1、Herman Melville (1819-1891),Life experiences Works Moby Dickthe creation of the bookthe story; theme; symbolism,Life experiences:,A bank clerk, a salesman, a farm-hand on his uncles farm and a school teacher Venturesome life as a seaman: his experiences and adventures furnished him with abundant mat
2、erial for fiction, and led to his literary career.,Works,Typee (1846): a romanticized account of his stay among the Polynesians. Omoo (1847) :his adventures on Tahiti and other islands. Bedburn (1849) his voyage to England White-Jacket (1850) his brief career in the navy Moby Dick(1851)Billy Budd (1
3、891)Most famous poetic work: Clarel,The creation of Moby Dick,not content simply to narrate adventures deep questions and a restlessness of spirit were stirring in him combined influences of his reading of Shakespeare and his association with Hawthornehelped Moby Dick to escape the romantic travel-t
4、ale mold of Melvilles earlier works and to become a unique and enduring work.,The story:,the rebellious struggle of Captain Ahab against the overwhelming, mysterious vastness of the universe and its awesome, sometimes merciless forces. It is an encyclopedia of everything, history, philosophy, religi
5、on, etc. in addition to a detailed account of the operations of the whaling industry. But it is first a Shakespearean tragedy of man fighting against overwhelming odds in an indifferent and even hostile universe.,白鲸体色是独特的白色，在海浪和浮冰中很难认出它们，如果你在海洋中看见浮现、变大、缩小而后消失的白色物体，那基本上就是它了。 白鲸喜欢生活在海面或贴近海面的地方。游动时的动作动
6、很柔和，偶尔会将头扬出水面。白鲸的“嗓门”很大，在平静的海上，几百公里以外都能听到它的喷气声。,Theme,1）Man in this universe lives a meaningless and futile life Man can observe and even manipulate in a prudent(谨慎的) way, but he cannot influence and overcome nature at its source. He must, ultimately, place himself at the mercy of nature the loss of
7、 faith and the sense of futility and meaninglessness/modern life of the West/the twentieth century,Theme,2）Alienation: (疏远) man and man, man and society, and man and nature Captain Ahab: he cuts himself off from his wife and kid, and stays away most of the time from his crew. He hears of no objectio
8、n. In his egocentric obsession, he loses his sanity(神智) and humanity and becomes a devilish(邪恶的) creature rushing headlong(轻率地） toward his doom,He never stops to thinkand he never bothers about itthat, in asserting his private personality, he denies ruthlessly the humanity and individuality of his f
9、ellowman.the basic pattern of nineteenth-century American life: loneliness and suicidal individualism in a self-styled democracy.一个绝对孤独的人，是没有太大价值的，其灵魂都不值得去拯救。如果只是半个圈，它就不会闪光。每一个光圈都是一个完整的圈子。每个生命亦然，如果它是生命的话。 劳伦斯,Theme,3）rejection and quest the narrator Ishmael: He starts out feeling bad, hoping to find
10、 a place where he can live a happy and ideal life. He is at first an escapist, when he comes to see the folly of Ahab seeking to conquer nature, he begins to feel the significance of love and companionship. He learns to accept, an attitude which alone ensures his and humanitys survival. Voyaging for
11、 Ishmael has become a journey in quest of knowledge and values.,Melvilles protagonist VS New England Transcendentalism,Ahab is too much of a self-reliant individual to be a good human being For him the only law is his own will. To him the world exists for his sake His selfhood must be asserted at th
12、e expense of all else: lives may be sacrificed, and nature may have to be vanquished(打败，征服),Symbolism,The voyage: a metaphor for “search and discovery, the search for the ultimate truth of experience The white whale: evil/good/both good and evil He is “paradoxically benign and malevolent, nourishing and destructive.” Its whiteness is a paradoxical color, too, signifying as it does death and corruption as well as purity, innocence, and youth.It represents the final mystery of the universe which man will do well to desist from,Thank you,
