1、英美文学作品评论DOC英国：The Canterbury Tales: It is a masterpiece by Geoffrey Chaucer. It gives a comprehensive picture of Chaucers time. The pilgrims cover a wide range of characters in the England of the time, from noblemen to peasants. They represent the whole range of 14th century society except the very
2、top and the very bottom. This kind of a collection of tales put together was not rare in history. However, in The Canterbury Tales, stories are cleverly woven together by links between the stories. Most of the stories are related to the personalities of the tellers. The personality of each character
3、, his private life and habits, his mood and social status are revealed in the prologue and in the story he tells, as well as by his behavior along the road and his remarks on the way. The links between the tales are of great interest. Most important is the part played by the host. He draws the shy o
4、nes out , smoothes over the differences, and keep the company generally in good spirits.The Faerie Queen: It is Edmund Sensors masterpiece. It was a long poem planned in 12 books, of which only 6 were finished. The book was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. The plan of the whole poem is this: The faerie
5、 queen(signifying Queen Elizabeth I) holds a feast of 12 days, and on each day a stranger in distress(不幸） appears, claiming help against a dragon or giant or tyrant. A knight was assigned to each guest, and the 12 books were to describe 12 adventures. Moreover, each knight represents a virtue, as Ho
6、liness, Temperance（温和), Chastity(纯洁）, Friendship, Justice and Courtesy; and his warfare（战争） represents the strife（冲突） against a contrary vice, as pride or Despair. So the long poem is a continued allegory(寓言）. The knights represent England and the devil figures stand for her enemies.Tamburlaine: It
7、is a play by Christopher Marlowe. It is about an ambitious and pitiless(冷酷无情的） Tartar conqueror in the 14th century who rose from a shepherd（牧羊人） to an overpowering king. By flouting（嘲笑） the given order and trampling（践踏） on despairing princes, Tamburlaine displayed a high-aspiring mind that was self
8、-created and carried by love and dreams beyond the limits of moral existence. His victories were a triumph(胜利）of immense natural energy and of ruthlessness over equally cruel but weak and decadent civilizations. By depicting a great hero with high ambition and sheer brutal force in conquering one en
9、emy after another, Marlowe voiced the supreme desire of the man of the Renaissance for infinite power and authority. Being a cruel conqueror, he finds consummate(至上的） happiness in subduing（征服） other Kingdoms.Hamlet： Hamlet is the most popular and the most discussed of Shakespeares tragedies. It bear
10、s strong resemblance to a lost earlier Hamlet and to The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd. The greatness of the play lies in the fact that in it Shakespeare expressed his praise of the noble quality of Prince Hamlet as a representative of humanist thinkers and his disillusionment with the corrupt and d
11、egenerated society in which he lived. Hamlets revenge is not only a personal matter. What troubles him most is the injustice, conspiracy（阴谋）, and the betrayal in the society. His father is murdered by his uncle and his mother is married to his uncle right after his fathers death. The marriage of his
12、 mother is the first blow(打击）to him as he had regarded her as a virtuous woman. Then, his former friends are dispatched by the king to spy on him. This is a second blow, for as a humanist he sets great store by friendship(以友谊为重）. Then his girlfriend Ophelia is sent as a tool to find out whether or n
13、ot he is really mad. This is something he can no longer endure. One incident after another seems to reveal to him that the time is “out of joint” and man is not so good as he had imagined. Hamlet would have been a tragedy of “blood and thunder”(充满凶杀情节） if Shakespeare had not imbued（使渗透） the play wit
14、h the sort of philosophical thinking, this humanistic search for the value of man and the disappointment of such ideals.Of Studies: It is the most popular of Francis Bacons 58 essays. It analyzes what studies chiefly serve for, the different ways adopted by different people to pursue studies, and ho
15、w studies exert influence over human character. Being forceful and persuasive, compact(紧凑的）and precise, it reveals to us Bacons mature attitude towards learning.Paradise Lost: Miltons masterpiece, it is a long epic divided into 12 books. It is about Adam and Eves disobedience and fall from grace. Th
16、e original story is taken from Genesis3:1-24 of the Bible. The theme is the “Fall of Man”, i.e. mans disobedience and the loss of Paradise, with its prime causeSatan. The poet, through depicting incurrence(遭受） of character in the poem, implied that the British Bourgeois Revolution is doomed to end i
17、n failure. The Pilgrims Progress: The Pilgrims Progress, written by John Bunyan, is the most successful religious allegory in the English language. Its purpose is to urge people to abide by Christian doctrines and seek salvation through constant struggles with their own weaknesses and all kinds of s
18、ocial evils. It is not only about something spiritual but also bears much relevance to the time. Its predominant metaphorlife is a journeyis simple and familiar. There are some main themes. First, knowledge gained through travel: The Pilgrims Progress demonstrates that knowledge is gained through tr
19、avel by portraying Christian and his companions learning from their mistakes on their journey. The pilgrims must advance spiritually as he or she advances geographically. Second, the importance of reading: The importance of reading is emphasized throughout the book because the pilgrims reach salvati
20、on and happiness by understanding the Bible. Third, the value of community. Moll Flanders: It was written by Daniel Defoe. It is written in an autobiographical form called memoirs. In Moll Flanders, Defoe introduces, for the first time, a lowly woman as the subject of literature. And it anticipates
21、many later novels that take women as the center of attention in order to expose how the social system has victimized those like Moll. At Defoe s time, there are many popular novels and stories about the lives of villains or rogues(流氓）. However, Molls life story is a departure from those, because tho
22、se novels indulge in dramatizing(使戏剧化） the tricks and immortal schemes the anti-hero or anti-heroine adopts in order to achieve his or her purposes. Therefore, those works remain at the level of mere entertainment literature. Moll Flanders, on the other hand, has entered serious literature with a gr
23、ave social theme.Tom Jones: Tom Jones is a masterpiece of Henry Fielding on the subject of human nature. There are 18 books divided into 3 parts with 6 in each. The first part describes Toms childhood in Mr. Allworthy s home; the middle one contains adventures on the road to London; and the last tel
24、ls what happens in London to Tom and Sophia. To Fielding, the countryside represents the basic goodness of human race, whereas the city stands for evil and sin. Therefore, Tom, growing in the countryside under the care of good Mr. Allworthy, is basically an upright young fellow, brave and honest and
25、 full of sympathy for the poor and weak. The farther he proceeds to London, the worse he becomes morally, spiritually, and even physically. In London, he degenerates into a kept man of a rich woman, ends up in prison, and is shocked by his alleged (声称的)incestuous crime(乱伦罪). The School for Scandal:
26、It is Sheridan s masterpiece. It is written in the tradition of Comedy of Manners. It is a story about two brothers: Joseph Surface and Charles Surface. Charles falls in love with a rich heiress Maria and his love is returned. Joseph, his elder brother is also counting Maria for her fortunes. The pl
27、ay ends with the union of Charles and Maria and the exposure of Josephs hypocrisy. It is a sharp satire on the moral degeneracy(堕落）of the aristocratic-bourgeois（贵族资产阶级) society in the 18th century of England. Sons of Innocence: William Blake s most well known poems are collected in two collections.
28、They are Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. The poems collected in Songs of Innocence express the poet s delight in life, even in the face of sorrow and suffering. The world is seen through the eyes of a childs imagination. Blake s vision of innocence is not that of a childs only. It is a w
29、orld that can be attained by the adults if they cast away(丢掉) the follies(罪恶) and deceits(欺骗) of the hostile world and seek a visionary world through their imagination. In this collection we can have the first glimpse of Blake s mysticism(神秘主义), which will develop in his later poems.Songs of Experie
30、nce: William Blake s most well known poems are collected in two collections. They are Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. Songs of Innocence is a collection of poems and songs in which the atmosphere is no longer sunny but sad and gloomy. Evil is found everywhere in this world. Through the l
31、oss of imagination, man has become a slave to the falsehood(谎话) and hypocrisy of religion and society, and thus has lost the Heaven of Innocence and gained the Hell of Experience. Childe Harolds Pilgrimage:恰尔德哈罗德游记 It is a lengthy narrative poem by George Gorgon Bryon. It tells a story of a pilgrims
32、 journey in Europe. The hero was called Childe Harold. He got tired of the meaningless and empty life of pleasure and escaped to seek a spiritual rebirth. Byron reflected the historical events and lamented on the sufferings of people, by which he showed his political and philosophical views. In the poem, Childe Harold was the poet himself; they both lamented over the corrupted reality and wanted to make a change; they loved freedom and were eager to build a marvelous career. The poem is an imaginative and romantic presentation of the poets
