1、四川外国语大学成都学院 Chengdu Institute Sichuan International Studies University本科毕业论文题目（中文）浅析远大前程中男主人公的成长（外文）A Brief Analysis of the Growth Theme in Great Expectations系 别 英语经贸系专 业 英语年 级 2011 级学生姓名 指导教师 结稿日期 2014 年 9 月 20 日四川外国语大学成都学院教务处制二一四 年 九 月 二十 日填A Brief Analysis of the Growth Theme in Great Expectation
2、sAbstractCharles Dickens is one of the greatest British realistic novelists in the nineteenth century. He played a crucial role in the development of fiction and contributed greatly to the development of the writing style in British literature. His novels are not only a true reflection of the whole
3、generation of life experience, but vividly reveals the mid 19th century Britains entire social reality, the depth and breadth are far beyond the contemporary most other works. His respective masterpiece Great Expectations has long been universally recognized as literal canons and enjoyed great popul
4、arity. This thesis analyzes the course of Pips growth from the point of the Bildungsroman. Pip embarked on his journey to London, no longer able to stand the maltreatment of his sister Mrs. Joe and the hypocrisy of Pumblechook, who longs for gentlemanly status and wealth. With the help of guides, he
5、 also grew up by discarding both his prejudice against lower class people and his illusion for bourgeois and he got to know the infallible justice of the Judiciary system, and the meaning of gentlemanly status. His journey departs from home and with the incidents and people that he encounters on the
6、 way proves to be a process of losing innocence and gaining maturity. The thesis is composed of five chapters including an introduction, the concept of initiation story, the initiation experience of the protagonist and the temptation and the knowledge of society and Pips change. The fifth chapter is
7、 the conclusion of the paper.Key words: Great Expectations; the initiation story; growth; influence; character A Brief Analysis of the Growth Theme in Great ExpectationsOutlineThesis Statement: This paper introduces Pips course of growth, analyzes what is important in reality after a series of hards
8、hips and frustrations both in his life and his mind for our better understanding the major characters influencing Pips growth.I. IntroductionII. The Initiation StoryA. The Definition and Origin of Initiation StoryB. Main Features of Initiation StoryIII. The Growth of PipA. Pips Initiation Experience
9、B. Pips Journey Away from HomeIV. The Major Characters Influencing Pips GrowthA. Positive GuidesB. Negative GuidesV. ConclusionA Brief Analysis of the Growth Theme in Great ExpectationsI. IntroductionCharles Dickens (1812-1870), a great nineteenth-century English novelist, has long enjoyed a good re
10、putation all over the world. Throughout his life, he has left to the world a rich legacy of 15 novels which has reached a circulation of a hundred thousand copies. This popularity has never declined. Even in the twenty-first century, his works are still widely read, continuously adapted for films an
11、d TV play series.Among his various works, Great Expectations has become one of Dickens finest and most influential works. Many of the events from Dickens early life are mirrored in Great Expectations, which, apart from David Copperfield, is his most autobiographical novel. Pip, the novels protagonis
12、t, lives in the marsh country with his sister and brother-in-law since his childhood. He is an innocent boy at the beginning. However, when he meets the beautiful Estella, he loves her and then changes his attitude towards life and people. He dreams of becoming a wealthy gentleman so that he can mat
13、ch Estellas social status. Later, he receives a large fortune from a mysterious man and it seems that his dream will come true. The dream soon breaks into pieces, however, because his benefactor is not a nobleman, but a criminal he once helped. And Estella is married to someone else. Pip finally rea
14、lizes how wrong he was in the past. And he changes drastically. He tries his best to save the convict Magwitch from being punished by the English law. Although his efforts are all in vain, Pip regains his virtue with the help from his friends and finally gains maturity.The novel mainly introduces th
15、e course of Pips growth. Up to now, Great Expectations has been studied abundantly at home and abroad. There has been some analysis of Great Expectations from the angle of initiation. Psychoanalytic criticism tends to analyze the psychological development of Pip under the influence of Victorian soci
16、ety. Charles Dickens Great Expectations edited by Harold Bloom gives some information of the related introduction (including its theme and structure) and entities of Great Expectations. He believes that “Great Expectations is an untypical work; the difference from his other novels is the free narrat
17、ion, elaborate organization and Pips learning a lot from the turning of the events and the complex society.”Julian Moynahan, a novelist and critic, wrote “The Heros Guilt: The Case of Great Expectations”. In this paper, Moynahan finds Pip to be Dickens most complex hero possessing both virtues and f
18、laws. He argues that “Dickens novels define its heros dream of Great Expectations and the consequences stemming from indulgence in that dream under the two aspects of desire and will, of regressive longing for an excess of love and of violent aggressiveness.”2Murray Baumgarten is a professor of gene
19、ral literature at the University of California at Santa Cruz. He wrote an article named “Calligraphy and Code: Writing in Great Expectations” in 1983. He studies Great Expectations in the context of Dickens stenographic activities as a reporter, showing that these activities helped to break down the
20、 distinction between writing speech in Dickens mind and in the minds of his readers. 3Thomas Loe, a professor of English at the State University of New YORK College at Oswego, wrote an article titled “Gothic Plot in Great Expectations” in 1989. Loe believes that Great Expectations is “an amalgam of
21、three types of novel; the Bildungsroman, or the novel of development from childhood to adulthood; the novel of manners; and the Gothic novel of terror and the supernatural.”4This thesis, through the analysis of the plot pattern of the novels (motivation-leaving home-guides-knowledge of life and self
22、), displaying the conflicts between inner conflict and social morality and reaching a compromise with the society of the novel, intends to provide a new perspective in appreciating the novel and thus getting a deeper understanding of the novel.II. The Initiation StoryA. The Definition and Origin of
23、Initiation StoryIn the history of literature, there are many names for initiation stories. Among them, the more commonly used are initiation story or novel of initiation, “growing-up novel”, novel of life or novel of youth. Bildungsroman is the German expression of initiation stories. In A Glossary
24、of Literary Terms, it is defined in this way: Bildungsroman and Erziehungsroman are German terms signifying novel of formation or novel of education. The subject of these novels is the development of the protagonists mind and character, in the passage from childhood through varied experiences, and o
25、ften through a spiritual crisis-into maturity, which usually involves recognition of ones identity and role in the world.5The Bildungsroman as a genre has its root in Germany. Jerome Buckley has introduced its origin: “ Bildungsroman”, a German word, with “bildung” having a variety of connotations:
26、“portrait”, “picture”, “shaping” and “formation”, all of which give the sense of development and creation. “Roman” simply means “novel”.6 The term Bildungsroman emerges as a description of Goethes novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (Abrams 193). This is the first Bildungsroman, published between 1794
27、and 1796. The word “lehrjahre” can be translated into “apprenticeship”. “Apprenticeship” is a word which deals with education and work.7 An apprentice goes to work for an experienced worker and learns and develops his trade. Finally, he also, to a greater extent, realizes his identity. Similarly, th
28、e Bildungsroman is characterized by the growth, education and development of a character both in the world and ultimately within himself.Then the English essayist Thomas Carlyle, impressed by Wilhelm Meisters Apprenticeship, translated it into English in 1842, and imitated it in the Sartor Resartus.
29、 Since then, the English Bildungsroman grew popular. It reaches its climax in Victorian England. Charles Dickens Great Expectations which will be analyzed in the thesis and Charlotte Brontes Jane Ayre are generally considered examples of the Bildungsroman genre.Like the classical German Bildungsroma
30、n, the protagonists benefit from their struggles and achieve a new understanding of either the world or themselves. During the clashes between the needs of the hero and the views enforced by the society, the protagonist makes it clear whether to conform to the social regulations, Unlike the German B
31、ildungsroman, in the English initiation stories, usually, his free imagination is limited by the provinciality and the domination from the family is a barrier for him to realize his dram. Therefore, the hero usually leaves home to flee from the provinciality. However, to his disappointment, the city
32、, promising liberation, turns out to be a source of corruption.B. Main Features of Initiation StoryInitiation stories vary in many ways with differences in times, countries and authors. However, some general features of this literary genre can be summed up in the works to be worthy of that name, ini
33、tiation story.First, from the angle of the content, the novel is about the initiation theme, that is, it takes the protagonists growth as a theme. Growth means that the protagonist tends to become mature after he has experienced some important events which have everlasting effect. The result of Bild
34、ungsroman is about the protagonists maturity. The protagonist acquires recognition about self, life and society after experiencing sufferings and ordeals. The protagonists growth and recognition either from the positive or negative aspects, but their roles cannot be neglected.Second, from the struct
35、ural angle of the novel, the basic structure of Bildungsroman often falls into a pattern: innocencetemptationleaving from homeperplexityordealsloss of innocenceepiphanygaining maturity. The process is also called his psychological growth. The innocent protagonist, who begins to feel dissatisfied wit
36、h his surroundings, struggles for identity, maturation, and position. He leaves home, but feels alienated and puzzled. Throughout the course of growth, the protagonist comes to have a new recognition about himself and his society. He achieves a kind of realization through epiphany. Then ultimately,
37、he returns home and gains his maturity.Great Expectations is a Bildungsroman, exploring the growth of a common boy from innocence to maturity. Pip finally achieves a full understanding of life after he goes through many ordeals, which is extremely significant not only for Pip, but also for the whole
38、 novel as a famous Bildungsroman.III. The Growth of PipA. Pips Initiation ExperienceAt the beginning, Pip is a seven-year-old orphan living in the cruelty and violence of his sister and in the exhortations of Uncle Pumblechook. So Pip is timid and sensitive. However, Joe, a blacksmith, his brother-in-law who is also a victim of Mrs. Joes temper, takes good care of him. He treats Pip as his friend and gives him sincerity and comfort. Although they are not wealthy, Pip was
