【導(dǎo)讀】IntroductionI.Whydowehavesuchcourse?Englishliteratureisoneofthepulsoryandmostimportantcourses.However,theEnglishliteraturecoursesofferedaremerelytaughtattheleveloflearninggeneralinformationanddevelopingliteralunderstanding.Admitedly,suchcourseshelpthem/youalotintheir/youracquisitionoftheEnglishlanguage.ButthefunctionofEnglishliteraturereachesfarbeyondthat.InreadingEnglishliterature,astudentshouldh

　　

【正文】 t i on is an i mage of people i n acti on, moving towards an undecl ar ed end. Thus char act er i s always involved i n f icti on, even in t he story of t he simpl est act ion. Sometim es character i s at t he center of our inter est because in character we m ay see many f acets of t he people we meet in our daily li fe and even of our sel ves . Ficti onal char act er i s always char act er in acti on and the char act er get s into act ion because it i s caught in a si tuati on of confl ict and he/ she i s always provi ded wi th moti vat ion: he/ she has suff icient reasons t o act or behave as he /she does. The char act er i s doing somethi ng and t he reader whi le readi ng f icti on wants to know the ―why‖ as wel as the ―what‖ of t he af ai rs. (Somet imes a character ‘s mot ive f or an acti on is not expl ained on acceptable gr ounds, for exampl e, the vil lain in Adgar Al an Poe‘ st ory ―The Tel Tal e Hear t, ‖ and thus the r eader f els cheated. I n t his case, the wr it er of detecti ve fi cti on who makes the cri mi nal a mer e lunati c has cheated the r eader by avoiding t he problem of moti ve. ) And general ly, the acti on it self i s humanl y signif icant and i t ends usual y in a shi ft i n or cl ari fi cat ion of human val ues, as displayed in John Updike‘s ―A amp。 P,‖ and t he moti vat ion of a character in a st ory—one of t he answer s to t he questi on ―why‖—is of f undamental im por tance. I. What i s Charact er? Cl osely rel at ed wit h t he st or y i s the character. Henry James said, “What is character but he determi nat ion of i nci dent ? What is i nci dent but t he il lustrati on of character?‖ (The Art of Ficti on‖) When we read a novel , we read about our fel low bei ngs, and that is one of the m ot ives in reading at al. The “fel low bei ngs” in t he novel is t ermed characters. By “fel low beings” is meant not onl y “human bei ngs” but also “other beings,” such as animal s . Geor ge Orwel l uses animal s to r epr esent human bei ngs in hi s novel Animal Farm. Lewi s Car ol cr eat es many lovely animals i n his Al ice’s Advent ures in Wonderland that appeal to both chi ldr en and adult s. Or wel does not i ntend to convince the r eader that animals can speak human l anguage or that he i s a t ransl ator bet ween ani mals and humans. No sensible r eader , aft er readi ng Orwel ‘s Animal Farm, would go t o t he pi gst y t o look f or a talki ng boar . Thi s proves the agreedon f icti onal it y of char act er s in novels. So broadly, a character i s an invented personal it y to resemble but never to equal a real person i n l if e. I t is not di f icult t o se that character s in novels r esemble people i n r eal l if e in m any ways. They have names used i n the same way our s ar e used, they have hat red and l ove, and they have desir es and f ear s. Above al , they act he way we act or the way we can understand ( li ke or di sl ike). But we m ust bear i n mi nd that the characters ar e not r eal persons, but merel y invent ions, however ingeni ous. Compare t he physical li fe and spir it ual l if e of the char act ers and ours. We have to answer the nature‘s cal l several ti mes a day, but characters sel dom do t hi s, even in the most reali st ic or natur al isti c novel s. We have t o l ive our li fe hour by hour and day by day, but char acter s never do t hi s. They choose t o li ve som e ti me mor e ful ly t han others, and ar e able t o ski p over per iods on ten m ont hs or t wenty years wi thout seem i ng weir d, a feat which we can never at tempt. I n our li fe, our m inds are a gr ay mat er even to sci ent ists. We can not know what i s goi ng on i n other‘s mi nd. But in novels, the m inds of the charact ers are open or can be made open t o t he reader i f the novel ist so chooses. The reader does not onl y see t hei r clothes, but also se their mi nds. One char act er may be enemy to ot her characters, but he i s fri end t o the reader, before whom he can t hink aloud, to borrow Emerson‘s words. Characters do not l ive, but act. When we watch act ors speak al oud to t hem sel ves on t he st age as i f they wer e alone, we know they are acti ng and they are di f erent fr om what they r epr esent in r eal l if e. The characters in novels exist in a si mil ar manner. II. K inds of Charact ers Usual y, a novel has mor e than one char act er. They inter act wi th each other and make up the story. But they are not equal ly i mport ant or have the same f uncti on to the novel ist. By their r ol es in t he novel , t he char act er s can be grouped as her oes, main characters and m inor char act er s, and f oils. The charact er on whom a novel i s cal led t he hero or heroine when it is a femal e character. The word ―hero‖ original y r ef ers t o a man, in mythology and legend, of ten of divi ne ancest ry, who i s endowed wi th gr eat courage and st rength, cel ebr ated f or hi s hold exploit s, and f avor ed by the gods. In the novel , the word “hero” i s freed of such nobl e requi rements and any cent ral charact ers can be l abel ed as heroes. Jonat han Wil d is the hero i n t he novel of t he sam e nam e by Henry Fi elding, though he is a not or i ous hi ghwayman. Some cri ti cs, annoyed by the connotation of “hero, ” prefer the word “protagonist, ” whi ch sounds neutral. The enem y or ri val of the protagoni st i s cal led ―antagonist.‖ The mai n or maj or characters are t hose in cl ose and dynami c rel ati on wit h t he hero or heroine. Close rel ati on does not m ean good relat ion. Pabl o in For Whom t he Bel Toll s is const ant ly f indi ng tr oubl e wit h t he her o Jor dan, yet he is a mai n char act er as hi s wif e Pi lar is. Mi nor characters ar e those in remote and st at ic r elati on wi th t he her o. I t is wr ong t o thi nk that minor char act er s are al l uni mport ant . In some novels, one o