老舍小说《歪毛儿》考索

A Study on Laoshe's Novel Waimaor

老舍的短篇小说《歪毛儿》模仿了英国近代作家贝尔斯弗德的奇幻小说《恨世者》,但在立意和表现手法上进行了若干改造。贝尔斯弗德《恨世者》的主题是“恨世”,而老舍《歪毛儿》的主题却具有多义性。《恨世者》的主人公是个大智若愚的“隐者”,而《歪毛儿》的主人公充其量只是个徘徊于“敷衍”与“硬拐硬碰”之间的“畸零人”。老舍不赞同“恨世”,而主张用宗教的人格教育作为济世救人的手段;他认为,若能以耶稣外圆内方的人格为楷模,人们也可能在纷乱的现世中“得到许多许多的自由”。

The short novel Waimaor by Laoshe is an imitation and recreation of Misanthrope, a mysterious fiction of the modern Britain writer Davys Beresford, even though its motif and expression has been remoulded in many ways. In terms of subject matter, Misanthrope is misanthropist, while Waimaor is muhivoeal. Nonetheless, the protagonist of the former is a seemingly stupid soul of wit whereas the counterpart of the latter is an odd man vacillating between perfunctory and stubborn existence. In opposition to misanthropy, Laoshe advocates that religious edification of personality be a means for salvation. It follows that, therefore, if people model on the consummate personality of Jesus, a perfect combination of unyielding spiritual pursuit and behavioural flexibility, they are in a position to come by, in the chaos of this world, ＂ample freedom galore.＂