论《白鲸》中的象征意义

本科毕业论文（设计）

题目: On The Symbolic Meanings in Moby Dick

论《白鲸》中的象征意义

姓名: 姚小梅

学院: 外国语学院

专业: 英语专业（师范类）

班级: 英语2010级1班

学号: 1552100126

指导教师: 刘云职称: 讲师

2014 年6 月17日

安徽科技学院教务处制

On The Symbolic Meanings in Moby Dick

By Yao Xiaomei

Supervised by Liu Yun

In partial fulfillment of the requirement

For the B.A. degree

School of Foreign Languages Anhui Science and Technology University

June 2014

Abstract

Herman Melville (1819-1891) is one of the distinguished writers of America in the 1900s. It can say that Moby Dick is his representative work. And this work is generally regarded as one of the most symbolic novels in the world literature. However, literary circles has not attached importance to Moby Dick when it was published in 1851.It was not until the early twentieth century that this shining star has yielded unusually brilliant results and has won hundreds of thousands of writers and critics favor. The hitting-points of their research are different. While the symbolism is striking among them, and symbolism plays an important role in the understanding to readers.

Herman Melville takes advantage of a good deal of symbolism in Moby Dick. To some extent, symbolism is exerted by the author incisively and vividly. It is said that symbolism derived from the symbolic movement of French in the late nineteen century. And it has already become an important writing technique to novels. It is noticed that Herman Melville has presented vividly the profound meanings of Moby Dick to readers through symbolism, which promotes the comprehension of readers and they can acknowledge American society, culture, religion beliefs of the 19th century and the development of symbolism to American literature.

In Herman Melville’s writing, there are two big clues that appeal to people, namely protagonist Ahab and Moby Dick. It is designed that they are two opposing camps: Human and Nature. In the novel, bigoted and selfish Ahab pledges his life to catch Moby Dick for the sake of his hatred of losing a leg. And finally all people (except Ishmael) died as a result of Ahab’s revenge. Their fates in a certain degree reflect the final fates between human and nature. In the article, Melville uses symbolism adeptly. Consequently we can get each element’s symbolic meanings with color and life. In this paper the author will try to analyze different symbolic images, such as people, important clues and significant events so that show the symbolism of Moby Dick to people. I hope that my analysis would enrich people’s understand to this work’s themes. What’s more important is that I hope people could really comprehend the relation between human and nature. Do not act like Ahab, his only purpose for life is to break the power of nature. It is not advisable to loss at both sides. Of course we can’t be conceited or underestimate our capabilities toward nature. Harmonious coexistence is the best choice for both sides.