论《看得见风景的房间》中的人文主义.docx

1、论看得见风景的房间中的人文主义论看得见风景的房间中的人文主义摘要看得见风景的房间中，小说人物的性格及其追求充分显示了人文主义。人物真诚坦率或虚伪与保守的性格都是小说中的人文主义的一部分，另外，实现自我价值与打破束缚，追求平等与自由也是其精髓所在。本文基于人文主义理论，旨在通过分析不同人物的性格与追求，分析小说中的人文主义，为欣赏该小说增加新角度。关键词：人文主义，看得见风景的房间，人物，性格，追求The Humanism Reflected in A Room with a ViewAbstractIn A Room with a View, humanism is richly embodi

2、ed by characters personalities and pursuits. The humanism reflected in the novel is shown by characters favorable personalities like sincerity and candor, as well as their unfavorable personalities like hypocrisy and conservatism. Meanwhile, fulfilling self-value and breaking the shackles to pursue

3、equality and freedom showed by characters are exactly the essence of the humanism of the novel. The thesis, based on humanism theory, aims to show the humanism reflected in the novel A Room with a View, especially through analyzing different characters personalities and pursuits, in the hope of addi

4、ng a new standpoint to appreciate the novel.Key Words: Humanism, A Room with a View, Characters, Personalities, Pursuits1. IntroductionEdward Morgan Forster is not only an English novelist, but also an essayist and a short story writer. With only six novels, he still enjoys a lasting popularity as o

5、ne of the renowned novelists of the 20th century in English literature. “Forster and Butler are alike in their refusal to indulge a blind devotion to instinct and spontaneity that would make them neo-romantics in their point of view.” His novels are mainly about the liberal humanism and the characte

6、rs created by him mostly are caught up in the contradiction between their own personalities and the society. “His analyses of sexuality, gender, class, and nationality constitute some of the more modern aspects of his novels.” Liberal humanism is richly embodied in Forsters novels, in which human he

7、art, nature and pursuits are the hubs. Oliver Stallybrass comments him “The intensely, stifling human quality of the novel is not total avoidedwe may hate humanity, but if it is exorcised or even purified the novel wilts; little is left but a bunch of words.” As Forster is at the key turning period

8、for novels, there exist both the traditions of realism and the trends of modernism in his works. “The effect of knowing Forster was that he becomes a kind of supplementary conscience talked on to my own.”(p23) He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hyp

9、ocrisy in early 20th century British society. Because of his good quality works, Forster is acknowledged by the public and other writers. His followers believe that Forsters plentiful life and cultural experience highlights his works, and they describe him “the great liberal sage of the interwar and

10、 postwar periods.”(p6) Prakash comments that Forster is “the greatest living master of the novel.” A famous literary critic once perceptively asserted that “E.M. Forster is for me the only living novelist who can be read again and again and who, after each reading, give me what few writers can give

11、us after our first days of novel-reading, the sensation of having learned something.”(p40) A critic wrote “There have not been many English novelists of our own time, who have established with us the second function, but E. M. Forster is certainly one of them, he has served as an embodiment of the v

12、irtues he writes about.”(p35) At the end of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth century, a great change took place in British society, whose surface prosperity was covered with a crisis of decline and Victorian traditional ideas and beliefs came under questions. During such a

13、 time, A Room with a View, a novel filled with significance in terms of human personalities, was published. “Forster thought this novel was his nicest but seems to have been uneasy about the happy ending.” It is Forsters third novel and also the second one of his Italian novels. Among Forsters six n

14、ovels, it is regarded as the most romantic and optimistic novel. “With considerable artistic daring, Forster translates the materials of romantic comedy into a novel of ideas.” In l985, It was first time to be adapted into film by Merchant-Ivory and then ranked 79th on the Modern Librarys list of 10

15、0 best English-language novels of the 20th century in 1998.Without too complicated a plot, the novel mostly concentrates on the development of the main characters: Lucy and George. Lucy, a lady with good education, meets George, British young man in Florence while traveling and cannot help being att

16、racted by his enthusiasm and free mind. When she meets him in England again, she, sparing a lot of efforts, eventually gathers courage to admit and express her love to George and breaks the shackle of engagement and pursues her real happiness. In addition, in the novel, the characters are from diffe

17、rent classes and have different personalities and pursuits, which represent some kinds of distinct humanistic features.There are a lot of studies about Forsters works, and Forsterian studies which were promoted by the International E. M. Forster Society established in 2010. However, for A Room with

18、a View, the degree of related researches is far from enough. During these existing researches on A Room with a View, commentaries overseas concentrate more on its plot and cultural influence, as for the inboard literary critics, they mainly focus on their analysis of the female characters developmen

19、t and the artistic skill of the novel. There are few people who have studied the humanism reflected in A Room with a View. Thus, this paper, through analyzing the characters, aims to explore the humanistic features in it.To better study the humanism reflected in the novel, the analysis on humanistic

20、 feature and pursuits of characters become the most important way and purpose of this paper. From the whole structure of this thesis, it can be briefly divided into four parts. The first part is introduction, which mainly introduces the author of the novel, E. M. Forster, and his accomplishment he h

21、ad achieved, besides, some information about the novel has also been involved, like the reputation it has obtained, literature review on it and the comments have made by critics, etc. In order to explore the humanistic ideas reflected in the novel, the second and third part of this thesis are mainly

22、 concentrated on analyzing the characters from different aspects: characters personality and pursuits. The novel shows Cecils hypocrisy contrasted with Mr. Emersons honesty and sincerity, which allows humanistic features of characters to present to readers clearly and obviously. Besides, the pursuit

23、s of self-value, gender liberty and freedom shown by Lavish, Lucy and George are also analyzed to prove the humanism reflected in the novel.2. The Humanism Reflected in Characters PersonalitiesThe novel A Room with a View embodies the idea of humanism from the various characters and elaborate plots.

24、 In another word, this novel, the most romantic and optimistic novel of Forster, is full of humanism. The novel can be divided into two parts: the first part takes place in Italy, which starts with the complaints about the room between Lucy and Miss Bartlett, and the second part is set in England. I

25、n the following part, the essay focuses on analyzing the personality of characters which can reflect humanism in the novel.2.1 Mr. Emerson and Freddys Sincerity and Candor “Humanism is defined as a naturalistic world view that takes man to be a product of natural evolution, integral to it in body an

26、d mind. It emphasizes the power and responsibility of human beings to survive and progress in their developmentSuch human activity determines and creates the uniquely human values.” The word “humanism”, from the very beginning, was derived from the Latin concept “humanistas”, and entered English in

27、19th century with the form “humanism”. Humanism is a philosophical and ethical stance which attaches importance to the nature of human beings. It focuses on maintaining the freedom of people, as well as emphasizes that people should release their nature, and be brave to express themselves. However,

28、some critics comment “Humanism heretofore has over stressed human power and has neglected the powers of nature that create and transform our values in ways that we cannot.” Humanity and the presentation of human nature are the core of humanism. In the novel of A Room with a View, “Several different

29、characters show humanistic idea through their words, behaviors, thoughts, as well as their different social class and social conditions.”(p203) From the words and behaviors shown by Mr. Emerson and Freddy, its easy to reveal that humans sincerity and candor are one of cores of humanism which is refl

30、ected in the novel.In the novel, there are several male characters who are representative of humanism, like Mr. Emerson, Freddy, as well as George who possess the similar good nature of honesty and sincerity. They are always brave to express themselves without hesitation. From the behavior to sugges

31、t changing rooms showed by Mr. Emerson and Freedys direct comments on Cecil, the honesty and sincerity are clearly represented to readers.As the title A Room with a View suggested, Lucy always wants a room with a view when she and her cousin Miss Bartlett travel in Florence, however, they find that

32、they dont get the promised room, thus the disputation about the rooms becomes the very beginning of the whole novel. Lucy wants to see the Arno through her room, but the alteration makes it impossible. When the disputation continues about who should live in the room with the advantage of the views o

33、f the Arno, some of her neighbors dont break into disputation but stand by. However, a man interrupts the disputation and says loudly that he has a view twice. The man is Mr. Emerson, the first time to appear in the novel, without any description of his outlook but only one sentence to introduce. Mr. Emerson