A Tentative Study Of The Images Of The Twenty Returning To The Characters In A Dream Of Red Mansions

Ever since the initial publication of Dream of Red Mansions with one hundredand twenty chapters, arguments about its last forty chapters never ceased to emerge.This paper attempts to conduct the analysis from the perspective of traditionalcharacters of these last forty chapters. It classifies the characters in last forty chaptersinto following categories. Firstly, there are characters from former eighty chapters,including primary characters, secondary ones, or peripheral ones. Secondly, there arenew characters in last forty chapters. Thirdly, there are group characters in last fortychapters. Based on the novel itself, taking into account the actual context of bothformer eighty chapters and last forty ones, this paper is trying to analyze the newmeanings of the characters. This paper is composed of three parts: Introductorypart，Main part, and Conclusion part.Introductory part describes current status of the research on the statement, andscope of the treaties.Main part has three chapters: Chapter One analyzes the peripheral or secondarycharacters, and states the change in position by comparing the frequency ofappearance:some characters in the former eighty chapters have higher position thanthe last forty chapters, and others are almost exactly the opposite. This chapterintends to analyze with examples of Xue Ke, Bao Qin, Xiao Hong, Liu Wuer, and so on.Chapter Two analyzes the new characters in last forty chapters, and takes BaoYong, Wang Erdiao, Li Shier and other more representative figures as a breakthroughpoint. This chapter is trying to find out the implied meanings of these new images.Chapter Three analyzes the group figures of last forty chapters. Such figuresappear a lot in many particular cases. This chapter states the three roles it plays inthe whole of last forty chapters.Conclusion part makes the conclusion that last forty characters are showingmale-dominated tendency in general, which deepened the tragic significance of thewhole novel.