小说“阿拉比”英文赏析

詹姆斯·乔伊斯是举世公认的二十世纪英国文坛巨匠。他的早期作品《都柏林人》是一部由十五个故事组成的现实主义短篇小说集。该小说集以作者的家乡都柏林为背景，生动地描绘了二十世纪初该城市的社会现实和人生百态，深刻地反映出当时社会麻木不仁的瘫痪状态，成功地展示了不同身份的人物同僵死和瘫痪的社会之间的激烈冲突以及他们失败之后痛苦不堪的感受。作者从童年期、青年期、成年期和社会生活四个方面对这部小说集进行布局，揭示了当时社会政治、经济和道德的瘫痪。《阿拉比》是该小说集中“童年期”的第三篇，描述的是一个少年对朦胧爱情的浪漫追求以及幻想破灭后的失望和痛苦。

在故事中，乔伊斯细致而深刻地刻画了主人公复杂的内心世界，展示了主人公在认识自我，走向成熟的过程中所经历的困惑、孤独和痛苦。故事是以第一人称叙述的，主人公是一个天真无邪、正在成熟的少年，他居住的地方名叫“北理查蒙德街”，住处的周围是一些阴森森的楼房、幽暗潮湿的花园和满是泥泞的巷子。然而，少年对这些并没有深刻的意识，直到他对“曼根的姐姐”产生了朦胧的“爱慕”之情时才有了一种孤独和茫然之感，因为他根本不知道爱情究竟是什么样的，也不知道如何表达自己对姑娘的爱慕之情。当有一天他朝思暮想的“曼根的姐姐”主动和他说话，并告诉他该去“阿拉比”集市时，他的思想有了变化，他渴望去集市为心爱的姑娘买一份礼物。可见少年去“阿拉比”的渴望是出于对心中朦胧的爱情的本能追求。“阿拉比”这个具有阿拉伯异域色彩和东方世界神秘魅力的集市给他带来了希望和诱惑，寄托着他的爱情和理想，象征着他探索与追求的目标。于是，去“阿拉比”集市意味着他开始了追求理想，寻找自我的“成长之旅”。然而，当他几经周折到达集市时，“几乎所有的摊棚都关门了。半个大厅里黑沉沉的。我有一种孤寂之感，犹如置身于做完礼拜后的教堂中。”当他困难地想起自己来集市的目的时，他随意走到一个摆着瓷花瓶和印花茶具的摊棚前。他看见的却是一个女郎与两名英国男子调情的场面。他们轻浮放肆的话语跟他心中神圣、纯洁而又压抑的爱情成了鲜明的对比。这时他迷茫了，不明白现实生活中的爱情为什么跟他理想的爱情完全不一样，觉得自己心中的爱情受到了亵渎，他无法忍受。恰好在这一刻少年产生了“精神顿悟”：他终于领悟到现实世界和他心中的理想世界之间的巨大差异，认识到现实社会的麻木和不堪。于是，他“抬头凝视着黑暗感到自己是一个受到虚荣心驱使和拨弄的可怜虫，于是眼睛里燃烧着痛苦和愤怒”。由此可见，少年追求理想的“阿拉比”之行实际上是他的一次认识自我、认识人生的的成长之旅。他认识到在这个麻木、瘫痪和压抑的现实社会中，任何美好理想都会最终化为泡影。

通过这个故事，乔伊斯揭露了19世纪爱尔兰社会的黑暗和腐朽，希望爱尔兰人民能够振作起来，摆脱教会的束缚，重新恢复生机与活力。

James Joyce is widely recognized as one of the great masters in the twentieth century British literature world. "Dubliners", his early works, is a Collected Stories consists of fifteen realistic short stories. The Collected Stories uses Dublin, which is the hometown of Joyce as the background. Joyce tells us about the city's social reality in the late 19th century vividly, which was insensitive, dark and lifeless. The Collected Stories is divided into four parts, thatis childhood, adolescence, adulthood and social life, and it reveals the prevailing social and political, economic and moral paralysis. "Araby" is the third one of the "childhood", which describes a juvenile pursues romantic love and his upset and pain after the gilt is off.

In the story, Joyce shows the confusion, loneliness and pain that the hero experiences in the process of self-understanding and going to be mature by describing the hero’s complex inner world. The hero is an innocent and unmatured teenager and he lives on "North Richmond Street". His residence is surrounded by some of the gloomy buildings, dark and damp gardens and muddy alley. However, the hero thinks that it’s okay. It is until he is in love with "Mangan's sister" that he has a sense of loneliness and loss, for he doesn’t know what love is or how to express his love to the girl. When the girl who he misses all the day talks to him actively and tells him that he should go to the "Araby", his thinking has changed and he is eager to go to the market to buy a gift for his beloved girl. So we can say that the "Araby" brings him hope and temptation and is the symbol of the goal that the hero explores and pursues. So, the process of going to the "Araby" is a symbol of the hero’s growing-up experience. However, when he finally reaches the market hard, "Nearly all the stalls were closed and the greater part of the hall was in darkness. I recognized a silence like that which pervades a church after a service." When he recognizes the purpose of his coming to the market difficultly, he "went over to one of the stalls and examined porcelain vases and flowered tea-sets". But what he sees is a girl flirting with two British men. Their frivolous words are opposite to the holy and pure love in his mind. Then he is lost and does n’t know the reasons. He feels the love in his mind has been violated. At that time, he finally recognizes that the social reality is dark and rotten. So he "Gazing up into the darkness, I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger." Thus, he realizes that any good ideals will eventually become vain in such society.

Through this story, Joyce reveals the darkness and rottenness of the Irish society in the late 19th century. And he hopes that the Irishman can pluck themselves up, shake off the shackles of the church and come back to alive and dynamic.