Research On The Features Of Immortal Characters In "Wizard Of Oz"

The Wizard of Oz is a novel featuring Taoism and cultivation to attain immortality.Completed during the reign of Emperor Chien Lung,the novel has nearly 700,000 words depicting a story concerning the protagonist Leng Yubing and other characters who manage to become immortal beings after undergoing a myriad of adversities and obstacles.The Wizard of Oz successfully establishes characteristics of figures,thus to some extent obtaining its artistic achievements.The thesis will,from the perspective of characters attaining immortal beings,center on the analysis of characteristics and functions of the figures as well as the comparisons with other counterparts so as to,according to the developing situations and reasons of these characters,figure out the developing trend of magic fiction regarding the cultivation of being immortal.The thesis will be divided into six parts:Chapter one will introduce and summarize the research status of The Wizard of Oz,the necessity of the topic,the difficulty of the research and the research outline.Chapter two will carry out the exploration of the typical immortal figures in a Taoist immortality-themed fiction.Those figures will be analyzed and discerned under the background of the fiction concerning immortality and Taoism theme.The research figures will be further confirmed.Characteristics regarding talents,ability,origin,and the manner of cultivation will be generalized on the ground of the text.Chapter three will,by putting figures under the group structure,analyze the features of the characters.These characters(based on their identity of the first appearance)will be categorized into three types:natural immortals,immortals evolved from humankind,and immortals evolved from evil spirit.The analysis,then,will concentrates on the different types of figures whose background of characteristics,external features,characters,literal function,and the origin of characteristics will be compared,dynamically investigated,and holistically and comprehensively viewed.The fourth chapter will discuss about the changes and development of the figures.Combined with the elaborate interpretations of the former three chapters and the typical characteristics,the analysis lays focus on the comparison and generalization of the essence and characteristics of figures and of the developing tendency and conspicuous features.The fifth chapter will,in various aspects,initiate the probe into the reasons for figures' developing individually,worldly and realistically and group structure's developing complicatedly.The exploration will be argued through five fields:classic works,literary trend,audience's aesthetic appreciation,authorial experiences,and the Taoist development.The conclusion can be recognized as the summary and sublimation of the thesis.Combing through characteristics of figure's features and evolvement,the conclusion will extend the theme into the overall developing trend of Taoist immortality-themed fiction during certain period and the status of The Wizard of Oz among fictions.