簡(jiǎn)析《了不起的蓋茨比》中蓋茨比的悲劇成因【畢業(yè)論文】

1、<p><b>　　本科畢業(yè)論文</b></p><p><b>　?。?0 屆）</b></p><p><b>　　英語</b></p><p>　　簡(jiǎn)析《了不起的蓋茨比》中蓋茨比的悲劇成因</p><p>　　A Brief Analysis of the S

2、ources of Gatsby’s Tragedy from The Great Gatsby</p><p><b>　　誠(chéng) 信 聲 明</b></p><p>　　我聲明，所呈交的論文(設(shè)計(jì))是本人在老師指導(dǎo)下進(jìn)行的研究工作及取得的研究成果。據(jù)我查證，除了文中特別加以標(biāo)注和致謝的地方外，論文(設(shè)計(jì))中不包含其他人已經(jīng)發(fā)表或撰寫過的研究成果，也不包含為獲得＿＿＿＿

3、＿＿或其他教育機(jī)構(gòu)的學(xué)位或證書而使用過的材料。我承諾，論文(設(shè)計(jì))中的所有內(nèi)容均真實(shí)、可信。</p><p>　　論文(設(shè)計(jì))作者簽名： 簽名日期： 年 月 日</p><p><b>　　授 權(quán) 聲 明</b></p><p>　　學(xué)校有權(quán)保留送交論文（設(shè)計(jì)）的原件，允許論文（設(shè)計(jì)）被查閱和借閱，學(xué)?？梢怨颊撐模ㄔO(shè)

4、計(jì)）的全部或部分內(nèi)容，可以影印、縮印或其他復(fù)制手段保存論文（設(shè)計(jì)），學(xué)校必須嚴(yán)格按照授權(quán)對(duì)論文(設(shè)計(jì))進(jìn)行處理，不得超越授權(quán)對(duì)論文（設(shè)計(jì)）進(jìn)行任意處置。</p><p>　　論文(設(shè)計(jì))作者簽名： 簽名日期： 年 月 日</p><p><b>　　摘要</b></p><p>　　《了不起的蓋茨比》中蓋茨比的悲劇是貫

5、穿整篇小說的中心，因此國(guó)內(nèi)外許多研究都關(guān)注于蓋茨比的悲劇。通過分析導(dǎo)致主人公死亡悲劇的原因可以解釋作者寫作的真正意圖。本文主要從社會(huì)和蓋茨比自身因素出發(fā)研究導(dǎo)致蓋茨比的悲劇的原因，并進(jìn)一步指出作者的意圖是揭示那個(gè)時(shí)代盛極一時(shí)的奢靡與不可避免的沒落，并反應(yīng)黑暗和不公的社會(huì)現(xiàn)實(shí)。</p><p>　　關(guān)鍵詞：悲??；社會(huì)因素；自身因素；社會(huì)現(xiàn)實(shí)</p><p><b>　　Abstra

6、ct</b></p><p>　　The tragic story of Jay Gatsby is the core of the novel, The Great Gatsby. So dozens of studies carried out on this novel have been mostly focused on Gatsby’s tragedy. The intention of

7、author is explained by analyzing causes of the hero’s death.</p><p>　　The purpose of this paper is to analyze the social and personal factors that lead to Gatsby’s tragedy, which further reveals the author’s

8、 intent on unveiling the decay and downfall of the era then, as well as the dark and unfair reality of society.</p><p>　　Key words: tragedy; social factors; personal factors；reality of society</p><

9、;p><b>　　Content</b></p><p>　　Abstract……………………………………………………………………………..II</p><p>　　1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………….1</p><p>　　2. Social causes that lead to Ga

10、tsby’s tragedy…………………………………….2</p><p>　　2.1 The Degeneration of American Dream…………………………………………2</p><p>　　2.2 The Strict Class Distinction of the Society……………………………………..4</p><p>　　2.

11、2.1 The superiority of capitalists over the members from the lower class…….4</p><p>　　2.2.2 The class disparity which brings to the failure of love between Gatsby and Daisy……………………………………………………………………...5</

12、p><p>　　3. Causes of Jay Gatsby himself ……………………………………………………7</p><p>　　3.1 The Idealism of Jay Gatsby……………………………………………………..7</p><p>　　3.2 The influence of money upon Jay Gatsby……………………

13、…………………8 </p><p>　　4. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………9</p><p>　　Bibliography………………………………………………………………………...11</p><p>　　Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………….12</p>

14、<p>　　Introduction</p><p>　　Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely

15、 regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost Generation" of the 1920s, together with other expatriated American writers such as Gertrude

16、Stein, Hemingway, and Ezra Pound. He finished four novels, This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, Tender I</p><p>　　Published in 1925, The Great Gatsby, the finest novel written by Fitzgerald, is s

17、urely the work by which his name is destined to be remembered, and one of the classics of modern American literature. It is a picture of the prohibition era and masterpiece related with irony and pathos to the legendry o

18、f the “American dream”. T. S. Eliot(1945), never a hasty or extravagant critic, praised the novel was “the first step that American fiction has taken since Henry James”. Fitzgerald drew most of his i</p><p>

19、　　The story is told in the first person by Nick Carraway, a quiet young Mid-</p><p>　　westerner who comes east to work on the New York stock exchange and rents a house in 1922 at West Egg, Long island, which

20、 is nearby to the city. Nick’s house is next to an extravagant and vulgar mansion owned by the mysterious but fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby, about whom all sorts of rumors pass from mouth to mouth. Gatsby’s real name is

21、James Gatsby and he was a poor boy from the west. When he was an army officer, he had fallen in love with Daisy, who was charming and polished in her social ma</p><p>　　2. Social causes that lead to Gatsby’s

22、 tragedy</p><p>　　2.1 The Degeneration of American Dream</p><p>　　Many critics blame the death of Gatsby on the American Dream, for the dream makes people lust for more and pursue a luxurious li

23、fe which is beyond their capacity.</p><p>　　When the aspirations fall through, they themselves go to pieces. There is no doubt that Gatsby is swaying between the American Dream and the reality. </p>&

24、lt;p>　　The early American Dream，however, had a positive meaning from the very beginning. The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States in which freedom includes a promise of the possibility of prosperity

25、 and success. In the American Dream, first expressed by James Truslow Adams (1931), in his book, Epic of America that "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to

26、 ability or achievement "regardless of social class or circumstances of bir</p><p>　　After decades of years, however, the land has been divided and occupied by a few people. The American dream starts to

27、 drift from the way it once claimed ,“all men are created equal”. The rest only works for these landowners to earn their bread. Those farm people works as hard as they could, but few people can really walk out of their f

28、ield, let alone becoming rich. As a consequence, the poor but ambitious farmers begin to do evil stuff for the sake of living a better life.</p><p>　　Gatsby’s parents is just shiftless and unsuccessful farm

29、people. So for Gatsby, the road to success is much bumpy. He is an ambitious man. He had planned to obtain success even when he was just a boy. He believes in the original American Dream and tries to attain success by do

30、ing what his great ancestors would probably do: working out everyday to polish his figures, reading as much as possible to improve his mind. He believes that he is able to start from scratch like Benjamin Franklin, Abrah

31、am </p><p>　　His evil deeds began the day he met Dan Cody, whose yacht dropped anchor on Lake Superior. Rumors about his antecedents spread since then: Gatsby killed Dan Cody and inherited a big fortune from

32、 him; He lied to people that he graduated from Oxford; He and Wolfsheim sold alcohol over the counter in drug- stores. As the old saying goes, “one reaps what he sows.” Gatsby will have to pay for what he has done.</p

33、><p>　　What’s more, the degenerated American Dream has widen the gap between rich and poor. People are jealous at what the rich has got: fancy mansions, beautiful cars, parties and alcohols every weekend. Life

34、is so rich and colorful that average people start to dream a life like this. Gatsby is adding to the pattern of his fancies every night. To young Gatz, resting on his oars and looking up at the railed deck, the yacht rep

35、resents all the beauty and glamour in the world. So his American Dream has be</p><p>　　2.2 The Strict Class Distinction of the Society</p><p>　　2.2.1 The superiority of capitalists over the memb

36、ers from the lower class</p><p>　　Before World War I, the laissez-faire democratic ideal that America has always believed is the product of an age when individual effort counted, when a man could rise by his

37、 own efforts. World War I shattered this vision. It ended once and for all the faith in individual effort that had been eroding since the Industrial Revolution. Men from poor background are incomparable to those who have

38、 tough ones. Much as the American society worships freedom, it has already raised a strict class distinctio</p><p>　　In this novel, the background of the story is set on an island near New York. And the isla

39、nd is divided into two completely different parts, the West Egg and the East Egg. Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby live at West Egg, the less fashionable of the two, while Tom Buchanan and his wife Daisy live at the fashiona

40、ble and glittering East Egg. A person from East Egg would always look down upon those from East Egg. For example: when Nick first met Jordan Baker in Tom and Daisy’s place, Jordan remarked c</p><p>　　As for

41、the party guys, everyone suspects him of at least one of the cardinal virtues. Even though they attend Gatsby’s party, they assume the function of representing the staid nobility of the countryside- East Egg condescendin

42、g to West Egg.</p><p>　　In The Great Gatsby, Tom Buchanan, Daisy’s husband, stands for the solid wealthy class. His family was enormously wealthy-even in college his freedom with money was a matter for repro

43、ach. A born-rich man like Tom would never take a serious look at people who is newly wealthy. He thought “a lot of these newly rich people are just bootleggers”. And he picked Gatsby for some big bootlegger and made a po

44、int of finding out the truth even though he had seen the fabulous party and the fancy mansion of </p><p>　　In consequence, the snobbish Tom couldn’t believe the fact that Gatsby was so rich and made a little

45、 investigation into his affairs and thus made his things with Meyer Wolfsheim, who possessed a lot of side- street drug-stores and sold grain alcohol over the counter, exposed. Being informed of Gatsby’s affairs, Daisy w

46、as frightened and left him in the end.</p><p>　　And the indifference of other people to Gatsby’s death from the east embodies his tragedy. There was no one from Gatsby’s party attending his funeral. Nobody c

47、ared except photographers and newspaper men. The only party guy who called up was trying to get back a pair of shoes he left. Even Meyer Wolfshiem, who claimed to be his closest friend, said he didn’t want to get mixed u

48、p in it and refused to come. </p><p>　　All in all, no one from the upper class really cares about Gatsby. They accepted his hospitality and paid him the subtle tribute of knowing nothing whatever about him.

49、So if anything happens to Gatz, they couldn’t care less. The underclass strived hard to win love and money, but it ended all in vain in the end. Life was tramped and despised by the capitalists, yet they haven’t felt any

50、 sorry or regretful. They live in their extravagant but vacuous life as ever, not paying for what they have done</p><p>　　2.2.2 The class disparity which brings to the failure of love between Gatsby and Dais

51、y</p><p>　　We know from the novel that Gatsby stands out from a impoverished beginnings, while Daisy’s family is no doubt well off. She already had a little white roadster when she was only eighteen. A girl

52、like Daisy, who was born with almost everything-money, beauty, prestige, surely would be admired by scores of people. She was by far the most popular of all the young girls in Louisville. The telephone in her house rang

53、all day long and exited young officer from Camp Taylor demanded the privilege of mon</p><p>　　There was real romance between them once. But if Daisy’s love for Gatsby is to endure, it must exist in non-Plato

54、nic, physical terms. It must exist in the world of money. By the next autumn she was gay again, gay as ever. In June she married Tom Buchanan of Chicago, with more pomp and circumstance than Louisville ever knew before.

55、That is her love with a poor man like Gatsz. It only lasted for half a year.</p><p>　　There’s little chance that a woman from a wealthy family will stand the test of hard life and live for pure love, at leas

56、t not for a girl as hollow as Daisy. Daisy had been immersed in the extravagant life for a very long time before she met Gatsby. She had nothing special to do except being occupied with parties and handsome but strange m

57、en. Fitzgerald made a very clear depiction of Daisy’s real Character after her marriage. She is sophisticated, not close to her little daughter and “full of mo</p><p>　　Even though they reunioned five years

58、later, their connection was still built upon money. Daisy was willing to see Gatz only because Gatz had owed abundant assets. It is before the five characters move to New York that Gatsby makes his famous remark to Nick:

59、 “‘Her voice is full of money’”. The connection between Daisy and Gatsby- the unobtainable and the insubstantial-is destined to founder in a material world. He died in the end in order to protect Daisy. That’s the conseq

60、uence of wrong love. H</p><p>　　Fitzgerald’s real intent is to unveil the fact that because of different social position, people are treated unfairly even in the aspect of love. Love has preference to upper

61、class. Even though Gatsby is rich enough, he can never have the equivalent social status. He will always be the humble guy who can not surpass his strata, let alone defeat Tom the aristocrat and marry Daisy.</p>&

62、lt;p>　　3. Causes from the main character-Gatsby himself</p><p>　　3.1 The Idealism of Jay Gatsby</p><p>　　From Gatsby, one can see that a major contradiction intrinsic to American dream, the c

63、ontradiction of idealism and reality. Ever since his childhood Gatz had displayed his talent of imagination and considered himself different from ordinary people. Naturally, he is motivated to pursue goodness and beauty.

64、</p><p>　　The whole effort that Jay Gatsby made is trying to get his love back, something he has lost for a very long time. He pictures everything to be good. To Gatsby, Daisy is the symbol of that ‘'vas

65、t，vulgar, and meretricious beauty”(P97) which he aspires to. Daisy is his dream, a dream that is so pure and beautiful. He believes that as long as he is rich Daisy would come back to him. So five years later after Daisy

66、 left him and married Tom, Gatsby returned with huge wealth and intended to win Daisy b</p><p>　　For Gatsby, the Daisy- Gatsby relationship has endured: He has loved Daisy for five years. Matthew J. Bruccoli

67、(2007) once wrote in New Essays on the The Great Gatsby, “if their love is founded upon feelings from the past, these give it, notwithstanding Gatsby’s insistence on being able to repeat the past, an inviolability.” Some

68、 implications of the inviolability Gatsby does not see. When Nick told him that he can’t repeat his past, he cried incredulously, “why, of course you can!” and he “is goi</p><p>　　His very protesting, howeve

69、r ,shows his sense of the impossibility of returning and makes at once more poignant and more desperate his effort to win Daisy- a poignancy further increased by the futility of his money in achieving this end. He sees t

70、hat the pursuit of his money is a substitute for love. He knows himself well enough to see that his own attraction toward wealth is tied to his love for Daisy. What Gatsby buys he buys for a purpose: to win Daisy. But th

71、ere is a danger for Gatsby in thi</p><p>　　Nick gathered that “he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy. His life had been confused and disordered since t

72、hen, but if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was…”(P109) Gatsby does not see that the corruption at the base of his fortune in effect compromis

73、es his vision of life with Daisy. You cannot win the ideal with the corrupt, and you can not buy integrity or taste </p><p>　　3.2 The influence of money upon Jay Gatsby</p><p>　　Admit it or not,

74、 Gatz had changed a lot at the specific moment when he saw Dan Cody’s yacht drop anchor on Lake Superior. Having been exposed to Cody’s extravagant life, his values about money were greatly affected. “To young Gatz, rest

75、ing on his oars and looking up at the railed deck, the yacht represented all the beauty and glamour in the world.” He was impressed by the importance of money. It arouse his self- esteem and gave him the ambition of step

76、ping into the upper class and being a rich m</p><p>　　In the end, Daisy left him and married Tom. It gave him a heavy blow and made him occupied in the thought that he can get Daisy back provided he had a gr

77、eat fortune. Hence he thought the only way to get back her was money. The growth of the love is wild and luxuriant. It spurs him on , resulting in the glamorous world of parties and in the huge incoherent failure” of his

78、 house. </p><p>　　So five years later when he came back with huge assets, he was determined to attract Daisy with fancy parties and win her back. He plunged into the gaudy, wealthy society and made a lifesty

79、le of lavish spending. It actually worked in some way. Daisy marveled at his mansion the moment she saw it and even bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily. Nick even thinks that he revalued everything in

80、 his house according to the measure of response it drew from Daisy’s well-loved eyes. Gatsb</p><p>　　It was before the five characters moved to New York that Gatsby made his famous remark to Nick: “‘Her voic

81、e is full of money’”. What Gatsby, with surprising consciousness, states is that Daisy’s charm is allied to the attraction of wealth; money and love hold similar attraction. But he didn’t care any more. All he wanted to

82、do was letting Daisy marry him and leave Tom. The love in his mind has already been distorted. It seems repeating the past and remedying the days when Daisy left him has beco</p><p>　　4. Conclusion</p>

83、<p>　　The novel has not only examined and recorded what has happened in that frivolous, carefree and money-making life of that decade，but also predicted the impending doom of a nation grown corrupt.</p><

84、;p>　　A man as industrious as Gatsby might have a good life if the society had provided him better chances. He once had a big future in front of him just like his father said. But the problem is that he was not strong

85、enough to endure the influence of the corrupted society bringing to him. His mind became twisted that he was not able to get a clear understanding of his life expectation. The twisted dream in his mind has led him to a r

86、oad where there is no turning back.</p><p>　　Above all, the tragedy of Jay Gatsby is not just triggered by the American dream, social and personal factors such as the strict class distinction and the influen

87、ce of money upon him should be considered as well. The degenerated American dream twisted his thought. The strict class distinction cramped his pursuing of his dream. And the influence of money corrupted his personality.

88、 In some way Gatsby represents not just himself, but a group of people. The author is not trying to criticize the Amer</p><p>　　Bibliography</p><p>　　F.Scott Fitzgerald.2008. The Great Gatsby[M]

89、．Beijing：Foreign language Press.</p><p>　　Eloit,T.S,“Letter to Scott Fitzgerald”[A].in The Crack—Up.ed．Edmund Wilson,1945．</p><p>　　James Truslow Adams.1931. Epic of America[M].</p><p

90、>　　Matthew J.Bruccoli.2007.New Essays on The Great Gatsby[A].Beijing University Press.</p><p>　　Chang Yaoxin：A Survey of American Literature．Tianjin：Nankai University Press，1990，P．282</p><p>

91、　　程吳, 注定凄慘的愛情——《了不起的盞茨比>中主人公愛情悲劇的根源[J], 徐州工程學(xué)院學(xué)報(bào)，2006, 第4期。</p><p>　　董衡巽，美國(guó)文學(xué)簡(jiǎn)史(下)[M]，北京：人民文學(xué)出版社，1986。</p><p>　　劉愛萍、高紅云、洪流、章聯(lián)，《英美文學(xué)賞析》（美國(guó)卷）[M],合肥：中國(guó)科技技術(shù)大學(xué)出版社，2007，163-166</p><p>

92、　　王長(zhǎng)榮， 現(xiàn)代美國(guó)小說史[M ]，上海: 上海外語教育出版社，2000。</p><p>　　吳建國(guó)，菲茨杰拉德研究[M]，上海:上海外語教育出版社, 2006。</p><p>　　汪順來、蔡玉輝，都是消費(fèi)惹的禍--蓋茨比悲劇的消費(fèi)文化根源探析[J]，《黃山學(xué)院學(xué)報(bào)》2004，第1期。</p><p>　　楊莉、徐穎果，一個(gè)反諷的愛情故事——《了不起的蓋茨比》

93、中的死亡、愛情與社會(huì)現(xiàn)實(shí)[J]，河北理工大學(xué)學(xué)報(bào)，2009，第5期。</p><p>　　張娟、王晉華，金錢的魅力——從《了不起的蓋茨比》中主要人物對(duì)錢的態(tài)度解讀錢的多功能性[J]，中北大學(xué)學(xué)報(bào)( 社會(huì)科學(xué)版),2008,第28期。</p><p>　　Acknowledgements</p><p>　　I cannot sufficiently thank my

94、 supervisor, Mr. Liu shaoping, whose invaluable advice and painstaking instructions of the earlier drafts have a major impact on the final shape of this thesis. My sincere thanks are due to all the teachers who have taug

95、ht me during the BA course.</p><p>　　I am also grateful to Jiaxing University that has provided me a chance of this study.</p><p>　　Finally, the completion of my BA program could not have been p