On the Symbolic Meaning in Melville’s Moby Dick 论麦尔维尔《白鲸》中的象征意义.doc

On the Symbolic Meaning in Melville’s Moby Dick Abstract: Herman Melville is now recognized as one of the greatest writers of the 19th century and his masterpiece Moby Dick is regarded as a classical novel in the history of American literature. The book tells the story of Captain Ahab’s crazy chase about a white whale Moby Dick who has torn off one of his legs. One of the striking traits of Moby Dick is the author’s use of symbolism to express his thoughts and opinions, which is one of the reasons for its popularity. The book is highly symbolic. Almost everything, from typical characters to natural landscapes, mentioned has its symbolic meaning. Therefore, it is quite necessary to analyze the symbolic meaning of the novel. The researches on its symbolic meaning are enduring, but these analyses are scattered over. On the basis of previous researches, the thesis provides a systematic analysis on the symbolic meaning of the novel from the aspects of its themes and two main clues. It firstly analyzes the symbolic meaning of its two main themes: revenge, human and nature, and then analyzes the symbolic meaning of the main characters and main images mentioned in its two main clues separately. Key words: symbolic meaning; Moby Dick; themes; clues 论麦尔维尔《白鲸》中的象征意义 学生姓名 王洪青 指导教师 刘玉玲 摘要：赫尔曼·梅尔维尔现在被公认为是十九世纪最伟大的作家之一 Table of Contents Acknowledgements i Abstract in English ii Abstract in Chinese iii Table of contents iv Ⅰ Introduction 1 Ⅱ Literature Review 1 Ⅲ Symbolic Meaning of the Themes 3 3.1 Symbolic meaning of revenge 3 3.2 Symbolic meaning of human and nature 5 Ⅳ Symbolic Meaning of two Main Clues 6 4.1 Ahab and Moby Dick 6 4.1.1 Symbolic meaning of Ahab 6 4.1.2 Symbolic meaning of Moby Dick 7 4.1.3 Symbolic meaning of white 9 4.2 Ishmael and the hunting 10 4.2.1 Symbolic meaning of Ishmael 11 4.2.2 Symbolic meaning of Pequod 12 4.2.3 Symbolic meaning of the hunting 13 4.2.4 Symbolic meaning of the sea 14 Ⅴ Conclusion 15 Bibliography 16 Ⅰ