A Study Of Suicide For Protagonists In Chen-lun, Kwang-jang And Martin Eden

Protagonists of Chinese novel Yu Dafu's Chen-lun, Korean novel Cui Renxun's Kwang-jang and American novel Jack London's Martin Eden are young, ambitious and have made their every effort to satisfy their desires; however, they all commit suicide in the end. Three writers create this kind of tragedy to show their concern for humanity, society and the struggle between human's dream and the real world. This thesis aims to make a comparative study of three novels concerning tragedy of suicide from different countries to call attention to the youth'growth and hope the society could provide healthy environment for human being.The three novels Chen-lun, Kwang-jang and Martin Eden all have a profound influence on the literature and also the society. Much study has been done for these novels; however, much research emphasizes the effect of society on the suicide behavior and neglects the intrinsic factor. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze psychology of the three protagonists applying Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory so as to find out what kind of needs have concern with their suicide, and analyze the external cause with Durkheim's Suicide Theory. Finally, expound the intrinsic factor and external cause of suicide behavior comprehensively.This thesis is divided into five parts. The first part introduces the study purpose and significance of this subject, the trends of recent researches and the study method, and the innovation of this article. The second part describes three protagonists make their active effort to satisfy their lower level of needs, although the way to satisfy the lower needs is a little hard, they all have fulfilled them. The third part analyzes their higher level of needs and gets the clue that their suicide has concern with these higher needs which are the intrinsic factor of suicide. The fourth part focuses on the social environment, to analyze external cause of suicide applying Durkheim's Suicide Theory. The last part elicits the conclusion and suggests some measures to avoid the tragedy of suicide.