On The Balance In The Line Of Beauty

Allan Hollinghurst (1954-) is one of the outstanding writers in the history of contemporary English literature. In2004, he won the prestigious literary prize—Man Booker Prize for his gay novel The Line of Beauty. The novel tells a story of a middle class young man named Nick who grows, develops and then lapses from virtue into vice after barging into the upper class society. Through analyzing the relationships between male and female, love and sex, dynamic and static as well as beauty and morality, this thesis aims to make a comprehensive study on Hollinghurst’s viewpoint of balance.Introduction introduces Allan Hollinghurst’s creation, literature review and the storyline of The Line of Beauty briefly. The first chapter discusses the imbalance relationship between male and female, the imbalance of characters, the feminization of male, the virilization of female and the new gender relationship of androgyny. The second chapter explores the inharmonious relationship between love and sex, verifying the author’s viewpoint of making a triangular balance among love, sex and money. The third chapter analyzes the depiction of dynamic and static scenes and that of physical activity and psychological activity to achieve the effect that makes dynamic depictions and static depictions go together. The forth chapter focuses on beauty and morality, probes into the imperfect beauty, putting forward the idea that beauty is the symbol of morality by exploring the balanceable relationship between beauty and morality. The part of conclusion expatiates on the theme further, elaborates Hollinghurst’s viewpoint of balance hidden in the plot, his keen insight into human nature, his commiserations on the marginal group and his worries about the irrational social structure.