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1、【标题】浅析名利场中的无英雄手法 【作者】戴 昀 含 【关键词】现实；资本主义社会；经历；客观性 【指导老师】李 雷 【专业】英语 【正文】I. IntroductionA. Introduction to the AuthorWilliam Makepeace Thackeray(1811-1863) belongs to the mid-Victorian generation whose achievements represent the high point of Victorian and is one of the greatest critical realistic writ
2、ers. He was the son of an official high in the employment of the East India Company. His father died when he was only four. At six he was sent to England to get education. In his childhood, he had felt the coldness of the society, because his family was Anglo-Indian, to whom the English society was
3、hostile. At the age of eleven he went to middle school. When he was young, he lost the small fortune that he had inherited. Maybe it was good for him. In a word, he had a free life without restrain. He accepted education, and he must do everything like a gentleman in the society. He didnt know what
4、he wanted to do. He lost money, but he left the rich life which made him degenerated. So, when he wrote a letter to his mother, he said:“I thank God for giving me poorness, because I was not happy when I was rich.” 1 He told his mother not to worry about him, maybe this unfortunate life was good for
5、 him. So his experience, talent, his keen sight, deep thinking and his grievance against the upper class make him one of the greatest critical realists of the 19th century.Some famous writers also praised that he always observed everything carefully, understood the life and peoples spirit deeply. Th
6、ey thought Thackeray was a genius. In his time he was always being compared to Dickens, and he has been ever since. But they belong to two entirely different types of writer. Of course, they have the common characteristics of that period. Their moral values about the Victorian middle class are much
7、the same. But they also have differences, such as the nature of inspiration.Thackeray thought if somebody wanted to describe the society well, he must live in the environment. England was a strong industrial country in early 19th century. The new bourgeoisie had more money, but the proletariat was s
8、o poor, and lived a terrible life. This background supplied him with good materials for the creations.B. Introduction to the NovelThackeray is a productive writer who left series of excellent works. Among his novels, Vanity Fair is certainly the most influential one and has great artistic accomplish
9、ment. It secured Thackerays position as literary giant of English literature and was considered one of the English classical. Marx ever praised that his works are very profound. In Vanity Fair, his description of the general mood and human feelings of the bourgeois society is sharp and penetrating.
10、Through the vivid description of the characters like Rebecca Sharp, Amelia Sedley, Thackeray put forward the theme of this novel, that is, English society of that stage in history was an absolute vanity fair.There are usually heroes or heroic deeds in the traditional novels, while this novel mainly
11、talks about the common people and trivial matters. Vanity Fair remains a classical example of social satire up to the present day. Thackeray makse it clear from the very beginning that“Vanity Fair” is“A Novel without a Hero”, which suggests that the creative means of this novel was different from th
12、ose traditional novels. In his novel, these characters was not perfect people but the common persons.Expressing his this idea, Thackeray uses another means. He gives his novel a subtitle,“A Novel without a Hero”. The subtitle emphasizes on the fact the writers intention is not to portray individuals
13、, but the bourgeoisie and the aristocratic society as a whole. In Thackerays view, to be heroic is to dominate the circumstance,2 but in this book, these figures are the slaves of circumstance. In other words, these figures are the slaves of the capitalistic society. Under the social background, whe
14、n the money expanded its influence to the society, these persons ambition also expanded. Although, there were a few persons who thought the money and power were secondary, they also could not avoid the unfortunate fate coming from the bad ethos. So they are the slaves, not the heroes.As Thackeray sa
15、id, this novel has no hero. Firstly, they were the slaves of circumstance; Secondly, they were zilch. All the figures in the novel were common people who were not just like hero. For these common people, their hearts did not contain the whole world but the trivial matter. No people are like heroes w
16、ho were perfect, and were selfless to devote. In that unrest society, everyone was lead by their own ambition but the selfless devotion.II. The Reason of Showing no Heroic Characters in Vanity FairA. The Social ConditionThe early Victorian period is an age of profound social unrest. Because of the i
17、ndustrial revolution, the social structure had great change. With the rapid development of the capitalism, many shortcomings of the capitalism appeared. Ever since the thirties of 19th century, the struggle between the workers and capitalists took powerfully, and capitalism developed rapidly. Englan
18、d became a typical capitalist country. Money became very important in that time. The relationship between each other was just a kind of money transaction. The upper middle class were busy seeking powers and position, fame and fortune. The newly risen capitalists were becoming aristocrats and they we
19、re so greedy to seek more power and money in the society. In 1836, there arose the struggleclass movement known as Chartism. According to Lenin, this movement was the first broad, and really mass, political reform had a great influence on the literature of this time. Under this condition, there appe
20、ared a new literary trendcritical realism. English critical realism flourished in the forties and early fifties. The critical realists described the English society vividly. They criticized the life of the bourgeoisie and showed the misery and suffering of the common people. They gave a satirical po
21、rtrayal of the former and expressed profound sympathy for the latter. William Makepeace Thackeray was one of the representatives.In that time, ordinary people had no other dreams but dream for wealth. The author built the plot upon the lives of Amelia Sedley and Rebecca Sharp to show a picture of th
22、e life of ruling class in England at the beginning of the 19th century.“Vanity Fair” shows his attitude towards the bourgeois and aristocratic society in which all sorts of vanity that includes gold, houses, lands, honours, titles, kingdoms, pleasures, wives, husbands and even lives and souls could
23、be sold for money, position. This novel faithfully and vividly reveals us the lives of the landed aristoracy, city merchants, social climbers.People in Vanity Fair fasten on to rich folks quite naturally. If the simplest people are disposed to look not a little kindly on great prosperity,(for I defy
24、 any member of the British public to say that the naotion of Wealth has not something awful and plesing to him; and you, if you are told that the man next you at dinner has got half a million, not to look at him with a certain inerest;) if the simple look benevolently on money, how much more do your
25、 old worldings regard it! 3When Thackeray demonstrated the virtue and vice of the characters he created, he said no one was wrong and it was fault of the world. Because the social environment urged and advocated the population of that time to seek for money and position. The kind of influence was ub
26、iquitous.Thackeray showed a vivid picture of the upper classs life in England, and created one of the most fascinating immoral female characters, Rebecca Sharp,“I think I could be a good women if I had five thousand a year.”4 Rebecca said, and she was right. It was the society that impelled he to be
27、 a bad woman. She realized that the birth in poverty is the essential barrier for her climbing the upper class. Others lived a happy life only because their parents were rich, though they were mediocre or even foolish. She was restricted by the social environment. In order to change her situation sh
28、e was disdained by others. Having no family connections to support her, she could do nothing but yield to the prevailing social principlemoney and position. she was so beautiful, ambitious, intelligent woman who found the advantageous marriage is the direct way to get her desire. For this, she becam
29、e an expert actress, acting out the female imagination expected. So when she met the eligible, fat, timid and“immortal” Joseph Sedley, Rebecca made“a respectful virginlike curtsey” and modestly kept her“large, odd, and attractive”5 eyes lowered. Because she knew that beauty was weapon. However, she
30、failed in the relationship of Joseph. She did not become his wife, but at last she succeeded in getting some of his money. Rebecca, however, lacked all these advantages, and therefore if she wished to survive, to say nothing of living well, she had no choice but to act as she did. Then, Rebeccas mar
31、riage to Rawdon fell short of her anticipation by the carefully contrived withdrawal of Miss Crawleys support and Rawdon lost his right of inheritance. But Rebecca who was indomitable and was not discouraged. On the one hand, Rebecca was a rebel against the genteel world, and at the same time, she g
32、enuinely wanted security and recognition by the respectable world. She enjoyed a fairy-tale rise in society, achieving the status inconsistency that helped redefine the ideology of life.The significance of this figure is that, Thackeray indicate, Rebecca was not the only one who lives for the sheer
33、purpose of money and higher social position. In the novel, almost everyone wished to gain something for nothing and acted pretty the same manner as Rebecca. So we can see that the capitalist society is a world where the law of the ambition works. In such a place, each person is ready to gain the mon
34、ey, and in order to get wealthy, they can try every means. Vanity Fair is a world where everyone aims at profit, and everyone is busy cheating others to get money. There are no heroic deeds in that society at all.B. The Personal ExperienceAs we know, when Thackeray was a child, he felt the coldness
35、of society. His experience of inconstancy of human relationships there gave him an indelible impression, which was used in Vanity Fair. Later he studied at Cambridge. And at university Thackeray displayed a talent for cartoondrawing and dreamed of becoming an artist. His fine hand at characterizatio
36、n and description in his works had something to do with that. He also edited a student newspaper. He left school without taking a degree. Then he traveled in Europe, going in for art study. In 1983, he went to London to study law. During this period of time, he had an intimate knowledge of Londons l
37、ife. Later the bank in India where he deposited the money that he inherited from his father went bankrupt, which left him penniless. So he began his writing career. Thackerays marriage is worth mentioning, because he also experienced a horribly unlucky marriage and suffered from the illness. He marr
38、ied Isabella, an Irish girl. Amelia, the protagonist in Vanity Fair is drawn from her. Because of his personal experience and so many frustrations, he took a dim and pessimistic view of life. For his outlook on society, he started to analyze the instinct of human and treated the man soberly and obje
39、ctively. So in Vanity Fair Thackeray tried his best to dig out and describe the ugly side of human beings. He did not prepare to describe perfect role but displayed just the common people who were not perfect in fact. Even the cest character also had the fatal shortcomingselfishness.Thackerays gloom
40、y view towards the society was attributed to the gloomy experience. He began his literary career as a sore gentleman. His special living circumstance made him realize thoroughly the villainy of the upper society. It was a deceptive delusive society in order to seek for power and profit. In his eyes,
41、 the English bourgeois society at that time was an extremely vicious and terrible vanity fair where some people lost themselves and the desire for money and luxury controlled the minds of all members of the upper ruling class. When they pursued the so-called happiness, they had no hesitation and scr
42、uples. In his novel, Rebecca Sharp could be a typical delegation of that society, and she was the delegation of one kind of people who determined to make fortune in the world by every means even by the dishonest or adulterine methods. For the author, it was a world in which the devil was behind the
43、people who has intense desire.With his unfortunate experience, he created a series of figures, most of whom had a strong desire of climbing up the upper society. These selfish people controlled by the vicious temptation and ambition would attain their aim without thinking the results even doing harm
44、 to others. We know, a hero should be so powerful and insistent that he can help others or himself to be more happy not sad. So for him, everyone was not perfect and was the same for living, which is the reason of no hero in this novel. These persons who could not break away from the temptation comi
45、ng from the debauchery, material and gambling world were the models he created. What he did is to reflect the reality of the society where there was no hero in the capitalistic society.III. The Characteristics of the Method of Showing no Heroic Characters in Vanity FairIn many novels, the ending of
46、the novel were clear, such as the courage people got the success or the devil was in ruin. But in the novel, we can not differentiate who is protagonist and who is antagonist. In capitalistic society, everyone is selfish and has some shortcomings. As a writer, Thackeray did not add the color to any
47、figure in order to show the reality of the society.A. ObjectivityCompared with the other famous writer Charles Dickens, Thackeray had his own distinctive principle of the novel writing. Dickens often wrote with the thought that the world was basically good and could be better. So his novels always s
48、eemed to be sentimental. However, reading Thackerays Vanity Fair, the reader may feel that this works is too tedious to rise readers interest. In his daily life, Thackeray was an absolute observer who wanted to tell the truth of that society, and he firmly kept to social realism. He said:“the world
49、is a looking glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own faceFrown at it is and it will in turn look sourly upon youlaugh at it and with it and it is a jolly kind companion.” 6 So he decided that his thoughts and his pen totally reflected nothing but the reality.After finishing the whole story, the tone of Thackerays personality was spread in the novel. Because he told the story by the same voice without thinking about the plot, the characters and scenes. In Vanity Fair, Thackeray did
