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1、本科毕业论文论美国悲剧中萝贝塔的悲剧性学生姓名： 学生学号： 200320207202 院（系）： 外国语学院 年级专业: 2003级英语本科2班指导教师： 二七年五月The Tragedy of Roberta in American TragedyZhou LiUnder the Supervision ofWang LiSchool of Foreign Languages and CulturesPanzhihua UniversityMay 2007ContentsAbstractKey Words 摘要.关键词. . Introduction1.The Author and the
2、 Novel.2A. A Brief Introduction to Theodre Dreiser.2B. A Brief Introduction of An American Tragedy.3.The Analysis of Robertas Tragedy.6 A. Robertas Destiny.6 B. Analysis of Robertas Tragedy on the External Causes.8C. The Original Causes of Robertas Tragedy.9D. The Analysis of Robertas Tragedy on Fem
3、inism. 12Conclusion14Acknowledgements.15Bibliography.16AbstractA pioneer of naturalism in American literature, Theodore Dreiser equally deserves a place in American literature for his vigorous attack on the genteel tradition and his long and active interest in American social problem. Showing the re
4、aders an actual American society that is maintained with money worship, hedonism, individualism, his works make the readers so suffering and so astonished that some readers could hardly bear. In this paper, a brief introduction is given to Dreisers life and the critical story of An American Tragedy,
5、 and then the causes of Robertas tragedy are analyzed. Through analysis the real origin of the tragedy is exposed to be the evil capitalist social system, and Robertas tragedy is also the American females tragedy.Key WordsTheodore Dreiser; tragedy; Roberta; Clyde; American Dream.摘要美国自然主义作家西奥多德莱塞，以其锋
6、利的笔锋，向读者描绘了美国社会的种种问题，抨击了美国社会高雅面纱下围绕金钱而产生的种种丑恶现象。其作品以其史无前例的大胆写实为美国文学在现实主义协作的发展开辟了道路，也为作家在美国文学界乃至世界文学界赢得了极高的荣誉。本文通过介绍作者的生平，以及对美国悲剧这部小说中的人物萝贝塔的悲剧成因进行分析，说明在美国拜金主义，享乐主义和个人主义盛行的社会里，人在本能和社会环境的驱使下不免地要往上爬，追求物质上的满足，实现心中的梦。但在美国的社会环境下，结果往往是悲剧的。萝贝塔的悲剧，不仅是她个人的悲剧，也是美国众多女性的悲剧的写照。关键词西奥多德莱塞; 悲剧; 萝贝塔; 克莱德; 美国梦。Introdu
7、ctionDreiser, who is very famous for the principal American exponents of literary naturalism, is one of the most influential authors in American literary history during the 20th century. As a great naturalistic writer, Dreiser does not forget the basic principle of naturalism. It is easy to find tha
8、t the man characters personality in American Tragedy is a sexual athlete and a man of elemental force who rises to a dominant position in business and society led by Robertas tragedy. It expresses the depth sympathy in his novels to Roberta and Clyde, which are drawing peoples attentions, so the nov
9、el is regarded as the greatest novel in American literary.American Tragedy based on an actual case tells the story of a social tragedy, in which a tiny successful young man killed his lover, sentenced to death at last. The novel highly criticizes the America legal system and expresses the course of
10、the tragedy. Among all the comments on the causes of the tragedy, Charles Walcutl A. Waltonlitz, specifically makes an analysis about the causes of the tragedy. His idea is unique and profound for us to study. American Dream makes many young people lose their direction even lives.Most of the researc
11、hes on American Tragedy are profound, and many theories have reasoned on the causes of Robertas tragedy that American Dream and American capitalist social system are the real origin of the tragedy. Robertas death stimulates researchers to study the cause of tragedy. At the same time, the novel arous
12、es peoples attention of feminism. In 18th century, feminism was not popular, and many women had no equal rights. Through analysis of Robertas tragedy, we can get more knowledge of female in the society. The Author and the NovelA A Brief Introduction to Theodore DreiserTheodore Dreiser was born in Te
13、rre Haute, Indiana. He was the very first important American author of non- English stock, although United States had already more than half population of later immigrant and their children. His father was a German immigrant, and was mostly unemployed mill worker. So, his childhood was marked with p
14、overty. His father had previously been a cotton mill and was burned down. During the reconstruction, he was hit in the head with a beam. He never fully recovered and as a result he became deeply religious. Soon his business partners cheated him. The family was perennial poor forced frequently to mov
15、e between small Indiana towns and Chicago in search of lower living costs in order to survive. His mother was a gentle and compassionate woman. She had Czech Mennonite background. Though the familys experience of deprivation, he spoke and wrote of his mother with unswerving affection.At the age of f
16、ifteen, Theodore Dreiser moved to Chicago and took various jobs such as washing dishes, clerking in a hardware store and so on. Fortunately when he was eighteen, a teacher recognized his talent and lent money to him and he could attend to Indiana University in Bloomington. In the university, he exte
17、nsively read such writers as Darwin, Shakespeare and Spenser. He was soon interested in journalism, but he returned to Chicago and worked as a bill collector, real estate clerk and laundry-truck driver. Dreiser was even educated from direct personal experience and he had independent reading and thin
18、king. He was affected by Spencers Social Darwinism. Dreiser first entered the newspaper office by dispensing toys at Christmas. He subsequently got hired as a club reporter with the Chicago Globe and later went to St. Louis as a feature writer for the Globe-Democrat. Then, he left St. Louis and move
19、d to Pittsburg working with the Dispatch. He finally became a freelance journalist and magazine editor in New York City. His editor friend, Author Henry gave him the suggestion. Dreiser began writing his first novel the Sister Carrier (1900). With the publications of the Financier（1912）,a novel base
20、d on the life of Clarles T. Yerkes, Genius (1915) a novel of the egocentric artistic personality, was banned but a year later a petition protesting.An American Tragedy（1925）,based on an actual criminal case in history, had been regarded as the greatest novel in American letters. In the book, Dreiser
21、 explored the plight of individuals who were caught between universal and American force by cheating a character that had neither internal nor external power to satisfy the necessities that drove him. In the consequent soul-hunger, desperation, and eventual destruction of an ordinary person, Dreiser
22、 questioned the moral. In 1944, Dreiser was awarded the Merit Medal for Fiction by the American Academy of Art and Letters. In 1945, he died at his home in southern California.Dreiser was a great naturalism writer. He wrote his work on the basic principle of naturalism. He and his works of the real
23、life do not attack the nations puritanical moral code; they ignore it. Then, his attitude stocked the genteel public probably more than the others. Because he was born from poverty, and he had harsh experience of poverty, suffered enough distress from unemployment and poverty. He had enough knowledg
24、e and deep sympathy. In the early years, Dreiser was affected by social Darwinism, but from 1920s he turned to realism and even naturalism, as got large advance in the American literature history. As one of great American writer of naturalism, he was works were greatly influenced by Herbert Spenser,
25、 Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Max and Honoree de Balzac in his works.B. A Brief Introduction of an American Tragedy An American Tragedy tells about a tragic story. The story was based on a popular murder case. In the story, Clyde was a less successful young man, driven by the desire for sex and money t
26、o murder his lover, and he did that in order to marry wealth. Finally, he was convicted and executed to death. Whatever of social and spirit, he was victim. From the book, Dreiser expressed a degree of critical and commercial success. There are three books in the novel. In the first book, the author
27、 describes Clydes life in Kansas. He was born in a poor missionary family; Clyde Griffiths lived a poverty-stricken life since his childhood. He always had to sing hymn of praise in American street everyday with his family. As he grew up, he was more and more tired of and even hated singing hymn of
28、praise in the street with his family, and he was so sensitive that he always felt that the auditors were looking down upon them. In a word, his poor family made him painful. So once he had grown old enough to make money, he threw away that lifestyle. Since at his sixteen, he firstly worked as an app
29、rentice in a drugstore. Before long, he successfully found a better job in Green- Davidson Hotel, the greatest hotel in Kansas, where he worked as a bellboy and earned about $25 a week. In Green- Davidson, he was deeply impressed by the striking contrast between Rich and Poor, and he avidly wanted t
30、o rise into this American upper class that seemed to offer him the only hope of self-realizations. As he earned and learnt more in Green- Davidson, he began to drink, play cards and go to brothel, and he made a very vain girl friend, Hortense. In order to curry favor with her to fulfill his desire a
31、nd to parade his wealth to his friends, he cheated his family that he earned quite a little money, thus he could spend as much money as he could on Hortense and himself. Whats more, his sister was discarded by a man and was already pregnant. Even when his mother and his sister, Esta, were in need of
32、 his financial aid, he still refused to help them, and instead he left the fifty dollars to buy a fur coat of beaver for Hortense. Clyde, the poor young man, became more and more greedy and selfish and less kind in the surroundings of the plot Green- Davidson. Later, on the way back to work from a t
33、ravel for fun, he and his friend ran over a girl with the car which one of his friends stole from his fathers employer. To evade the punishment, he fled to Chicago lonely.Book Two is the key part of the novel, which narrates the process of how Clyde climbed up to the upper class and killed his pregn
34、ant lover, Roberta. After he fled to Chicago, he entered his uncles factory and begged Samuel Griffiths to give him a job in the Griffiths Collar Company of Lycurgus. Later he went to his uncles factory and soon he worked as the head of a department which had 25 girls. Then, Clyde appeared important
35、 and prosperous. Because his cousin hated him, frustration and embarrassment encountered frequently with a short space and time. His snobbish relatives soon forgot him. Anxious for promotion, and desirous of happiness imbued with zeal for self-satisfaction, he fell in love with a young and beautiful
36、 working girl, Roberta Alden, who was employed in his department. After a time of ogling and flirting, their relationship became intimate. As to marriage, he always dreamed to marry with a rich young beautiful girl to climb up upper status. So he never thought of marring Roberta. The kind girl did n
37、ot know the thought. Clyde associated with Roberta in order to spend his space-time. His dream was to become a person of better status and entered upper class. Under his blandishment, soon after he had sex with Roberta, and made her pregnant. Before long, he met a friend of his cousin, Sondra Finchl
38、ey, by accident, and he was deeply attracted by her. Then, he made Sondra fell in love with him gradually. Thanks to Sondras help, Clyde frequently took part in all kinds of parties. It made him feel that was a beautiful way of life like his imagination, and soon he forget his girlfriend Roberta. So
39、ndra was the daughter of the owner of the Finchley Electronic Company. Compared to Sondra, Roberta was just a poor working girl, a daughter of a poor farmer, and could not help him to join the luxurious party. So, from the beginning, Clyde was not going to marry Roberta, just wanted to make love wit
40、h her although he really loved her. However, as to Sondra, he always dreamed to marry her, and then he could enjoy the luxurious life that Sondra had. He always dreamed that if he could marry Sondra, he would be the manager of the Finchley Electronic Company soon. In order to avoid marrying Roberta
41、and fulfill his dream of marrying Sondra, Clyde planned to kill Roberta in the Grass Lake. But in the critical moment, he was hesitating. Dramatically, Roberta was drowned in an accident.In Book Three, it narrates the process that Clydes murder case was judged and he was in prison and at last he was
42、 sentenced to death. It was the very state election time when the case happened. The Democracy and the Republicanism made use of the case as they like regardless of the exact fact to promote attention in order to get the trust of the votes and win the election. The Democracy that took charge of the
43、administration at that time tried every means to testify Clydes crime; they even concocted false evidences to testify Clydes crimes as soon as possible to defraud trust of voters. While the Republicanism tried every way to exonerate for Clyde. In the ugly struggle, Clyde acted like a chessman, altho
44、ugh he was the one directly involved. He even did not know what was going on earth. The ugly struggle between the too parties, and then, Clyde was sentenced to death more quickly. Thus, after over two years in prison, Clyde was made dead in an electric chair in the prison. His life was over at the a
45、ge of 25. . Analysis of Robertas TragedyA. Robertas Destiny Roberta Alden was a daughter of Titus Alden, a farmer-of near Blitz, which was a small town in Mimi co Country, some fifty miles north. The father of her father was also a farmer. Her father was also an unsuccessful person at forty-eight. H
46、e was still living in a very old and much in need of repair house which he inherited from his father. From her youth up she has seen little but poverty. Roberta was a contemptuous and damaging nobody. She was very beautiful and charming and because the education she was derived, she was good and kin
47、d. But Roberta had some vanity. It had worldliness and selfish motives in her love. At the same time, because of a warm, imaginative and sensuous temperament, she was filled with good dream of good fortune about future. She was always thinking of something better. With these good dreams, once she had grown old enough, she left her family for the city to look for good luck. With her friends help, she went
