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欧·亨利短篇小说的艺术结尾与人性体现(1)学

2013-10-16 01:17

Abstract
O. Henry, one of the three most famous short-story writers in the world, enjoys equal status with Chekhov and Maupassant. Some critics called him “the founder of American stories.” Exquisite plot, wry humor and twist ending dominate his works. The main stream of his works is eulogy of humanity and his many classical works are notable.
This thesis mainly analyses the twist ending and the humanity of characters in O. Henry’s short stories. With his humorous, ironical and comic writing style, O. Henry reveals the humanity from the twist ending. Part one is on the humanity of characters reflected from the twist ending. O. Henry shows sympathy for the poor social underdogs, upgrades human virtues as well as exposes human defeats. However, the previous human nature elicits the sudden twist ending. It not only gives the readers sudden fall but also makes us think plausibly. Part two is on the effect of twist ending writing devices on the humanity of characters. It mainly contains the writing background of ending which lights up the humanity of characters and the plot making technique of twist ending. In a capitalist society, the specific characters are the special society. They also foretell the fate ending. Furthermore, the cultivation of the plot and the surprise ending gives us a new open sight. Part three is about some comments on the twist ending. Some critics considered wry humor as “Smile with Tears,” or “Tears with Smile.” This part elevates the charm of the theme. In a word, the twist ending directs readers to think about the humanity. Meanwhile, the humanity elevates the artistic twist ending.
This thesis on O. Henry’s short stories will improve literary learning. More than that it will attract more people to pay attention to O. Henry’s works.
Key words: Twist ending; Humanity; Wry humor; Smile with tear

 

中文摘要
作为世界三大小说家之一,欧·亨利与契诃夫和莫泊桑齐名。他是美国现代短篇小说的开创者,他的作品因其奇巧的艺术构思、出其不意的结尾而著称。其中歌颂人性的小说是欧·亨利文学创作的主流,并且许多作品已成为家喻户晓的名篇。同时涌现出许多感人至深的经典人物。表现了作家对人性理想的执著追求。

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本文从欧·亨利短篇小说的艺术结尾与人性层面分析。作者运用了幽默、讽刺的喜剧手段揭示了关于善恶的人性主题及其出奇不意的结尾,让主题升华。第一部分,从艺术结尾中折射的人性特点出发。欧·亨利同情下层人民,赞颂人性的闪光点“自我牺牲”、善良、真挚、无私等美德，以及人性的丑陋一面。还有资本主义社会所特有的自私、贪婪、冷酷等。这些为艺术结尾作了铺垫,使读者被其出奇不意的结尾所震撼,同时其结尾在情理之中。第二部分,作者如何将艺术结尾表现在人性上,从两方面入手:社会背景所反映的人性特征和作者奇巧的谋篇布局。在资本主义社会,人物具有典型的性格特征,这些都预示了他们的结局。而作者通过各种手法将其跃然纸上。第三部分,评论小说的艺术结尾,作者的作品也曾被认为是庸俗的小说,但他们忽视了艺术结尾所饱含的荒诞与幽默所产生的“含笑带泪”和“含泪带笑”的艺术效果。总之,艺术结尾激发了人们对人性特点深思,而人性特点又升华了艺术结尾,对读者的心灵产生了持久的震撼力。
本文对欧·亨利及其短篇小说进行的研究，对本人今后的文学路有一定的帮助。而且，可以让更多的人关注到欧·亨利。
关键词: 艺术结尾; 人性; 幽默; 带泪的微笑

Ⅰ. Introduction
O. Henry, originally named William Sydney Porter, is a distinguished American storywriter. He wrote more than 300 short stories in his life. His stories are full of colorful characters most of whom are derived from his inclination to wander streets and parks, and to talk to people of every kind and condition. And all of his stories are ingeniously conceived, with the endings always contrary to readers' expectations. Though his stories' endings are always surprising, yet it is not beyond reason, for both ways conform well to the logic of life. He creates an original, typically American democratic form of short stories with, at its best, a valuable critical awareness of life and society tellingly expressed through humor. Therefore, some critics call him "the founder of American stories". Being gifted with humor and a keen awareness of details, he objectively shows us what America looks like. As his experience shows, the majority people he met in his daily life are those lower class in society ---- clerks, policemen, and waitresses. All his stories putting together constitute a true panorama of American life, or as someone said, "The encyclopedia of American life". [1](P61)

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O. Henry's trademark is the surprising ending that each of his stories contains. He sets a story moving in one direction, and just when the reader is convinced of the general direction of the narrative, the story will be completely reversed. And if we look back to the total story, the ending seems logical and plausible. As a “plot-maker”, and designer of incident, he is an amazing genius. No one can do better than him to holds the reader in “suspense”. More than that, the reader scarcely knows that he is suspended until the very close of the story. Just as turns on the lights and the whole tale is revealed in its entirety. [2]He uses this device of dramatic and humorous effect in the short story collection The Four Million which including “The Ransom of Red Chief ”, “The Gift of the Magi ”, and “The Cop and the Anthem”, “the Service of Love”, “The last Leaf.” At the same time he uses irony and satire to disclose the essence of American society: the weak are the prey of the strong, which is regarded as the law of the jungle universally. In addition, right and wrong are confused, good and evil are disordered. Take his works as examples, “Mammon and The Archer”, “The Furnished Room” and “A Double-Dyed Deceiver”. Those jocular methods in rhetoric can move you to tears as well as laughter. Moreover the author vividly presents the humanity of characters. So if you look back the total story, the ending seems logical and plausible. The real charm of O. Henry's tales lies not only in the twist ending, but also in the reversal reflected from the twist ending of his characters' humanity. The kind of endings serves to light up the humanity of characters, to show the author's love and hatred and thus to arouse the readers’ sympathy. If we ponder deeply over those twist endings and those radiant effects, we will find the root of society system is the field of the humanity. Therefore the author uses different kinds of devices to add wry humor to enhance the theme. Next, let’s unfold the magic travel of O. Henry’s works.

Ⅱ. The Humanity of Characters Reflected From the Twist Ending （科教范文网http://fw.ΝsΕΑc.com编辑）
As we know, the ending of an article has long been considered as a conclusion or just a summary of the whole passage. However, O. Henry illustrates a new way, the so-called twist ending or sometimes the O. Henry’s ending. It means that at the end of an article the mental status or the fate of the character has changed greatly. But the whole passage is suddenly endowed with a great charm because of the ending. And the twist ending not only gives the readers a sudden fall, but also let us thinks a lot. [3](P128) Think what? From the twist ending, the humanity is clearly presented. Among O. Henry’s short stories, the eternal theme proves to be the humanity. Whether simple or complex, the mystery of human motives controlled by human nature is exposed. There are good and evil elements in human nature, for the two are often mixed with each other more or less. When the good elements in human nature occupy the predominant portion, man will carry forward his virtues such as kindness, generosity, hospitality, self-sacrifice for love and friendship, helping others without asking for rewards. While the evil things defeat the good in human nature, man will display such human defects as being gluttonous and lazy, rapacious, officious, vain arrogant, cowardly, impetuous etc. The human motives become more and more mysterious and various. When tempted, good man would do evil things; when moved by noble-minded people or touching things, the demon will forsake darkness for light and turn over a new leaf in his life. In O. Henry's world, established figures become boobs and rich men become dunces, while rogues become heroes and down-and-outers become gentlemen.
1. The Human Virtues
Human being has many virtues from ancient times to the present. They are kind, brave, honest, hard working, polite, thrifty, generous, hospital and so on. Some people still pay a great deal in order to maintain these virtues, they sacrifice their own happiness even their life for lofty love and friendship; they help others without asking for rewards and regard it as a pleasure; they give up their own treasure and chance to others etc. Such people bring love and fine things to the world; they are the ones who endow the world with light and hope. O. Henry has a great understanding of the trials of the lower class, and he frequently pictures the lives of ordinary people of early twentieth century America with warm and sympathetic colors. These characters are frequently the overlooked: the struggling shops girl, the unsuccessful artist, and the impoverished. Even Theodore Roosevelt said: “It was O. Henry who started me on my campaign for office girls.”[4](P28) There is no denying that the narratives of humanity by O. Henry have everlasting influence. Although they are poor, leading the life “made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating”, [5](P3) they still think, “If a home is happy it cannot fit too close.”[6](P41) Most of O. Henry’s stories show that the humble little insignificant people of New York are just as admirable and their lives are as worthy of attention and interest and, as he implies, as respectable as the members of the Four Hundred. 您可以访问中国科教评价网（www.NsEac.com）查看更多相关的文章。
Take “The Gift of the Magi” as an example, we will find the ingenuity of O. Henry’s unexpected endings. From that condensation of the charm of human virtues the love-sacrificial theme is shown. It is about a young couple that is short of money but desperately wants to buy each other Christmas gifts. Unknown to Jim, Della sells her most valuable possession, her beautiful hair, in order to buy platinum as the chain for Jim's watch; unknown to Della, Jim sells his most valuable possession, his watch, to buy jeweled combs for Della's hair. The author arranges the entire plot just to get the readers to wait, to cause suspense, the pleasurable excitement and anticipation of the outcome. From the beginning, the readers keep guessing what Jim and Della will buy for each other, and the coincidence of their gift is the great suspense the author put in his article. And then he gives the answer to the question. Here is the ending: “Here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely scarified for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in the last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts.” [7](P59) However, the story end comes when Jim reveals that he has sold his watch to buy Dalla her present, from where the poor couple’s love is show. Therefore, O. Henry ends the story artfully, and with deft touches he elicits the reader’s admiration and sympathy for his young couple shows love for each other more than compensates for their lack of money and material possessions. Though confronted with cruel reality and dull daily routine, Della and Jim can never change their eagerness toward love. To them the most valuable material possession is so slight and insignificant before the spiritual possession of love romance. That is sparkling with fragrant charm.
There is another story about sacrificial theme entitled “The Last Leaf”, a warm and tragic tale describing how a dying artist proves as resilient as the last leaf on the wall outside. Sue, a poor painter, attacked by Pneumonia, wanted to turn loose her hold on everything, and go sailing down, down, just like one of those poor tires leave. But after beating rain and fierce gusts of wind, an ivy leaf still stands against the brick wall, which gives her the hope of living, makeing her realize that: “It is a sin to want to die”. [8](P71) The ending reveals that Mr. Behrman, a kind old artist dies at previous night by pneumonia, painting the leave on an outdoor vine in the storming night ----in his effort to restore Sue’s will to live. Though the touching ending makes us absorbed in sadness, the readers can still find gleams of hope and desire out of despair. It not only enlightens the girl’s courage for better life but also moves every reader to tears. Those glittering human virtues however counterpoint to the capitalist industrial bourgeoisies’ human defeats, telling us that life is supreme and thus upgrading the theme.

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Moreover, sometimes the ending repeats the beginning and strings the whole article to elucidate the human virtues. In “A Service of Love”, O. Henry inputs the comment to an inside view, which is conveyed by the conversation between Joe and Delia: “When one loves one’s art no service seen—just when one loves”. [9](P23) The theme is straightly revealed from the beginning and restated by to the end. O. Henry praises for the pure love between Joe and Delia. They both sacrifice their time and chance to earn enough money to support their spouse. Delia works in a laundry for two weeks. They cheat each other so that one of them can win the opportunity to realize his or her dream or Art. Until one-day Delia’s hand is burned with a smoothing-iron, do they find out the reality. This kind of ending eulogize of the love between ordinary people. The art is also a kind hearted, self-sacrifice, hardworking and perseverance. After all, in the world of O. Henry, American society still has charm, has not become vicious.
By and large, through the portrayal the panorama of a throng of people either of upper class or lower class, O. Henry’s eulogize the specious and precious human virtues. The virtues of the character reflected from the unsuspected ending.
⒉ The Human Defects
On the other hand, human beings have many defects, too. They benefit themselves at the expense of others. In order to make money they never show mercy and sympathy to the poor. They realize their own aims by hook or by crook. Their evil deeds make the world vicious. By exposing the human defects and the dark side of the world, O. Henry wants to awaken people’s conscience and their deepest desire for all good things, so that people can make their efforts to save and clean the whole world.
Some people love money than anything else. In “Mammon and the Archer”, Anthony Fuckwell, a retired manufacturer and proprietor of Rockwall’ Soap, has the greatest esteem for the value of money. “I bet my money on money every time, I’ve been through the encyclopedia down to Y looking for something you can’t buy with it, and I expect to have to take to the appendix next week, I’m for money against the field. Tell me something money won’t buy. ” [10](P73) His son wants to ask for a girl’s hand but there is too little time left. Surprisingly, a fortunately traffic tie-up offers enough time for the son. But the ending discloses that it is the father who makes the accident in order to help his son to win the girl’s heart. The theme of the story come out: confronted with the Mammon even Archer has to be bent his head down. To Anthony and his peers, the only thing worthy of their thought is money. With the ironic rhetoric method, O. Henry ends the story with a fat boy without any clothes on shooting arrow around with a bow. That is pictured Cupid, in a new, unexpected way, thus bringing readers a new sense to the topic “Mammon and the Archer”. This usage of the twist ending adds artistic effect to the person’s character described. （科教范文网http://fw.ΝsΕΑc.com编辑）
In a capitalist society, many people even do evil things against their conscience, so as to earn money. In “The Furnished Room”, the housekeeper, Mrs. Purdy, cheats a young man who is seeking his lover, in order to let him rent the room. Then the young man commits suicide out of despair. At the end, after the young man dies, we find the man’s lover commit suicide at the same rented room. Mrs.Purdy talks about it with another housekeeper in an indifferent tone as if it were only a trifle that could be the topic for gossip over dinner. The society is so doomed by an atmosphere of gloom and indifference that it makes people treat others or even friends without sympathy, equaling to committing murder.
Even more jocular is the way that O. Henry describes a rapacious businessman Maxwell in “The Romance of a Busy Broker”. He is so crazy about his golden eternal business---- make big money against the clock. More than that he even forgets he has married or not. And in a tumult of a preparation out of his work, he asks his wife to marry again. Those twist ending explose the whole theme of the article. Are the readers to deride the broker or to show sympathy for the broker’s tender wife?
The author uses pungent rhetoric methods not only to show us the humanity vividly, but also to enhance the theme ----the gluttonous and cruel side of those bourgeoisies.
3. The Human Virtues and the Human Defects----Individualism with No Ill-will
O. Henry has deep insights into human destiny and human nature. Among the story of New Yorkers, the theme of pretense strikes the dominant chords of these stories----the pervasive desire to pose for what one if not, if only for a brief spell of time and regardless of the acknowledged risk involved. [11](P66) In daily life, when one feels that he is not flawless; when one is not content with what he has, it is understandable for him to find something or change something to regain the balance in his heart. Everyone will choose a way to pretend to be another man for a short while to get the sense of compensation. After all, that is a comparative and efficient solution for poor people. When he disguises himself, his daily frustration of the ego will disappear from his head for a while. And the transient awakening of self-esteem will occupy his head and soul for a short time. Thus he can escape from the cruel reality successfully and relax himself. Such a person is worthy of sympathy, so O. Henry never looks down upon them. Although the ending of the story is ironical, he never despises them.

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In the story “While the Auto Waits”, which is recognized as one of his best story of the theme of false pretense. A comely young woman pretends to be a noble lady and tries to impress a young man who stops to chat with her in a park. The man masks his real identity by pretending to be a humble restaurant cashier, which the ending shows to be the position she holds. Meanwhile he is also the wealthy owner of the chauffeured sedan, which she has pointed to as her own. The loss to both individuals is the result of what O. Henry perceived to be a natural human urge. Though this is a world where the fittest survives, the lower class still has its code of ethics. The poor and humble pretend to be the noble and derive pleasure from doing this and they won’t injure anyone else. They are not insignificant but worthy of our respect. [12](P12)

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