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摘 要

斯科特·菲茨杰拉德是20世纪最伟大的美国作家之一，也是美国“迷惘的一代”代言人，其作品集中展示了美国爵士时代的种种现象。钱钟书以其智慧与博学著称于世，其纪实作品因其巧妙的中英文旁征博引而独成特色。本文对比分析了《了不起的盖茨比》和《围城》两位男主人公的悲剧成因。五个因素决定了盖茨比和方鸿渐的悲剧命运，分别是对社会的无知态度，个人的精神寄托，对社会地位的追求，传统和现代之间的挣扎和物质主义至上的社会环境。本文旨在通过两位主人公的悲剧命运首先表明内在因素决定个人命运。其次，要认清社会环境对个人发展的影响。最后，本文研究不仅能够在某种程度上拓展《了不起的盖茨比》和《围城》的相关研究，并且为悲剧研究提供某种程度上的新视角。

关键词：《了不起的盖茨比》 《围城》 悲剧成因 对比

1. Introduction

1.1 Research background

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 –1940) is widely recognized as one of the greatest American writers of the 20^th century and a member of the "Lost Generation" of the 1920s, whose works are the paradigmatic writings of the Jazz Age. In his legendary life, he wrote about 160 short stories and 5 novels: This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby (his best known), and Tender Is the Night. He was not only an active, leading participant in the typically frivolous, moneymaking life of the decade, but also a detached, profound observer, for his own life was a mirror of the times. He led a priceless life and achieved much during the “Roaring Twenties”, drinking hard whisky, driving fast cars, and taking much delight in it.

As one of the finest 20^th -century American novels, The Great Gatsby (1925) tells about a tragic story of a rags-to-riches man, Jay Gatsby, who dedicates his whole life to reliving his American Dream, personified by his persistent pursuit of Daisy Buchanan. But under the corruptive circumstances, Gatsby’s adolescent dream evaporates and his love for Daisy vanishes in the air. The novel displays a panorama of the 1920s’ America that has unprecedented economic prosperity on the one hand and astonishing spiritual emptiness on the other. The corruption and destruction of the characters, resulting from their reckless pursuit of material success and utter ignorance of spiritual improvement, reveal a sobering reminder to the world, which is also what this thesis intends to express.

During the barely same period in China, a group of literati witnessed the 20th century teeming with breaks and creations and interwove their life and thoughts, perplexity and pursuit, fear and hope into various works of all genres in spite of the shadows of Anti-Japanese War. Among them, Qian Zhongshu (1910-1998) should deserve our attention, who is best known for his wit and erudition and whose works of non-fiction are characterized by the large amount of quotations in both Chinese and Western languages.

Qian Zhongshu who lived through the age of upheavals of the 1940s in China wins his reputation for his devotion to the cause of literature. His rough fate makes him a great master and his works are regarded as academic treasures. During the Cultural Revolution, like many other prominent intellectuals of the time, Qian suffered persecution and was even appointed to be a janitor. Qian and his family survived the hardships of Cultural Revolution, but his son-in-law, a history teacher, was driven to suicide. In Qian’s whole life, he kept silent most time when it came to political and social activities.

Qian’s most famous satirical novel Fortress Besieged (1947) is widely considered one of the masterpieces of 20th-century Chinese literature. In 1980, Fortress Besieged was translated in English by Nathan, K. Mao, and Jeanne, Kelly, the referential text of this thesis. As a humorous tale about the middle-class Chinese society in the late 1930s, the novel follows the misadventures of Fang Hung-chien, a bumbling everyman who wastes his time studying abroad, and secures a fake degree when learning he has run out of money and must return to China, thus starting a series of stories in Fortress Besiege.

Qian Zhongshu’s dissection of every soul in the novel, especially the hero Fang Hung-chien, draws all his readers back to the time when lots of young people struggled in different “Fortress besieged”. It truly reflects the intellectual part of China’s life and state of mind when the Japan’s invasions expanded to some inland cities in the 1940s, like Shanghai where the story happens. In the extraordinary period with internal disorder and foreign invasions in China, Fang Hong-chien’s tragedies in his life, marriage and career seems to be much more ridiculous and desperate. There appears no better way for him to get rid of his “Fortress besieged”, just like everyone else in that era.

This thesis is about to explore the connections between the heroes’ tragedies of the two stories. It has been widely accepted that Gatsby’s and Fang Hung-chien’s tragedies are the products of the times. Fang Hung-chien returned to China from Europe in 1937 when it was the early year of Anti-Japanese War. His life was still trapped in the old society: arranged marriage, male superiority, inevitable intrigue... In the turbulent war age, the personal fate was sometimes doomed to share the same tragedy with its country.

However, America in 1920s was recorded as the “Roaring Twenties”, which refers to the era known for unprecedented economic prosperity, the evolution of jazz music, flapper culture, and bootlegging and other criminal activity from 1920 to 1929. Then, why Gatsby’s life is a tragedy? “It was an age of miracles, it was an age of art, it was an age of excess, and it was an age of satire”, said by Fitzgerald （28）. Gatsby realized his pursuit of a rich life from scratch in that wonderful era and was regarded as a successful person in the upper class. He held luxurious parties, dressed in glamorous cloths and masks, and even didn’t show a face in those parties. Nobody actually knew anything about him but his amazing wealth and connections. The female character, Daisy, seems to be the only failure of Gatsby’s life, married to another man and then attracted by Gatsby’s success. Gatsby gave up everything even life to chase Daisy and ended up, dead and alone.

From the differences of their living time, it is obvious to find that internal and external factors can account for Fang Hung-chien’s and Gatsby’s tragedies, of which this thesis intends to conduct a comparison in aspects of analyzing similarities in their attitude towards the society, strong eagerness for social status, tough struggle between tradition and modernity, and their spiritual sustenance on others.

1.2 Need for the study

As for the need for the study, both Fang Hung-chien and Gatsby are famous for their tragic life, which are the miniatures of everyone else in the world. The corruption and destruction of the characters, resulting from their reckless pursuit of material success and utter ignorance of spiritual improvement, issue a warning to the world.

Firstly, under the impetuous social environment, it seems rather valuable to attribute Gatsby’s and Fang’s tragedies to the social cause that exerts its subtle influences on people’s interpretation of information, understanding of reality and value judgment. Secondly, the analysis of the two heroes’ career development and love life can help ascertain the predicament of human beings in general, ways to minimize the contradictions between man’s social development and the world of nature, materialistic abundance and spiritual pursuit, idealism and reality in particular. Lastly, the digging into personal causes of the heroes’ fates can reveal the strong power of personalities, which can not only nurture somebody but also destroy him.

1. Literature Review

2.1 Previous studies on The Great Gatsby

Like Fitzgerald’s other works, The Great Gatsby has aroused great attention and lots of comments from the American literary circles upon its publication. Although the novel was a little out of favor, the “Fitzgerald revival movement” in the 1950s rekindled people’s interest in it. The American society, even the whole world, made comments on its profound social significance, excellent narrative techniques, complicated metaphors and symbolism, and beautiful linguistic art. The very novel became a hot research topic and one of the classic of American literature in the 1960s, having a great influence on the American modern literature.

Researches abroad have involved all sorts of perspectives, with Gatsby’s tragedy and American Dream the research mainstream. Gatsby’s “American Dream” has been widely accepted as a mirror of the real America in the 20^th century. Bloch's (1996) insistence on disappointment embedded within utopian formations suggests that the novel's tragic take on Gatsby's dreams is the key to its mid-century fame and its continued cultural appeal. Peter L. Hays (2008) generalizes the detailed factors for Gatsby’s failure of the American Dream, pointing out that it is a tragic tale because modern American Dream can only be seen in people like Gatsby, which is a tragedy for the whole society. Parvin Ghasemi and Mitra Tiur (2009) claims that Gatsby is the embodiment of the fluid polarities of American experience: success and failure, illusion and disillusion, dream and nightmare. Lauren R. Maxwell (2010) studies the greatness of Gatsby’s “American Dream” from three aspects: Gatsby’s struggle against fate focusing on his love and career, Gatsby’s spirit of self-discipline and his spirit of self-sacrifice compared with Jesus Christ and other people. Laura Goldblatt (2015) employs Ernst Bloch's theory of disappointment and utopianism to dwell, in particular, upon the novel's representations of the American Dream as intimately related to failure and the promise of the New World.

Until today, the diversified research perspectives and fruitful research achievements abroad have provided valuable references for Chinese scholars. For example, researches on the thematic studies vary according to different points. Wu Yuqing (2001) shows different understanding of the image of Daisy by combining the conversations among the writer, Gatsby, Tom and Nick with the description about Daisy in the novel. Zhang Qin (2003) finds that the female characters are dependent on the males to realize their own value, which reflects the female psychic structure and ethical norms in the “Jazz age”. Chen Yuanyuan and Chen Dingbing (2009) points out that Gatsby’s dream, strictly speaking, cannot be defined as the real American Dream, claiming that his dream was destined to be shattered for the lack of objective conditions compared with the traditional American Dreams. Cao Xia (2012), focusing on the spiritual wasteland, shows people’s spiritual emptiness behind a rich material life.

Some scholars start to work on the comparative studies of the novel in recent years, including the comparison between the other works of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s and some Asian writers’. Norwegian Forest, Murakami’s representative novel, is the most popular choice among all the previous studies. Wang Jingjing (2013) interprets the different traditional values of the west and the east in Comparative study on Murakami and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

2.2 Previous studies on Fortress Besieged

Since Fortress Besieged was translated into many languages, an increasing number of western scholars have studied it and made lots of achievements.

Joanna Michlic (2004) focuses on Fang Hung-chien’s thought transformation and mood undulation each time faced with the turning points in his life. Carles Prado-Fonts (2008) does much research on the “Chinese face theory” in the novel and shows the potential influence of traditional culture on Fang’s tragedy. Angela Jung Palandri’s (2013) paper Chinese Topic Chains: An Analysis of the Topic Chains Used in Fortress Besieged shows the research status in the west and finds out the unique Chinese language art by analyzing Fang Hung-chien’s features.

Over the first half-century, the critical research topics on Fortress Besieged went through some interesting changes. In 1946 when the book was first published, the criticisms were directed at its isolation from the main stream of the time; in 1980s when it was republished, the criticism were transferred to its inappropriate language usage, such as improper analogies and too many quotations. However, there is no denying that as the only full-length novel of Qian Zhongshu’s, Fortress Besieged has been scrutinized for decades since its republication. Especially from 1990s, the studies on Fortress Besieged have made much progress, with almost over 300 research papers in all kinds of books and magazines within 10 years.

The paper Three Connotations of Fortress Besieged published in 1989 can be seen as an incisive summary of the previous studies on the book. Wen Rumin (1989) points that the research topics on Fortress Besieged could be divided into 3 levels: description of life, cultural meditation and philosophic thinking. Chen Ziqian (1994) proceeds from its tragedy aesthetic concept to figure out the theme of Fortress Besieged. From a sociological perspective, Qu Xuewei (1996) claims that the localized “Fortress Besieged” in China meant the concept of face for Chinese intellectuals, the word for both self-esteem and vanity in Chinese, and many of them tended to choose to pursue the latter. As to the comparative studies on Fortress Besieged, Liu Xinhua (1993) frees himself from the limitation of the time to make a connection between Fortress Besieged and Humboldt’s Gift and found the similarities in their themes.

2.3 Deficiency in previous studies

It is not hard to find that the majority of research topics on The Great Gatsby and Fortress Besieged are about thematic studies and characters analysis. As to the comparison studies on The Great Gatsby with the eastern literature, they are mostly limited to Norwegian Forest, which has been widely considered “the eastern Great Gatsby”; or some other romantic works in the 1920s. The studies about Fortress Besieged now focus on the translation strategies and techniques. As far as the author of the thesis can figure out, there is barely a topic on the comparison of Gatsby and Fang Hung-chien, which reveals the necessity of this research.

This thesis places more emphasis on how internal and external factors influence a person’s fate through the dynamic contrast of a western hero and an eastern hero based on the fruitful research results of the two novels. To explore the connections between The Great Gatsby and Fortress Besieged will contribute to helping the present studies jump out of the time and space limitations and providing more possibilities and directions for later researches.

1. Gatsby’s and Fang Hung-chien’s Tragedies

3.1 Gatsby’s

Tragedy refers to the conflict between the good and the evil. The real misfortune caused by the tragic conflict has its inevitable factors. Of course, the conflict should be embodied by actions. If there is no inevitability in the tragic conflict, then this tragedy will not have the social and universal significance.

It is widely acknowledged that people in the United States of the 1920s, known as the “Jazz Age”, cherishes great enthusiasm for war as well as experienced tremendous changes after the war. The rapid development of technology brings a new way of life, coupled with the impact of Darwin’s theory of evolution. The Americans plunges deeply into the abyss of confusion. Many people of that era, like Fitzgerald, feel it is a painful era; the dream becomes a bubble; the sustained economic crisis brings the whole country a potential disaster. The American people find themselves living in a spiritual wasteland. That is the era of economic expansion and the era of spiritual loss. Fitzgerald creates vivid characters who live in this era and harbored their own dreams.

On one hand, Gatsby’s pursuit of real love in the Long Island full of people poisoned by money worship and materialism is destined. As a character full of romantic color, Gatsby falls in love with Daisy at first sight and loves her for his whole life. He has been blinded by the feelings between him and Daisy in the army when Daisy thinks he is from a blue-blood family. After five years, he is still attracted by Daisy’s appearance and gesture though both have changed in different ways. Gatsby’s dreamy girl is the one who cannot live without glamorous cloths, fancy cars or expensive jewelry. A sincere heart and true love from a poor young man can never touch her; therefore, his love is a doomed tragedy.

On the other, Gatsby’s American Dream for money and status devours his soul. Gatsby’s real name is James Gatz, which was given by his parents. He changes it at seventeen, which witnesses the beginning of his career. His parents are shiftless and unsuccessful farmers. But what shocks us is that he has never accepts them as his parents. Though a man of humble birth, Gatsby doesn’t just accept what is given by the fate; however, he longs for eliminating poverty and fighting for a place in the upper society. Daisy’s unhappy marriage life and their old love times push him hard on his determination to fight for money and status. He holds the firm belief that money and status can win Daisy’s love again. But Gatsby is just too naive. He thinks he will be accepted by the nobility only if he is rich enough. The reality is the noble still consider him a pauper no matter how much fun they have in his luxury parties and how many advantages they know about him. There is a deep gap between them, and Gatsby never sees it until his end of life. This is where his tragedy really lies. Gatsby’s dream for money, status and the girl in his memory is just like the bubbles under the sunshine, with shinny appearance and fragile nature.

3.2 Fang Hung-chien’s

Tragedy is a mixture of humor and sorrow. The turning point when humor turns out to be sorrow always highlights its charming feature. The tragedy authors tend to express the idea of punishing the evil and rewarding the good to arouse the readers’ desire for real beauty and true moral. Thus, tragedy is not a simple disaster, synonymous with grief, but can touch people’s hearts, provoke outrage in a sad mood and wake up morale. In addition to mercy and compassion, readers can also feel the positive impact, which is the real meaning of tragedy.

Fang Hung-chien’s life at the very beginning of the novel is a total tragedy. He comes back to China without any knowledge of his tortuous future. The cultural conflicts and his empty spiritual world produce a strong impact on his life , like a shadow hanging over his head and darkening his career and love life. Firstly, Fang Hung-chien is a victim of the cultural conflicts, born in an old society family greatly influenced by the feudal system. He receives education in the new-style school in late Qing Dynasty, which causes him much like a mixed blood by the traditional culture and modern civilization. On one hand, he cannot get rid of the inherent weakness of his feudal family; on the other, he cannot reject the ideological culture dross from western culture. The decadence and backwardness of Chinese traditional culture and the opening and impetuosity of western modern civilization makes him weak, incompetent, vain and frivolous.

Secondly, Fang Hung-chien’s numb emptiness in his spiritual world makes his whole life a passive tragedy. The social environment shapes him in some degree, but his personality is what really matters in his whole life. Young people like Fang Hung-chien and Zhao Xinmei are well-educated and experienced overseas life, which equips them with western cultural perspective; however, they have inherited the traditional culture as well. In this situation, the majority of them, Fang Hung-chien in particular, just acquire superficial knowledge of western and oriental cultures. The shocking impact of new culture and the deeply rooted traditional culture make it much harder for him to make choices when faced with career or marriage. He appears so powerless in the nation’s fate. In the period of Anti-Japanese War, Fang like other young people does not choose to be warriors of the times and still refuses to bow to the reality; as a result, he turns to be a waif, cast way of by the society. The loneliness from a meaningless life haunts him everywhere anytime. Fang’s life tragedy reflects that of the whole society.

1. Causes of Gatsby’s and Fang Hung-chien’s Tragedies:

A Comparison

This chapter will analyze the causes of Gatsby’s and Fang Hung-chien’s tragedies in five aspects, i.e. immature attitudes towards the society, individual spiritual sustenance, pursuit of social status, struggle between tradition and modernity, and over-materialism of the social environment. Every individual in the world was born with unique personality, regardless of race, nationality or gender. If a man’s whole is a process of the construction of a building, then the social environment may function as the foundation of the building and his personality will determine his height and firmness.

4.1 Immature attitudes towards the society

The two heroes’ naive attitudes towards the society result in their tragedies. After the outbreak of the First World War, Gatsby is transferred to Europe, accompanied by the sad news that Daisy gets married. However, her new life is unhappy, which provokes his motivation to gain high status, large wealth and strong power, for he naively believes that Daisy owns sincere virtues and luxurious possessions could help him win her love back. Gatsby’s is a naive dream based on the fallacious assumption that material possessions are synonymous with happiness, harmony, and beauty. Therefore, it is understandable why his “American dream” can be destroyed and why his life should be ultimately destined. In addition to that, Gatsby’s ignorance of the dark sides of human being separates him from the real world and eventually causes his tragic death. In his point of view, Daisy is a pure girl without any stain in her behaviors or characters, and he is willing to die for her when Daisy kills Tom’s lover in an car accident.

Fang Hung-chien holds a similarly impractical outlook. He does not need to worry about the tuition fees, for his family can support him. Nor does he need to study hard, for his relatives could help land a good job. All the complements on him are out of people’s sincerity and expectations, for he naively believes his fake diploma and smartness can work effectively.

4.2 Individual spiritual sustenance

Similarity also exists in their spiritual sustenance on materials or someone else but not on themselves. Gatsby’s life dream is Daisy’s love. He has lived not for himself but for his dream, for his vision of the good life inspired by the beauty of a lovely rich girl. Gatsby’s passion and motivation come from the beautiful Daisy. His inspiration is so strong that he insists that he can realize his vision as long as Daisy has the feeling for him despite her marriage, and that his romantic trend will not allow him to spear the past from the present. He still sees Daisy as the golden girl he knew five years ago. This is why his life an easily be destroyed once Daisy rejects his pursuit.

Fang Hung-chien bets his fate on a fake diploma. He leaves his life career on other people’s hands so that those jobs are provided by his relatives in succession. In other words, he lands those jobs without any efforts, which definitely cannot fire his enthusiasm for his job and gradually he has no motivation to improve himself, not to mention perfect his spiritual life and develop his own spiritual sustenance.

4.3 Pursuit of social status

Both are clearly aware of the importance of social status in life. To Gatsby, everything is idiotic nonsense without money. To achieve his dream of acquiring steady flow of wealth, he is well prepared to bear suffering and tribulation. At 17, he meets a man called Dan Cody, who makes his fortune by some illegal means. Afterwards, he becomes a man of no scruples to make fortune. He makes friends with all kinds of people, even with the criminals. He becomes rich soon through all kinds of illegal business deals. However, by the observation of his rival in love---Daisy’s husband, he finds that the class-gap between him and Daisy is the real obstacle. Thus, he starts to hide his dirty business and makes every attempt to fight for a place in the upper class. Social status becomes his life pursuit after making his fortune.

Just like Gatsby, Fang Hung-chien subconsciously desires for stepping high into the social ladder. On his journey back to China, Fang gets to know some young people from “a different world”. They are different from him, born with a silver spoon in their mouths. During the progress getting familiar with each of these young people, he starts to long for their life style. He enjoys the pleasure when people call him “Doctor” and the sense of achievement from his students by teaching them without references, which are actually hidden on purpose. His eagerness for social status feeds his growing vanity and determines his tragic life.

4.4 Struggle between tradition and modernity

The two figures struggle between tradition and modernity. Though there is a time gap between the masterpieces, the United States of the 1920s and China of the 1940s experience great transformation. In the 1920s, the United States stepped into the Jazz Age, the period after the end of World War I as well as a time of breaking the traditions and setting up the new culture. Gatsby witnesses the passage of old life styles and the spreading of new trends in America.

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