发布时间 : 星期四 文章简析《黑猫》的写作风格及人物角色更新完毕开始阅读
黑龙江外国语学院2011届毕业论文
never-ending oscillation between hope and despair which I could not longer have endured without the total loss of reason\
Chapter 2 Writing skills in the book
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黑龙江外国语学院2011届毕业论文
Edgar Allan Poe was expert in taking advantage of legacy of writing methods and creating great masterpiece. The main three kinds of writing skills in The Black Cat are romanticism, symbolism and gothicism. We will start to analyze them below.
2.1 Romanticism
Romanticism was a movement in literature，philosophy，music and art which developed in Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It started from the ideas of Rousseau in France and from the Storm and Stress movement in Germany. Romanticism emphasized on individual values and aspirations above those of society. As a reaction to the industrial revolution it looked to the Middle Ages and to direct contact with nature for inspiration. Romanticism gave impetus to the national liberation movement in 19th century in Europe. The essence of Romanticism lay in the universal belief in the necessity of originality and hence of difference.
In contrast with other writers in the old times, novelist like Allan Poe, their achievements on the novels in the romantic period were mainly reflected in the innovation of content and the theme. There were two main types of novels in this period: the gothic novel and the historical novel. Allan Poe ’s Gothic Fiction originated from the name of a medieval legend of Gothic story which often under the background of the middle ages usually often haunted or dark castle, in The Black Cat, it was in gloomy, humid cellar, covered by a bizarre and terrifying experience to stimulate readers, reading to creepy. This novel was popular in the first half of the 19th century, was the originator of modern horror and mystery novels. This Gothic novel absorbed much nutrition from the medieval folk literature, in order to got rid of the neoclassical bound, and began to free the imagination, to express strong emotions from many aspects of the content, language and so in forth.
On the other hand, the author wrote the novel in a irrational way, for example, after the man killed his wife, police could not find evidence to certify the man was the murderer. But the sound of the cat attracted the police to find the wall behind which he hid his wife. This was ridiculous for how can a cat live so long in a closed environment, and distinguish right from wrong, so it was just the imagination of the author.
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黑龙江外国语学院2011届毕业论文
2.2 Symbolism
Symbolism is the practice of representing things by symbols, or of investing things with a symbolic meaning or character. A symbol is an object, action, or idea that represents something other than itself, often of a more abstract nature.
Pluto was the favorite pet and playmate of its owner, they once had a sincere friendship. \was even with difficulty that I could prevent him following me through the streets .\This was their happy time. After the man killed Pluto, and adopted another one who was in fact had the Pluto's soul. The cat was also his faithful follower.\dislike to it arising within me. This was just the reverse of what I had anticipated: but I know not how or why it was-its evident fondness for myself rather disgusted and annoyed… With my aversion to this cat, however, its partiality for myself seemed to increase. It followed my footsteps with a pertinacity which it would be difficult to make reader comprehend.\ From this, we can see, although the man did not have active attitude toward the second cat, it still was dependent on the man. The cat was a docile beast. Finally, it was also the cat helped the policemen find evidence, and brought truth into daylight. From this point, the cat was the embodiment of loyalty, justice and honesty. However, the man was the symbol of devil.
If we see it from a different view, the cat in the story also symbolized the evil—Satan. In the Middle Ages, people had blind faith in a superstition that Satan liked disguising himself as a cat, which it often followed witch as witch's priest. This believe came from a story in which the incarnation of devil worked as priestess for Goddess of Magic's. So cat represented devil, because it seduced normal people into committing crimes. In Allan Poe's The Black Cat, the cat seemed like to be the one who always exasperated his owner, and seduced him into doing something crazy. The man also blamed his evil deed on the cat's seduction and called the cat the hideous beast whose craft had seduced him into murder. On this occasion, the man in the story symbolized the normal people with a innocent heart while the cat was the devil.
The oppression of the black cat on the people and ultimately led to the destruction
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黑龙江外国语学院2011届毕业论文
of human symbolized insignificance and arrogance of human beings. On the other hand, the endless persecution of Black Cat reveals the human uncontrollable factors that even though we know that it may not be worth any efforts, we still want to win conquest, this conquest of desire developed to the extreme degree will wake the desire of destruction and ultimately cause destruction of the world and at the same the destruction of human civilization.
2.3 Gothicism
Gothic fiction is also called Gothic horror. It is one of the genre or mode of literature. It refers to the literature combines elements of both horror and romance. The origin of Gothicism is attributed to the Enlish author Horace Walpole, from his novel The Castle of Otranto in 1764, this book was subtitled \is pleasing for terror and extension of Romantic. It was a renovation at Walpole's time. When Gothicism came to America, Allan Poe absorbed great amount of its element to create his works. He also combined the Gothicism with the American culture and made his literature unique.
Allan Poe's \Black Cat\inherited the classic Gothic element from the following aspects.
a. The theme of the book
The theme of The Black Cat is to present eeriness and evil, human have anger and evil in their heart. Allan imagined that there were many ghosts and monsters story in human society, so animal couold also rebirth to revenge its murder. The cat Pluto was hanged to death by its master, then it rebirthed and had another role with the exact same appearance to take vengeance on its owner. This theme of fiction was typical gothic fiction,
b. Writing skill
Black Cat was written of flashback. The first person was also the man, his monologue showed his foul deed. And from his detailed description, we can see how horrible and evil the story is. This novel is Gothic fiction.
c. Place
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