| Melville's creating life was bumpy and rough.However,since the 1920 s,because of his novels on whaling and ocean he has secured predominant place in American literature,and has been recognized as one of the outstanding romantic writers in the 19 th century.His Moby Dick with painstaking efforts is not only the peak of American novels in the 19 th century,but also a world classic.Up to now,many researchers at home and abroad have studied this work from the perspective of ecology,images,Bible and mythology and narrative strategies.Although there are a few scholars who studied Moby Dick from the perspective of existentialism,they didn't answer the question that why Ahab chooses the road toward destruction,and what he obtains by killing Moby Dick.However,Camus's Absurdism mainly concerns about the question that the realization of the meaninglessness and absurdity of life necessarily require murdering.Camus accepts the truth of the absurd.Passion,revolt and freedom are the three main consequences.Revolt results from the total acceptance of the absurd.The deadly revolt exceeds life and endows life its value and its majesty.?Freedom of the Absurd? by Camus(1955)states when man recognizes the absurd around him,his absurd passion shall make him revolt the absurd.And finally,the revolt brings man with absolute freedom.The theory enables us to analyze the questions that why shall Captain Ahab have such kind of destructive determination,is there any kind of logic supporting a man to make it toward the end of death,and what's the significance of Captain Ahab's death to dispel the absurd?This thesis shall be divided into five chapters.The first chapter gives a brief introduction to Herman Melville and Moby Dick.The second chapter shall generally introduce the literature review of the previous studies of Moby Dick.In the third chapter,the critical approach Camus's Absurdism shall be illustrated,so shall the theory branch existentialism.And then,the fourth chapter is the discussion part,which mainly discusses the following contents: 1.In the 19 th century,the social evils like environment problems,wealth polarization,racial discrimination and religion predicament make human beings fall into mental predicament.All these social evils in external alien world and power,authority and loneliness of internal self-alienation that make Captain Ahab sense the absurd of the world;2.Once the absurd is recognized,Captain starts his revolt by insisting on killing Moby Dick.Moby Dick is regarded as an incarnation of the world's evil and it bites Ahab's leg once;3.The destruction road toward death is not only a moral exploration about the evil and the good,but the method human beings find to resist the absurd and to endow fixed fate with insignificance.It is a way to rise against God.At the same time,the revolt in form of death dispels and swallows all the absurd,and makes people obtain the terminal value and freedom.The last chapter is the conclusion.Captain Ahab's choice of road toward destruction is caused by the ubiquitous absurd around him.Through his revolt in form of killing Moby Dick,Captain Ahab rises against the incapable God,dispels the absurd and obtains the freedom of absurd finally. |
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