白鲸的象征意义英语毕业论文

本科毕业论文（设计）教学部专业名称英语专业年级学生指导教师摘要《白鲸》是美国伟大的象征主义大师麦尔维尔的一部重要作品，发表于1851年。

但是当时并没有引起人们的重视，直到1919年以后才被文学界重视。

我觉得《白鲸》之所以受到如此重视，不仅在于它生动细致的描写了捕鲸的壮观场面和过程，以及对人物心世界的深刻挖掘，在很大意义上还取决于它的象征意义，从而展现了作者对人类文明和命运的独特反思。

小说捕鱼的过程就是善与恶、人与自然之间无休止的战争的最好说明。

本文将对各个要素的象征意义进行探索分析。

实际上,小说里的多种人和物看似是作者编纂的，其实他们都具有一定的象征意义，都蕴含着作者对社会、对人生的独特见解。

对于小说的象征意义众说纷纭，有人认为白鲸是善的象征，有人又把它看作是恶的体现，还有人认为它代表着大自然，代表着资本主义，“一千个读者就有一千个哈姆雷特”，在作者的笔下白鲸颇有神秘色彩。

小说中所使用的象征手法还有很多,例如船长，船，伊什梅尔等，这种写作手法的使用使这篇小说意义深远,令人回味无穷。

所以它被称为是一部“可以让读者任意理解的”巨著,深受读者和现代评论家的赞美。

本文将对Moby Dick、Ahab、Ishmael and Pequod、Queequeq and the sea六个素材的象征意义进行探索分析。

关键词：莫比迪克;象征主义;自然ABSTRACTMoby Dick, published in 1851, is one masterpiece of Melville who is the noticeable symbolist master of American. But it failed to bring him the fame he had acquired in the 19th. There is no denying that Moby Dick attracted so seriously attention, not only lies in its vivid and detailed description of the spectacular process of whaling, as well as the deep excavation of the inner world of characters, to a great extent, it also depends on its symbolism which show unique reflection of human civilization and the fate. The course of whaling is the embodiment of the ceaseless conflicts between good and evil, of nature’s indifference to man.This thesis will explore the symbol of the various elements in the novel. A variety of elements in this novel appears to be made up by the author, in fact, they have a certain symbolic significance, which contains the unique insights into life and society. Melville makes this conflict live for the reader using symbols which invite various interpretations. The white whale, Moby Dick, some think it symbolizes good, the other regard it as embodiment of evil, while more insist it represents the nature, even the capitalism. “There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people’s eyes”, in author’s pen, Moby Dick is quite mysterious. There is a plethora of symbolic using, for instance, Captain Ahab, the ship, Ishmael, and so on. This writing techniques lead to a far-reaching significance. So it is known as “a book which readers can understand arbitrarily”, praising by the readers and modern critics, I will analyze the symbolism of Moby Dick, Ahab, Ishmael and Pequod, Queequeq and the sea six material here.Key Words：Moby Dick，symbolism，natureTable of ContentsChapter One INTRODUCTION (1)1.1 Background of Herman Melville (1)1.2 The plot of Moby Dick (1)Chapter Two MOBY DICK AND AHAB (3)2.1The Symbolic meaning of Moby Dick (3)2.2Moby Dick’s whiteness (4)2.3The Symbolic meaning of Ahab (4)Chapter Three OTHER SYMBOLIC (7)3.1The Symbolic meaning of Ishmael and Queequeq (7)3.2 The Symbolic meaning of Pequod (8)3.3Symbolic meaning of the sea (9)CONCLUSION (11)REFERENCES (12)THE SYMBOLISM OF MOBY DICK Chapter One INTRODUCTION1.1 Background of Herman MelvilleHerman Melville was born in New York, and his childhood was happy to the age of eleven when his father died in debt. He had little education and began to work early. He had be a bank clerk, a salesman, and a school teacher, and when these all failed to offer him a decent livelihood, he went to sea at about twenty. He was a Whaler, about the lowest of sailors. In that capacity he saw life from the bottom as did Mark Twain. He went to Liverpool, England, and the South Pacific, spending most of his young manhood on the sea. From his experiences and adventures on the sea would come the material for his Moby Dick.1.2 The plot of Moby DickMoby Dick, from which we can get to know the nineteenth-century American mind and American itself, is first a Shakespearean tragedy of man fighting against overwhelming odds indifferent and even hostile universe. And it is a sprawling colossus into which the author kept dumping everything he saw as necessary to prove his point.The story goes roughly as follows. Ishmael, feeling depressed，seeks escape by going out to sea on the whaling ship, Pequod. The captain is Ahab, the man with one leg. Moby Dick, the white whale, had sheared off his leg on a previous voyage, and Ahab resolves to hunt him to the kill. He hangs a doubloon on the mast as a reward for anyone who sights the whale first. The Pequod makes a good catch of whales but Ahab refuses to turn back until he has killed his enemy. Eventually the white whale appears, and the Pequod begins its doomed fight with it. On the first day the whale overturns a boat; on the second it swamps another. When the third day comes, Ahab and his crew manage to plunge a harpoon into it, but the whale carries the Pequod along with it to its doom. All on board the whaler get drowned, except one, Ishmael, who survives to tell the tale.Moby Dick is a highly symbolic work .If we only come to see the story from thesurface, the novel is no genius, but if we can see the structure under the story deeply, we can recognize the meaning is significant.Chapter Two MOBY DICK AND AHAB2.1The Symbolic meaning of Moby DickMoby Dick is the White Whale; the world’s largest creature. Moby Dick possesses various symbolic meanings for various individuals.To character Ahab, however, the whale represents only evil. Indeed, in the novel the whale is described as a destructive, hostile and mysterious being which is difficult to conquer. But such evil is not just totally in form. So, to some degree, the white whale is metaphor for the industrialization of the capitalism. In the 19th century, whaling is a very dangerous vocation, which can “being one into the abyss of future and time”. Only those impoverished and desperate would risk their life in such dangerous. The author makes a mysterious atmosphere in the novel and express human’s incapability in face to the fate. On one hand, it shows the fear and panic of Melville to the newborn capitalism, and the strength of capitalist social productivity. On the other hand reflects his sympathy and concerns to the fate and situations of people at this time.It symbolizes nature to human beings, for it is powerful, complex, mysterious, and dangerous. It swims peacefully in the sea until disturbed by humans, then shows a terrible fury and anger. Melville tries to convey to us such a faith: man cannot triumph over nature. In order to live a better life, one must follow certain principles, rather than doing absurd things like Ahab, who is obsessed with revenge. Ahab has no chance of killing Moby Dick, yet he engaged in his suicide plan to kill the whale. In the end the ship sank with the flag enfolding a sky-hawk from its natural home among the stars, indicating that if American keeps revenging on and going against nature, it is ironically seeking its own destruction. So when Ahab desperate to kill the white whale, the white whale also strike the crew. Symbolically, this is punishment of the nature. Ahab’s plan make the tragic fate fo r himself and the crew of the Pequod. Facts speak louder than words. A series example proved that while we are disrupting the order of the nature world, we are the ultimate victims, for nature is seeking its revenge.2. 2Moby Dick’s W hitenessTo some degree it is also symbol of good and purity because of its whiteness. 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 pursuing, as Howard P.Vincent observes. The white whale has lived a happy life in the nature and never intentionally hurt man. But the sailors want to conquer and kill it while at last be killed by it. At the same time, white symbolizes the mystery of the universe. To human, the secret of universe is white; people could see nothing except the white. This is one of the author's permissive opinions: man is so little in front of the strong nature that he could never know about the secret of the nature. We must realize that we are not the master of the earth. Men and nature are supposed to coexist in great harmony. Just as Darwin said “only obey nature, can conquer nature”.2.3The Symbolic Meaning of AhabAhab, the captain of the ship Pequod, is the other central character and the primary focus of the novel. Ahab is a typical Melvillean “isolato”. He cuts himself off from his wife and kid to hunt Moby Dick which makes him loss his leg. He hates Moby Dick which is an embodiment of nature. After the wound of his pride in his encounter with the white whale, he seems to hold God responsible for the presence of evil in the universe.He is an opponent of the white whale. He is a Symbol of solipsism.In order to settle his personal avengement, Ahab alternated kindness with profit, ignoring the crew’s interests and life, persist the sailors to hunt the white whale. At last the staffs except Ishmael are all buried in the sea. Ahab became a devil who is more exposed than Moby Dick here. He is the embodiment of the evil and darkness of human’s consciousness. What he doing is not in a rational and moral principle but chain by instinct and impulse, this is bound to lead to tragedy.The name Ahab in Moby Dick is symbolic and taken from the Bible, in which Ahab is described as a king who turns vile, having had someone killed so he could beking. This suggests that the Ahab of this novel will be a similarly conflicted leader. Melville many times in Moby Dick makes Ahab’s association with evil forces in the world apparent. He was called the Anti-Christ by the church Fathers. Ahab sets sail on Christmas Day, leaving when Christ’s life begins, symbolizing Ahab’s opposition to Christ like values.Ahab, on behalf of the evil, attempts to destroy the beauty and goodness. And he considers that Moby Dick bite off his leg out off a sinister motivation, is deliberately against him. Therefore, he must fight a decisive battle with it to get the psychological balance. For the sake of revenge, he can go against the interests of the owner to kill whales; in order to revenge, he spared no expense to reward, using sweet words to confuse personnel. To revenge, he threats the whole seaman bowing to his will absolutely ; To revenge, he even putting all the crew's lives in danger , betting all on a single throw, refusing to mend his way . He and his sailors' crazy seek for the white whale just means people whose state is out of control. When man is in such state, he will be controlled by the vicious side and destroy others, even himself. He is like a crazy beast, meeting the tragic ending step by step.However, he is also a man dare to against the gods, against the old custom rules, a man fear nothing, never gives up, and he is an experienced sea captain. Having fight with the terrible sea for forty years, He has a" noble soul, great and simple heart ".He exercises fish gun agile and accurate, he was stabbed numerous large whales .He suffered a contusion setbacks, but he will never be defeated. At this time, he is a Promethean Man, just like Byron's Cain rebelled against god's will, risked danger in desperation.Like Gerd's Faust, never satisfied, and explore with no end; He also likes Hamilton's Samson, proceeding without hesitation to perish together with the enemy. In the novel, the sailors spend nearly three years to complete the voyage, and during this period, they living in the shabby canvass in the ship, are merely on stocked food and seawater. They are exposed to the freezing storm from the polar areas, and their life is always on the verge of death. Even Ahab himself is ripped off one leg.With the above analysis, Ahab's character is multiple, contradictory. This image of the symbolic meanings is also complex, vague, difficult to grasp .To him, good, evil coexist, and beauty and ugly exist side by side.Chapter Three OTHER SYMBOLIC3.1The Symbolic Meaning of Ishmael and QueequeqIshmael is schoolteacher and part-time sailor; a Presbyterian, like Melville, he projects Calvinistic thinking tempered by his background in literature and philosophy. He discusses such issues as free will, predestination, necessity, and damnation. He is the sole survivor of the Pequod. He was controlled by a feeling of loneliness and estrangement, which is between man and man, nature and soul, which is one of the themes of the novel. The author thought that in 19th century, American was under the control of such loneliness. So He escaped from his living environment and got on the Pequod just want to find a new life that could make him feel happy and fulfilled. In this voyage, he gradually know the importance of love and friendship, which the author through is the guarantee of human life. This perspective we can see from the relationship between Ishmael and Queequeq.Queequeq was the first man that Ishmael met in his adventure. He was the son of a chief of a tribe. He represented the ancient society. He learned the knowledge of civilization from those passing ship then he began to imagine and yearn for the civilized world. To search for happiness and joy for his people, he landed on a ship whose purpose was to search for whale. When Ishmael first met Queequeq , he is afraid of that this black man must eat human. But with deep contracts with Queequeq, the first impression is quickly replaced by the impression of noble and trustworthy friend. What’s more, his behavior of saving a sailor established his heroic image in Ishmael’s heart. And he is the only man Ishmael want to sleep with. Their friendship proved that man can be happy and acceptable with his peers:It was a humorously perilous business for both of us. For, before we precede any further, it must be said that the monkey rope was fast at bothends; fast to Queequeg’s broad canvas belt, and fast to my [Ishmael’s]narrow leather one. So that for better or for worse, we two, for the time,were wedded; and should poor Queequeg sink to rise no more…whileearnestly watching his motion, I seemed distinctly toperceive that my own individuality was now merged in a joint stockcompany of two;….. But handle Queequeg’s monkey-rope heedfully as Iwould… Nor could I possibly forget that, do what I would, I only hadmanagement of one end of it. (玲玲.《白鲸》的象征意义.第16页)To Queequeq’s disappoint he has found the so-called civilized man is hypocrisy and insincerity until he is died. The contrast of the attitude of Queequeq towards the western world before and after he got on the ship was a bitter taunt from Melville. Melville used the form of words to criticize and reconsider the western civilization which centered on materialism. as novel went on, when the Pequod and the crew all died, Ishmael was saved by Queequeq’ coffin, which symbolized the remains of the ancient culture. On one aspect, Melville showed his wish to the development of western culture. On the other aspect, the passage proves that Ishmael and Queequeg are close enough that weare willing to die for each other. Melville emphasizes the importance of the friendship and the beauty of human’s soul, and also shows how the interdependency of mankind is unavoidable and how no person can control it. Melville asserts that life interwoven, whether it be one human connects to another human or one action connects to another action; everything it ultimately interdependent.3.2 The Symbolic Meaning of Pequod"Moby Dick" is a description about a whale catcher named Pequod led by the Capitan Ahab hunt the whale. On the surface, it seems that the whole book focus on the implacable hatred between Captain Ahab and Moby Dick, however in fact it is not only an odd adventure novel. The whole staff of Pequod approached to the whales step-by-step and their ultimate demise, which symbolized the fate of human beings in the society, nature and even the universe. And the author used symbolism to express his sense of concern for the fate of mankind.Obviously, the tragic fate of the Pequod and the crew was destined from the beginning. First of all, the ship's name itself is a symbol of death. Pequod is the name of a tribe in American Indian. After the white occupy American, many local Indian tribes and ethnic were killed by the white in their conflicts and Pequod was one of them. The author used it to name the ship just indicated the misery fate. Thus we can move naturally to the second aspect that, the narrator Ishmael of the whole story was the only survivor of this ship, he just retold the disaster. Just as Ishmael said: “The sailors have made great efforts to g o through the wide sea only to run to their death. They searched and pursued, only to look for the thing that finally destroyed them.”Melville used this kind of arrangement, only one survivor to tell the whole story, just imply the tragedy of the ship.Furthermore, the voyage of Pequod, in another word, represents the spirit of expansion of capitalism. Melville’s time is in the expansion oriented era, and whaling contributes to the affluence of people and the accumulation of capital. Even the development o f capitalism depends on the whaler’s toil and blood on the expansive sea. And at this time, the great Westward Expansion is so hot, especially the famous dictate “go west, young man” spreads all over the American nation. Industry gradually become the majority apart of American, and is the key to uplift the living standards and quality of life of the people.3.3Symbolic Meaning of the SeaThe author in the novel describes a fascinating and calm of the sea. It is quiet, magnificent and full of temptation. It is a stark contrast to the thick earth. It attracts people on this land with its extraordinary glamour. Just like a famous people says: Water is always linked with thought and the sea is the best place where Ishmael could think and explore life. It gives the tender call day and night with the crew back to its bosom.The sea has a charming and gorgeous scenery during the day and night. Its beautiful makes them feel amazing. The crew was deeply attracted by the unique charm of the sea. Of course, the sea is not always calm. It is also turbulent. Itsindignation makes the crew feel that death comes. The sea evokes the sadness of their lives and great hope for the future. In the description of the sea, the author not only points out that the unique charm of the sea, also showed the deep connotation of the sea represent. The sea is the call of the mother gives to her children far away, is the teacher to students carefully cultivated, and is the love of the land given by autumn leaves. It also like human's soul, have nothing to fear.The sea in the novel shows a mysterious force, that is the power of nature, powerful and irresistible. This power is endowed from the White Whale, but is presented by the unpredictable sea. It is sometimes calm dignity, sometimes sweet, sometimes gives a terrible storm. He let people like and unpredictable. No matter sunny day or night, under the calm seas are the unknown astonishing destructive power and deadly whale.At the end of the novel, the sea calm again, suggesting that it should be peaceful coexistence between human and other species. Human beings should live in harmony with nature, respect each other. At the same time, water represents the source of life, human cannot break away from water. So, the ocean is also a symbol of the unpredictable fate for the human. In our lives, we often have to face the challenge of life, the fate of the tease. Ocean represents the danger in our real life, ship is a symbol of our life protection. Sometimes people have to face life's challenges and unpredictable risk. We need to do is accept challenge bravely, take out your courage, struggle for ever.If we know these, we might have a better understanding of life. We should get rid of the old thought to learn to know the ocean again.CONCLOSIONMoby Dick is a comprehensive summary of the author’s understanding of society and life; it describes the whaling workers hard work and wisdom, revealed the cruelty Exploitation of capitalism. Since half a century of oblivion, Moby Dick Nowadays, becomes the first-class novel work in nineteen century around the world, and its influence is still far-reaching, even it has been adapted into movie and plays. The permanent charm and the transcend space’s value of it cannot be separated from the complex symbolism of the novel. And the symbolic meanings are still applicable in the modern society. In recent years, Moby Dick is so hot that many scholars committed to study it from every aspect. 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