning of the story.

33、Above all, it iscunningly（Poe,2008）These 30 proses illustratet the murdereasy for us to findt the transitivityysis ofhad been well planned for a certain period of time.7 of them are with circumstantial elements whichthe article is almost bl. Whats more, afterconducting the transitivityysis of the ar

34、ticle,show theensity of the behaviorch as gently,this thesis shall comeo the result on how Poeprocessmaterialmentalrelationalverbalbehavioralexistentialnumber7460591997percentage32.526.325.98.33.93.1slowly, and cautiously etc. This indicatestthe insane narrator thought it was the old mansheart beati

35、ng, faster and faster. In increased his fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates theevery stn the course of the murdering are verycarefully executed: he did so in case the old manwoulde aware of what he wasng.soldiero courage. After seizing the old mansThe deliberay use of theseensity adverbials ha

36、s added the terrifying color of thestory, holding the readers breath. The old manlife, the sound was going on and he considered it belonged to the ghost. So he grew frightened and got paled. Then finally unable to control myself,he shouted out his deed and admitted his guilt.played as the actor in o

37、nly two material proand neither of them had goals:ses,All these are his illuthe end. From the sos from the beginning tohe moved on the bed suddenly, as if startled.the old man sprang up in bed, cryingout :“Who is there?”（Poe,2008）l, the muchtoo rapace of industrialization has made theersonal relatio

38、nship exsive cold anddetached. While the values of humind areThese two proses showt the old maning fuzzy and complicated, people doubtedwas not aware of whats going on at all, he was asand even ignored morals. The narratorfrom mental disorder, bigotedfferedality andif controlled by an invisibledo no

39、thing to prevent theer, yet he coulding death fromhypersensitivity, and finally these illness lead to his destiny. Thus, we can find a reasonable causefor the narrators behavior. A clear reason for killhappening. Readers shall be seized by the horrorwhich has crepto ones heart slightly andgently. Wh

40、en you come to realize it, the horrible shadow of scare has already been casted on thetext.is somehow much more horriblen anunreasonable one. So, we can seet Poe did notwaste a word on useless things. He gave a vivid description of the narrators mental activities inorder to enhance the ghastly atmos

41、phere.The mental pros is showing the course ofpsychologicalactivitiessuchasfeelings,reactions and cognitions. It is also at a relativelyTherelationalprosinvolvesthehigh rate, aiming at reflecting theagesdescriptionandjudgmentofrelationshipsinner heart activities. There are 60 mental proses and in 31

42、 of them I am the senser:True!nervousvery, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am!I could scarcely contain my feelings of triumph.I though the heart must burst.No doubt I now grew very palebetpron objective things. There are 59 relationalseshe text which counts on 25.9%. Thenarrator played as the

43、 carrier in 14 of them. For instance:am I mad?I grew furious as I I could scarcely contay feelings of triumph.I was moren usually cautious（Poe,2008）We can know the narrators se of mind(12) I felt（Poe,2008）These extI must scream ordie!leshave fully shownthenarrators contradictions and the collapsing

44、innerworld. He was in tense and nervous at the veryfrom the relational pros here. Besides, therelational prosest taking sound as carrierbeginning and addicted in the allust heaccounts to18. For instance:It was the low, stifled soundtIt was the beating of the old mans heart.It grew quicker and quicke

45、rIt grew louderIt was a low, dull, quick sound.can hear all things, no matter it is from heaven or the . How, then, am I mad? I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! The inner doubts and speculations push him to murder the old man on impulse. While committing the murder, heapproached to the old ma

46、n step by step, thehorror and trdation made his heart run fast, but（Poe,2008）The narrator described various sounds,the story was a drama.Poe shows the beauty of space selection through open room and penetralium. He shows the beauty of time selection through pitch-dark night. He has drawn the qu esse

47、nce of scenedescription in the Gothic novelusing scene toespelly the old mans heart beat. He shd thesoundo thingst we can feel and touch, thenwe can sense and feel it from the source of it.Thedescriptionhelpsreadersreoccursoundshe place of the murder, making themdisplayages mindshe story as a kindfe

48、el like on the spot in. This results in aof metaphor. In the end, it can be regarded as a key to the understanding of the text, so we can say it is mainly used as a means to evoke emotion. If we put Poes story as a drama, then the application of color should be named as the stagelight. However it is

49、 far from enough because themysterious and horrible atmosphere.Verbal pros involves the exchange ofinformation through speech. There are 19 verbalproseshe text and in 9 of them the receiveris “you”. Only 1 out of the nine in the lastparagraph appears in direct speech. Thus this onedescriptionhe stor

50、y is like the settingsheis quite outstanding, let alone itsition (thestage. You can see it, you can touch it, you can even sublimate the aestheticism and understand what kind of emotion the author tries to stressunder the matching of the light. Poe has not onlyonly sentencehe end of the text). This

51、createsthe effectt the narrator shrieked right in frontof you which will no doubt shocks and thrills your soul. We can catch a glimpse of me: adistorted soul full of contradictions and madness.inherited the weird and terrorraditional gothicstories, whats more, he doesnt adhere rigidly tothe traditio

52、nal creation tactics and extends theThe direct speechhe last paragraph highlightsthe theme of the text and pushes it to the climax.scene to different spasuch as the gloomyBehavioralphysiologicalproprosinvolvestheancient residence, moist cellar etc.The story happened in an old building during midnigh

53、t: the wooden floor, the time of midnight, all these settings seized readers wi kind of oppressive sense. I undid the lantern cautiouslyoh, so cautiouslycautiously (Poe, 2008). This kind of caution is quite influential toour minds because we could not help but wonderssuchasbreathing,coughing and sig

54、hing etc. It only takes 3.9% ofthe whole text, and in only 5 of themt thenarrator acted as the behavior. He “chuckled”,“breathed”,“sd”,and “gasped”.Thesebehavioral verbs have reflected narrators inner changes during the murder thoroughly. At the beginning, he chuckled for his well-prepared plan whic

55、h the old man hardly noticed, then he held his breath and was nervous before he killed theold man. However, he couldnt help feeling terrorif there is someho spies ushe same way.Poe is still not satisfied with the terror brought bythe illuof spying, so he puts the horror on thevery momentt the exitio

56、n of the spying:after the murder. He tried to sto cover hisWhen the narrator was watching the old man as usual on the eighth night, he suddenly woke up. The old man tries to comfort himself, yet in vain.It was the mournful influence of the unperceivedfeelings.he end, unable to deal with the innertor

57、ture, he collapsed and gasped for breathe.These behavioral proses showed the narratorsabnormal and twisted soul.shadowt caused him to feelalthough heneither saw nor heardto feel the presence of the narrators head. Darkness separated us and slowly dispersed in this blocked room. When the light fell o

58、n the old mans vulture eye, terror had notonly dwelled on the old man, but also on me.B. The Circumstantial Element【1】 LocationysisIn circumstantial elementysis, locationcan be dividedo two parts: place and time.And this thesis shall mainly focus on the placeBecauset eye had detected his purekillwhi

59、ch in the text can be alsoreted ashim! Then neither his excitement nor hiscalmness could reve the terrible atmosphere.spectacecause Poe arranged each of them as ifThe detailed description of dismembering, hiding the corpse ex es the evil ugly side of human nature comple y.Poes story has caught the k

60、ey poofhuman psychological consciousness: though themeasure whether a story is good or not. He always preserves a kind of effect before writing and then seeks the tactics to achieve it most fully: how to arrange the plots or how to create the atmosphere. He is not only good at constructing the uniqu