简析《了不起的盖茨比》中盖茨比的悲剧成因【毕业论文】.doc

1、 本科毕业论文 （ 20 届） 英语 简析了不起的盖茨比中盖茨比的悲剧成因 A Brief Analysis of the Sources of Gatsbys Tragedy from The Great Gatsby 诚 信 声 明 我声明，所呈交的论文 (设计 )是本人在老师指导下进行的研究工作及取得的研究成果。据我查证，除了文中特别加以标注和致谢的地方外，论文 (设计 )中不包含其他人已经发表或撰写过的研究成果，也不包含为获得 或其他教育机构的学位或证书而使用过的材料。 我承诺，论文 (设计 )中的所有内容均真实、可信。 论文 (设计 )作者签名： 签名日期： 年 月 日 授 权 声

2、明 学校有权保留送交论文（设计）的原件，允许论文（设计）被查阅和借阅，学校可以公布论文（设计）的全部或部分内容，可以影印、缩印或其他复制手段保存论文（设计），学校必须严格按照授权对论文 (设计 )进行处理，不得超越授权对论文（设计）进行任意处置。 论文 (设计 )作者签名： 签名日期： 年 月 日 I 摘要 了不起的盖茨比中盖茨比的悲剧是贯穿整篇 小说 的中心，因此国内外许多研究都关注于盖茨比的悲剧。通过分析导致主人公死亡悲剧的原因可以解释作者写作的真正意图。本文主要从社会和盖茨比自身因素出发研究导致盖茨比的悲剧的原因，并进一步指出作者的意图是揭示 那个时代盛极一时的奢靡与不可避免的没落，并反

3、应黑暗和不公的社会现实。 关键词： 悲剧；社会因素；自身因素；社会现实 II Abstract The tragic story of Jay Gatsby is the core of the novel, The Great Gatsby. So dozens of studies carried out on this novel have been mostly focused on Gatsbys tragedy. The intention of author is explained by analyzing causes of the heros death. The purp

4、ose of this paper is to analyze the social and personal factors that lead to Gatsbys tragedy, which further reveals the authors intent on unveiling the decay and downfall of the era then, as well as the dark and unfair reality of society. Key words: tragedy; social factors; personal factors； reality

5、 of society Content Abstract .II 1. Introduction .1 2. Social causes that lead to Gatsbys tragedy .2 2.1 The Degeneration of American Dream 2 2.2 The Strict Class Distinction of the Society .4 2.2.1 The superiority of capitalists over the members from the lower class .4 2.2.2 The class disparity whi

6、ch brings to the failure of love between Gatsby and Daisy .5 3. Causes of Jay Gatsby himself 7 3.1 The Idealism of Jay Gatsby .7 3.2 The influence of money upon Jay Gatsby 8 4. Conclusion 9 Bibliography .11 Acknowledgements .12 - 1 - 1. Introduction Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American autho

7、r of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the “Lost Generation“ of the 1920s, together with other expatriated

8、American writers such as Gertrude Stein, Hemingway, and Ezra Pound. He finished four novels, This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, Tender Is the Night and his most famous, the celebrated classic, The Great Gatsby. A fifth, unfinished novel, The Love of the Last Tycoon was published posthu

9、mously. Fitzgerald also wrote many short stories that treat themes of youth and promise along with despair and age. Published in 1925, The Great Gatsby, the finest novel written by Fitzgerald, is surely the work by which his name is destined to be remembered, and one of the classics of modern Americ

10、an literature. It is a picture of the prohibition era and masterpiece related with irony and pathos to the legendry of the “American dream”. T. S. Eliot(1945), never a hasty or extravagant critic, praised the novel was “the first step that American fiction has taken since Henry James”. Fitzgerald dr

11、ew most of his inspiration from his own experiences. He served in the army. After retreating, he began writing in order to earn enough money to marry Zelda, who became the model for most of the pretty, merry heroines of his fiction later. After married, they threw themselves enthusiastically into a

12、round of parties, dances, drinking and trips to Europe. He supported their extravagant life by doing the job of a hack writer. His life was a mirror of that time. “As much as he enjoyed the “roaring” of the postwar boom years， he foresaw its doom and failure ”(Chang Yaoxin 1990： 282) Thus he began w

13、riting The Great Gatsby. The story is told in the first person by Nick Carraway, a quiet young Mid- westerner who comes east to work on the New York stock exchange and rents a house in 1922 at West Egg, Long island, which is nearby to the city. Nicks house is next to an extravagant and vulgar mansio

14、n owned by the mysterious but fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby, about whom all sorts of rumors pass from mouth to mouth. Gatsbys real name is James Gatsby and he was a poor boy from the west. When he was an army officer, he had fallen in love with Daisy, who was charming and polished in her social mann

15、ers but whose “voice is full of money.”(P118) Daisy later married Tom Buchanan, a wealthy but hard and arrogant young Midwesterner who has recently - 2 - come east. Gatsby became rich through bootlegging and other criminal activities with the help of a corrupt elderly Jewish millionaire, Dan Cody, G

16、atsby, however, has never stopped loving Daisy and has taken the house in West Egg to be near her. Through Nick, Daisys cousin, he finds a way to meet her again and arranges fabulous entertainments to gain the favor of her until he is overjoyed to feel that he has Daisy back again. Daisys husband ha

17、s a shady affair with Myrtle Wilson, the loose and sensual wife of a garage man. When Wilson has finally become suspicious of her fidelity and has begun to bully her, in panic she runs out into the highway, and is killed by a car in which Daisy is driving. Gatsby manages to protect Daisy, and Tom, w

18、ith whom she effects reconciliation, inflicts the bloodiest revenge upon her lover by telling Wilson Gatsby is the murder of his wife. In consequence, Wilson shoots off Gatsby and then himself. The only person to go to the funeral besides Nick is Gatsbys father, Henry Gatz, who arrives from Minnesot

19、a, for Gatsbys entire acquaintances desert him and the party guests vanish. 2. Social causes that lead to Gatsbys tragedy 2.1 The Degeneration of American Dream Many critics blame the death of Gatsby on the American Dream, for the dream makes people lust for more and pursue a luxurious life which is

20、 beyond their capacity. When the aspirations fall through, they themselves go to pieces. There is no doubt that Gatsby is swaying between the American Dream and the reality. The early American Dream， however, had a positive meaning from the very beginning. The American Dream is a national ethos of t

21、he United States in which freedom includes a promise of the possibility of prosperity and success. In the American Dream, first expressed by James Truslow Adams (1931), in his book, Epic of America that “life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to

22、 ability or achievement “regardless of social class or circumstances of birth. The idea of the American Dream is rooted in the second sentence of the United States Declaration of Independence which states that “all men are created equal“ and that they are “endowed by their Creator with certain inali

23、enable Rights“ including “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.“ So the ethos once simply indicated the ability, through participation in the society and economy, for everyone to achieve prosperity. It is the opportunity to make individual choices without the prior restrictions that limit peop

24、le according to their class, caste, - 3 - religion, race, or ethnicity. The early American Dream could be a great inspiration for ordinary people like Jay Gatsby, who was to make a difference in his life. And that was much easier in early America because the original dream regards especially the ava

25、ilability of low-cost land for farm ownership. The new immigrants can easily get a large proportion of the vast but less populated land in early America. The economy then focused on agriculture a lot and it was almost self-evident that the possessing of land meant fortune and success. After decades

26、of years, however, the land has been divided and occupied by a few people. The American dream starts to drift from the way it once claimed ,“all men are created equal”. The rest only works for these landowners to earn their bread. Those farm people works as hard as they could, but few people can rea

27、lly walk out of their field, let alone becoming rich. As a consequence, the poor but ambitious farmers begin to do evil stuff for the sake of living a better life. Gatsbys parents is just shiftless and unsuccessful farm people. So for Gatsby, the road to success is much bumpy. He is an ambitious man

28、. He had planned to obtain success even when he was just a boy. He believes in the original American Dream and tries to attain success by doing what his great ancestors would probably do: working out everyday to polish his figures, reading as much as possible to improve his mind. He believes that he

29、 is able to start from scratch like Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln and so on. For over a year, he had been beating his way along the south shore of Lake Superior as a clam-digger and a salmon-fisher or in any other capacity that brought him food and bed. He was still a sincere and honest man at

30、that time. But this kind of job would not give him a hand to climb up. Thus he gave up the right way and turned to evil. His evil deeds began the day he met Dan Cody, whose yacht dropped anchor on Lake Superior. Rumors about his antecedents spread since then: Gatsby killed Dan Cody and inherited a b

31、ig fortune from him; He lied to people that he graduated from Oxford; He and Wolfsheim sold alcohol over the counter in drug- stores. As the old saying goes, “one reaps what he sows.” Gatsby will have to pay for what he has done. Whats more, the degenerated American Dream has widen the gap between r

32、ich and poor. People are jealous at what the rich has got: fancy mansions, beautiful cars, parties and alcohols every weekend. Life is so rich - 4 - and colorful that average people start to dream a life like this. Gatsby is adding to the pattern of his fancies every night. To young Gatz, resting on

33、 his oars and looking up at the railed deck, the yacht represents all the beauty and glamour in the world. So his American Dream has become the pursuit of material prosperity. In order to step into the upper class and become the real rich man, he starts to lie about his family background so he could

34、 enjoy the respect from others. He once told Nick caraway, “I am the son of some wealthy people in the Middle East-all dead now. I was brought up in America but educated at Oxford, because all my ancestors have been educated there for many years. It is a family tradition.” (P65) He changed his name

35、from James Gatz at the age of seventeen to Jay Gatsby. He may thought it worked well, but his tragedy was doomed the moment he told lies to others. 2.2 The Strict Class Distinction of the Society 2.2.1 The superiority of capitalists over the members from the lower class Before World War I, the laiss

36、ez-faire democratic ideal that America has always believed is the product of an age when individual effort counted, when a man could rise by his own efforts. World War I shattered this vision. It ended once and for all the faith in individual effort that had been eroding since the Industrial Revolut

37、ion. Men from poor background are incomparable to those who have tough ones. Much as the American society worships freedom, it has already raised a strict class distinction among those who are born well off and those who dont. The old aristocrats inherit not only huge money but the superior position

38、 and arrogant character as well. They may appear generous and kind to the lower class, but they are contemptuous deep inside their hearts. Jay Catsby and Tom Buchanan are representatives from these two parties respectively. In this novel, the background of the story is set on an island near New York

39、. And the island is divided into two completely different parts, the West Egg and the East Egg. Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby live at West Egg, the less fashionable of the two, while Tom Buchanan and his wife Daisy live at the fashionable and glittering East Egg. A person from East Egg would always l

40、ook down upon those from East Egg. For example: when Nick first met Jordan Baker in Tom and Daisys place, Jordan remarked contemptuously when she found out Nick lived in West Egg. And even after Jordan had been to Gatzs enormous mansion and fancy parties, she was still arrogant when talking about Gatsby. As for the party guys, everyone suspects him of at least one of the cardinal