情景·人物·结构——评亨利·詹姆斯的《四次会见》

Settings·Characters·Structure ——On Henry James's Four Meetings

亨利·詹姆斯是小说艺术的巨匠 ,在英美文学史上占有重要的地位 ,《四次会见》是其早期短篇名作。作品用第一人称叙事方法 ,将卡罗琳·斯潘塞及其堂兄夫妇三个不同身世、不同心态的人 ,紧紧地揉合在斯潘塞去欧洲旅行的问题上 ,全面地、多方位地描绘出他们各自的语言表象及内心世界。本文对《四次会见》的思想意义、人物描写、小说结构、叙事方法进行了分析 ,阐述了詹氏的“油灯说”在其作品中的作用。

Henry James is one of the great masters of novel art.He takes the prominent place in the English and American literature history.Four Meetings is a famous short story in his early period.By adopting first person narrating method,the author relates the three characters—Caroline Spencer,her cousin and his so called wife who are of different origins and have respective thoughts closely to Miss Spencer's travelling to Europe,giving an all round and many angle description about their languages and inner worlds.This paper analyses the ideological significance,character portrayal,story structure and narrating method of the story,expounding the role of James's “lamp theory”in his novels.