论文《汤姆叔叔的小屋》第二部分

论文《汤姆叔叔的小屋》第二部分 二 Archetype Analysis of Main Women's Images in Uncle Tom's Cabin Though it is an antislavery novel ,Uncle Tom's Cabin is not like an ordinary slave story which focuses one the life and struggle of a black slave,but frames the mundane stuggle for black emancipation in the United States in the universal spititual for Christian salvation.In contrast to the slave narratives, which focus on the effect of black people to achieve freedom,Stowe's novel explores the moral dilemma of white Americans who must decide how to act in the face of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law. Thus ,the story introduces us another group of characters--women.Meanwhile ,as a woman writer, Stowe paid close attention to the severe effect of the slave system on women. In Uncle Tom's Cabin,Mrs.Stowe portrays several vivid female charaters with distintive temperament.In this part ,with the application of Canada’s famous literary critic Northrop Frye’s theory of archetype, and in the terms of the Bible prototype,I will attempts to analyze two female characters in the Uncle Tom’s Cabin —Eva and Eliza, aiming at reveal their archetypes in the Bible and their expressing Christianity idea. 1 The Theory of Archetype and the Bible It is well known that western literature is based on two pillars——the Greek culture and the Hebrew culture. In the Hebrew culture, there is a book, namely, the Bible that accumulates its rich cultural heritage.During the eleventh century, Hebrew people become prosperous and dominated a large area.At the same time, they spread their culture,so Christiaity becomes a powerful and influential religion.Many famous artists and writers adapted the stories in Bible to compose the immortal works.Without no doubt,Harriet Beecher Stowe,a nineenth century American female writer,was also influenced by the book.Born into a family of religion, Harriet's father, Lyman Beecher was one of America's most celebrated clergymen and the principal spokesman for Calvinism in the nineteenth century; her mother, was a woman of prayer who died when Harriet was four years old; her brother, Henry Ward Beecher, was the best known pulpit orator of his times. In 1836, she was married to Calvin Stowe, a Biblical scholar. In a word, Harriet Beecher Stowe was bred, and lived all her life at the atmosphere of Christianity that inevitably influenced her masterpiece Uncle Tom's Cabin.Thus nearly most characters in Uncle Tom's Cabin have the spirit of Christianity.Meanwhile,we can in the terms of the Bible prototype to analyze the images of the characters in the novel.At the same time, we need to rely on a theory-Northrop Frye's theory of archetype. In Greek, "arch" means "first", "typos" means "form" or "type". So, "archetype" means first type/form or original type/form. In the theories of Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961), archetypes are primordial mythic forms that embody psychological drives and forces that originate in the collective unconscious. For the Canadian literary critic Northrop Frye (1912-1991), archetypes are the socially-concerned organizing forms and patterns of literature that originate in myth and which unify and reveal literature as an imaginatively-inhabitable world. His great work, such as The Secular Scripture (1976), The Great Code (1982) and Words with Power (1990) all center on the study of the Bible. In Frye's system, the organizing principles that give literature coherence and structure are derived from the archetypal imagery found in the Bible and the myths of ancient Greece. He suggests that all literature is based on displacements of these myths. Archetypal criticism focused on characters, images, symbols, metaphors, plots, events and themes1. The thesis attempts to use this theory to analyze the characters in Uncle Tom's Cabin in terms of Biblical archetype to reveal Christianity in it 2 Eva Eva - St. Clare and Marie’s angelic daughter. Eva, also referred to in the book as Little Eva is presented as an absolutely perfect child—a completely moral being and an unimpeachable Christian.The five-year old “Litter Eva” is characterized as a beautiful, angelic child. It is a female character that can’t be ignored. Eva’s name is “Evangeline St. Clare”, “Evangeline” symbols the ideal image of an angel. In Bible, angel is sent by God to help and save those who needed. The little Eva is full of love and friendliness to others. She tries to do her bit to help others. In this way, she is just like an angel sent by God. Once her father asks her which way she likes best-to live as they do at her uncle's up in Vermont, or to have a house full of servants, as they do. Eva answers that their way is the pleasantest because "it makes so many more people round you to love" (P.172). The reason she asks her Papa to buy Tom is "to make him happy" (P.140). When she hears the story of Prue, she doesn't want to go out in her new carriage again for the terrible story "sink(s) into her heart" (P.203). In her eyes, there are many puzzling things, such as why Prue is so unhappy, why Tom should be separated from his wife and children, why no one loves that black little girl, Topsy. What she only knows and does is to love all the people around her. Just as her name "Evangeline" suggests, she is an evangelist to everyone. She shares the Gospel with all her father's plantation slaves as well as questioning her own father's faith. This action by Eva saves many lost souls and gives them hope.It also prompts the soul-searching and self-reevaluation in her father. When dying, she gives every slave servant in her house a lock of fair golden hair, asking him or her to be Christians, so that they could see each other in heaven. she also has her father promised that he would let them free. Mrs. Stowe shows the idea of trying her best to change the society for the better and save people with Christian spirit and actions. She hopes to spread the universal love in Christianity by Eva. Though Eva dies at a young age, her death is not sad. The reason is that for Mrs. Stowe, who believes in Christianity from her childhood, death is a better reflection of heroism. And for her, death stands for victory rather than failure. The death of Eva is the same of Jesu’s death. Mrs. Stowe hopes to save souls of the evil by Eva’s death. Eva' death changed Topsy.We can learn from the novel that Topsy is originally one without love from his mother and refuses to do as she is told.It is Eva that changed her for the better.we can see this from the following dialogue between Eva and Topsy. "Topsy,Miss Ophelia would love you ,if you were good." Topsy gave the short,blunt laugh that was her common mode of expressing incredulity. "Don't you think so?"said Eva. "No;she can't bar me,because I'm a nigger!-she'd soon have a toad touch her!There can't nobody love niggers,and niggers can' do nothin'!I don't care,"said Topsy,beginning to whiltle. "O,Topsy, poor child ,I love you!"said Eva,with a sudden burst of feeling ,and laying her little thin,white hand on Topsy's shoulder;"I love you,because you haven't had any father,or mother,or friends;-because you've been a poor,abused child!I love you and I want you to be good.I am very unwell,Topsy,and I think I shan't live a great while;and it really grieves me, to have you be so naughty.I wish you would try to be good ,for my sake;-it's only a little while I shall be with you." It is Eva's words that make Topsy makes up his mind to serve as a missionary in Africa where her people live. Ophelia also thinks highly of Eva's universal love.We can also learn this from what she said:"Well,she is so loving!After all,though,she's no more than Christ-like,"said Miss Ophelia;"I wish I were liker her. She might teach me a lesson." The subject on angel who saves the world is a main subject in the religious culture of the nineteenth century. Because of the intensely religious consciousness, Mrs. Stowe endows litter Eva heavy religion mission as an angel. To some extent, the character of Eva loses a bit of authenticity. As a matter of fact, Mrs. Stowe wants to call on people to do as or more than the child does. Eliza Eliza Harris - Mrs. Shelby’s maid, George’s wife, and Harry’s mother, Eliza is an intelligent, beautiful, and brave young slave.By reading the novel,we can be easy to find her archetypes in the Bible.That is Israelites in the Bible who running away from Egypt where they are slaves to Canaan where they will have a new free happy life.After Mr. Shelby makes known his plans to sell Eliza’s son to Mr. Haley, she proves the force of her motherly love as well as her strength of spirit by making a spectacular escape. Her crossing of the Ohio River on patches of ice is the novel’s most famous scene. (备注84页)"Right on behind they came,and,nerved with strength such as God gives only to the desperate,with one wild cry and flying leap,she vaulted sheer over the turbid current by the shore,on to the raft of ice beyond.It was a desperate leap--impossible to anything but madness and despair""The huge green fragment of ice on which she alighted pitched and creaked as her weight came on it,but she staid there not a moment.With wild cries and desperate energy she leaped to another and still another cake;stumbling-leaping-slipping-springing upwards again!Her shoes are gone-her stockings cut from her feet-while blood marked every step;but she saw nothing,felt nothing,till dimly,as in a dream" Eliza's running is guided by God all the way, as Israelites are guided by God who appears "in the pillars of cloud and fire"8. Israelites' passing through the Red Sea which "was turned into dry land by strong east wind"9 is a miracle. So is Eliza's escape through jumping from one ice flow to another, which can't be done without the "strength such as God gives only to the desperate" (P.57). If we say the Ohio River is like the Red Sea, then the lake between America and Canada is like the river Jordan that lies between terrible wilderness and wonderful Canaan. I call the Ohio River the Red Sea, not the the river Jordan, because Eliza still has to endure many pains after her crossing of the Ohio River, just like Israelites still have to suffer much in the wilderness. While after crossing the lake, the land of freedom——Canada waits for her and her families. Eliza is an intriguing character. She is submissive to her master and mistress, yet her child's imminent danger and her desire for her child's freedom and well-being overrides her loyalty to them. Israelites betray Pharaoh for they also long for freedom and well-being.The scene also serves as an important metaphor. The leap from the southern to the northern bank of the river symbolizes in one dramatic moment the process of leaving slavery for freedom. Indeed, Eliza’s leap from one bank to the next literally constitutes a leap from the slave-holding states to the non-slave-holding states, as the Ohio River served as the legally recognized divide between South and North. The dangers Eliza faces in her leap, and the courage she requires to execute it successfully, represent the more general instances of peril and heroism involved in any slave’s journey to freedom