Transcription

1 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 文 學 院 學 報 NCUE Journal of Humanities 第 十 一 期 中 華 民 國 一 四 年 三 月 Volume 11, March 2015

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3 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 文 學 院 學 報 第 十 一 期 NCUE Journal of Humanities Vol.11 發 行 者 Publisher 郭 艶 光 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 Yen-kuang Kuo National Changhua University of Education 編 輯 委 員 會 總 編 輯 Editorial Committee Editor-in-Chief 彭 輝 榮 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 Hui-zung Perng National Changhua University of Education 總 顧 問 Advisor-in-Chief 莊 坤 良 國 立 臺 灣 師 範 大 學 Kun-liang Chaung National Taiwan Normal University 主 編 Issue Editor 王 素 芬 國 立 臺 灣 師 範 大 學 Su-fen Wang National Changhua University of Education 常 務 編 輯 委 員 Executive Editors 張 善 貿 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 Shan-mao Chang National Changhua University of Education 王 年 双 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 Nien-shuang Wang National Changhua University of Education 陳 冠 君 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 Kuan-chun Chen National Changhua University of Education 蔡 泰 彬 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 Tai-pin Tsai National Changhua University of Education 賴 秉 彥 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 Ping-yan Lai National Changhua University of Education 美 術 編 輯 顧 問 Art Advisors 陳 一 凡 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 Yi-fan Chen National Changhua University of Education 邱 文 正 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 Wen-cheng Chiu National Changhua University of Education 封 面 設 計 Cover Design 黃 玉 萱 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 Yu-shuan Hwang National Changhua University of Education 顧 問 International Advisors 連 清 吉 日 本 長 崎 大 學 Seikichi Ren Nagasaki University 戴 梅 可 柏 克 萊 分 校 美 國 加 州 大 學 Michael Nylan University of California, Berkeley 楊 貴 美 東 密 西 根 大 學 Guey-meei Yang Eastern Michigan University 萊 恩 安 德 魯 澳 洲 坎 培 拉 大 學 Andrew P. Lian University of Canberra 編 輯 委 員 會 召 集 人 Editorial Committee Convener 彭 輝 榮 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 Hui-zung Perng National Changhua University of Education 編 輯 委 員 Editorial Board 何 寄 澎 國 立 台 灣 大 學 Chi-peng Ho National Taiwan University 林 明 德 民 俗 藝 術 基 金 會 董 事 Min-der Lin Chinese Folk Arts Foundation 周 國 屏 建 國 科 技 大 學 Kuo-pin Chou Chienkuo Technology University 胡 潔 芳 台 北 市 立 教 育 大 學 Chieh-fang Hu Taipei Municipal University of Education 宋 德 喜 國 立 中 興 大 學 Der-shi Sung National Chung Hsing University 廖 振 富 國 立 中 興 大 學 Chen-fu Liao National Chung Hsing University 曾 守 得 靜 宜 大 學 Shoou-der Tseng Providence University 陳 彥 豪 國 立 台 北 大 學 Yane-hao Chen National Taipei University 劉 瓊 如 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 Chiung-ju Liu National Changhua University of Education 鄭 明 憲 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 Ming-hsien Cheng National Changhua University of Education 莊 世 滋 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 Shih-tzu Chuang National Changhua University of Education 蘇 慧 霜 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 Kuei-shuang Su National Changhua University of Education 趙 玉 芝 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 Yu-gi Chao National Changhua University of Education 編 輯 助 理 Managing Assistants 曾 盈 琇 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 Ying-hsiu Tseng National Changhua University of Education 林 之 允 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 Chih-yun Lin National Changhua University of Education

4 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 文 學 院 學 報 第 十 一 期 總 編 序 本 校 為 因 應 時 代 變 遷, 配 合 國 家 社 會 整 體 發 展, 冀 望 藉 深 耕 人 文 教 育, 強 化 文 史 藝 術 之 生 活 與 環 境 關 懷, 彌 補 自 然 科 技 工 商 類 學 科 急 速 發 展 所 帶 來 之 新 世 紀 缺 憾, 進 而 對 增 進 人 類 生 活 意 義, 創 造 繼 起 生 命, 做 出 積 極 貢 獻, 乃 於 民 國 89 年 10 月 5 日 正 式 成 立 文 學 院, 由 原 屬 教 育 學 院 中 的 英 語 學 系 ( 民 63 年 成 立 ) 國 文 學 系 ( 民 80 年 ) 美 術 學 系 ( 民 82 年 ) 地 理 學 系 ( 民 82 年 ) 與 藝 術 教 育 研 究 所 ( 民 87 年 成 立,101 年 因 教 育 部 系 所 員 額 新 制 併 入 美 術 系 改 名 藝 術 教 育 碩 士 班 ) 共 同 組 成 十 餘 年 來, 本 院 快 速 成 長, 除 了 各 系 所 原 有 之 碩 博 士 班 之 外 ( 英 國 地 均 有 碩 博 士 班, 美 術 系 有 碩 士 班 ),93 年 續 獲 准 成 立 兒 童 英 語 研 究 所 與 翻 譯 研 究 所,94 年 成 立 台 灣 文 學 研 究 所,96 年 成 立 環 境 觀 光 研 究 所 (101 年 併 入 地 理 系 成 環 境 暨 觀 光 遊 憩 碩 士 班 ) 另,98 年 歷 史 學 研 究 所 則 自 社 科 體 育 學 院 轉 入 目 前 本 院 組 織 架 構 涵 蓋 人 文 英 語 藝 術 歷 史 地 理 等 傳 統 科 目, 還 新 創 兒 童 英 語 口 筆 譯 及 台 灣 文 學 學 門, 既 有 古 老 傳 承, 亦 隨 造 物 者 之 無 盡 藏, 展 開 新 局, 使 領 域 愈 加 完 備 數 十 年 來, 各 系 所 均 以 師 資 培 育 為 首 要 教 學 目 標, 以 訓 練 社 會 各 界 專 業 菁 英 為 輔 助 目 標, 故 不 但 已 有 為 數 龐 大 的 中 學 教 師 在 全 國 各 地 服 務, 也 已 化 育 不 少 人 才 在 社 會 各 界 發 揮 專 業 所 長 首 任 院 長 由 英 語 系 張 水 木 教 授 (89.10~95.7) 擔 任, 後 由 本 校 前 副 校 長 國 文 系 林 明 德 教 授 (95.08 ~96.07) 代 理 院 長, 第 三 任 院 長 為 地 理 系 何 猷 賓 教 授 (96.08~98.07), 第 三 任 代 理 院 長 由 地 理 系 蔡 衡 教 授 (98.08~99.07) 擔 任, 之 後 第 四 五 任 院 長 則 由 本 人 擔 任 至 今 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 文 學 院 學 報, 也 稱 彰 化 師 大 文 學 院 學 報, 於 民 國 91 年 由 首 任 院 長 創 刊 之 後, 每 年 刊 出 一 期, 至 民 國 94 年 共 刊 了 四 期 各 領 域 數 十 篇 優 質 論 文 本 人 99 年 接 任 第 四 任 院 長 時, 有 鑑 於 學 術 實 需 喉 舌, 人 文 哲 思 亟 待 宣 揚, 且 評 鑑 改 變 學 術 生 態, 教 師 專 業 成 長 以 出 版 為 先, 而 透 過 完 善 的 外 審 制 度 與 國 內 學 術 界 各 相 應 學 門 進 行 良 性 溝 通, 拓 展 華 文 世 界 人 文 學 門 之 論 文 發 表 園 地, 鼓 吹 系 統 人 文 思 想 研 究, 與 理 工 學 科 積 極 對 話, 以 達 相 輔 相 成, 互 為 勝 場 之 效 果, 更 是 中 台 灣 師 範 領 域 人 文 學 界 立 言 圖 強 的 機 會, 乃 毅 然 決 定 從 有 限 經 費 中 撥 款 復 刊 幾 年 來, 經 過 大 家 辛 勤 耕 耘 歷 任 校 長 及 高 層 大 力 支 持, 以 及 國 內 外 學 者 積 極 投 稿, 使 得 各 項 編 輯 業 務 得 以 順 利 推 展 由 於 係 半 年 刊, 截 至 目 前, 已 然 出 版 5 至 10 期 ( 出 版 日 期 分 別 為 101 年 3 月 101 年 9 月 102 年 3 月 102 年 9 月,103 年 3 月 及 103 年 9 月 ), 每 期 均 獲 佳 評, 稿 源 順 利 湧 進, 而 以 外 稿 居 多 目 前, 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 文 學 院 學 報 除 了 由 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 圖 書 館 機 構 典 藏 系 統 正 式 為 數 位 版 本 定 稿 之 外, 還 已 列 入 國 家 圖 書 館 台 灣 期 刊 索 引 (TCI) 華 藝 線 上 圖 書 館 (AIRITI Library) 凌 網 科 技 數 位 出 版 品 營 運 平 台 遠 流 / 智 慧 藏 學 習 科 技 股 份 有 限 公 司 文 化 部 南 華 大 學 彰 雲 嘉 無 盡 藏 學 術 期 刊 資 料 庫 等 機 構 的 數 位 典 藏 資 料 庫 中 華 藝 線 上 圖 書 館 是 華 人 目

5 前 在 世 界 上 最 具 野 心 的 學 術 著 作 數 位 典 藏 機 構, 該 公 司 還 定 期 向 我 們 函 報 引 用 記 錄 隨 著 本 期 順 利 出 刊 (104 年 3 月 ), 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 文 學 院 學 報 即 已 連 續 出 版 滿 7 期 依 據 科 技 部 臺 灣 人 文 及 社 會 科 學 引 文 索 引 核 心 期 刊 規 範, 本 學 報 已 經 可 以 向 該 單 位 申 請 列 入 多 年 來 學 界 俗 稱 為 THCI Core 的 核 心 期 刊 審 核, 希 望 能 再 接 再 厲, 獲 得 肯 定 本 學 報 常 務 編 委 基 本 上 由 本 院 各 系 所 之 主 管 擔 任, 每 期 均 開 兩 次 編 委 會, 第 一 次 討 論 所 獲 稿 件 的 數 量 及 基 本 狀 況, 並 由 各 系 所 編 委 迅 速 推 薦 外 審 委 員, 第 二 次 則 在 外 審 結 果 送 回 之 後, 開 會 確 認, 如 無 疑 問, 隨 即 責 成 助 理 進 行 編 輯 作 業 學 報 另 聘 台 灣 師 大 退 休 教 授 莊 坤 良 博 士 擔 任 總 顧 問, 並 請 各 系 所 主 管 就 其 領 域 每 年 推 薦 國 內 外 資 深 學 者 擔 任 常 務 及 國 際 顧 問 大 家 都 希 望, 學 報 能 百 尺 竿 頭, 更 進 一 步, 一 舉 衝 入 這 個 台 灣 學 界 重 要 的 指 標 資 料 庫 所 有 委 員 們 均 表 示, 以 有 限 經 費 之 經 營 觀 之, 學 報 之 今 日, 令 人 欣 慰, 而 本 院 雖 侷 處 一 隅, 但 勉 力 成 就 學 門 之 專 業 出 版, 用 力 之 深, 絕 對 不 落 人 後 和 其 他 學 報 不 一 樣 之 處, 本 學 報 除 了 選 刊 國 內 外 學 者 投 稿 之 論 文 以 外, 尚 有 總 編 邀 稿 之 設 計 此 設 計 旨 在 向 各 方 借 將, 誠 意 累 積 不 同 學 門 重 要 論 文, 冀 望 有 機 會 介 紹 更 多 華 人 人 文 學 界 主 要 學 門 的 重 要 學 者 過 去 6 期, 我 們 介 紹 的 學 者 有 耿 志 堅 博 士 這 位 國 文 系 的 漢 語 語 言 學 家 ( 第 5 期 ), 郭 鳳 蘭 博 士 這 位 英 語 系 的 語 言 學 與 英 語 教 學 學 家 ( 第 6 期 ), 黃 忠 慎 博 士 這 位 國 文 系 的 經 學 家 ( 第 7 期 ), 及 賴 秉 彥 博 士 這 位 翻 譯 所 的 經 濟 學 家 與 法 學 家 ( 第 8 期 ), 大 陸 資 深 歷 史 及 考 古 學 者 王 子 今 教 授 ( 第 9 期 ), 前 中 山 大 學 及 成 功 大 學 教 授, 國 內 知 名 早 期 英 國 文 學 研 究 學 者 邱 源 貴 教 授 ( 第 10 期 ) 這 一 期 我 們 介 紹 前 高 雄 第 一 科 技 大 學 應 英 系 主 任 暨 外 語 學 院 院 長, 前 高 雄 大 學 西 洋 語 文 學 系 主 任 與 語 文 中 心 主 任, 現 亞 洲 大 學 外 國 語 文 學 系 主 任 暨 人 文 社 會 學 院 院 長 陳 英 輝 博 士 英 輝 兄 之 研 究 專 長 為 英 國 維 多 利 亞 文 學 英 國 小 說 文 化 研 究 後 殖 民 論 述 學 術 寫 作 專 業 英 語 文 (ESP: English for Specific Purposes) 等, 著 有 維 多 利 亞 文 學 風 貌 : 小 說 詩 歌 及 散 文 作 家 群 像 和 The Joy of Literature 等 專 書, 以 及 後 殖 民 批 評 透 視 下 的 十 九 世 紀 英 國 小 說 城 鄉 意 識 : 威 廉 士 早 期 文 化 理 論 的 感 情 結 構 等 期 刊 及 專 書 論 文 多 篇 目 前 正 撰 寫 舊 典 新 讀 : 再 讀 維 多 利 亞 小 說 中, 本 篇 論 文 係 其 中 一 章 值 得 一 提 的 是, 英 輝 兄 熱 心 英 語 教 育, 參 與 國 內 外 學 術 活 動 十 分 積 極, 因 而 創 立 台 灣 專 業 英 語 文 學 會 (Taiwan ESP Association), 擔 任 第 一 二 屆 理 事 長, 募 款 發 行 Taiwan International ESP Journal, 並 於 擔 任 國 際 專 業 英 語 文 主 席 (TESOL ESP-IS Chair, ) 在 其 所 貢 獻 的 這 篇 論 文 中, 英 輝 兄 認 為 喬 治 愛 略 特 (George Eliot) 對 英 國 小 說 發 展 之 主 要 貢 獻 有 三 首 先, 以 相 對 道 德 觀 (moral relativism) 舖 陳 小 說 情 節 與 刻 劃 角 色, 避 開 絕 對 道 德 觀, 持 平 論 斷 人 物 的 行 為 舉 止, 還 總 是 將 人 物 的 生 命 決 擇 置 於 特 殊 情 境 加 以 審 視, 以 判 斷 是 否 符 合 正 義 和 道 德 規 範 其 次, 開 創 英 國 小 說 心 理 分 析 技 巧, 專 注 角 色 動 機 分 析 與 心 理 刻 劃 ; 之 前 的 英 國 小 說 人 物, 其 動 機 經 常 隱 而 不 顯, 至 多 半 遮 半 掩, 重 點 其 實 放 在 故 事 情 節 發 展, 愛 略 特 則 不 然, 她 以 細 膩 筆 觸 刻 畫 角 色 的 內 心 世 界 與 行 為 決 策 背 後 的 動 機, 塑 造 更 符 合 現 實 生 活

6 的 人 物, 賦 予 眾 生 多 面 向 的 個 性 她 這 種 有 別 於 當 代 作 家 的 手 法, 因 為 特 別 凸 顯 意 識 情 結, 使 得 習 於 傳 統 小 說 平 舖 直 敘 技 巧 的 當 時 讀 者 視 閱 讀 其 作 品 為 畏 途 她 的 心 理 分 析 手 法 影 響 後 來 詹 姆 斯 (Henry James) 的 寫 作 風 格, 二 十 世 紀 喬 伊 斯 (James Joyce) 和 伍 爾 芙 (Virginia Woolf) 的 意 識 流 也 深 受 愛 略 特 的 啟 發, 其 影 響 力 既 深 且 廣, 稱 為 是 英 國 小 說 技 巧 演 進 的 重 要 推 手, 並 不 為 過 第 三 個 貢 獻 是 將 寫 實 主 義 廣 泛 應 用 於 小 說 創 作 中, 標 榜 真 實 的 特 質 在 於 真 切 地 反 映 平 凡 的 事 物 (Adam Bede, 第 十 七 章 ) 在 她 之 前, 詩 人 華 茲 華 斯 (William Wordsworth) 常 以 鄉 野 卑 微 人 物 或 乞 丐 入 詩, 以 凸 顯 人 性 悲 情 高 尚 或 堅 毅 的 性 格, 這 種 重 視 勞 動 階 級 生 命 的 寫 實 手 法, 延 伸 到 愛 略 特 的 作 品, 則 變 成 記 錄 平 凡 小 人 物 的 生 活 點 滴, 最 後 使 寫 實 主 義 發 展 成 小 說 創 作 的 主 流 一 件 有 意 義 的 工 作 之 得 以 順 利 完 成, 無 名 英 雄 總 在 靜 默 的 世 界 中 大 聲 喧 嚷 著 本 期 之 出 版, 一 如 往 常, 仍 要 繼 續 感 謝 國 內 外 學 者 們 投 稿, 編 輯 委 員 們 提 供 審 查 委 員 名 單 與 不 厭 其 煩 參 與 開 會, 數 十 位 外 校 審 查 委 員 悉 心 閱 讀, 美 術 系 的 一 凡 兄 及 文 正 兄 帶 著 學 生 們 執 行 美 編, 還 有 一 群 認 真 負 責 而 可 愛 的 研 究 生 盈 琇 及 之 允 細 心 處 理 文 字 編 輯 工 作 王 素 芬 主 持 系 務 與 教 研 之 餘, 還 擔 任 主 編, 思 考 法 規, 主 持 會 議, 並 協 助 撰 寫 主 編 的 話, 亦 當 受 我 一 拜 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 文 學 院 學 報 總 編 彭 輝 榮 謹 誌 中 華 民 國 104 年 3 月

7 主 編 的 話 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 文 學 院 學 報 向 以 提 供 優 秀 且 專 精 的 學 術 交 流 園 地 為 宗 旨, 並 展 現 本 校 文 學 院 之 學 術 能 量 與 品 質, 不 但 提 供 本 院 各 系 所 教 師 及 博 士 生 發 表 研 究 成 果 之 園 地, 更 廣 向 校 外 各 相 關 領 域 之 專 家 學 者 徵 稿, 領 域 涵 括 英 語 國 文 地 理 美 術 歷 史 翻 譯 等 相 關 學 門, 反 映 本 院 學 術 面 向 之 多 元 性 近 來 更 有 音 樂 藝 術 與 其 他 相 關 學 門 共 襄 盛 舉, 使 學 報 內 容 更 加 豐 富 在 各 方 的 努 力 之 下, 本 學 報 逐 漸 成 長 茁 壯, 成 為 促 進 專 業 成 長 的 沃 土 與 學 術 交 流 的 平 台 本 期 共 收 稿 件 19 篇 ( 含 特 約 稿 2 篇 ), 其 中 有 16 篇 外 稿 及 1 篇 內 稿, 在 嚴 謹 的 審 查 機 制 下, 共 計 通 過 7 篇, 退 稿 率 達 59% 踴 躍 的 投 稿, 使 得 論 文 被 刊 登 的 難 度 隨 之 提 升, 也 更 加 顯 示 本 學 報 受 各 學 界 接 受 與 肯 定 的 事 實 展 望 未 來, 本 學 報 仍 將 秉 持 嚴 謹 專 業 的 學 術 精 神, 維 持 一 貫 的 品 質, 繼 續 為 大 家 服 務, 殷 盼 能 長 期 得 到 校 內 外 學 者 的 支 持 與 指 教 本 人 非 常 榮 幸 獲 文 學 院 彭 院 長 之 邀, 擔 任 學 報 第 十 一 期 主 編, 本 期 學 報 能 順 利 出 刊, 在 此 要 對 所 有 論 文 投 稿 人 審 查 委 員 全 體 文 學 院 常 務 編 委 編 輯 委 員 及 相 關 行 政 人 員 的 付 出, 致 上 最 誠 摯 的 感 謝 與 敬 意 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 文 學 院 學 報 第 十 一 期 主 編 地 理 系 教 授 謹 誌 中 華 民 國 104 年 3 月

8

9 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 文 學 院 學 報 第 十 一 期 目 錄 總 編 邀 稿 The Analytical Approach and Realism in George Eliot.... 陳 英 輝 1 外 審 委 員 建 議 刊 登 稿 件 少 年 Pi 的 奇 幻 漂 流 之 隱 喻 解 讀 許 惠 芬 15 當 代 學 者 對 劉 勰 原 道 之 道 的 詮 釋 分 歧 與 評 論 從 儒 家 心 性 - 形 上 學 的 角 度 來 論 道 謝 君 讚 31 小 雅. 漸 漸 之 石 有 豕 白 蹢, 烝 涉 波 矣 雨 兆 探 源.... 鄭 玉 姍 55 唐 代 廣 州 的 經 濟 發 展.... 朱 祖 德 79 尚 書 流 傳 問 題 的 史 學 論 述 試 析 馬 雍 尚 書 史 話.... 閻 耀 棕 115 李 塨 之 師 從 交 遊 與 其 學 術 轉 向 張 政 偉 133 文 學 形 象 的 塑 造 : 喬 治 艾 略 特 在 台 灣 的 譯 介 彭 健 銘 153

10 NCUE Journal of Humanities Volume 11 Contents Editor-in-Chief s Invited Paper The Analytical Approach and Realism in George Eliot....Ying-huei Chen 1 Review-Approved Papers A Metaphorical Reading of Life of Pi Hui-fen Xu 15 An Interpretational Difference and Commentary of Contemporary Wen Hsin Tiao Lung: Scholars on Tao of Liu Hsieh s Yuan Tao and A Discussion on Tao from a Confucian Hsin Hsing Hsing Shang Point of View Yun-tsan Hsieh 31 An Analysis of the Origin of the Saying That It Will Rain After A Group of White-Hoof Pigs Cross A River in The Book of Songs Tsian Tsian Tshi Shi Yu-shan Cheng 55 Economic Development of Guangzhou in the Tang Dynasty Tsu-te Chu 79 A Historical Discourse of the Spread of Shang Shu: An Analysis of Ma Yong s Shang Shu Shi Hua..... Yao-zong Yan 115 Li-Gong s Mentoring Relationship And His Academic Transition.... Zheng-wei Chang 133 The Formation of Literary Image: Translation of George Eliot in Taiwan Chien-ming Peng 153

11 NCUE Journal of Humanities Vol.11, pp March 2015 The Analytical Approach and Realism in George Eliot Ying-huei Chen * Abstract George Eliot s great contributions to the development of the English novel are threefold. First, she drew on her exposure to works and concepts, designing her plots and characters according to less rigidly defined moral imperatives. In her novels, human conduct and behavior are not weighed in the balance of absolutes in which a figure s decisions and actions can often be guessed pages before they occur. Another of her contributions could be described as introducing a more analytical approach to portraying a character. Motivations, previously concealed or at best obliquely included, are laid bare, and the actions of individuals are given their full provenance. By so doing, Eliot gives her characters an added maturity and a far more understandable humanity. This technique lends to the world she creates an unrelenting internality. It was this propensity for delving into the consciousness of a character that set her apart from her contemporaries and that posed a challenge to her contemporary readership, accustomed as it was to a more straightforward plot. As to her influence in this regard, we can perhaps ascribe to her the direction Henry James took in pursuing the technique of psychoanalyzing his characters. If we continue the line of authorship from James we can see a further refinement in James Joyce and Virginia Woolf who perfected the stream of consciousness. Eliot serves, then, as the 19 th century lodestone to 20 th century stylistics, having set down in her works a blueprint for transforming the propulsion of plot into the impetus of character. Eliot also applies the principle of realism to her novel writing, observing that the quality of truthfulness is the faithful representing of commonplace things (Adam Bede, ch.17).wordsworth before her had often taken the humble, the beggarly, the elderly, and the rustic as the subjects of his poetry, yet it was always done with a pronounced scene of either the tragedy, the nobility, or the solidity of these people. The poet had not paid so much attention to realism as props in a personalized world. Eliot, on the contrary, concentrates on everyday people as the subjects in her novels. Keywords: moral imperatives, analytical approach, internality, realism * Professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, Asia University. Received January 1,

12 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 文 學 院 學 報 第 十 一 期, 頁 1-14 二 一 五 年 三 月 The Analytical Approach and Realism in George Eliot 陳 英 輝 * 摘 要 喬 治 愛 略 特 (George Eliot) 對 英 國 小 說 發 展 之 主 要 貢 獻 有 三 首 先, 她 依 相 對 道 德 觀 (moral relativism) 鋪 陳 小 說 的 情 節 與 角 色 的 刻 劃, 避 開 以 絕 對 的 道 德 觀 論 斷 人 物 的 行 為 舉 止, 總 是 將 人 物 的 行 為 與 人 生 決 擇 置 於 個 殊 的 情 境 加 以 審 視, 以 判 斷 是 否 符 合 正 義 和 道 德 規 範 其 次, 愛 略 特 可 謂 是 開 創 英 國 小 說 心 理 分 析 技 巧 她 擅 長 角 色 的 動 機 分 析 與 心 理 刻 劃, 在 她 之 前 的 小 說, 人 物 的 動 機 經 常 隱 而 不 顯, 至 多 半 遮 半 掩, 小 說 的 重 點 放 在 故 事 情 節 的 發 展, 愛 略 特 則 選 擇 細 膩 地 描 述 角 色 的 內 心 世 界 與 行 為 決 策 背 後 的 動 機, 塑 造 出 更 符 合 真 實 人 性 的 人 物, 賦 予 小 說 角 色 多 面 向 的 個 性 正 因 為 作 者 以 有 別 於 當 代 作 家 的 手 法 探 索 書 中 人 物 的 意 識 情 結, 使 習 於 傳 統 小 說 平 舖 直 敘 技 巧 的 當 時 讀 者 視 愛 略 特 為 畏 途 她 的 心 理 分 析 手 法 影 響 後 來 詹 姆 斯 (Henry James) 的 寫 作 風 格, 二 十 世 紀 喬 伊 斯 (James Joyce) 和 伍 爾 芙 (Virginia Woolf) 的 意 識 流 也 深 受 愛 略 特 的 啟 發, 其 影 響 力 既 深 且 廣, 不 愧 是 英 國 小 說 技 巧 演 進 的 重 要 推 手 愛 略 特 另 一 重 要 貢 獻 是 將 寫 實 主 義 廣 泛 應 用 於 小 說 創 作 中, 標 榜 真 實 的 特 質 在 於 真 切 地 反 映 平 凡 的 事 物 ( 亞 當 彼 德 Adam Bede, 第 十 七 章 ) 在 她 之 前, 詩 人 華 茲 華 斯 (William Wordsworth) 就 常 以 鄉 野 卑 微 人 物 或 乞 丐 入 詩, 以 凸 顯 人 性 悲 情 高 尚 或 堅 毅 的 性 格, 但 詩 人 並 不 以 捕 捉 個 人 世 界 的 繁 樣 面 貌 為 職 志, 小 說 家 則 專 注 於 記 錄 平 凡 小 人 物 的 生 活 點 滴, 將 寫 實 主 義 發 展 成 小 說 創 作 的 主 流 關 鍵 詞 : 相 對 道 德 觀 心 理 分 析 意 識 流 寫 實 主 義 * 亞 洲 大 學 外 國 語 文 學 系 教 授 到 稿 日 期 :2015 年 1 月 31 日 2

13 The Analytical Approach and Realism in George Eliot George Eliot was the pen name of Mary Ann Evans whose works have placed her among the leading writers of the mid-victorian period. Using a male nom-de-plume was hardly new, for each of the Brontës had done so, but in Eliot s case it is, however, harder to identify her reasons for adopting this expedient as she seemed confident enough of her own talents. 1 An unorthodox domestic situation may have given cause for a deflection from being named publicly. 2 There may also have been within her a desire to break away from the prevalent views of female authors whose writings she herself criticized, even lampooned, in her essay Silly Novels by Lady Novelists. 3 Whatever the cause may be, Eliot may have suffered because her taking on this alter ego as the author of her works is often considered her attempt to avoid the trivial and lighthearted romantic style of contemporary writers of her own sex. It would seem to be a gross simplification of an author s work to suggest that it was all an attempt at being innovative and that a male byline was assumed by her to give it credibility. This is all the more noteworthy as Eliot s talents extended far beyond fiction, as her versatility was demonstrated in her essays, commentaries, translations, and editorship. Prior to Adam Bede in 1859, she had already translated the sensational Das Leben Jesu (The Life of Jesus) 4 by D. F. Strauss ( ), a work which was enormously controversial in the original and in translation for its biographical, rather than spiritual, leanings. By choosing a work which had been roundly condemned across Europe she was marking herself out as being uninterested in mundane work. This is further demonstrated by her position as assistant editor and contributor to the Westminster Review, a London-based left-wing journal well known for its willingness to air radical ideas. 5 Eliot drew on her exposure to works and concepts which flew, however mildly, contrary to the prevailing mid-victorian mores, designing her plots and characters according to less rigidly defined moral imperatives. In her novels, human conduct and behavior are not weighed in the balance of absolutes in which a figure s decisions and actions can often be guessed pages before they occur. Ethical choices have a rather less concrete codification in her work and those within it shift and adapt with circumstances which the reader recognizes as, for the most part, entirely possible. Self- sacrifice, a 1 Eliot was quick to point out the flaws in others, the implicit meaning seems to be that she would not be subject to them. See her essay Silly Novels by Lady Novelists written in 1856 to target her contemporary female writers, The Westminster Review Vol. 66 old series (October 1856): For a period of her life Eliot lived in an open relationship with philosopher George Henry Lewes who, in turn, had a ménage with Thornton Hunt (son of Leigh Hunt) and Lewes wife Agnes had two children with Hunt. See Jennifer Uglow, George Eliot (London: Virago, 1987), pp The Westminster Review Vol. 66 old series (October 1856): A work which treated Jesus as any other historical figure, seeking to find the facts and avoid the faith. While very mild by our standards, it shocked a society in whose school textbooks 4004 B.C. was taught as the year of God s creation of the world. 5 See Jennifer Uglow, pp

14 Ying-huei Chen ( 陳 英 輝 ) common enough trope in Victorian writing, cannot be relied on to tie up loose ends and secure (often illusory) honor. One of Eliot s contributions to the English novel could be described as introducing a more analytical approach to composing a character, setting that character within a novel, and then navigating them through its plot so that her creation becomes more realistic. This is not to suggest a grittiness to the work in question, although that certainly can be found; it is more that, after Eliot, writers choosing to be taken seriously had to avoid straining credulity with storylines which, while taking place in a world people recognized, accorded characters with motivations which, on the whole, would not have existed. Eliot may not have been responsible for a revolution but rather a renaissance, for, historically, literature had not shied away from realism. A perfect example is Moll Flanders (1722), one of the first English novels. Here Moll deals with the exigencies of her eventful life, including incest, crime and deportation, in any way she can. Remorse plays little part and Moll is last seen as prosperous and healthy in old age. Likewise John Cleland in Fanny Hill (1748) presents a panoply of characters who fully recognize their available choices and do not shy away for reasons of morality. Putting all these ideas together Eliot could perhaps be credited with taking the realistic attitude incumbent on the lower orders in literature and transferring such pragmatism to those further up the social scale. By creating characters who have the same dilemmas despite their social standing, Eliot gives them an added maturity and a far more understandable humanity. Motivations, before concealed or at best obliquely included, are laid bare, the actions of individuals are given their full provenance. This technique lends to the world she creates in her fiction an unrelenting internality, and the reader is introduced to the background emotionally, financially and in terms of society s expectations and pressures before the events are clear to him. This could make reading her prose arduous or formidable were it not for the fact that the work benefits from her engagement with her character s processes, making the reader more fully invested in the outcomes. It was this propensity for delving into the consciousness of a character that set her apart from her contemporaries and that posed a challenge to her contemporary readership, accustomed as it was to a more straightforward plot. As to the influence she exerted on others, we can perhaps ascribe to her the direction Henry James took in pursuing the technique of psychoanalyzing his characters. James certainly added to Eliot s new emphasis on the psycho dramatic tension in his portrayal of Isabel Archer in The Portrait of a Lady (1882) or of the governess in The Turn of the Screw (1898) upon whose mental state the entire story turns. If we continue the line of authorship from James we can see a further refinement in James Joyce and 4

15 The Analytical Approach and Realism in George Eliot Virginia Woolf who perfected the stream of consciousness. Eliot serves, then, as the 19 th century lodestone to 20 th century stylistics, having set down in her works a blueprint for transforming the propulsion of plot into the impetus of character. Eliot emphasizes the principle of realism and applies it to her novel writing, observing that the quality of truthfulness 6 is the faithful representing of commonplace things (ch. 17, 224). Wordsworth before her had often taken the humble, the beggarly, the elderly, and the rustic as the subjects of his poetry, yet it was always done with a pronounced scene of either the tragedy, the nobility, or the solidity of these people. The poet had not paid so much attention to realism as props in a personalized world. Eliot, on the contrary, concentrates on everyday people as the subjects in her novels. This varies from book to book from an abundance in Silas Marner (1861), to plenty in Felix Holt (1866), and to just a few in Middlemarch, for the principal participants of the masses in that novel are crowds at political rallies or, in one instance, a disgruntled tenant and his family. It would be wrong to distinguish between common people and the upper classes in this particular literary universe, as the conditions which demarcate the various behaviors as pertaining to various castes are broken down in Eliot. There is no requirement for a hero here, for the tale belongs to ordinary people and their ordinariness derives from the actions we see them engaged in, not their place in society. 7 If Thomas Carlyle extols the superman as the engine of society and Bernard Shaw sees the agent of change as the driving force in history, 8 Eliot sees people, wheresoever they figure in specific hierarchies, as the prime mover for both, free of grandiose titles or of responsibilities to any notional world view of historical determinism. Eliot clearly states this artistic belief in Chapter 17 of Adam Bede, where she stipulates that her drive to write arises from a strong determination to create a real world in which real ordinary people live: These fellow-mortals, every one, must be accepted as they are: you can neither straighten their noses, nor brighten their wit, nor rectify their dispositions; and it is these people amongst whom your life is passed that it is needful you should tolerate, pity, and love. (p. 222) It can be said of Eliot that she is the first English novelist to reevaluate the concept of common people; she no longer refers to the lower orders but to all characters as subject to the vicissitude of ordinary life, an artistic representation that recalls again her call 6 George Eliot, Adam Bede, ed. Stephen Gill (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1980), p Hereafter any quotations from the novel refer to this edition. In her essay Silly Novels by Lady Novelists, it is for unfaithfulness that she took the lady novelists to task. 7 George Eliot in this light was quite advanced and innovative, for even as late as the 1840s this new kind of novel still encountered resistance. See Kathleen Tillotson, Novels of the Eighteen-Forties (Oxford: Clarendon, 1954), pp See Thomas Carlyle, On Hero and Hero Worship and Bernard Shaw, Introduction to Saint Joan. 5

16 Ying-huei Chen ( 陳 英 輝 ) for realism in fiction. As we learn from Adam Bede, a book which clearly manifests her motto of artistic composition, Eliot finds much pleasure and inspiration in many of the Dutch paintings that often present faithful pictures of a monotonous homely existence (p. 223). This phrase is extremely telling of Eliot s view of her work, as the Flemish school is well known for using the miniature world of domestic interiors to express a huge range of issues, emotions, dramas and passions all at work beneath the surface calm of the daily round and the monotony of housekeeping. 9 If the quotation above in itself is an incomplete picture in terms of art criticism, then that is apt as this is not the field we are discussing, nor can we suspect Eliot of dis-ingenuousness for not going further with her explanation of how the Flemish school is reflected in her work. We have here one element of Eliot s work reduced to a phrase expressive of vast experience contained and present within a simple form. If Johan Vermeer ( ) can make a maid pouring milk hint at tumult beyond the depicted action, 10 then Eliot can show us scenes of a workaday, both humdrum and fraught. Who can forget the combination of obsession, despair, and loneliness attendant upon the scene of Silas Marner counting his money, 11 a scene, incidentally, found in numerous works of the Flemish school, 12 or the division of the jewels between Dorothea and her sister in the beginning of the novel, so pregnant with meaning yet so peaceful (another image from Flemish art) 13? Instead of sublime heroes and heroines, adorable geniuses and beauties, notorious villains and rogues, who often inhabit the world of fiction, our mundane world, so Eliot argues, is mainly made up of ordinary people who are humble but courageous in their own way. A false representation, as so often happens in literary works, of the common people leads to the distortion of everyday life, rendering the recognition of truthfulness impossible. Her belief in realism as a truthful representation of reality opens up a new direction of novel writing for later Victorian novelists. Another important contribution to English literature is Eliot s concept of relative morality in the judgment of human conduct and behavior, a very progressive moral view that Robert Browning delineates and differentiates in his gigantic The Ring and the Book. 14 To many early nineteenth-century writers, such as Jane Austen or Charlotte 9 See, for example, Wayne Franits, Dutch Seventeenth-Century Genre Painting, (New Haven, Conn. Yale UP, 2004) and Hans Vlieghe, Flemish Art and Architecture, (New Haven, Conn.: Yale UP, 1998). 10 See Vermeer s The Milkmaid ( ). 11 See Part 1 Chapter 2 of Silas Marner, Penguin Classics, ed. and intro., by David Carroll (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1996). 12 The money changer, counter or the miser were all common subjects for the Dutch school and others. See, for example, Vermeer, Woman with a Pearl Necklace and The Pearl Weigher. 13 See chapter 1 of Middlemarch, ed. and intro. by Rosemary Ashton (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1994), pp Hereafter all quotations from the novel refer to this edition. 14 See Robert Browning s argument in The Ring and the Book, a verse novel of 21,000 lines. Eds. Thomas J. Collins & Richard D. Altick (Ontario: Broadview Press, 2001). 6

17 The Analytical Approach and Realism in George Eliot Brontë, moral rules are at once categorical and absolute, allowing for no ambiguity or extenuating circumstances. It is with this moral code in mind that Brontë has Jane Eyre quit Thornfield Hall subsequent to her disappointment at the altar. Rochester has a wife, ergo Jane must leave, despite her continued love for him. When offered a mistress s status with attendant wealth, she dismisses it and opts instead for penury. The framework within which Jane operates morally is brutally demarcated. However, in Eliot s view, good and bad are relative and not absolute, both dependent on the contexts and exigencies of events. In other words, morality cannot exist in a vacuum, free from and independent of aftermaths and consequences, and of necessity it varies from person to person and from culture to culture. If morality is absolute, as many moralists believe it to be, then any form of killing under whatever circumstance should be considered an absolute immorality. However, if the concept and practice of good and bad are relative, killing in self-defense, for example, is redeemable and, therefore, forgivable. Eliot, who rarely passes an absolute moral judgment on her characters, could be called a sympathetic English writer, although the conspiracy of others to do wrong seems to be liable to punishment. Cass s death follows his raid on Marner s house, and Bulstrode certainly does not go unpunished though he suffers from his own remorse, the expression of which goes some way to redeeming him. This authorial sympathy may derive from her view of relative morality, which is often demonstrated in the way she depicts her characters. Eliot s sympathy goes some way to excuse even the most evil and selfish characters, whose misbehaviors, so she argues, mainly come as a consequence of their unhappy childhoods or unpleasant life experiences. It has been pointed out by many critics that there are no true villains in Eliot, and even Bulstrode, the banker in Middlemarch, whose background we learn has been a parade of vices and who was on good terms with the demi monde before his reinvention as a pillar of the community, is rendered with some sympathy. Sympathy rather than irony, understanding rather than criticism, becomes her artistic mode, marking the true nature of Eliot s art. Eliot in this regard, as Suzanne Graver well observes, not only participated in but also helped to create and promote what the critic terms the Victorian aesthetic of sympathy. 15 Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life Of the seven novels Eliot wrote, it is generally agreed that Middlemarch, written between 1871 and 1872, stands out as her tour de force, a monument in English literature. Although critics might disagree with the comparison, Middlemarch is said to be Leo Tolstoy s War and Peace ( ) in the English language for all their 15 Suzanne Graver, George Eliot and Community: A Study in Social Theory and Fictional Form (Berkeley: Univ. of California P, 1984), p

18 Ying-huei Chen ( 陳 英 輝 ) differences in artistic vision and religious overtones. Both works stand out as two great masterpieces in literature for their large cast of characters, multiple story lines, and, in particular, their broad vision of life. When Virginia Woolf gave the book unstinting praise, calling Middlemarch the magnificent book which with all its imperfection is one of the few English novels written for grown-up people 16 she certainly had in mind Eliot s psychological insights of characters, mastery of multiple narratives and the comprehensiveness of themes and issues with which she deals, and her mature and rational moral judgment, indeed a combination of technical elegance and life views that again recalls the big canvas upon which Tolstoy works in War and Peace. They are further similar in their willingness to eschew rapid resolution for a more comprehensive analysis of what leads to it. Middlemarch, even in its serial form, has at least four clear and well-defined story lines: the misguided and eventually tragic marriage of Dorothea Brooke and Edward Casaubon, the abortive medical profession of Tertius Lydgate, the dubious rise, exposure, and subsequent downfall of Nicholas Bulstrode, and the love story of Mary Garth. Eliot explores the whole spectrum of small-town life in the fictitious Midlands town of Middlemarch during the period , the book s subtitle is a study of provincial life by interweaving these four story lines or plots as if they were displayed and etched on a broad canvas. Furthermore, although the canvas is broad, few details are missed, and the structure of the novel is flexible enough to accommodate these details. Given this achievement, the progress she made since Scenes from Clerical Life (1858) was significant. Middlemarch, for all its multiplicity in narrative strands and attention to the details of social life, centers around Dorothea Brooke and Tertius Lydgate, the two defeated aspirations, as Eliot herself made clear in her journal on the composition of the book wherein she states that she started to work in December 1870 on a novella originally designed to be quite short, called Miss Brooke. 17 One year prior to this, however, she had already written the story of Lydgate, an ambitious doctor with new ideas for medical reform, who eventually finds himself trapped in a miserable marriage with the selfish and shallow-minded Rosamond Vincy. As the original two short stories have a lot in common, especially in the novelist s treatment of defeated aspirations, Eliot began to combine them into one. She interweaves the story of Dorothea Brooke, an intelligent idealist who is engaged in schemes to help the lot of the local poor and who has the misfortune of marrying a middle-aged pedantic scholar with the story of Lydgate, 16 Virginia Woolf, George Eliot in The Common Reader, First Series, ed. and intro. by Andrew McNeillie (New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1984), p For how George Eliot composed Middlemarch, see Jerome Beaty, Middlemarch from Notebook to Novel; a Study of George Eliot s Creative Method (Urbana Ill.: Univ. of Illinois Press, 1960). See also The Journals of George Eliot, eds. Margaret Harris and Judith Johnston (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1998). 8

19 The Analytical Approach and Realism in George Eliot another intelligent idealist who aspires to reform medical practice and who finds himself defeated in the end by a community that resists any unwelcome change. In the spring of 1871, the book was completed and became an intimidatingly long but structurally united novel. In terms of the novel s structure, Chapter 10 is critical in cohering the two stories, as the novelist begins to shift her focus from Dorothea Brooke to Lydgate through the skillful arrangement of a dinner party hosted by Dorothea s loquacious uncle Mr. Brooke. The dinner party, as a grand occasion for communal gathering, is able to field a roster of guests who may meet one another and make conversation, and it is on this occasion that the gossip turns to Dorothea s prospective marriage and the doubtful prospect of Lydgate s medical profession. It is also on this occasion that the two protagonists Dorothea and Lydgate learn about each other and their respective life dreams, and the two parallel narratives are thus yoked. Eliot can easily combine the two independent stories of Dorothea Brooke and Lydgate into one, as they share a lot in common, especially in their defeated aspirations. This defeat often recurs in Eliot s works via the confining influence of provinciality on an aspiring intelligence; the rustic habitually crushing the sophisticated. Indeed, both Dorothea and Lydgate are idealistic, intent on achieving a lofty aim in life, but finding their ideals defeated in the end by personal and social factors. Their aspirations diminish, or rather disappear when they encounter harsh reality. Dorothea marries the pedantic Casaubon expecting to fulfill her intellectual aspirations, but she drastically misjudges the reality and the generosity of her husband s own intellectualism which he has substituted for a kind of endless categorization. Her role in his research projects soon becomes clear and is purely taxonomic. Eliot s wit as a writer and the brevity of that wit in contrast with the length of her novel is perfectly demonstrated by the absurdity of the title of Casaubon s great, endless, and pointless work, The Key to All Mythologies. The brilliance lies in the futile delusion of the definite article, a ploy that is meant to expose his vainglory. Casaubon aims for a definitive study of the indefinable and the breadth of this subject tapers into infinity. Could Eliot here even be mocking the theocentricity of the Christian world, laying open a nasty superiority complex in the crude supposition that one man could produce a manageable work in which global lore is codified? Whatever the case, Casaubon rapidly becomes ridiculous and, in an example of Eliot s even handed prose, Dorothea limits her response to this to a few sharp words and a feeling of pity not for herself, incidentally. 18 Lydgate fares worse, for Dorothea at least maintains her social position and 18 For a study of the unheroic in Eliot, see, for example, Chapter 1 entitled The Unheroic Tragedy in Barbara Hardy s The Novels of George Eliot: A Study of Form (London: Athlone Press, 1963), pp

20 Ying-huei Chen ( 陳 英 輝 ) financial independence. His household is subject to his wife Rosamond s lack of economy and the ruinous debts she incurs (she is not alone in this; Lydgate has also spent profligate sums) while his career languishes. Through the rendition of Dorothea and Lydgate, Eliot attempts to dramatize the clashes between ideal and reality by describing how the protagonists are forced to compromise due to social pressure and provincial perspective. However, their value in life, as the novel s finale clearly states, does not diminish, for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on [their] unhistoric acts (p. 838) The elegiac tone of the finale, like Thomas Gray s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, once again testifies to Eliot s democratic view of social history 19 that it is the common people rather than Carlyle s heroes or Shaw s supermen who create history. Eliot is greatly concerned with the relationship between the individual and society, and of this intertwining relationship she often holds a deterministic view, observing that human beings are governed by social laws and entangled in social webs, connecting in one way or another with each other. 20 Eliot s view of social determinism, however, should not be equated to Hardy s pessimistic view of fatalism that argues for the existence of a higher power, or Immanent Will, to use Hardy s term, which predetermines human activities and decisions. The two unhappy marriages imbued with sympathy in Eliot would be redolent of fatalism in Hardy. Eliot, instead, believes in the possibility of amelioration if human beings work hard enough, possessing, as they do, free will and the power of self-determination. For all her determinism, Eliot is obviously more optimistic than Hardy as she values the power of personal determination and is content to leave a story at a point of no resolution or unknowable outcome. Dorothea and Lydgate testify to Eliot s positive thinking, as, although they must both compromise their principles in the face of social reality, they still strive their utmost to reform the world. Their deeds, like the good deeds of St. Theresa, 21 are appreciated, their struggles for a lofty aim understood and recognized, and the recognition extends to their own comprehension that they have overcome the trials they have faced. One important and recurring image in Eliot s novels is the inevitability of connections within the human group, an interdependence that at once defines and confines human existence. The world that Eliot creates in her novels is interconnected, 19 George Eliot sees Dorothea Lydgate as later-born Theresas throughout the book. See both Prelude and Finale to Middlemarch. 20 The web imagery recurs so often throughout the novel that it almost becomes a symbol, and as Jan Jedrzejewski observes in her study of George Eliot, the most important [imageries] among them, indeed directly reflecting the organisation of the novel as a whole, is the image of the web See George Eliot (New York: Routledge, 2007), p. 77. W. J. Harvey, in his study of George Eliot, points out that her readers are often confronted with the issue of determining where to place the main stress on the individual or on society. See George Eliot in Victorian Fiction: A Guide to Research, ed. Lionel Stevenson (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1966), pp See Eliot s prelude to the novel. 10

21 The Analytical Approach and Realism in George Eliot bringing together a whole range of social levels. It is in this inter-connectiveness that each individual life and destiny are woven into and enclosed within the larger life of society. Middlemarch exists as a microcosm, but it is subtly connected to the wider world. This intimacy, however, is damaging and suffocating if society is a mechanism of injustice and oppression, as it is in Eliot s work. Her human beings are then forced to compromise and their personal aspirations diminish or even evaporate. It is interesting to note in passing that Eliot creates two artists in her novels: Philip Wakem, a hunchbacked, sensitive and intellectual friend to Maggie Tulliver, in The Mill on the Floss (1860), and Will Ladislaw, a bohemian young man of many talents in Middlemarch. In the earlier novel the Tullivers and the Wakems hate each other, so Philip is perpetually lovelorn as family feuds deter his romantic connection with Maggie, who is finally drowned with her brother Tom in the Floss, a consummation which seems cursory and melodramatic compared to her interactions with Philip. In Middlemarch, Dorothea chooses in the end to marry Will Ladislaw instead of Tertius Lydgate, the name is a giveaway Tertius is to be not second but third at best after the death of Casaubon, and this choice has disturbed many of her readers, who all believe Dorothea would have made a perfect match for Lydgate, given their similar temperaments. But, is it not rather more believable that she would be more drawn to Will being still in her 20s and perhaps more receptive to a lighter tone in the company she keeps, after having dwelt in the dry gaze of Casaubon for such a long time. Readers may well wonder why Eliot would have such an arrangement for her female protagonists, marrying them off to artists, but this should be understood with regard to the social climate of Eliot s day, when personal feelings and progressive ideas were either suppressed or aborted by Victorian society. Artists, however, often know no social bonds or dare to rise above the mundane world by breaking limits and rules. More simply, an artist may at least labor to produce and complete a product, or finish a series of products, in marked contrast to Casaubon s endless and barren studies. They are in short free from the confining social web of relationships, and thus offer a glimpse at the broader world outside of the provincial town. 22 Philip Wakem and Will Ladislaw are then created to save both Dorothea and Maggie, or rather, the novelist herself, from the social entanglement that offers no way out for its inhabitants. Eliot s deliberate arrangement of the artists in her novels meanwhile reflects her strong desire to rise above the confining social mores for personal growth and freedom. As we have observed above, Eliot is considered a most sympathetic writer and her 22 Many critics have found fault with George Eliot s arrangement of a marriage between Dorothea Brooke and Will Ladislaw, arguing that this practice is the weakest part in the whole novel. For a fuller understanding of critical reaction to this, see Richard D. McGhee s essay To Be Wise Herself : The Widowing of Dorothea Brooke in George Eliot s Middlemarch in Joinings & Disjoinings: The Significance of Marital Status in Literature, eds. JoAnna Stephens Mink & Janet Doubler Ward (New York: Baker & Taylor Books, 1991), p

22 Ying-huei Chen ( 陳 英 輝 ) sympathy can best be found in her delineation of characters in her books. The way she creates her characters further exemplifies how Eliot in her own manner attempts to change her readers perception of good and evil, thereby allowing more room for relativism in morality. Besides, by taking her characters almost exclusively from the common walks of life, Eliot commits herself to a realistic mode of novel writing-- a technique and a world view that certainly paves way for the development of critical realism in later novelists of the nineteenth-century. 12

23 The Analytical Approach and Realism in George Eliot Works Cited Beaty, Jerome. Middlemarch from Notebook to Novel; a Study of George Eliot s Creative Method. Urbana Ill.: Univ. of Illinois Press, Browning, Robert. The Ring and the Book. Eds. Thomas J. Collins & Richard D. Altick. Ontario: Broadview Press, Eliot, George. Silly Novels by Lady Novelists. The Westminster Review Vol. 66 (October 1856): Eliot, George. Adam Bede. Ed. Stephen Gill. Harmondsworth: Penguin, Eliot, George. Silas Marner, Penguin Classics. Ed. and intro., David Carroll. Harmondsworth: Penguin, Eliot, George. Middlemarch. Ed. and intro., Rosemary Ashton. Harmondsworth: Penguin, Eliot, George. The Journals of George Eliot. Eds. Margaret Harris and Judith Johnston. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, Franits, Wayne, Dutch Seventeenth-Century Genre Painting. New Haven, Conn.: Yale UP, Graver, Suzanne. George Eliot and Community: A Study in Social Theory and Fictional Form. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, Haight, Gordon S. George Eliot: A Biography. New York: Oxford UP, Hardy, Barbara. The Novels of George Eliot: A Study of Form. London: Athlone Press, Harvey, W. J. George Eliot in Victorian Fiction: A Guide to Research. Ed. Lionel Stevenson. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, Jedrzejewski, Jan. George Eliot. New York: Routledge, McGhee, Richard D. McGhee. To Be Wise Herself : The Widowing of Dorethea Brooke in George Eliot s Middlemarch in Joinings & Disjoinings: The Significance of Marital Status in Literature. Eds. JoAnna Stephens Mink & Janet Doubler Ward. New York: Baker & Taylor Books, Tillotson, Kathleen. Novels of the Eighteen-Forties. Oxford: Clarendon, Uglow, Jennifer. George Eliot. London: Virago, Vlieghe, Hans. Flemish Art and Architecture, New Haven, Conn.: Yale UP, Woolf, Virginia. George Eliot in The Common Reader, First Series Ed. and intro., Andrew McNeillie. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company,

24 Ying-huei Chen ( 陳 英 輝 ) 14

25 NCUE Journal of Humanities Vol. 11, pp March 2015 A Metaphorical Reading of Life of Pi Hui-fen Xu * Abstract Life of Pi is a fantasy adventure novel written by Yann Martel in It depicts how a 16-year-old Indian boy survives a shipwreck by drifting on the lifeboat with a Bengal tiger for 227 days. The purpose of this paper is to explore the metaphorical meanings of this book by appropriating Joseph Campbell s mythic theory. Interpreted from this perspective, Life of Pi is a metaphor of life imbued with suffering and redemption. Pi is an archetypal person within us. His journey, like that of the mythological hero, involves a leaving and returning with a transformation of consciousness. The contents of this paper consist mainly of three parts, corresponding to the three metaphorical components of this story the sea, tiger and island. The sea on which Pi drifts symbolizes the universal human condition of limitation and unpredictability. The tiger functions as an overwhelming power of evil and mystery. The island signifies temptation and desire for material comforts. The sea of life is never smooth and peaceful but full of the perils of fear and desire. Once passing the trials, one reaches the land of safety. Life of Pi is an allegory of human predicament and potentialities instead of a mere intriguing survival story. While scientific objectivism has become the dominant discourse in today s world, this novel offers a different kind of truth for us to ponder and follow. Keywords: metaphor, symbol, myth, journey * Lecturer, National Taichung University of Science and Technology. Received October 21,

26 國 立 彰 化 師 範 大 學 文 學 院 學 報 第 十 一 期, 頁 二 一 五 年 三 月 少 年 Pi 的 奇 幻 漂 流 之 隱 喻 解 讀 * 許 惠 芬 摘 要 少 年 Pi 的 奇 幻 漂 流 是 Yann Martel 於 2002 年 所 寫 的 奇 幻 小 說, 內 容 敘 述 16 歲 的 印 度 少 年 Pi, 遭 遇 船 難 後 和 老 虎 一 起 在 救 生 艇 上 漂 流 227 天 獲 救 的 故 事 本 論 文 旨 在 以 寓 言 的 角 度 探 討 此 小 說, 並 引 用 坎 伯 的 神 話 理 論 來 闡 明 此 小 說 暗 喻 生 命 的 痛 苦 和 救 贖 Pi 是 每 一 個 人 的 原 型, 他 的 旅 程 是 我 們 每 個 人 的 生 命 之 旅, 如 同 神 話 英 雄 人 物, 在 經 歷 啟 程 及 回 歸 的 過 程 後, 改 變 原 有 的 認 知 本 研 究 內 容 分 三 部 分 第 一 部 分 闡 釋 示 海 洋 的 寓 意, 第 二 部 分 探 討 老 虎 的 複 雜 角 色, 第 三 部 分 解 析 神 祕 小 島 的 意 義 大 海 意 指 生 命 之 存 在 受 到 限 制 與 繫 縛 不 能 自 主 老 虎 代 表 恐 懼, 是 邪 惡 及 神 秘 的 力 量 小 島 是 誘 惑 及 慾 望 之 象 徵 生 命 之 海 永 不 平 靜, 充 滿 恐 懼 及 欲 望 的 危 機 一 旦 通 過 這 些 試 煉, 即 可 到 達 安 全 的 彼 岸 此 小 說 不 只 是 引 人 入 勝 的 冒 險 故 事 而 已, 它 是 人 生 困 境 及 潛 能 的 寓 言 在 當 下 以 科 學 客 觀 性 為 主 流 論 述 的 現 代 社 會 中, 這 部 小 說 提 供 了 另 類 的 真 理 讓 我 們 深 思 並 遵 循 關 鍵 詞 : 隱 喻 象 徵 迷 思 旅 程 * 國 立 臺 中 科 技 大 學 講 師 到 稿 日 期 : 2014 年 10 月 21 日 16

27 A Metaphorical Reading of Life of Pi Introduction Yann Martel is a Canadian writer travelling in many countries and experiencing many odd jobs. Having written some unsuccessful works, he got international literary reputation in 2002 with the publication of his second novel, Life of Pi. It won the Man Booker Prize, and was adapted into a popular 3D film by director Ang Lee in Pi is a 16-year-old Indian boy embracing three religions: Hinduism, Catholicism and Islam. He changes his name from Piscine to Pi because his schoolmates often tease the similar pronunciation between Piscine and pissing. Pi s name has symbolic meanings. For one thing, Pi is the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet, which corresponds to Pi s age. It s also a mathematical term for 3.14 or 22/7, and 227 is the number of days his ordeals last. Political turmoil forces his family to leave India for Canada. The cargo ship sinks on the Pacific and Pi is the sole survivor. He tells the investigators later that a zebra, hyena, orangutan and tiger are on the same lifeboat with him. The hyena quickly devours the zebra and orangutan, and is in turn eaten by the tiger. Pi is left alone with the tiger named Richard Parker. Dominating it is the only way he can survive. By offering the tiger food and water, he succeeds in establishing himself as a circus master to tame the wild animal. A subtle relationship thus develops between him and the tiger, one that is made up of love and fear. Pi s lifeboat finally lands on the Mexican coast. He is rescued and the tiger disappears into the forest. Critical responses to the novel, compared with those of the film, were lukewarm if not negative. The critic James Wood ridiculed its shipwreck conventions, such as the desperate search for food and water, the sighting of a passing ship and a brief respite on a tiny island. Wood was not the only critic to refuse a big applause for this novel. It was regarded as merely an edge-of-seat adventure (Jordan), or a novel of proposition failing to achieve the author s intention that it will make you believe in God (Clements). Also, Stewart Cole highly problematized Martel s appropriation of Coleridge s phrase suspension of disbelief 1 to validate his juxtaposition of truth and fiction. Indeed, the story itself requires the very suspension of disbelief. A man and a tiger may be unlikely to coexist, and an acid island may be botanically impossible. But the surface meaning can be transcended and endowed with something higher and nobler. This is what this research aspires to achieve to analyze it as an allegory carrying a mythic theme. Pi is an archetypal person within each of us. His journey, like the mythological hero s adventure, reveals the truth of life. Put in the perspective of Joseph Campbell s mythic theory, Pi s story is a metaphor for a life of suffering and redemption. His adventure echoes mythic tales, transforming heroic deeds to a spiritual level. 1 Suspension of disbelief has proved to be an enduring phrase in literary criticism. It was first formulated by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in the work Biographia Literaria to theorize how aesthetic truth resides in the descriptions of the impossible: to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and semblance of truth sufficient to procure for those shadows of the imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment (321-2). The semblance of truth is the aesthetic truth that surpasses the limits of factual reality. And the credulity generated in readers by literary works is only temporary, just for the moment. 17