Unit 1 Benjamin Franklin
American Literature
Lecture One Introduction
American literature
American literature mainly refers to literature produced in American English by the people living in the United States.
Historical Background
What do you know about American early history?
1. Early history:
1) In 1492, Christopher Columbus found the new continent called America.
2) In 1607, Captain John Smith led some Englishmen across the ocean.
3) In 1620, 102 passengers sailed on the ship Mayflower across the sea and settled on the new continent ―New England‖.
Historical Background
2. People:
native inhabitants: Indians
Immigrants mostly from Europe: Spanish; Dutch; French
English immigrants, Jamestown, Virginia, 1607
Puritans
a group of religious people
advocated religious &moral principles
Brief Outline of American Literature
1. Colonial period and Revolutionary period
2.Romanticism
3.The age of Realism
4. The Modern period
5. After the WWII
Colonial period and Revolutionary period
Time: 1607--1783??the settlement of North America-- the Independence War
Major topic:American Puritanism
Introduction
There were no written literature among the more than 500 different Indian languages and tribal cultures，American writing began with the work of English adventurers and colonists in the New World chiefly for the benefit of readers in the mother country. Therefore the writing in this period was essentially two kinds:
（1）practical matter-of-fact accounts of farming, hunting, travel, etc. designed to inform people ―at home‖ w hat life was like in the new world, and, often, to induce their immigration;
(2) highly theoretical, generally polemical(好辩的）, discussions of religious questions. Romanticism
Time: 1783—1861 the Independence War-- the Civil War
Romanticism (1783-1865)
Washington Irving
James Fenimore Cooper
Summit of Romanticism-Transcendentalism (American Renaissance)
Ralph Waldo Emerson??Fillip Thoreau
Late Romanticism
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Herman Melville
not optimistic
Romantic Poets
Walt Whitman
Emily Dickenson
Edgar Allen Poe：the most controversial & the most misunderstood
The age of Realism
Time: 1865--1918??the Civil War-- the First World War
concern for the common-place
offer an objective view
The Age of Realism (1865-1918)
Mark Twain
Henry James
Naturalism
Stephen Crane
Theodore Dreiser
American Literature
——Colonial Period and Revolutionary Period
Time:
the settlement of North America——1607
? ?the Independence War——1783
? ?Major Topic: American Puritanism
Puritanism
Features of Puritanism
(1) Predestination: God decided everything before things occurred.
(2) Original sin: Human beings were born to be evil, and this original sin can be passed down from generation to generation.
(3) Total depravity
(4) Limited atonement: Only the ―elect‖ can be saved.
Simply speaking, American Puritanism just refers to the spirit and ideal of puritans who settled in the North American continent in the early part of the seventeenth century because of religious persecutions(迫害）. In content it means scrupulous （小心谨慎）moral rigor, especially hostility to social pleasures and indulgences, that is??strictness,sternness and austerity（苦行）in conduct and religion.With time passing it became a dominant factor in American life, one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and American Literature. To some extent it is a state of mind, a part of the national cultural atmosphere.Actually it is a code of values, a philosophy of life and a point of view in American minds.
General features
Types of writing: diaries, histories, letters etc.
Content: serving either God or colonial expansion or both
Form: imitating English literary traditions
II. Benjamin Franklin1706 - 1790
Benjamin Franklin
American politician, scientist, inventor, and educator.??
He was a typical example of the so-called Ame rican Dream.??He helped draft the ―Declaration of Independence‖.??
He conducted the difficult negotiation with France that brought financial and military support for America in the war.??
He founded the college that was to become the University of Pennsylvania.??
Born in a poor candle and soap maker‘s family, he had to leave school before he was eleven.
At twelve he was apprenticed to an older brother, James, a printer in Boston.
When he was 17 he ran away to Philadelphia to make his own fortune marking the beginning of a long success story of an archetypal kind.
1. His Life
He set himself up as an independent printer and publisher, Retired around forty-two, he did what was to him a great happiness: read, make scientific experiments At the same time he did a lot of famous experiments and invented many things such as volunteer fire departments, effective street lighting, the Franklin Stove, bifocal(双焦点的）glasses, efficient heating devices, lightning-rod and so on. Beginning his public career in the early fifties, he became a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly, the Deputy Postmaster-General for the colonies, and for some eighteen years served as representative of the colonies in London.During the War of Independence, he was made a delegate to the Continental Congress and a member of the committee to write the Declaration of Independence. One of the makers of the new nation, he brought France into an alliance with America against England, and played a decisive role at the Constitutional Convention.
Benjamin Franklin(1706—1790) printer,? ???editor,? ? inventor,? ?scientist, opened his own print shop for 20 years of the lightning rod
made experiment with a kite, proving that lightning was electricity published the Pennsylvania Gazette (newspaper)
Benjamin Franklin（1706—1790）
a member of the group that wrote the Declaration of Independence founded the first public library, organized the first fire department and the first paid police force, founded a school and a hospital. the great man of letters Autobiography《自传》? ?Poor Richard‘s Almanac 《穷理查德历书》politician, public-spirited citizen, prose writer
Autobiography
A story that a person writes about his or her own life is called an autobiography. Autobiographies are written in first-person point of view, and biographies in third-person point of view. Autobiography—— the greatest autobiography produced in Colonial America
The work portrays a fascinating picture of life in Philadelphia,
Franklin wrote the first five chapters of his autobiography in England in 1771, resumed again thirteen years later (1784-85) in Paris and later in 1788 when he returned to the United States. Franklin ends the account of his life in 1757 when he was 51 years old.
Autobiography
It is regarded as one of the most important works of American literature produced during the 18th
century.
It is a record of a man rising to wealth and fame from a state of poverty and obscurity, an account of the colorful career of America's first self-made man.
Autobiography
It is perhaps the first real post-revolutionary American writing as well as the first real autobiography in English.
First of all, it is a puritan document. The most famous section describes his scientific scheme of self-examination and self-improvement.
Autobiography
The style: it is the pattern of Puritan simplicity, directness, and concision(言简意赅). The narrative is lucid(易懂的), the structure is simple, the imagery is homely(朴素的).
an exemplary illustration of the American style of writing.
Autobiography
―To help myself live without fault, I made a list of what I considered the 13 virtues. These virtues are: 1. Temperance 2. Self-control 3. Silence 4. Order 5. Firmness 6. Savings 7.Industry 8.Honesty 9. Justice 10. Cleanliness 11. Calmness 12. Morality 13. Humbleness‖
节制饮食，自我克制，沉默寡言，有条不紊，坚定信念，勤俭节约，工作勤奋，忠诚老实，办事公正，衣履整洁，平心静气，品行高尚，谦虚恭顺
He was a rare genius in human history. he became almost everything: a printer, postmaster, citizen, almanac maker, essayist, scientist, inventor, orator（雄辩家）, statesman, philosopher, political economist, ambassador and musician.
He was the first great self-made man in America, his fine example helped to liberalize.
3. Evaluation
For quite some time he was regarded as the father of??America, even more than Washington was. He was the only American to sign the four documents that created the United States: the declaration of Independence, the treaty of alliance with France, the treaty of peace with England, and the constitution.
Scientifically, he invented a lot of useful implements.
Literally, he really opened the story of American literature. D. H. Lawrance agreed that Franklin was everything but a poet. In the Scottish philosopher David Hume‘s eyes he was America‘s ―first great man of letters‖.
Unit 1 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Characters in the Autobiography：
Benjamin Franklin??-??The author and protagonist of the Autobiography;
The Autobiography tells of the major events of his life and many of his important scientific and political ideas, but the work does not discuss the American Revolution, in which Franklin was a major participant.
William Franklin
Benjamin's son and royal governor of New Jersey in 1771 when Ben begins writing the work.
Ben begins the Autobiography as a letter to William with the intent of telling him about his life. James Franklin
Franklin older brother who owns a printing house in Boston. Ben is apprenticed to James when Ben is 12, and while they do not always get along very well, Ben learns much from James and
proves to be quite helpful. When James is arrested for holding subversive (颠覆性的）political ideas, Ben takes over the paper until James' release. When Ben breaks his contract and leaves for Philadelphia, James grows angry and spiteful.
Andrew Bradford
A printer in Philadelphia, he is unable to hire Franklin but he does allow Franklin to stay in his https://www.doczj.com/doc/331108210.html,ter on, when Franklin runs his own paper, the two are competitors until Bradford leaves the printing industry.
Samuel Keimer
The printer in Philadelphia for whom Franklin works.
Their relationship deteriorates over time, and eventually they have a falling out.
Keimer, however, tries to make amends when he realizes that Ben can supply him with important printing tools.
John Read
A resident of Philadelphia, he houses Franklin shortly after Franklin arrives in Philadelphia. Deborah Read
The daughter of John Read, she eventually marries Franklin even though their courtship is interrupted by his 18-month trip to England, during which time she marries another man who disappears thus allowing her marriage to Franklin.
―Firsts" associated with the Autobiography
1.It is considered the first popular self-help book ever published.
2. It was the first and only work written in American before the 19th century that has retained bestseller popularity since its release.
3. It was the first major secular American autobiography.
4. It is also the first real account of the American Dream in action as told from a man who experienced it firsthand.
Part One, first section
The Autobiography opens with a salutation（问候、致意）to Ben Franklin‘s son, William Franklin who at the time was the royal governor of New Jersey. Franklin is writing in the summer of 1771 on vacation in a small town about 50 miles south of London. Franklin says that because his son may wish to know about his life, he is taking his one week vacation in the English countryside to record his past. Franklin says that he has enjoyed his life and would like to repeat it, although he would like to correct some small errors if the opportunity arose. But since Franklin cannot repeat life, he can instead recollect it. He thanks God for allowing him to live a good life.
Ben, at the age of 12, signed a contract to work for James for the next eight years. Commentary
The opening part of the Autobiography addresses some themes that will come up later on in the book, namely, self-betterment and religion. Franklin?s tone at the beginning of the book is humble. He claims to write only so that his own life may be an example for his son of how one can live well and how one can get through hardships. Franklin's book, a story of self-betterment, is written so as to be a model for the betterment of others. This general motive for writing, as well as Franklin's mention of correcting some errors were he to relive his life, both indicate Franklin's constant interest in self-improvement. This is perhaps the largest theme in the Autobiography; it dominates Part Two and recurs often in Part One.Also notice that Franklin thanks God for helping him to lead a good life. Franklin does not often show a religious side, and he will explain in
greater depth later on that he is a Deist（自然神论信仰者）without ascribing to any particular religious denomination（教派）. Franklin is often seen as the prototypical American and the first real example of the classic American Dream in action. Notice how Franklin carefully draws out throughout the book how he rose up with help primarily from hard work and skills. This part of the Autobiography is interesting from a literary standpoint because Ben Franklin is essentially creating the legend of the American Dream.
Part One, second section
When James was jailed for political reasons, Ben had the chance to take over the paper briefly, a job which Ben held in name even after James was released under the stipulation（约定）that he could no longer work on the paper.After another fight with James, however, Ben suddenly broke his contract and quit his job. James immediately instructed the other printers in Boston not to hire his brother, and as a result, Ben realizes that he would have to travel to a different city if he wished to find work. At age 17, he secretly leaves home and traveled to New York City.
He finds no work there , but learns that he could get a job in Philadelphia working for a printer named Andrew Bradford.His journey to Philadelphia is eventful as he gets caught in a storm, during which he saved the life of a drunken Dutchman, who nearly drowned. The boat dropped him off near Burlington, about 18 miles from Philadelphia. He finally arrived in the city on October 6, 1723 in the Market Street Wharf.Wandering around, Franklin stumbled into a Quaker meeting（贵格会教派的祈祷会）near the market. One of these Quakers showed him a place to stay the night.
Commentary
Franklin mentions in this section one of his "first errata," when he quits his job with his brother. Franklin mentions them for one reason so as to show others how to live their lives. He also points them out as a means of showing humility. He wants to make it clear that he has never acted perfectly in all situations, and he wishes to indicate that he recognizes the mistakes he has made during his life.
Questions
1.Why did Franklin write his Autobiography?
Franklin says that because his son may wish to know about his life, he is taking his one week vacation in the English countryside to record his past. He also says that he has enjoyed his life and would like to repeat it
2.What made Franklin decide to leave the brother to whom he had been apprenticed?
His brother was passionate, and had often beaten him. The aversion to arbitrary power that has stuck to him through his whole life .After a brush with the law, Franklin left his brother.
3.How did he arrive in Philadephia?
First he set out in a boat for Amboy, the boat dropped him off about 50 miles from Burlington, the next day he reached Burlington on foot, in Burlington he found a boat which was going towards Philadelphia, he arrived there about eight or nine o‘clock, on the Sunday morning and landed at the Market Street wharf.
4.What features do you find in the style of the above selection?
It is the pattern of Puritan simplicity, directness, and concision(言简意赅). The narrative is lucid(易懂的), the structure is simple, the imagery is homely(朴素的).
Unit 2 Edgar Allen Poe
The American Romanticism
I. What is Romanticism
a literary movement flourished as a cultural force
the early period and the late period.
associated with imagination and boundlessness,
as an historical movement it arose in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The most clearly defined romantic literary movement in the U. S.A was Transcendentalism. Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper,
and those of the late period contain Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe.
II.Features of American romanticism
(1) It was the expression of ―a real new experience(全新体验)‖.
(2) American Puritanism was a cultural heritage. Many American romantic writings intended to edify(启发) more than they entertained.
(3) American Romanticism is full of ―newness(新奇)‖ .
Ideals：Individualism; political equality
Dream：America: a new Garden of Eden
(4) American romanticism was both imitative and independent.
Edgar Allen Poe(1809 - 1849)
the most controversial and most misunderstood literary figure.
a Bohemian（吉普赛人）, depraved（堕落）and demonic（恶魔的）, a villain（恶棍）with no virtue at all.
Mark Twain declared his prose to be unreadable.
But Eliot proclaimed him a critic of the first rank.
He enjoyed respect and welcome greatly in Europe.
He is the father of psychoanalytic criticism. In deed, Poe places the subconscious condition of the mind under investigation and probes beneath the surface of normal existence.
What interests him most is the deep abyss（深渊）of the unconscious（无意识）and subconscious （下意识）mental activity of the people,
His theories for the short story and poetry are remarkable.
He was the first author in American literature to make the neurotic（神经质的）the heroic figure, the protagonist, in his stories.
As a short story writer, Poe was a fascinating man of imagination interested in deduction and induction. And half a dozen of his stories belong to Ratiocinative（推理的）
Poe‘s style is traditional but he is difficult to read.
Edgar Allan Poe was a master of the suspenseful short story and he introduced the detective story to American readers.
As a poet, he wrote some very fine short lyrics, some acknowledged masterpieces in American literature.
Poe was the first great critic of America.
But he never seemed able to find success or happiness.
He led a life which was almost as unusual as his writing.
Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He was two years old when his actor parents died.
John Allan, a wealthy tobacco merchant took him in, although he never really adopted the boy, Poe took his own middle name.
Poe was sent to the university of Virginia. Howerver, because of gambling debts, he was forced to leave after only one year.
He then enlisted in the Army. After a brief military career Poe focused directly on writing.
He worked as an editor for a number of popular magazines and won recognition for his magazine stories and articles.
Yet his personal life continued to be a struggle with poverty.
In 1836 he married his thirteen-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm,
but she died from tuberculosis at the age of twenty-five.
During her life Poe did his most inspired writing and was probably as happy as he ever was. Virginia‘ death left the poet in a state of despair.
As his life became increasingly difficult,
Poe sought to escape from it, often through alcohol.
In 1849 he was found dead in Baltimore in an alley(小巷）near a tavern（小酒馆）.
Poe‘s Major Literary Works
poems
1) ―The Raven‖ 《乌鸦》
2) ―Annable Lee‖ 《安娜贝尔?李》
3) ―The Sleeper‖ 《睡梦人》
4) ―A Dream Within a Dream‖ 《梦中梦》
5) ―Sonnet—To Science‖ 《十四行诗—致科学》
6) ―To Helen‖ 《致海伦》
7) ―The City in the Sea‖ 《海中的城市》earlier entitled The Doomed City 《衰败的城市》tales
Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque???述异集? a collection of short stories
two kinds
Horror
Ratiocination（推理）
―The Murders in the Rue Morgue‖ 《莫格街谋杀案》??
―The Gold Bug‖《金甲虫》
―The Black Cat‖ 《黑猫》
―The Cask of Amontillado‖
The Masque of the Red Death
―Ligeia‖《莉盖亚》
―The Fall of the House of Usher‖
―The Purloined Letter‖《被窃的信件》
―The Mystery of Marie Roget‖ 《玛丽罗杰谜案》
works
The Philosophy of Composition 《创作原理》
The Poetic Principle 《诗歌原则》
Literary theory
Themes
1. death – predominant theme
―Poe is not interested in anything alive. Everything in Poe‘s writings is dead.‖
2. horror
3.negative thoughts of science
Themes
4. Love - usually of a mourning man for his deceased beloved.
5. Pride - physical and intellectual.
6. Beauty - of a young woman either dying or dead.
Poe‘s??theory for poetry
poems
short but achieve
maximum effect
produce a feeling of beauty in the reader
"pure―, not to moralize
He stresses rhythm
insists on an even(规则的) metrical flow
真实能够满足人的理智,感情能够满足人的心灵, 而美则能激动人的灵魂
Poe‘s theory for short story
Short story should be of brevity（简短）, totality(完整）, single effect, compression(压缩) and finality.
Poe‘s achievement
1. His aesthetics, his call for ―the rhythmical creation of beauty‖ have influenced French symbolists and the devotees(献身者）of "art for art's sake."
2. He is the father of psychoanalytic(心理分析的) criticism.
3. He is the father of the detective story.
The Cask of Amontillado
Gothic literature
a genre that rose with Romanticism in Britain in the late eighteenth century, explores the dark side of human experience—death, alienation, nightmares, ghosts, and haunted landscapes. Questions
1.How many characters does Poe include in The Cask of Amontillado? What are these names?
2. What drink are the French most famous for?
3.Does Montresor have something of great value to him which we might consider to be his treasure?
4.Does Montresor seem to have much respect for Italians?
5.What was Fortunato's insult?
6.Which wine does Montresor use to lure Fortunato into the catacombs?
7.Why does Montresor entertain Fortunato with wines from his collection?
8.In what two ways does Montresor imprison Fortunato?
9.In what ways is The Cask of Amontillado grotesque? First, which of Montresor's actions are abnormal?
10.Is there anything grotesque about Fortunato?
Questions
1.How many characters does Poe include in The Cask of Amontillado? What are these names?
Montresor, Fortunato and Luchesi
2. What drink are the French most famous for?
Wine
3.Does Montresor have something of great value to him which we might consider to be his treasure?
His pride and the pride of his French family heritage. Perhaps his devious plot of revenge.
4.Does Montresor seem to have much respect for Italians?
Montresor does not have much respect for Italians. He feels the French are superior, especially with respect to wine.
5.What was Fortunato's insult?
Poe does not tell us directly, but only implies it in the third paragraph
6.Which wine does Montresor use to lure Fortunato into the catacombs?
"Amontillado" (the Spanish wine; Montresor's ruse to lead Fortunato down into the catacombs. 7.Why does Montresor entertain Fortunato with wines from his collection?
Montresor wants to get Fortunato drunk enough to be able to trap him in his plan of vengeance. 8.In what two ways does Montresor imprison Fortunato?
He fetters (chains and locks) Fortunato to the wall of the catacombs.
He builds a wall to close Fortunato off in a small corner of the catacombs, where Montresor will leave him to die.
9.In what ways is The Cask of Amontillado grotesque? First, which of Montresor's actions are abnormal?
The whole obsessive plot of vengeance.
The fettering and entombment of Fortunato.
Montresor's sick sense of humor.
10.Is there anything grotesque about Fortunato?
His obsession with alcohol.
His drunkenness.
His tendency to berate Luchesi (he may have been drunk and may have insulted Montresor in a similar fashion).
His manic laughter.
The Cask of Amontillado
It is the narr ator‘s account of his ability to carry out a chilling plot of revenge against his offender. Precision in time, place, and setting preclude（排除）the idea of risk and allow the narrator both the retribution（惩罚）he seeks and the impunity（免罚）he demands.
It is set during the ―supreme madness‖of Carnival（狂欢节）. In such a riotous（**的）atmosphere, it is easy to see how a crime could go unnoticed.
―Fortunato‖
A wine expert murdered by Montresor. Dressed as a court jester(小丑）, Fortunato falls prey to Montresor's scheme at a particularly carefree moment during a carnival.
In ―The Cask of Amontillado,‖ Poe uses Fortunato's name symbolically, as an ironic device. Though his name means ―the fortunate one‖ in Italian, Fortunato meets an unfortunate fate as the victim of Montresor's revenge.
Fortunato adds to the irony of his name by wearing the costume of a court jester. While Fortunato
plays in jest, Montresor sets out to fool him, with murderous results.
Montresor
The narrator, Montresor, murders Fortunato for insulting him by walling him up alive behind bricks in a wine cellar(酒窖）.
Outline of the story
The narrator, Montresor, opens the story by stating that he has been irreparably(不能弥补的）insulted by his acquaintance, Fortunato, and that he seeks revenge. He wants to exact this revenge, however, in a measured way, without placing himself at risk. He decides to use Fortunato?s fondness for wine against him. During the carnival season, Montresor, wearing a mask of black silk, approaches Fortunato. He tells Fortunato that he has acquired something that could be passed for（被看做）Amontillado, a light Spanish sherry（雪利酒）. Fortunato (Italian for ―fortunate‖) wears the multicolored costume of the jester, including a cone（锥形）cap with bells Montresor tells Fortunato that if he is too busy, he will ask a man named Luchesi to taste it. Fortunato apparently considers Luchesi a competitor and claims that this man could not tell Amontillado from other types of sherry. Fortunato is anxious to taste the wine and to determine for Montresor whether or not it is truly Amontillado. Fortunato insists that they go to Montresor?s vault（地窖）. Montresor has planned for this meeting by sending his servants away to the carnival. The two men descend into the damp vault, which is covered with nitre(硝石）, or saltpeter（硝石）, a whitish （发白的）mineral. Apparently aggravated by the nitre, Fortunato begins to cough. The narrator keeps offering to bring Fortunato back home, but Fortunato refuses. Instead, he accepts wine as the antidote(解毒剂）to his cough. The men continue to explore the deep vault, which is full of the dead bodies of the Montresor family. In response to the crypts(地窖）, Fortunato claims to have forgotten Montresor's family coat of arms and motto. Montresor responds that his family shield portrays ―a huge human foot d?or, in a field azure（天蓝色的）; the foot crushes a serpent(大毒蛇）rampant whose fangs（尖牙）are imbedded（嵌入）in the heel.‖ The motto, in Latin, is ―nemo me impune lacessit,‖ that is, ―no one attacks me with impunity.‖ Later in their journey, Fortunato makes a hand movement that is a secret sign of the Masons（泥瓦匠）, an exclusive fraternal（兄弟般的）??organization. Montresor does not recognize this hand signal, though he claims that he is a Mason When Fortunato asks for proof, Montresor shows him his trowel（泥铲）, the implication being that Montresor is an actual stonemason. Fortunato says that he must be jesting, and the two men continue onward. The men walk into a crypt, where human bones decorate three of the four walls. The bones from the fourth wall have been thrown down on the ground. On the exposed wall is a small recess（凹进处）, where Montresor tells Fortunato that the Amontillado is being stored. Fortunato, now heavily intoxicated（极其兴奋）, goes to the back of the recess. Montresor then suddenly chains the slow-footed Fortunato to a stone. Montresor begins to wall up the entrance to this small crypt, thereby trapping Fortunato inside. Fortunato screams confusedly as Montresor builds the first layer of the wall. The alcohol soon wears off and Fortunato moans, terrified and helpless. As the layers continue to rise, though, Fortunato falls silent. Just as Montresor is about to finish, Fortunato laughs as if Montresor is playing a joke on him, but Montresor is not joking. At last, after a final plea, ―For the love of God, Montresor!‖ Fortunato stops answering Montresor, who then twice calls out his enemy's name. After no response, Montresor claims that his heart feels sick because of the dampness of the catacombs（地下墓穴）. He fits the last stone into place and plasters the wall closed, his actions accompanied only by the jingling of Fortunato's bells. He
finally repositions the bones on the fourth wall. For fifty years, he writes, no one has disturbed them. He concludes with a Latin phrase meaning ―May he rest in peace.‖
Analysis
The story features revenge and secret murder as a way to avoid using legal channels for retribution. Law is nowhere on Montresor's—or Poe's—radar screen, and the enduring horror of the story is the fact of punishment without proof. Poe?s use of color imagery is central to his questioning of Montresor‘s motives. His face covered in a black silk mask, Montresor represents not blind justice but rather its Gothic opposite: biased revenge. In contrast, Fortunato dresses the motley-colored(杂色的）costume of the court fool, who gets literally and tragically fooled by Montresor's masked motives. The color schemes here represent the irony of Fortunato's death sentence.Fortunato, Italian for ―the fortunate one,‖ faces the realization that even the carnival season can be murderously serious. Montresor chooses the setting of the carnival for its abandonment of social order. The repeated allusions to the bones of Montresor?s family that line the vaults foreshadow(预示）??the story‘s descent into the underworld. The two men?s underground travels are a metaphor for their trip to hell. Because the carnival, in the land of the living, does not occur as Montresor wants it to, he takes the carnival below ground, to the realm of the dead and the satanic（邪恶的）. To build suspense in the story, Poe often employs foreshadowing. For example, when Fortunato says, ―I shall not die of a cough,‖ Montresor replies, ―True,‖ because he knows that Fortunato will in fact die from dehydratio n（脱水）and starvation in the crypt. Montresor's description of his family's coat of arms also foreshadows future events. The shield features a human foot crushing a serpent. In this image, the foot represents Montresor and the serpent represents Fortunato. Although Fortunato has hurt Montresor with biting insults, Montresor will ultimately crush him. The conversation about Masons also foreshadows Fortunato?s demise（死亡）. When Montresor declares that he is a ―mason‖ by showing his trowel, he means that he is a literal stonemason that is, that he constructs things out of stones and mortar （灰泥）, namely Fortunato's grave.The final moments of conversation between Montresor and Fortunato heighten the horror and suggest that Fortunato ultimately—and ironically—achieves some type of upper hand over Montresor.Fortunato?s plea, ―For the love of God, Montresor!‖ has provoked much critical controversy. Some critics suggest that Montresor has at last brought Fortunato to the pit of desperation and despair, indicated by his invocation（祈祷）of a God that has long left him behind. Other critics, however, argue that Fortunato ultimately mocks the ―love of God,‖ thereby employing the same irony that Montresor has effectively used to lure him to the crypts. When Montresor twice screams ―Fortunato!‖ loudly, with no response, does he claim to have a sick heart. The reasons for Fortunato's silence are unclear, but perhaps his willing refusal to answer Montresor is a type of victory in dire circumstances.
Setting
The story begins around dusk, one evening during the carnival season (similar to the Mardi Gras festival in New Orleans) in an unnamed European city. The location quickly changes from the lighthearted activities associated with such a festival to the damp, dark catacombs under Montressor's palazzo which helps to establish the sinister atmosphere of the story.
Point of View
Poe writes this story from the perspective of Montresor who vows revenge against Fortunato in an effort to support his time-honored family motto: "Nemo me impune lacessit" or "No one assails
me with impunity." (No one can attack me without being punished .)Poe does not intend for the reader to sympathize with Montresor because he has been wronged by Fortunato, but rather to judge him. Telling the story from Montresor's point of view, intensifies the effect of moral shock and horror. Once again, the reader is invited (as was the case in "The Tell-Tale Heart") to delve into the inner workings of a sinister mind.
Theme
"The Cask of Amontillado" is a powerful tale of revenge. Montresor, the sinister narrator of this tale, pledges revenge upon Fortunato for an insult. Montresor intends to seek vengeance in support of his family motto: "Nemo me impune lacessit."("No one assails me with impunity.") It is important for Montresor to have his victim know what is happening to him. Montresor will derive pleasure from the fact that "...as Fortunato slowly dies, the thought of his rejected opportunities of escape will sting him with unbearable regret, and as he sobers with terror, the final blow will come from the realization that his craving for the wine has led him to his doom." In structure, there can be no doubt, that both Montresor's plan of revenge and Poe's story are carefully crafted to create the desired effect.
Questions
1.Who is the narrator? What wrong does he want to redress?
Montresor.
Fortunato,one of wine experts insulted him, so he wanted to murder him.
2.What is the pretext he uses to lure Fortunato to his wine cellar?
He baits Fortunato by telling him he has obtained what he believes to be a cask of Amontillado a rare and valuable sherry wine.
Fortunato is anxious to determine whether or not it is truly Amontillado, so he goes to the vault with Montresor.
3.What happens to Fortunato in the end?
He was walled up alive behind bricks in a wine cellar.
4.Describe briefly how Poe characterizes Montresor and Fortunato as contrasts?
Poe uses color imagery to characterize them. Montresor face is covered in a black silk mask, In contrast, Fortunato dresses the motley-colored costume of the court fool, who gets literally and tragically fooled by Montresor's masked motives.
The color schemes here represent the irony of Fortunato's death sentence.
Through the acts, words, and thoughts of??Fortunato,we know He is greedy, he was lured into the dark and somber vaults just because a cask of Amontillado.
This is also due to his bad habit of bibulosity(酗酒）. He lost himself on hearing the wine.
At the same time, he was cheated by his enemy, which reflected his ignorance.
When he heard the pretended compliment from Montresor, he became very boastful and arrogant. He was easily confused by the superficial phenomena and failed to watch out for others. He couldn‘t tolerate that others were stronger than him.
For example, Montresor always stimulated him with Luchresi who was good at connoisseur（鉴赏）in wine.
Under the impulse of vanity, he fell into Montresor‘s terrible trap.
In fact, he was careless and foolish and didn‘t find that the danger was approaching him.
He looked down upon Montresor and others.
He didn‘t realize his foolishness unti l the death was coming.
Talking from the appearance, Monstresor was a well-educated and ―kind‖ businessman.
He enjoyed the honor and respect in the city. But in fact, he was an evil and awful person.
His inner feelings were so cruel that they even made people tremble.
Under his rich appearance was the dirty soul and despicable character.
We couldn‘t see any glorious virtues in his mind. Instead, his heart was cold and dark.
It was the revenge that threw Montresor into the deep evil valley.
Lecture 4 Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne (霍桑)
(1804—1864)
Hawthorne‘s Background
1804, Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem.
1808, Hawthorne‘s father, a sea captain, had died of yellow fever in Dutch Guiana.
1825--1836, he returned to Salem from Bowdoin, and lived in virtual solitude in this idle town. 1830s, he edited a magazine in Boston, and afterward worked at the customs office.
1841, he lived for a few months at Brook Farm, and married Sophia Peabody, of a prominent Salem family.
1853, Hawthorne‘s co llege friend Franklin Pierce, appointed Hawthorne a United States consul. 1864, he died, a few years after returning to America.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Hawthorne‘s Major??Works
Hawthorne‘s Point of View
Hawthorne‘s Aesthetic Ideas
Hawthorne‘s Writing Style
The Reading of The Scarlet Letter
Hawthorne‘s Major??Works
Two collections of short stories:
??Twice-told Tales 《故事新编》Mosses from an Old Manse? ??古宅青苔?
2) The Scarlet Letter? ??红字?
masterpiece, which established him as the leading American native novelist of the 19th century Hawthorne‘s Major??Works
3) The House of the Seven Gables 七个尖角阁的房子》4) The Blithedale Romance 《福谷传奇》5) The Marble Faun??《大理石雕像》
Short stories:
Young Goodman Brown 《小伙子古德曼?布朗》The Minister‘s Black Veil 《教长的黑面纱》The Birthmark 《胎记》
Hawtho rne‘s point of view
Hawthorne is influenced by Puritanism deeply. He was not a Puritan himself, but he had Puritan ancestors who played an important role in his life and works.
Melville : ―霍桑描写黑暗的巨大力量，是由于受到加尔文派关于与生俱来的堕落与原罪思想的影响。没有一位思想深邃的人能完全摆脱这种思想所发生的各种形式的影响。‖Hawthorne评Melville:―他既不肯信教，又对自己的不信感到惶恐不安。‖对霍桑同样适用。Hawthorne‘s point of view
(1) Evil is at the core of human life.
Hawthorne sense of sin and evil in life, ―black‖ vision of life and human is haunted
Evil exists in the human heart, human heart is the source of evil. Everyone possesses some evil secret. Evil is man‘s birthmark.
a most disturbed and tormented one, discusses sin and evil in almost every book
literary world
rejects the Transcendentalist optimism
looks more deeply and more honestly into life, finding much suffering & conflict in it Hawthorne‘s point of view
(2) Whenever there is sin, there is punishment. Sin or evil can be passed from generation to generation.
The House of the Seven Gables
Colonel Pyncheon takes the land of Matthew Maule and builds a house on the land---is haunted by ghost---his offspring wither and die out
―God will give him blood to drink‖
霍桑在探讨罪恶时，不是宣扬加尔文教义，而是抨击了它对人性的摧残，是要使人正视罪的存在，并把人从泯灭人性的罪恶感中解脱出来。
Hawthorne‘s point of view
(3) Evil educates.
Achievement is ―under the impact of and by engagement with evil‖
经历过犯罪，受到其影响，人们才能有所成就
Man is better for the crime which brings about the fall.
人在犯罪后才能更好的完善自己
Hawthorne‘s point of view
(4) He has disgust in science. One source of evil is overweening (too proud of oneself) intellect. His intellectual characters are villains, dreadful and cold-blooded.
Hawthorne‘s point of view
(1) Evil is at the core of human life.
(2) Whenever there is sin, there is punishment. Sin or evil can be passed from generation to generation.
(3) Evil educates.
(4) He has disgust in science. One source of evil is overweening (too proud of oneself) intellect. Aesthetic ideas
He took a great interest in history and antiquity.
? ? To him these furnish the soil on which his mind grows to fruition (fulfill).
Tryi ng ―to connect a bygone time with the very Present‖, he makes the dream strange things look like truth.
Aesthetic ideas
(2) He was convinced that romance was the best form to describe America.
the poverty of materials
romances rather than novels
allow him to avoid offending the Puritan taste
To tell the truth and satirize and yet not to offend: That was what Hawthorne tries to achieve. style – typical romantic writer
a man of literary craftsmanship，extraordinary in
the use of symbol
revelation of characters‘ psychology
the use of supernatural mixed with the actual
The symbol serves as a weapon to attack reality. It can be found everywhere in his writing
He is good at exploring the complexity of huma n psychology. There isn‘t much physical movement going on in his works
style – typical romantic writer
his stories are parable (allegory) – to teach a lesson
use of ambiguity to keep the reader in the world of uncertainty
1. In what century is the story of Hester Prynne set?
(A) The 16th century (B) The 17th century (C) The 18th century (D) The 19th century??B
2. What is situated immediately outside the door of the prison in which Hester is kept?
(A) A rosebush??(B) A pine tree??(C) A gallows??(D) A graveyard??A
3. How does Hester support herself financially?
(A) As a prostitute? ?(B) As a seamstress (C) As a nurse??(D) As a farmhand??B
4. Next to whom is Hester buried?
(A) Dimmesdale??(B) Chillingworth? ?(C) Pearl??(D) No one; her body is burned A
The Scarlet Letter
5. Why does Pearl not recognize her mother when she sees her with Dimmesdale in the forest?
(A)Hester has removed the scarletletter.? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?
(B)Hester has removed her cap to expose her long hair.? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ? (C)Hester is not wearing her usual plain gray dress.? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ???(D) Mistress Hibbins has cast a spell on Hester, changing her appearance.??A
6. How does Pearl acknowledge Dimmesdale as her father at his death?
(A)By calling him ―father‖ (B) By interrupting his sermon? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?(C) By kissing him??(D) By announcing that she has seen him? ?with her mother C
7. What color of clothing does Hester always wear?
(A) Scarlet? ? (B) White??(C) Black??(D) Gray C
8. What does Chillingworth pretend to be?
(A) A minister (B) A doctor??(C) A madman? ?(D) A scholar??B
9. What does Hester‘s letter ―A‖ eventually come to repre sent to the townspeople?
(A) ―Able‖? ???(B) ―Alone‖??(C) ―Avaricious‖ (D) ―Absolutely??Admirable‖??A
Unit 4 The Scarlet Letter
The Scarlet Letter
——Nathaniel Hawthorne
Introduction to Puritanism
In the early immigration to the New World, the first New England settlements (Mainly from England ) grew out of religious controversy,
? ?out of an urge for religious freedom and determination,
? ?out of fleeing from religious and political oppression and persecution,
? ?out of thirst for greater economic opportunity, for land, and for the adventure.
They were called ―Puritans,‖ so named after those who wished to ―purify‖ the religious practice in the church.
??They soon established their own religious and??moral principles known as American Puritanism which became one of the enduring influences in American thoughts and American literature. Puritanism stressed predestination, original sin, total depravity and limited atonement from God‘s grace.
With such doctrines in their mind, Puritans left Europe for America in order to prove that they were God‘s people, who would enjoy God‘s blessing on earth and in Heaven;
they felt that they were exiles under the special grace of God to establish a theocracy(神权政治）in the New World.
Over the years in the new homeland, they built a way of life that stressed hard work, thrift, piety and sobriety.
The background of the story.
It‘s based on the colony times of America. It shows up the cruelty of the law ,the dece it of religion and the hypocrisy of the morality.
小说以两百多年前的殖民地时代的美洲为题材，但揭露的却是19世纪资本主义发展时代美利坚合众国社会典法的残酷、宗教的欺骗和道德的虚伪。
Main Characters
Narrator -??The unnamed narrator works as the surveyor of the Salem Custom House some two hundred years after the novel?s e vents take place.
He discovers an old manuscript in the building‘s attic that tells the story of Hester Prynne; when he loses his job, he decides to write a fictional treatment of the narrative.
The narrator is a rather high-strung（十分敏感）man, whose Puritan ancestry makes him feel guilty about his writing career.
He writes because he is interested in American history and because he believes that America needs to better understand its religious and moral heritage.
Hester Prynne
Hester Prynne: First, Hester reminds the reader Hestia ---Goddess of the hearth( 灶神）in Greek fairy, showing the author‘s praise to Hester‘s kindness.
? ?Second, the pronunciation of Hester is very close to hastier (the comparative degree form of hasty), here the author implies that her marriage is haste, her love with Dimmesdale is haste,
? ?and to the extreme, her joy with the priest is haste.
Prynne has two symbolic meanings. First, its pronunciation is close to prurient (desire for physical joy) which is, hence, considered as the root of sin and crime.
Second, its pronunciation is very similar to prune (purify or get rid of), which therefore foreshadows Hester‘s self-save from the sin or crime.
Hester is the book's protagonist and the wearer of the scarlet letter that gives the book its title. The letter, a patch of fabric in the shape of an ―A,‖ signifies that Hester is an ―adulterer.‖
As a young woman, Hester married an elderly scholar, Chillingworth, who sent her ahead to America to live but never followed her.
While waiting for him, she had an affair with a Puritan minister named Dimmesdale, after which she gave birth to Pearl.
Hester is passionate but also strong—she endures years of shame and scorn.
Her alienation puts her in the position to make acute observations about her community, particularly about its treatment of women.
But it is what happens after Hester?s affair that makes her into the woman with whom the reader is
familiar.
Shamed and alienated from the rest of the community, Hester becomes contemplative (沉思的）. She speculates on human nature, social organization, and larger moral questions. the narrator indicates that he secretly admires her independence and her ideas.
Arthur Dimmesdale
Arthur Dimmesdale: First, Arthur reminds the reader of Adam, human beings ancestor who committed the Original Sin with Eva in the Garden of Eden,
Arthur Dimmesdale, the initials AD are the beginning of ―Adultery‖;
Secondly, ―Dim‖ means lack of light,‖ dale‖ Means valley, which symbolizes the minister‘s dim-interior world of his love and the shadow of sin and guilty of his mind.
Arthur Dimmesdale means someone who committed adultery but dares cowardly to confess his sin or crime, and has to conceal it in the shadow and suffer it interiorly（内心地）. Dimmesdale is a young man who achieved fame in England as a theologian(神学者）and then emigrated to America.
In a moment of weakness, he and Hester became lovers.
He deals with his guilt by tormenting himself physically and psychologically, developing a heart condition as a result.
Dimmesdale is an intelligent and emotional man, and his sermons are thus masterpieces of eloquence and persuasiveness.
His commitments to his congregation are in constant conflict with his feelings of sinfulness and need to confess.
Ironically, the townspeople do not believe Dimmesdale?s protestations（明言）of sinfulness. This drives Dimmesdale to further internalize his guilt and self-punishment and leads to still more deterioration in his physical and spiritual condition.
The town‘s idolization of him reaches new heights after his Election Day sermon, which is his last. In his death, Dimmesdale becomes even more of an icon （偶像）than he was in life.
Many believe his confession was a symbolic act, while others believe Dimmesdale's fate was an example of divine judgment.
Roger Chillingworth
Roger Chilling worth has two aspects. ―Roger‖ is the homonymic(同音的）of Rogue (hoodlum, scoundrel, bully), which expresses his act to his wife;
Roger also reminds us the Jolly Roger (the black banner used by pirates).
We know that pirates‘ nature is to explore treasures and revenge, which demonstrates Chillingworth‘s act to his wife and to Dimmesdale.
―Chilling‖ means chilly. ―Worth‖ tells us Roger‘s act is, to some extend, worth/valuable----the author‘s contradictory psychology to Puritanism.
―Roger Chillingworth‖ is actually Hester?s husband in disguise.
He is much older than she is and had sent her to America while he settled his affairs in Europe. Because he is captured by Native Americans, he arrives in Boston belatedly（迟来）and finds Hester and her illegitimate child being displayed on the scaffold.
He lusts for revenge, and thus decides to stay in Boston despite his wife‘s betrayal and disgrace. He is a scholar and uses his knowledge to disguise himself as a doctor, intent on discovering and tormenting Hester?s anonymous lover.
His single-minded pursuit of retribution reveals him to be the most malevolent（坏心肠）
character in the novel.
As his name suggests, Roger Chillingworth is a man deficient in human warmth.
His twisted, stooped, deformed shoulders mirror his distorted soul.
Chillingworth's death is a result of the nature of his character.
After Dimmesdale dies, Having lost the objects of his revenge, he has no choice but to die.
―Pearl‖
―Pearl‖ has many symbolic m eaning.
First, it means treasure--- the treasure to her mother.
Second, pearl is the homonymic(同音）of purl (stream),
Pearl‘s fate and life is like the purl in the forest, mysterious, can only flow in the forest, seldom bathe the sunshine.
Hester's illegitimate daughter Pearl is a young girl with a moody, mischievous spirit and an ability to perceive things that others do not.
For example, she quickly discerns the truth about her mother and Dimmesdale.
She is wise far beyond her years, frequently engaging in ironic play having to do with her mother's scarlet letter.
The main idea of the story
The story happened in Boston about 200 years ago.
It narrates love affairs between three persons.
The punished woman, Hester and his husband，who called himself Roger Chillingworth.
He is an old??misshapen(畸形地）man and a doctor.
Hester does not love him at all.
Another man is a young minister, Dimmesdale, who has a high position among ministers and is highly respected among his people in town.
Hester and Dimmesdale love each other. But their love is forbidden at that time,it is sinful.
Due to this, Hester is punished by society??with a letter A on her chest, which considered an evil, a shame.
Chapter I: The Prison-Door
This first chapter contains little in the way of action, instead setting the scene and introducing the first of many symbols that will come to dominate the story.
A crowd of somber, dreary-looking(沉闷的）people has gathered outside the door of a prison in seventeenth-century Boston.
The building's heavy oak door is studded with iron spikes, and the prison appears to have been constructed to hold dangerous criminals.
No matter how optimistic the founders of new colonies may be, the narrator tells us, they invariably provide for a prison and a cemetery almost immediately.
This is true of the citizens of Boston, who built their prison some twenty years earlier.
The rosebush grows next to the prison door. The narrator suggests that it offers a reminder of Nature?s kindness to the condemned,
he says, it will provide either a ―sweet moral blossom‖ or else some relief in the face of unrelenting (无情的）sorrow and gloom.
Chapter Two: The Market Place
The crowd in front of the jail is a mixture of men and women, all maintaining severe looks of disapproval.
Several of the women begin to discuss Hester Prynne, and they soon vow（发誓）that Hester would not have received such a light sentence for her crime if they had been the judges.
One woman, the ugliest of the group, goes so far as to advocate death for Hester.
Hester emerges from the prison with elegance and a ladylike air to her movements.
She clutches her three month old daughter, Pearl. She has sown a large scarlet A over her breast, using her finest skill to make the badge of shame appear to be a decoration.
Several of the women are outraged when they see how she has chosen to display the letter, and they want to rip it off.
Hester is led through the crowd to the scaffold of the pillory. She ascends the stairs and stands, now fully revealed to the crowd, in her position of shame and punishment for the next few hours. Hawthorne compares her beauty and elegance while on the scaffold to an image of Madonna and Child, or Divine Maternity.
The ordeal（折磨）is difficult for Hester. She tries to make the images in front of her vanish by thinking about her past.
Hester was born in England and grew up there. She later met a scholar who was slightly deformed, having a left shoulder higher than his right. Her husband, later revealed to be Roger Chillingworth, first took her to Amsterdam and then sent her to America to wait for his arrival.
Hester looks out over the crowd and realizes for the first time that her life condemns her to be alone.
She looks at her daughter and then fingers the scarlet letter that will remain a part of her from now on.
At the thought of her future, she squeezes her daughter so hard that the child cries out in pain. Analysis
Here we are introduced to the scarlet A which has become eponymous（齐名的）with the novel itself.
Its introduction carries a touch of humor or, at least, resistance: Hester has appropriated the supposed symbol of shame as a beautifully embroidered letter, which she wears without the slightest air of anguish（痛苦）or despair.
Indeed, the fine stitch work around the A has reduced it to an ornament, a decorative and trivial accessory.
The community?s reaction to Hester, as they watch her on the scaffold, Most of the people watching Hester‘s punishment believe that it is far too lenient（仁慈）.
Some say they would like to rip the letter right off her chest; others decry（谴责）the failure of lawmakers to put Hester to death.
This scene is the first of three scaffold scenes in the novel.
In this scene Hester is forced to suffer alone, facing first her past and then her present and future. The scene at once reveals Hester's past without presenting us the details of her crime, and it ends with the revelations of the consequence of this past: "These were her realities—all else had vanished."
Study of the themes
Hawthorne uses symbolism to imply his theme. This novel is about adultery, or even really about sin.
It is about the effects of the sin on those whom it touches. It tells more about men‘s soul than about their actions.