英国文学史及作品选读重点

英国文学史及作品选读重点内容摘要：

ing to some understanding of oneself. [edit] Setting The details of Araby are immensely important in setting the mood。 dreary, dark Dublin is the living, symbolic backdrop for the story.[citation needed] The gloomy atmosphere of North Richmond street that actually sets the scene at the start of the story is an anticipation of what lies ahead for the little boy in the bazaar of Araby. The first sentence of the story lets us know that North Richmond street is blind, and that the Christian Brothers’ School (O39。 Connells CBS) did not so much dismiss students for the day as set them free. A quick scan of the important adjectives in the first paragraph blind, quiet, uninhabited, detached, square, decent, brown, imperturbable quickly presents a world that is practical, simple, and unmitigatingly stultifying. As mentioned before, the boys who play in the neighbourhood are able, somehow, to discover some beauty and wonder even from these simple surroundings, but to do so they must bee connoisseurs of darkness: the lanterns on North Richmond are feeble, the lanes are dark and muddy, the houses “sombre” in the winter twilight, the dark dripping gardens redolent with the smell ing from their “ashpits.” This description of the street and the lives the boys live on it serve as the backdrop that we will use to understand how much more imaginative the Araby market will or will not be.[citation needed] Of course, the story’s greatest irony is just how misnamed the Araby market is. It is certainly not a wondrous evocation of the West’s idealized and romanticized notions of the Middle East. Rather, it is exactly the sort of disappointing market you would expect to appear in the Dublin Joyce describes. It is dark, mostly empty, hushed, and more focused on money than anything else. The market at the end of the story, by closer resembling the rest of his life than the image of it he had conjured in his daydreams, forces the narrator to a bleak realization: the stark realities of daytoday living have little to do with the ideals we carry in our heads.[citation needed] [edit] Themes For such a short story, Araby touches on a great number of themes: ing of age。 the loss of innocence。 the life of the mind versus poverty, both physical and intellectual。 the dangers of idealization。 the decreasing significance of the church, despite the preservation of empty ceremonies。 and the pain that often es when one encounters love in reality instead of its elevated form. These themes build on one another entirely through the thoughts of the young boy who serves as narrator. [edit] Romantic elements Wikisource has original text related to this article: Araby Araby contains many themes and traits mon to Joyce in general and Dubliners in particular. As with many of the stories in the collection, Araby involves a character going on a journey, the end result of which is fruitless, and ends with the character going back to where he came from. Eveline is just one other story in Dubliners to feature a circular journey in this manner. Also, the narrator lives with his aunt and uncle, although his uncle appears to be a portrait of Joyce39。 s father, and may be seen as a prototype for Stephen Dedalus of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses. The scorn the narrator has for his uncle is certainly consistent with the scorn Joyce showed for his father, and the lack of good parents is pertinent.[citation needed] Robinson Crusoe From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search For other uses, see Robinson Crusoe (disambiguation). Robinson Crusoe Title page from the first edition Author Daniel Defoe Illustrator unknown Country England Language English Genre(s) Novel Publisher W. Taylor Publication date April 25, 1719 Media type Print ISBN N/A Followed by The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an uninhabited Island on the coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque。 Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver39。 d by Pyrates. Written by Himself, or simply Robinson Crusoe, is a novel by Daniel Defoe. First published in 1719, it is sometimes considered to be the first novel in English. The book is a fictional autobiography of the title character— a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Venezuela, encountering Native Americans, captives, and mutineers before being rescued. The story was likely influenced by the real life Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish castaway who lived four years on the Pacific island called M225。 s a Tierra (in 1966 its name was changed to Robinson Crusoe Island), Chile. However, the details of Crusoe39。 s island were probably based on the Caribbean island of Tobago, since that island lies a short distance north of the Venezuelan coast near the mouth of the Orinoco river, and in sight of the island of Trinidad.[1] It is also likely that Defoe was inspired by the Latin or English translations of Ibn Tufail39。 s Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, an earlier novel also set on a desert island.[2][3][4][5] Another source for Defoe39。 s novel may have been Robert Knox39。 s account of his abduction by the King of Ceylon in 1659 in An Historical Account of the Island Ceylon, Glasgow: James MacLehose and Sons (Publishers to the University), 1911.[6] Contents [hide]  1 Plot summary  2 Reception and sequels  3 Reallife castaways  4 Interpretations o Colonial o Religious o Moral o Economic  5 Legacy o Literature o Stage and film  6 Editions  7 Notes  8 References  9 External links [edit] Plot summary。