论多元理论视阈中《弗兰肯斯坦》和《化身博士》的互文性(2)
3 Multiple Theories in the Intertextuality Analysis9
3.1 The Theme Intertextuality .9
3.1.1 Sigmund Freud: The Ego and the Id9
3.1.2 Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil11
3.1.3 Xunzi: Human Nature Is Evil13
3.2 The Culture Background Intertextuality.15
3.2.1 Sigmund Freud: The Ego and the Id.15
3.2.2 Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil17
3.2.3 Xunzi: Human Nature Is Evil20
3.3 The Character Intertextuality22
3.3.1 Sigmund Freud: The Ego and the Id.22
3.3.2 Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil24
3.3.3 Xunzi: Human Nature Is Evil26
4 The Graphical Presentation of the Intertextuality.29
5 Conclusion .32
5.1 The Intertextuality of the Two Works.32
5.2 The Implication of the Study34
Bibliography36
1. Introduction
Gothic fiction can be regarded as a mixture blending imagination and common life together. As well, the authors of gothic fiction have always depicted the real situation of common life and society by means of using imagination to satirize the dark side of the world and humanity. “The Gothic subject is a precarious being, always in danger of being subsumed by irrationality in all its guises-madness, desire, fear.”(Smith,2000:1)“Frankenstein is perhaps most famous for its creation scene and for the various confrontations that occur between Victor Frankenstein and his creation throughout the novel, scenes which combine Miltonic language and sublime imagery with descriptions of violence, horror, and decay. But the emphasis is on mental state.”(Hogle, 2002:100) Actually, this is the reason why Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein will be chosen in this paper to be analyzed and compared with Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. There is no doubt that Frankenstein has been considered as one of the most representative gothic fictions. Mary Shelley, a female author, describes this strange, horrible and vagarious story in her own way in order to express her thought about the society, the whole world and humanity.
“Those figures reveal this deeply familiar foundation while ‘throwing it under’ the cover of an outcast monster more vaguely archaic and filled with contradictions than supposedly normal human beings, as in the cadaverous creature of Frankenstein, the aristocratic vampire in Dracula, or the shrunken and gnarled other-self-in-the-self of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”(Hogle, 2002:7)Besides Frankenstein, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is another outstanding gothic fiction about a normal man with an evil inside. It can be found that the two works have affinities in many aspects, such as the theme, the culture background and the characters, which can prove that the two works have intertextuality. “Intertextuality reminds us that all texts are potentially plural, reversible, open to the reader’s own presuppositions, lacking in clear and defined boundaries, and always involved in the expression or repression of the dialogic ‘voices’ which exist within society. This is perhaps the reason, since cultural debate never ceases, that intertextuality promises to be as vital and productive a concept in the future as it has been in the recent past.”(Allen, 2000:209)Through analyzing and comparing the details of the two works, this paper focuses on finding out that what kind of intertextuality the two works have in reflecting the humanity and society in a multi-theoretical way.
1.1 The synopsis of Frankenstein
Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley was published in 1818. This novel initiates the harbinger of western modern science fiction. It is important that this novel contains the theme of revelatory significance. One of the most influential themes is that human beings fails to be the Creator and finally are controlled by his creation, which is caused by the inordinate appetency and the dissimilation of science.