英美文学选读应用

英美文学选读应用内容摘要：

ny ways, as a little governess. She is brave enough to declare to the man her love for him. She cuts a pletely new women image. She represents those middleclass working women who are struggling for recognition of their basic rights and equality as a human being. III. Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Height 1. The novel is an extraordinary moving love story: the passion between Heathcliff and Catherine is the most intense, beautiful, and the most horrible passions ever found among human beings. 2. It is also a work of critical realism. Heathcliff is abused, rejected and distorted by the society only because he is a poor orphan of obscure parents. He suffers all kinds of inhuman treatment after the death of his benefactor. He loves Catherine dearly but forced to be separated from her. So, Heathcliff’s cruel revenge upon his enemies is justified in a way. 3. The author makes clear that it is wrong to discriminate on the basis of social status, and it is cruel and destructive to break genuine, natural human passions. Although Catherine and Edgar’s marriage is ideal in the eyes of the whole neighborhood, her love for Heathcliff is hard and everlasting. Chapter Five The Modern Period I. The features of Shaw’s plays: 1. Problem plays: He took the modern social issues as his subject with the aim of directing social reforms. Most of his plays are concerned with political, economic, or religious problems. 2. In his characterization, he makes the tricks of showing up one character vividly at the expense of another. His characters are the representatives of ideas, which shift and alter during the play. 3. The strong sense of edy in his play are achieved through his witty dialogues, sharp satires, and vivid portrayal of characters. II. The theme of Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s profession 1. The play is not only moral, but also has a strong realistic theme. The guilt for prostitution lies more upon the social system than immoral woman. He shows all human sufferings are consequences of the economic exploitation. 2. The play is a spiritual triumph for Vivie who experiences a journey from illusion to reality. At first, she is ignorant of the evil, and through a series of temptations, she understands the capitalist world better. IV. T. S. Eliot’s “The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock” Written in the form of monologue, the poem is the song of a being divided between passion and timidity. It is about the impotence and futility of a modern everyman and his existence. Prufrock is an interesting tragic figure. He is a man caught in a sense of defeated idealism and tortured by unsatisfied desire. He does not dare to seek love because even if he could find it, it would not satisfy his needs. He pares himself with Hamlet. As a result of his timidity he has bee incapable of action of any sort. V. . Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers 1. Theme: Sociologically, it is a novel about modern civilization, the “sickness of a whole civilization”. Psychologically, it is a case study of the Oedipus plex theory, for it deals with a son who loves the mother too dearly and hates the father too despisingly. The psychic conflict (between dark self and white self) in human relationships is the central theme of the novel. 2. The character analysis of Paul Morel: He is a light, quick, slender boy. From his childhood, he is especially sensitive, artistic and imaginative, and he bees extraordinarily dependent on his mother. When he gets older, his distorted relationship with his mother prevents him from loving girls as fully as he feels he should. Besides, Paul is also an artist, and a likeable young man adored by many girls. VI. The features of stream of consciousness 1. The unspoken thoughts and feelings of their characters are described without resorting to objective description or conventional dialogue. 2. The flux of a character’s thoughts, impressions, emotions are often shown without logical sequence or syntax. American Literature Chapter one : The romantic period II. Hawthorne’s Puritanism and his black vision of man: 1. Puritanism—it is the religious belief of the Puristans, who had intended to purify and simplify the religious ritual of the church。