美国文学赏析整理

美国文学赏析整理

一

I heard the merry grasshopper then sing,

The black-clad cricket bear a second part,

They kept one tune, and played on the same string,

Seeming to glory in their little art.

Shall creatures abject thus their voices raise?

And in their kind resound their maker’s praise,

Whilst I, as mute, can warble forth no higher lays?

“

Under the cooling shadow of a stately Elm,

Close state I by

a goodly River’s side,

Where gliding streams the Rocks did overwhelm;

A lonely place with pleasures dignifi’d.

I once that lov’d the shady woods so well,

Now thought the rivers did the trees excel,

And if the sun would ever shine there would I dwell.

“

While musing thus with contemplation fed,

And thousand fancies buzzing in my brain,

The sweet tongu’d Philomel percht o’er my head,

And chanted forth a most melodious strain,

Which rapt me so with wonder and delight,

I judg’d my hearing better than my sight.

题目：

the 9th of Contemplations

作者：

Anne Bradstreet

赏析：

1.

Rhyme

royal:

sevenline

petametre

七行五步抑扬格

2.

Rhyme: ababccc

3.

Theme: religion

iambic

4.

象

征

：

black-clad=death;

abject=admitting defeat; maker= god

5.

A genuine expression of poetic feeling in

the presence of nature.

The poem offers the reader an insight into the

mentality of the early Puritan pioneering in a

new

world.

The

poet

heard

the

grasshopper

and the cricket sing, and she searched for her

own soul accordingly.

6.

She saw sth metaphysical inhering in the

physical,

a

mode

of

perception

which

was

singularly Puritan

二

It was about this time I conceived the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. I wished to live

without committing any fault at any time; I would conquer all that either natural inclination, custom, or company

might lead me into. As I knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I might not always

do the one and avoid the other. But I soon found I had undertaken a task of more difficulty than I had imagined.

While

my

care

was

employed

in

guarding

against

one

fault,

I

was

often

surprised

by

another;

habit

took

the

advantage of inattention; inclination was sometimes too strong for reason. I concluded, at length, that the mere

speculative conviction that it was our interest to be completely virtuous was not sufficient to prevent our slipping

and that the contrary habits must be broken, and good ones acquired and established, before we can have any

dependence

on

a

steady,

uniform

rectitude

of

conduct.

For

this

purpose

I

therefore

contrived

the

following

method.

In the various enumerations of the moral virtues I had met with in my reading, I found the catalog more or less

numerous, as different writers included more or fewer ideas under the same name. Temperance, for example,

was

by

some

confined

to

eating

and

drinking, while by

others

it

was

extended to mean the moderating every

other pleasure, appetite, inclination, or passion bodily or mental, even to our avarice and ambition, I proposed to

myself, for the sake of clearness, to use rather more names, with fewer ideas annexed to each, than a few names

with more ideas; and I included under thirteen names of virtues all that at that time occurred to me as necessary

or desirable, and annexed to each a short precept, which fully expressed the extent I gave to its meaning.

1

美国文学赏析整理

题目：

Autobiography

作者：

Benjamin Franklin

赏析：

1.

One of Benjamin Franklin’s literary successes. 1771

-1788, incomplete when he died.

2.

Purpose: to make the experience of his own career, the conduct and habit of life which had

led to success in his own case, a source of help and inspiration to others.

3.

The story of his struggles, errors, experiments with himself, accomplishment.

4.

Wonderful frankness & extreme simplicity

三

“

God knows, I’m not myself—I’m somebody else—…

and I’m changed, and I can’t tell what’s my name, or

who I am.”

Rip

Dame Van Winkle

题目：

Rip Van Winkle

作者：

Washington Irving

赏析：

1.

Rip:

self-centered,

careless,

anti-intellectual, imaginative, and holly as the

overgrown child. He symbolizes the immature

America.

2.

Dame Van Winkle (Rip’s wife): symbolizes

the

puritanical

discipline

and

the

work

ethic

of Franklin.

3.

Why sleep 20 years?

Purpose: to show us clearly the conflicts and

dreams

of

the

nations

—

the

conflict

of

innocence

and

experience,

work

and

leisure,

the old and the new, the head and the heart.

It is also to tell us that a man who has looked

toward

the

beginning

of

civilization

in

America

can

make

a

choice

in

his

analysis

of

his own life.

4.

Inevitably changing America.

四

A subtle chain of countless rings,

The next unto the farthest brings;

The eye reads omens where it goes,

And speaks all languages the rose;

And, striving to be man, the worm,

Mounts through all the spires of form.

题目：

Nature

作者：

Ralph Waldo Emerson

赏析：

1.

Transcendentalism

2.

Prose:

casual

style

(derived

from

his

journals or lectures);

Characterized

by

a

series

of

short,

declarative

sentences,

which

are

quite

logically

connected

but

will

flower

out

into

illustrative statements of truth and thoughts.

Comparisons

and

metaphors

to

make

the

general

ideas

of

his

works

clearly

2

美国文学赏析整理

expressed.

Employ

literary

sources

to

make

and

五

Hester Prynne

女主角

Roger Chillingworth

女主角的丈夫

Arthur Dimmesdale

牧师。女主角通奸的对象

Pearl

女儿

“

On a field, sable, the letter A, gules”

enrich his own points but never let them take

the full reins of his discussion.

题目：

The Scarlet Letter

作者：

Nathaniel Hawthorne

赏析：

1.

A story of rebellion within an emotionally constricted Puritan society.

2.

Undisputed masterpiece of Hawthorne. Reveal Hawthorne’s superb craftsmanship

3.

Modern

psychological

insight;

secret

motivations

in

human

behaviour;

guilt

&

anxiety

resulted from sins against humanity, esp. from pride.

4.

Setting: Puritan background of New England in 17 C

5.

Hawthorne: master of Symbolism.

Pearl=

thematic

symbol:

consequence

the

sin

of

adultery

has

brought

to

the

community

and

people living in the community.

Letter

A=

different

symbolic

meanings

(adultery,

angel,

able,

advance,

admiration,

etc.).

The

ambiguity is one of the salient features of the work.

6.

Hester: committed sin but true to God and herself; not a real sinner; sinful just in the sinful

eyes of the conventional Puritans.

7.

Chillingworth:

physician,

cold

observer

of

life,

looking

on

mankind

as

the

subject

of

experiment; lost in revenge; not true to himself/others/God; real villain of the story, true sinner.

8.

Dimmesdale: partn

er of Hester’s sin; the concealment of the first sin led to the second sin;

no

longer

true

to

God/others,

but

kept

true

to

himself;

intellectual

arrogance

&

betraying

of

honesty conflict within him, led to the twisting and distortion of his personality; suffer most in

story.

六

Ahab / Pequod/Ishmael

题目：

Moby Dick

作者：

Herman Melville

赏析：

1.

Ahab: captain of the whaling ship

2.

Pequod: name of the whaling ship

3.

Theme:

the

rebellious

struggle

of

Captain

Ahab

against

the

overwhelming,

mysterious

vastness of the universe and its awesome sometimes merciless forces.

4.

Symbols & allegory:

Pequod= microcosm of human society;

The voyage= a search for truth;

3

美国文学赏析整理

Moby

Dick=

nature

(complex,

unfathomable,

malignant,

beautiful),

an

ultimate

mystery

of

universe.

七

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

`'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -

Only this, and nothing more.'

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,

And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.

Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow

From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore -

For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore -

Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain

Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;

So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating

`'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door -

Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; -

This it is, and nothing more,'

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,

`Sir,' said I, `or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;

But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,

And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,

That I scarce was sure I heard you' - here I opened wide the door; -

Darkness there, and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,

Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;

But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token,

And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Lenore!'

This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, `Lenore!'

Merely this and nothing more.

Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,

Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.

`Surely,' said I, `surely that is something at my window lattice;

Let me see then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore -

Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; -

'Tis the wind and nothing more!'

4