英美文学课程论文格式

全文页面设置：纸型：A4，方向：纵向；必须统一使用WORD格式打印

页边距的要求为：上（T）：2.54cm；下（B）：2.54cm；

左（L）：3cm；右（R）：2.2cm

全文行距：1.5倍

段首缩进：5个英文字母，2个汉字（中文部分）

正文中：英文全部采用TIME NEW ROMAN,中文全部采用宋体，字号为

5号。

课程论文的篇幅不少于3000字。

A paper is supposed to be composed of five parts:

1. Title page （封面）

2. Abstract (in both English and Chinese; the main contents and the structure of your thesis) （摘要：先英文，后中文，200字内）

3. Contents (the titles of the chapters and sections; and the number of pages)（目录）

4. The body（正文）

5. References （参考文献）

1

题目Times New Roman 三号加粗居中（题目先英后中）

"click here and type your title"

By

小三号

"click here and type your name"

三号

CLASS:"click here and type your class" Foreign Languages Department

Xi’an University of Finance & Economics

2

第二部分：论文英文内容摘要格式

独立为一页

论文标题用三号黑体居中，上下各空一行，题目下居中打印“Abstract”。

□□ 应，每个词用三个空格隔开，标点用英文形式。

本部分内容为一页，不标页码

第三部分：论文中文内容摘要格式 独立为一页

论文标题用三号黑体居中，上下各空一行，题目下居中打印“内容摘要”。

空一行

□□正文 宋体五号 1

关键词：

□××××××□□□××××××□□□××××××□□□×××××□□□××××××

本部分内容为一页，不标页码

第四部分： 论文目录格式

Contents

空一行

空一行 □□1. □□□□××××××××××××××□…………………………□1 □□□□□1.1.1□×××××××××××□…………………………□1 □□□1.2□×××××××××××xx×××□………………………□2 □□2. □×××××××××××××□

第五部分：论文正文格式

TITLE1行

空一行 四号居中

□□正文 五号 1.5倍行距，段首空5个字母

1.××××××××××××1.1□×××××××Times New Roman小四号粗体

2

□□1.1.1□×××××××Times New Roman五号粗体

正文内容均为五号

正文起始页码为1，居中

第六部分：论文参考文献格式（此部分接着论文正文部分编排页码）

References

空一行 三号粗体

□□1□□作者姓名，出版年份：《××××××××××》，出版社 中文参考文献 宋体五号 □□9□□×××××××[×]，×××译，出版年份：《×××××××××××××》，出版社

□□10□，××××××××××××

作者姓名书名出版社

五号

□□12□作者姓名，出版年份：《××××××》，《××××××××》，第×期，第×-×页

汉语论文题目 汉语杂志名称 阿 拉 伯 数 码

□□18□作者姓名，《××××××××××》，××××××××

Times New Roman 五号

(见下范例)

3

英美文学课程论文

论文题目：The Painfulness of Growing Up----On the

成长的痛——霍尔顿·科尔菲尔德人物分析

学生姓名：

学 号：

班 级：

完成日期：20xx年 月 日

4

The Painfulness of Growing Up----On the Character of

Holton Caulfield

Abstract

The Catcher in the Rye is the masterpiece of J.D.Salinger. It has gained the influence and reputation all over the world for a long period. This paper analyses the personality of the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, who is a controversial character among many of the literature characters. The key point is to analyze the inner world and the real world where he lives by using the theory of Freud Sigmund. It focuses on Holton‘s repulsion towards the real world but meanwhile he has no choice but to grow up in it with painfulness and perplexity. According to Freud’s id，ego，superego，this paper shows the reason why Holton wants to escape from this world and to be a catcher in the rye.

Key words: personality, painfulness, id, ego, superego

5

成长的痛—霍尔顿·科尔菲尔德人物分析

内容摘要

《麦田里的守望者》是塞林格的成名之作。该作品很长一段时期在全世界具有很大的影响力和声誉。在所有文学人物中，主人公霍尔顿·科尔菲尔德是个充满争议的人物角色，本文对其进行深度剖析。文章着重运用弗洛伊德西戈蒙的理论来分析人物内心世界和所处的现实世界。关键点在于分析霍尔顿对现实世界的抵触厌恶，但同时他又别无选择的成长于痛苦和彷徨之中。根据弗洛伊德的本我自我超我理论，本篇论文体现了霍尔顿想逃离这个世界和梦想当一个麦田守望者的原因。本文从这一点上具有很深的研究价值。

关键词： 性格 痛苦 本我 自我 超我

6

Content

1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………..1

1.1 Introduction of J. D. Salinger ………………………………………………..1

1.2 Introduction of The Catcher in the Rye …………………………...…………3

2. Social Background of This Novel …………………………………..………….3

3. The Psychological World of Holton Caulfield …………………………..……..5

3.1 Id—the Purity and Innocence of Holton …………………………….………5

3.2 Ego---the Antipathy to the Real World ………………………………..……..6

3.3. Superego---the Dream of Holden: to Be a Catcher in the Rye ……………...8

4. The Reality of the Society …………………………………………….………..9

4.1 A World Filled with Hypocrisy and Money Worship ……………….……….9

4.2 Innocence and Selflessness of Children’s World ………………….………..10

5. The Reasons for Holden’s Problem……………………………………………11

5.1 The Popularity of His Age .…………………………………………………11

5.2 Lack of Love and Understanding from His Family..………………………..12

6. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………...13

7

The Painfulness of Growing Up

----On the Character of Holden Caulfield

( Main Body)

……..

…….

……

Reference

1 J.D.塞林格[美]施咸荣 译，19xx年2月,《麦田里的守望者》，译林出版社

2 Salinger J.D. The Catcher in the Rye ,E-book

3 朱永涛，《英语国家社会与文化入门》（下），高等教育出版社,第五章

4 Litz, A.W. Modern American Fiction [M]. New York：Oxford University

5 弗洛伊德[奥地利]，高觉敷 译，19xx年12月第1版 《精神分析引论新编》，商务印书馆 6 /lit/catcher/characters.html

7 /lit/catcher/themes.html

8

第二篇：辅修《英美文学课程》论文要求和电子模板

华中师范大学

本科课程论文（设计）

题目

院 （系） 外国语学院

主修专业

辅修专业

年 级

学生姓名

学 号 任课教师 评定成绩

二O一二年十二月

论文要求:

1. 选题、结构和行文要求

1） 选题局限于教材上的作家和作品（不一定是书上选读的作品）进行解读

和评述。可以是针对某一篇作品进行解读，也可以对几个作品进行比较分析。

2） 结构逻辑请符合论文写作，请避免写成老师上课式的全面介绍和解读。

论文要有明确的中心思想，紧密围绕中心论点进行有逻辑地论述和论证。

3） 篇幅要求不少于2000字，语言尽量正式，避免口语表达。

2. 格式要求

1） 请勿抄袭，凡抄袭者后果自负。

2） 论文标题采用黑体，中文采用宋体，字母和数字采用Times New Roman

体.字号采用小四。

3） 页边距：上3cm，下：2.5cm，左：3cm，右:2.5cm。行距：多倍1.25。

页码居中。

4） 引文的处理方式。如果引用他人观点和语言最好是标注出处。具体格式

如下（不用脚注、尾注等其他格式）：

A. 直接引用的内容（打引号的）和间接引用（不用引号的）都要标出 出处，直接在引文后面打括号标出，（作者，年：页码），如（Dickson， 2000：34）。

B. 转引（就是从别人的论文或作品中再次引用他人的话，或者说从张 某人20xx年写的论文中引用Halliday说过的话）就标为（quoted in 张，2000：43）。

C. 排版三行以内的引文不用单独成段；如果四行以上就要单独成段（缩 进处理），参看电子版本。

4） 参考文献的格式

A. 排序：先英文再排中文参考书目，所有按作者的名字首字母 a---b---c----d排列。

B. 文献的类型有普通图书［M］、论文集和会议录［C］、科技报告［R］、 学位论文［D］、期刊论文【J】

C. 格式参看论文样本的参考书目写法。

3. 下附一篇论文样本，供大家参考,参看格式和行文。

4. 论文最后的交稿期限：12月29日

论文的纸质版本（打印出来一份），各班班长收齐后交给任课老师。

1

Abstract

Iris Murdoch is a contemporary distinguished woman novelist and philosopher of the United Kingdom. Murdoch was greatly influenced by the existentialist philosopher Sartre, and put forward her own existential thoughts. Apart from accepting Sartre's ideas such as "existence precedes essence", "the world is absurd" and "free choice", she thinks that it is important to respect others and connect to the outer world.

Murdoch often puts her philosophical thoughts into her novels. As her most satisfied novel The Bell, it tells a story about the happenings in a religious community, and conveys Murdoch's existential thoughts obviously. Since Murdoch is hardly known in China, her ideas and works are studied less than expected. As for existing related papers, they often pay attention to her moral proposals and writing techniques rather than her outstanding existentialism. This paper summaries Murdoch's existential thoughts and analyzes The Bell in an existential perspective, trying to arouse people's attention to Murdoch's existentialism in her works.

Key words: Iris Murdoch; The Bell; existentialism

1. Introduction

Iris Murdoch (1919~1999), who was born in Irish, was a famous British author after World War Ⅱ, as well as a distinguished philosopher. In 1987, Murdoch was knighted as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. In 2008, The Times named her among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945" (Li, 2011: 1). In fact, she is one of the most prolific novelists in Britain just after Charles Dickens, for 26 novels, 5 philosophical monographs, 6 drama plays and 2 poetry anthologies (Li, 2011: 2). However, for the lack of translation of her works, Murdoch is less famous in China than in the western world.

As a novelist, Murdoch is good at producing a mixture of narrative and moral analysis, which is concerned with ethics set in a fictive social surrounding; as a philosopher, she sides with Sartre and developed his existentialism into her own proposal (袁颐, 2006: 95). Murdoch often puts her philosophy thoughts into her novels, though she insists that moral thoughts should be parted with novels, for their totally different disciplines, modes of thoughts and ways of writing (Li, 2011:145). As for the title of philosopher-novelist, she simply said: "I don't think philosophical influences my work as a novelist" (quoted in Masong, 2008:2). However, it is still believed that she is the first 2

novelist who introduced and developed Sartrean philosophy into English literature (Wang, 2004: 9).

To study Murdoch's opinion of existentialism, it is inevitable to refer to her novel The Bell (1958), which is one of her early works and also her most satisfied novel (Li, 2011: 3). The book pays attention to a group of people who are members of community Imber Court, and throws light on the complicated relationships among them. Since the book came out, it has been read and discussed by a large amount of people for its great value in many aspects. For example, Murdoch's writing techniques in the book and the structure of the story are discussed passionately. Feminist viewpoint is also often touched upon, such as the praise of the heroine in Neil McEwan's book Iris Murdoch's Contemporary World (1981). Also, Murdoch's own outlooks is analyzed, such as her attitudes towards love and tragedy discussed by Kenneth Masong in the article Iris Murdoch's The Bell: Tragedy, Love, and Religion (2008), or her support to homosexuality in Tammy Grimshaw's essay The Social Construction of Homosexuality in Iris Murdoch's Fiction (2004). And Chinese scholar Wang Xiaoyan, who does a lot of researches on this book, pays much attention to the symbolic images and their mythical archetypes. The similar topic to Wang's can be seen in Lisa Michelle Fiander's thesis Everyday Magic: Fairy Tales in the Fiction of Iris Murdoch, Margaret Drabble and A. S. Byatt (2002).

What deserves notice is that though such an outstanding philosophical novelist Murdoch is, the number of studies on her philosophy ideas conveyed in The Bell is less than expected. Most of philosophical studies focus on her moral or ethical thoughts rather than existentialism, which is the most important philosophy she insists. Even so, Michael Levenson studied the loss of the inner world in the book from the perspective of existentialism in his article Iris Murdoch: The Philosophic Fifties and The Bell (2001), which is of great value for analyzing Murdoch's existential thoughts. Wang Xiaoyan's thesis A Gleam of Hope in the Absurd Existence—Reading Analysis of Iris Murdoch's The Bell (2004) is also inspiring to study the book philosophically.

2. The Influence of Existentialism on Murdoch’s Novels

2.1 A brief introduction to existentialism

Existentialism is generally considered to be a philosophical and cultural movement which started in the mid-19th century in Germany and became popular in early 20th in 3

France (Ye, 2010: 4). Because of the two World Wars and the Great Depression of the 20th century, the values of people in the western world were destroyed heavily, and the situation entailed resolving people's frustration and building their confidence with a new kind of value (袁颐, 2006: 94). As Murdoch wrote in 1950's: "We live in a scientific and anti-metaphysical age, in which the dogmas, images, and percepts of religion have lost much of their power" (quoted in Ye, 2010: 2). So in the following years of World War II, existentialism rose quickly in the western world, even affecting many countries in Asia. It is not until 1960's that existentialism fell into decay (何胜莉, 2006: 97).

Existentialism is a human-centered philosophy whose basic criterion is individual and its existence (Ye, 2010: 4). Existentialists stress the primacy of the human being, as well as individuality and freedom. They hold that God is dead and man is alone, so man should be responsible for himself although the responsibility is agony itself (袁颐, 2006:

94). They convey the message that "man is free, man is freedom", and people should achieve the value of their own life and create their own nature by transcending the absurd world (Ye, 2010: 5). Based on the theory, existentialist literature became popular for a time, which called on people to fight against the absurd world and their unsatisfactory life. Conveyed by existentialist literature, the philosophy of existentialism was deeply rooted and had a profound influence on people in that gloomy period, encouraging them to save themselves (袁颐, 2006: 95).

Though exerting positive influences on modern western humanities, existentialists fail to recognize man's sociality (Wang, 2004: 12). They also hold that the freedom of man's subjective wills should be absolute truth (何胜莉, 2006: 98). All these unrealizable delusions reflect the undeniable limitation of idealism in which existentialism is included.

Generally speaking, existentialism can be divided into two main currents: Christian existential thought whose advocates insist the existence of God, while the other hold the essentially atheistic existentialism (何胜莉, 2006: 97). Jean Paul Sartre (1905~1980) is the representative of the latter current, whose theory is so important that often wrongly regarded as existentialism itself. Sartre declares that "man is alone in a godless universe" and that human existence has no blueprint, no designer (Wang, 2004: 11). There are three main points in Sartre's existential philosophy: existence precedes essence; free choice; the world is absurd (Ye, 2010: 7). All of these thoughts enlightened Murdoch largely and then were developed into her own ideas, which will be mentioned in the next section. 4

2.2 Murdoch’s existentialistism

Iris Murdoch is one of a handful writers in western literature who could combine the serious moral thoughts with fascinating plots perfectly, not to mention that she is the first novelist who conveys Sartre's existential philosophy into her own works.

Murdoch's existential thoughts, which are based on Sartre's existential philosophy and are manifested indirectly in her novels, often contain following points:

First, existence precedes essence. In traditional western philosophy, people hold that essence precedes existence, which means everything that exists is created for a definite purpose (Wang, 2004: 13). However, Sartre denies the opinion. In his view, human being is not created as designed and the existence of the individual must be proven by his own wills and actions (何胜莉, 2006: 98). This is the core point of the existentialism, which was supported by Murdoch. She argues:

"We are what we seem to be, transient moral creatures subject to necessity and

chance. That is to say that there is, in my view, no God in the traditional sense of that term; and the traditional sense is perhaps the only sense. our destiny can be examined but it cannot be justified or totally explained. Our destiny can be examined, but it cannot be justified or totally explained.We are simply here" (quoted in Wang, 2004: 13).

In this aspect, she pays much attention to individual's inner world. For Murdoch, our words may come from without, but we cannot leave aside the world we live within: the realm of "personal attitudes, speculations, or visions of life" (quoted in Levenson, 2001:

5).

Second, the world is absurd. The word "absurd" was first suggested by Albert Camus in The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), to diagnose the human situation in the world of shattered belief (Wang, 2004: 14), then develop into describing the divorce between man and life. The opinion is sided by most existentialists, such as Sartre, who holds that people always feel confined when confronted with this irrational and chaotic objective world, what they can gain from the evil world are only endless frustration and despair (袁颐, 2006: 95). Murdoch also supports the idea. It can be discerned from her works that the world in her eyes is aimless and unordered, while life itself is filled with contingencies and violence; in that condition, human being is forced to make own decisions whose consequences are often unexpected (Wang, 2004: 15). To respond to this idea, characters in Murdoch's novels are always confronted with sudden difficulties, which seem unbelievable, even ridiculous, but their miserable struggles enlighten readers undoubtedly. For example, 5

through a vivid description of the absurd life of the protagonist Jake in Under the Net (1954), Murdoch shows that: although it is absurd to explain the meaning of being, the process of living is controlled by man himself (Zhang, 2010: 14).

Third, people have the freedom of choice. As Sartre declares, since God is dead, human being has no instructor nor helper, so he should make his own decisions and be responsible for himself (Wang, 2004: 11). He stresses clearly that: man would lose his personality if he cannot make a free choice with his individual will (Ye, 2010: 8). Murdoch also approves this idea by arguing that: "We have been encouraged to think of ourselves as totally free and responsible, knowing everything we need to know for the important purposes in life" (quoted in Carson, 1979: 14). However, the concepts of Freedom in their eyes are very different. While Sartre insists "hell is other people" and bases Freedom on voluntarism, Murdoch thinks Freedom means the understanding and the respect to others in the complex moral world (Ye, 2010: 34). Take her novel The Book and the Brotherhood (1988) for example. It seems that all of the characters in the story have absolute freedom, as they can express or hide their love at will, even choose their favorite way to die. Whatever they do are decisions made by themselves. Even so, few of them get happiness, for most of them only care for themselves and get out of the relationships with others. Through varieties of tragedies preferred by her in this novel, Murdoch hints that Freedom is not unconditional or absolute, many factors, such as interpersonal relationships and the society, should be taken into consideration. As she once said: "there is no transcendent reality, there are no degrees of freedom" (quoted in Carson, 1979: 15).

Apart from the points mentioned above, there are other ideas Murdoch declares. For example, she respects contingency which, in her view, is an essential part of the world and can benefit human beings much (Wang, 2004: 18). It is impressive that the only couple who gain a happy ending in The Book and the Brotherhood are finally connected by a snail coincidentally. And she also respects the otherness of people, opposing the idea that human beings are as same as other creatures, which is admitted by Sartre (Ye, 2010:

10).

All these philosophical thoughts can be found in Murdoch's novels, and all of them are subtly conveyed through vivid characters or complex plots rather than dried sermons. Because of her unique perspective of existentialism, all of Murdoch's novels are of great depth as well as entertaining value.

6

3. The Existential Philosophy in The Bell

3.1 The absurdity of the world : Micheal’s painful life

The starting point of existentialism is human beings' immediate awareness of their situation (Wang, 2004: 14). In most of existential philosopher's eyes, the world is so absurd that people are hardly to get away from the agony which accompanies them lifetime (何胜莉, 2006: 98). Thus, to discuss Murdoch's existentialism in novels, her opinions on the absurdity of the world should be mentioned firstly. In The Bell, it is easy to find out that almost everyone lives a ridiculous life, and the one whose fate impresses readers most is the leader of the group, Michael Meade.

Coming from an upper-class family, Michael has been a would-be priest before being trapped in homosexual guilts when still young. After one-year teaching abroad, he is promising to join a seminary. Everything goes well, until he encounters Nick, who is then a fourteen-year-old student of him. Michael falls in love with Nick for his beauty and charm, but their secret love is uncovered soon, or rather, is betrayed by Nick himself. Michael has to leave the school, and his ordination is destroyed by the scandal completely. Several years later, when Michael is inspired to set up the Imber community, he comes across Nick's twin sister Catherine brings Nick back to his life soon. A pure chance, Nick witnesses the scene that Michael kisses another boy Toby who lives in community momentarily. Afterwards, the kiss is confessed by Toby, which makes Michael's intention to conceal the thing fail. What's worse, Nick takes his revenge on Michael successfully, leading to the terminal of the whole community which Michael strives to maintain, and finally commits suicide, leaving Michael nothing but forever anguish and guiltiness. After the dissolving of the community, the past hero finds a temporary job at a secondary school.

Standing in the center of the storm, Michael Meade seems to be a reliable leader in the story. He sets up the Imber community, where the whole story takes place, attracts talented people to gather around him, and endeavors to keep the independent world peaceful. However, Michael is not so much a hero as a poor man living a typical anguished life. In the story, Michael has to make decisions for himself constantly. In an existential aspect, he is entitled to make free choices as pleases, however, he is actually restricted by the absurd situation tightly.

First of all, Michael is a homosexual. Actually, homosexuality is the most preferred subject frequently used by Murdoch, partly because she admitted that "I feel very 7

strongly that there shouldn't be any sort of prejudice against homosexuals, or suggestions that homosexual love is unnatural or bad" (quoted in Grimshaw, 2004: 1). What's more, it can be discerned from described sermons in the book that: people of that time criticize homosexuality severely, even consider it guilty. So Michael is forced to be anguished when he finds that the love to God is opposite to the love to his loved ones. In the first place, when confronted with the choice fourteen years ago, willing to be with Nick sincerely, Michael chooses the latter, even at the cost of betraying God. However, it seems that the choice which destroys his life is proven to be wrong. Maybe he realizes that in a society where he is doomed to be despised for his love affair, he has no strength to protect himself. So, when tortured by abnormal love and religious belief for the second time at Imber community, Michael chooses to put the priority to himself. As we can see, when Catherine requests him to accept Nick, he "feared that Nick at Imber would make trouble for others and win no good for himself. Also he simply did not want Nick at Imber" (Murdoch, 1985: 112). On the other hand, after kissing Toby, what occurs to him firstly is to avoid the potential danger rather than caring about the innocent boy. He is anxious for fear that Nick or Toby (or his own emotion) destroys his life again. To a large extent, it is his indifference that leads to the miserable ending. It is also ironic to find out that: the world rejects Michael's will when he is brave enough to pursuit what he wants, then forces him to become a disgusting man who is hypocritical and coward, finally leaves him nothing but total failure when he chooses to be obedient to the society.

Apart from topics of homosexuality and religion which are often used to magnify the inner struggle against the outer world, Murdoch also uses many dramatic episodes to stress the absurdity. For example, the betrayal of Nick. When everyone is moved by Michael's love, believing that they can be together forever, the sudden accident disillusions Michael and readers. The betrayal not only puzzles Michael for a long time, but also changes his whole life and thereby forces him to forsake Love. Another turning point is the kiss with Toby which is come across by Nick. The kiss sharpens conflicts among the three men as well as within Michael's inner world, and becomes the incentive for the catastrophe. The episodes which develop the storyline are unexpected but sensible, making the world in the book more absurd, and Michael's life more anguished.

The pain Michael feels reflects the absurdity of his world. So do other characters. The unbelievable tragedies happen on them are elaborated by Murdoch, who insists that tragedy "belongs to literature" or "belongs to art, and only to great art" (quoted in Masong, 2008: 6), to illustrate a world filled with unfortunate contingency and unexpected changes and to define her existential position.

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3.2 Denial of solipsism: Nick’s death

One of the differences that between Murdoch's and Sartre's existential philosophy is their disagreement on interpersonal relationships (Ye, 2010: 10). While Sartre holds that others are barriers to individual's development, Murdoch criticizes him for presenting the individual as "solitary and totally free", and argues that "We need to return from the self-centered concept of sincerity to the other-centered concept of truth. We are not isolated free choosers, monarchs of all we survey, but benighted creatures sunk in a reality whose nature we are constantly and overwhelmingly tempted to deform by fantasy…" (quoted in Ye, 2010: 13). She rejects individual solitude and imaginative solipsism, attaches importance to the integration of individuals and society (Li, 2011: 45). In her another novel An Accidental Man (1971), as Edith Brugmans addressed at the fourth international conference on Murdoch, she even hints that it should not be our personal desires, but our respect for others that provides the key to our personal value system (quoted in Li, 2011: 8).

To express her denial of solipsism and autism, Murdoch always creates characters who live miserably for ignoring relations in which they are involved. In The Bell, Nick Fawley is such an example.

Nick might be the most helpless character within the story. When he is in love with Michael, he betrays their love to the headmaster to get rid of the sense of guiltiness. Unfortunately, he fails. In the following years, though studies mathematics and aerodynamic well, he doesn't live a good life. Lonely and depressed, he refuses to communication with others and gets into the habit of drinking, even threatens to kill himself. But what he does is only to provoke people's contempt rather than sympathy. When asked by Catherine to give a hand, Michael recalls his resentment against Nick and doesn't want to take him in. Even after joining the community, Nick lives alone for being treated as a black sheep, receiving little care or greeting from others, including his own sister. He only wants to talk to Michael, but is always treated indifferently. So he takes revenge by messing the baptismal ceremony, indirectly destroys the community and forces his sister to get mad. At last, he put an end to his own life, with an extreme loneliness that has never been understood.

It seems that Nick's tragedy begins with the same dilemma as Michael. When trapped into painful hesitation, he is defeated by his religious belief and forsakes their love. The betrayal is expected to be a kind of confession at first, but leaves an incurable wound in his heart. Since then, he has been wrapped up totally inside himself, getting 9

more and more despairing. He becomes an undesirable decadent who lives with no hope, no help, no love. Finally, the incident of the kiss tears him up inside and makes him go to extremes. It is indeed a pity that Nick commits suicide, and the root cause of his death is not the kiss but his long-term isolation and loneliness.

Actually, Nick is always trying to break the constraint and communicate with others. Though treating people unfriendly, he longs for others' care and love. He once tells Toby: "The great thing about a dog, is that it can be trained to love you" (Murdoch, 1985: 58). But his inhospitable attitude and odd actions frighten others. No one is willing to approach him, not to mention giving him Love which he desperately needs. His only partner is the loyally dog Murphy. To some extent, Nick is killed not only by his own refusal of the outer world, but also by the discard by others. The mutual force makes the isolation become increasingly serious and all Nick's tiny effort in vain.

To analyze the cause of Nick's death, it is hard to neglect Michael, who is needed by Nick mostly but pushes him away coldly. After the failing of the ceremony, Michael feels awkward to find that it is Nick who should be to blame for the disaster, so he decides to speak openly and frankly to Nick, to "act fully the part of what he was, Nick's only friend at Imber" (Murdoch, 1985: 291), without expecting the suicide. When seeing the body, Michael realises nothing but his constant love to Nick. The heartbreaking irony is caused by the broken relationship between them, forcing readers to consider the importance of connections between individuals and the world, as well as the relationships among people. If Nick established contacts with other members, even some small talks, he could have avoided killing himself, and we chould have seen another ending, a much happier one.

It is easy to find out that, to stress the opinions on interpersonal relationships, Murdoch often structures a relatively closed world to besiege characters in, sometimes a physical enclosure, sometimes a circle of a group of constant members. And in The Bell, the Imber Community fits both patterns. Being lonelier and more self-assertive than common people, the weaknesses of human nature of characters are tend to be magnified in an unusual way, to echo the emphasis on the absurdity of the world and the agony of life. They may see daylight by overcoming their autism and breaking through the closed world; otherwise, if seal themselves in the little world and cut off the relations with others, they are apt to break down quickly.

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3.3 Freedom of choice : Dora’s fight against fate

Though the atmosphere of the novel is depressing, there are still inspiring factors that can cheer readers up. The most typical one is the heroin, Dora.

Born in a lower-middle-class family, Dora is said to have made a good marriage, wherein she is not content with her status. She wants to be herself rather than what Paul expects: "a dutiful wife, loving mother of their future children, clever house-maker and charming partner in social occasions" (Wang, 2004: 20). Being conscious of Paul's monopolize and jealousy, she escapes to live with whom she loves. The willful action, though may be criticized as irresponsibility even in our times, shows her acutely desire for freedom and self-determination beyond doubt.

Six months later, she returns to Paul. At Imber, Dora finds herself restless for being misunderstood and despised by other members. On the other hand, there's no trend that she can reunify with Paul. Feeling annoyed and troubled, Dora gets acquainted with the same depressing Toby, who tells her the bell he chanced to find in the lake. Dora affirms that the bell Toby found must be the one in an amazing legend. They cooperate in pulling the bell onshore, and make a plan to substitute the ancient bell for the new one which is going to be installed in the convent. But the plan is frustrated. After the dissolving of the community, Dora stays in Imber to help with Michael's unfinished work, finally departs to study drawing.

Set up as the most inspiring character, the story of Dora shows the opinion that people indeed have the right to make free choices, so they should fight for their own wills. To support the idea, Murdoch portrays many impressive scenes that deserve attention, which highlight Dora's free spirit and manifest the progress of her struggle.

The first scene should be mentioned is that, on Dora's way to Imber, she finds a helpless butterfly in the railway carriage filled with people. The butterfly is just like Dora herself, in that both of them feel bewildered in circumstances filled with people who can't understand them and ignore them. To help the butterfly, she leaves the luggage in the train and is scolded by Paul later. It can be seen as a metaphor: the one that Dora really wants to rescue is not the butterfly but herself. She wants to get rid of the situation, but now has so many barricades in the way that make her powerless.

When arrives at Imber, she still feels annoyed, especially for the relationship between Dora and her husband. When she asks for Paul's respect, the latter replys: "Of course I don't respect you. Have I any reason to? I'm in love with you, unfortunately, that's all" (Murdoch, 1985: 139). The answer shows the male chauvinism of Paul as 11

many other men of that time. Though it is common for housewives to be dominated by their husbands, Paul's attitude stirs and sharpens the conflict between the couple. His monopoly becomes the main encouragement for Dora's subsequent revolution.

It is worth notice that Dora is not pursuing the freedom just for her willful desire, but for true and equal love. Her real desire can be seen in the description of the ancient bell which is believed to be the one in the legend that centuries ago the Abbey's bell flies into the lake in a shape of a bird after punishing a disloyal nun. When Dora and Toby get the bell, it reads that "I am the voice of Love. I am called Gabriel" (Murdoch, 1985: 223) . The experience of the bell hints that in a rigid society where human natrue is restricted by religion or policy, Love is forced to hide itself, then is gradually ignored for its silence. So Dora makes the plan to substitute the ancient bell for the new one which is made for the Anglican nunnery and can be seen as a symbol of religion or authority, not to "make a miracle" as she explains herself, but to rescue Love.

So the most shocking scene in the book must be Dora's ringing the bell. When realizes the plan has been frustrated, Dora rings the ancient bell painfully and rouses all the people in Imber. Wakening people from a sound sleep by the bell which symbolizes Love is an evidence of Dora's free spirit. And the power of Love can be felt in this scene, for "The thunderous noise continued, bellowing out in a voice that had been silent for centuries that some great thing was newly returned to the world" (Murdoch, 1985: 268). The inspiring scene implicates that, though Love has been falling into silence for a long time, if only wakened by someone who still believed in it, it can always sing so loudly that shocks everyone from gloomy dream. Similarly, people who are restricted tightly by the society and even sink into sleep, can be weakened suddenly to face up to their real desires if only Love is rung by revolutionaries. It is inspiring to see sober people listening to the song of Love. So Dora does accomplish a miracle, though her original plan is broken.

It seems that Dora doesn't match the title of the heroine for her slight indecision and funny childishness. What she does can be seen as seeking amusements rather than making contributions. It must be admitted that Murdoch doesn't want to create a conventional heroine, who must be intelligent and brave. Compared to other characters, the heroine Murdoch represents to us, is an ordinary woman who has fewer merits but more weaknesses. As Levenson wrote in his essay: "…this novel of many characters finally settles its deepest hopes on two: Michael and Dora. He is an aspiring man of faith; she if faithless as she is feckless, because she is a character not yet fully born" (Levenson, 2001: 574). However, Dora becomes the best representative to convey the writer's beliefs. 12

Though not as capable as Michael, she is loyal to her heart and struggles deadly for what she really wants. Though not as intelligent as Nick, Dora likes to make friends with everyone and strives to find out the pleasure of the outer world. In this way, the importances of free choice and interpersonal relationships are announced through the comparison of the three different characters.

Obeying existential rules, Dora is lucky enough to survive the tragedy in the novel. Staying at Imber after the collapse of the community, she helps Michael do cooking and secretarial duties, learns to swim, and develops a new enthusiasm for classical music. In Michael's eyes, she "turn towards life and happiness like a strong plant towards the sun, assimilating all that lay in her way" (Murdoch, 1985: 308). Finally, she departs to return to her painting study. Not being given happiness explicitly for Murdoch's slight pessimism, Dora is still blessed with a hopeful ending. As the last scene tells us: "From the tower abve her the bell began to ring for Nones. She scarcely heard it. Already for her it rang from another world" (Murdoch, 1985: 316). Reading the sentences, we are filled with sadness for unlucky people in the story who lost themselves in the absurd world, but also filled with confidence for Dora, who is going to enter a new world and restart her life.

4. Conclusion

To study existential literature, Murdoch is the one that cannot be ignored. As both an influential novelist and an outstanding existential philosopher, she conveys her existential opinions in her novels indeliberately, such as the helplessness for the absurd world, the sadness for the anguished life and the despair for the fruitless effort. All these pessimistic opinions can be found in The Bell, as well as in her other novels.

Reading the book, it is depressed for readers to feel the gloom and doom in the community, it is also easy to be impressed by characters' endurance of their miserable life. The absurdity of the situation is the starting point of existentialism, so the conception is revealed obviously in the story from beginning to end. And to respond to existentialists' emphasis on individuals' right to make free decisions, most of characters are tortured by making choices, but what they choose often go against true wills, so they are cost bitterly for betraying hearts. On the contrary, heroine Dora shows a gleam of hope in her pursuit for Love and Freedom. She is eager to seek for things she really wants, no matter how severely other people's criticism is. Though has not been proven to be a right choice yet, Dora's inspiring story transmits that: only if take full advantage of freedom of choice, keep tight relation to the world and fight against the crazy life, can human being become 13

a complete individual.

Apart from the doctrines above, it also can be deduced an important existential idea that man is in control of his own life. For man is a kind of helpless creature in the world, he is totally free and is entitled to do exactly as he pleases (Wang, 2004: 11). So all the decisions he makes are his own choice and all the consequences should be taken by himself. Comparing different fates of the three characters discussed above, it is easy to find out that one of the most necessary requirements for individuals, in Murdoch's eyes, is to be responsible for oneself. Considering her slight existential pessimism, it may be the most inspiring idea in the book.

Through artistic imagination and vivid characters, Murdoch makes her works filled with power which encourages readers to ponder over, rather than imposes her personal ideas on people. As she said: "philosophical writing is not self-expression, it involves a disciplined removal of the personal voice. But there is a kind of self-expression which remains in literature, together with all the playfulness and mystification of art. The literary writer deliberately leaves a space for his reader to play in" (quoted in Carson, 1979: 93). It is the most impressive virtue which deserves praise. On the whole, the book, as well as Murdoch herself, should be paid attention and respect to.

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