love-is-a-fallacy-人物性格分析

intelligent
Dobie self-conceited Gillis
emotional person
ridiculous and self-contradictive
logical person
• Intelligent: “My brain is as powerful as a
dynamo（发电机）, precise as a chemist‘s scales（天平）, as penetrating as a scalpel（解 剖刀）. And - think of it! - I am only eighteen”.
Character Analysis of Protagonist in “Love Is a Fallacy”
Max Shulman(1919-1988)
• He began writing Dobie Gillis stories in 1945 for various humor magazines.
• In 1951, these were collected and published as a book entitled "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis”, from which our text is taken.
• This text is a piece of narrative writing, a story, a light and humorous satire. The narrator of the story, Dobie Gillis, a freshman in a law school, is the hero or protagonist. He struggles against two antagonists: Petey Burch, his roommate whose girlfriend he plans to get, and Polly Espy, the girl he intends to marry after suitable re-education.
• ridiculous and self-contradictive: Love is
the most divine and beautiful affection on earth. However, Dobie takes it as a qualification for being a lawyer in the future. “The successful lawyers I have observed are, almost without exception, marry to beautiful, gracious, intelligent women. With one omission, Polly fits these specifications perfectly.” (p.21). He emphasizes many times that his desire for Polly is not emotional in the nature. But after teaching fallacies to Polly, he falls in love with this girl and determines to tell her. “It must be thought that I am without love with this girl. Quiet the contrary” (p.122). Dobie has a ridiculous view of love and denies his own description of himself, which makes him a self-contradictive person.
• In this story the author created a successful character Dobie Gillis, which makes him a distinguished writer of short stories. As the narrator of the story, Dobie firstly describes himself as an intelligent and logical person. However, the analysis of the whole story demonstrates his image more clearly and objectively.
• self-conceited：Dobie uses many
words to praise himself as an intelligent and smart person. However, the images of the other two characters are described in a totally different direction. Dobie doesn’t use commentary words on his roommate Petey Burch and Polly Espy whom he likes. He describes Petey Burch as a “faddist and nothing upstairs” and described Polly Espy as “beautiful but not smarten enough” who needs Dobie’s guidance. (p.2)
(p.1)
• logical person: At the bபைடு நூலகம்ginning of the
story, Dobie firstly describes himself. “Cool was I and logical. Keen, calculating, perspicacious, acute --- I am all of these”.(p.1)