Exploring the Characteristics of Gadfly's Theme Writing

On the artistic characteristics of the gadfly and the significance of its image

The Gadfly is the masterpiece of Ethel Lillian Voynich, a British woman writer. It has been 88 years since 1897 was published. In the past century, The Gadfly has won a wide audience and been welcomed by millions of readers. The Gadfly has been translated into various languages all over the world and spread widely in an unprecedented way. It is still beneficial to explore the significance of the image of the gadfly and study its artistic characteristics.

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Voynich used various artistic means to promote the plot, express the theme and shape the characters, and made great artistic achievements.

First, use personalized language to express the character, temperament and thoughts of the characters through their actions, and shape people through "movement".

Empty and impersonal dialogue, plain and trivial narration, and long and tasteless psychological description are the taboos of novel art. When depicting characters in action, you can write rich characters with very little pen and ink, and write full characters with vivid colors. Depicting characters through actions is not only a traditional artistic technique in China, but also a valuable experience in world literature and art. The Gadfly successfully uses this artistic technique. For example:

"When I woke up in Monteyne the next morning, Arthur was gone. It turned out that he went up the mountain before dawn to help Jasper drive goats.

"But not long after breakfast, he ran back to the house without a hat, with a three-year-old peasant girl on his shoulder and a big bunch of flowers in his hand.

"Monteyne looked up and looked at him with a smile. What a strange contrast with Arthur, who was serious and silent in Pisa and Zekehen.

"'Where have you been, you wild child? Running around the mountain without breakfast. "

"'Oh, father, how happy! When the sun rises, the mountain scenery is so magnificent; The dew is so thick! "Look!" He held up a wet boot.

"'When we went, we brought some bread and cheese and squeezed some goat milk in the pasture on the mountain. Ah, that's really dirty! But now I'm hungry again. I have to get something to eat for this little guy. Annette, do you want some honey?

"He sat down, put the little girl on his lap and helped her arrange flowers."

Here, through several brief dialogues and concise descriptions, the gadfly's childlike, lively, enthusiastic, curious and active personality in his youth comes to the fore. There are many such wonderful examples in the book.

Second, the scenery is beautiful. Emotion is rendered by scenery, and scenery is enriched by emotion. Scenery blending is better, and it is not worth writing about scenery just for the sake of writing about scenery. The description of the environment and scenery in The Gadfly is very beautiful, with the same thickness and distance, like oil painting, but also like the movement and transformation of the focal plane, delicate, beautiful and poetic. For example:

"They walked along the lake to a quiet place and sat down on a low stone wall. Next to them, there is a cluster of wild roses, full of scarlet fruits; One or two late-blooming cream-colored flowers are still hanging on the high branches, full of rain and swaying like tears. On the green lake, a boat with white wings quivered slightly and rippled in the humid breeze. That looks very light and delicate, just like a bunch of silver dandelions thrown on the water. The window of a shepherd's hut perched on Mount Salvato is like an open golden eye. Bai Yutang hung his head under the quiet white clouds in September, dreaming a good dream. The lake splashed and whispered among the falling pebbles. "

The picture is soft, artistic conception is beautiful, poetic flavor is rich and colorful. We seem to be in it, enjoying the beautiful rural scenery of Italy in summer. From this calm description, I also feel that the situation is calm, just entering the plot, and the contradictions and conflicts have not yet begun.

Another example is:

"This is a soft spring night, the weather is warm and the stars are shining. The water beat against the stone embankment, and the ripples beside the stone steps made a low laugh. Not far away, there is a chain slowly shaking back and forth, creaking. A huge iron crane stands proudly and sadly in Jidi. Darkness is reflected in the starry sky and pearly clouds, and the image of slaves struggling in chains protests their tragic fate in vain and fiercely. " This scene not only has the advantages mentioned above, but also implicitly implies to readers that contradictions are about to unfold, and the result of the gadfly's escape will be more intense resistance and more determined struggle. At the same time, it also has an impact on the development of the gadfly's personality.

Scenery that has nothing to do with expressing the theme and shaping the characters is redundant. Even if it is beautifully written, it will not help the emptiness of the content. Landscape writing has positive significance and value only when it can create atmosphere, explain and promote plot development, contrast the emotions of characters and highlight the theme. One of the artistic features of The Gadfly is to integrate feelings into the scene, embody feelings in the scene, express feelings through the scene, and blend the scenes.

Third, introduce and portray characters, explain the plot, and express contradictions with dialogue. In the first few pages of the novel, through the dialogue between Arthur and Monteyne, Arthur's life experience, ideals, family, circumstances and people who have important relations with him (such as Joan Ma) are clearly introduced. It does not give readers a dull feeling, but is naturally accepted in a strong artistic charm. This book is more about description than narration, and even more about dialogue than description. Voynich gives dialogue more functions.

The gadfly rescued a homeless child from the street. When he asked Dutch to borrow her car with her child in her arms, Dutch told him impatiently: Just send the child to the shelter. At this time, the author wrote their expressions and dialogues like this:

"He's hurt," repeated the gadfly. "Even if he wants to be sent to a shelter, he will have to wait until tomorrow. Now I have to take care of him and give him something to eat. "

"Yida made a face of disgust. You let his head stick to your shirt! "What's the matter with you, dirty thing!"

"The gadfly raised his head, his face suddenly flashed with anger.

"'He's hungry!' He said savagely, "You don't know how to starve, do you? "

Here, through the dialogue between Yida and the gadfly, the differences of their class positions are displayed, the gadfly's noble sympathy is highlighted, and the look and appearance of Yida's rich woman are outlined.

Another example is that the gadfly failed to escape from prison through the dialogue between the commander and Monteyne. Qiongma and Qiongma's family were introduced through the dialogue between Arthur and Monteyne. After Arthur fled for thirteen years, he introduced the process of changing his name to the gadfly through the discussion in the party and the self-description of the gadfly.

The ingenious use of dialogue makes the structure of The Gadfly compact, natural and refined, which saves pen and ink and increases artistic appeal.

Voynich generally does not describe and depict unimportant characters in the book in detail, but only expresses their existence and activities through side rendering, comparison and exaggeration, and sometimes adopts this method for the main characters.

A high degree of artistry must be unified with profound ideological content. Profound thoughts, the significance of the times and the reappearance of history-the content of the work can only be properly expressed through perfect artistic forms, and artistic means and techniques can only be attached to performance, revealing the theme and serving the characterization. Voynich realized the organic unity of the two, and created a typical image of an immortal Italian patriot with exquisite artistic skills and exciting artistic strength.

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The image of the gadfly's perseverance and bravery inspired people to fight for freedom, peace and the reunification of the motherland. Krupskaya recalled that Lenin liked the gadfly very much, appreciated its perseverance and praised its strong will. Ostrovsky, the author of How Steel was Tempered, was also inspired by the spirit of the gadfly. During the period of democratic revolution and socialist construction, many readers in our country also like the gadfly and worship its quality and perseverance. Through a series of life pictures and struggle scenes, The Gadfly reflects the historical struggle of the Italian people against the Austrian feudal dynasty and the bourgeois revolution in the 1930s and 1940s with rich details, and praises the Italian youth who participated in the struggle. As Ye Gollova said in the preface, "The gadfly is the heroic image of Italian revolutionaries in the 1930s and 1940s." Voynich praised the heroic character of Italian revolutionaries with warm brushstrokes, described the lofty spirit of the gadfly who died and devoted himself to peace and freedom as an independent Italy, and showed the gadfly's tortuous and difficult growth process. The typical image of the gadfly shows the achievements of critical realism in19th century.

Character activities revolve around a central issue: preparing for revolution-uprising, overthrowing Austrian colonialists, overthrowing papal rule and establishing a free and independent Italian Republic. If there is a sub-theme, it is the struggle against religious superstition and religious guardian Monteyne, and the exposure and criticism of religious cruelty and hypocrisy. These two issues are closely intertwined. The latter question is the supplement and component of the previous one. This struggle is mainly manifested and developed through the relationship and activities of three important figures: Gadfly, Li and Qiongma.

The image of the gadfly is the product of his time. The gadfly's personality sparkled with dazzling sparks, and the spiritual world reached the peak of maturity, which took a long time. The wandering life in the rain and the tragic experience of the juggling class made the gadfly's hazy beliefs and ideals more and more clear and firm in his youth, which became the main content of his life and the meaning of survival. At the age of eighteen, the gadfly has decided the way of life "... dedicated my life to Italy to help her liberate from slavery and poverty; "To drive the austrians out and make Italy a free country without an emperor except Christianity. The gadfly thinks that he is "a person in this career, because he already knows it". "

13 years later, the gadfly no longer understood the early vows by passion alone, but was more profound and firm, hiding and forbearing the strong hatred against feudal rule and colonialists in the cold. The gadfly is no longer an innocent young man, but a sophisticated and calm revolutionary. He has a strategic vision and knows how to organize people to fight.

Patriotism has increasingly become the essence and mainstream of gadfly's thought, which also contains profound humanitarian spirit. The Gadfly and Qiongma Night Street saved the children and expressed their antipathy to Yida's noble attitude, which is an outstanding performance. Especially when he and Joan Ma came out of the juggling class, their psychology and expressions were impressive. The gadfly with excitement almost crazy cry, spoke his humanitarian confession:

"Don't you ever think that the poor clown will have a soul-the soul of a living, struggling person, bound in that bent body and forced to be its slave? You are merciful to everything, and you will feel pity when you see a corpse wearing a fool's clothes and hanging a bell. Haven't you ever thought that the poor soul is so naked that it doesn't even have a colorful coat to hide its shame? Think about it, it is shivering with cold in front of those audiences, and shame and embarrassment make it breathless. I only feel that the audience's ridicule is like a whip, and the audience's laughter is like red-hot iron burning its naked body! Think about it, it turned out to be a jealous mouse. They better have holes to drill! And you have to remember that the soul is dumb, it can't cry, so bear with it, bear with it! "

What a pathetic accusation! What a sad discovery! Because the gadfly has his own personal feelings, he can discover the inequality of human society and see the tragedy caused by the dark society, so that he can effectively attack the dark and unreasonable society.

The gadfly has a particularly strong hatred for the church. The reason why the gadfly opposed the church was that the church deceived him and made him wander around in exile for thirteen years. The church betrayed him, leaving him out of the party organization for a long time and suffering the injustice of a traitor. He "thinks that the root of all confusion and mistakes is the so-called' religious' psychosis", so he "wants to uproot the prestige of the church". The gadfly thinks that the church just "wants to build something to worship it and find something to kowtow to"; The solemn church is "a lifeless world full of priests and idols" and "full of dust from the old days". They are decadent, poisonous and filthy! ”； And "only we revolutionaries are life and youth, and only we are eternal spring"; All his life, "except fighting with priests", "nothing".

Bishop Monteyne, as the main representative of the church, is the main target of the gadfly's attack. The relationship between the gadfly and Monteyne is like "standing on both sides of the abyss, it is impossible to walk through it hand in hand". There are sharp contradictions and irreconcilable struggles between the gadfly and Monteyne, and they often have heated debates. The gadfly's refutation of Monteyne's article is full of hateful satire and angry contempt. But the gadfly not only hates Bishop Monteyne, but also has a kind of love.

The gadfly loves Bishop Monteyne because of his blood-biological father. But the gadfly hates Monteyne a hundred times more than he loves him. This hatred is not personal anger or narrow self-interest, but sharp opposition of political consciousness. The gadfly opposes religion because it hides the truth, defiles peace, hinders freedom and destroys happiness. The gadfly's revolutionary ideal is to establish a free, democratic and independent Italian Republic, and the church has become a political pillar to maintain feudal and colonial rule by virtue of religious evil. Therefore, the struggle against Austrian invaders and feudal aristocratic rulers cannot be closely linked with the struggle against religion and church. This historical phenomenon is of universal significance. Religion has the function of a priest and always acts as an accomplice of the ruling class. Without overthrowing religious rule and idols, the spiritual shackles of the revolutionary masses will not be lifted and there will be no liberation. This shows that the struggle for freedom and liberation between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries always has the nature of resisting religious oppression and exposing religious collapse.

As a faithful believer and defender of religion, Monteyne loved the gadfly more than him. But this kind of love can't go beyond the scope given by his religious idol God, and can't infringe on the interests of the aristocratic class it protects.

The gadfly's uncompromising, thorough and tenacious fighting spirit and rebellious character not afraid of violence are the ideological brilliance of this artistic image, which concentrated the will and character of the Italian revolutionaries in the 1930s and 1940s. Only because of the temporary strength of the reactionary alliance and the mistakes of the revolutionaries' tactics did the struggle fail.

Even in prison, the gadfly didn't stop fighting, filed off eight iron bars during his illness, endured inhuman torture in a coma, taunted and questioned the enemy, spoke freely, talked and laughed, and remained calm before the landslide broke. The gadfly's amazing perseverance and fearless spirit frightened the enemy, who were afraid of his "full of jokes". The gadfly said, "When it's our turn to clean up you, we'll replace these half dozen worn-out carbines with cannons;" Then you will understand how big a joke we are making. " The gadfly is a happy flea.

The gadfly never wavered and doubted the victory and justice of his career. Until one minute before his death, he was still full of warm confidence and firm hope. Before the sacrifice, the gadfly wrote to Joan:

"Those guys who are mired in the quagmire, so quickly re-use the means of secret interrogation and execution, which gives us a powerful turning point, but also puts themselves at an extremely unfavorable position; I know very well that if the people you stay behind can unite firmly and give them a fierce blow, you will soon see great achievements! As for me, I will walk into the yard with a relaxed mood, just like a primary school student going home on holiday. I have done my duty, and this death sentence proves that I have done my duty thoroughly. They tried to kill me because they were afraid of me. If a person can do this, what else can he expect? " This is all the ideal of the gadfly. The gadfly ended his heroic life with heroic actions.

It should be pointed out that the image of the gadfly is limited by the historical class, and the thought of the gadfly is the thought of that particular era. The gadfly only feels pity and sympathy for the suffering people, and only thinks that "they" deserve "pity". Instead of continuing to explore and think, he saw the essence of a cannibal society through this tragic phenomenon, not realizing that only by eliminating the exploitation system can this phenomenon of human exploitation be completely changed. In 1930s and 1940s, Marxism was not yet produced, the Italian capitalist economy was developing, and the proletariat was not strong enough to enter the political arena. Therefore, the highest understanding of Gadfly's thought can only be an outstanding bourgeois democratic revolutionary and a hero of the national rejuvenation movement, not a proletarian revolutionary. The gadfly only knows that "the soul is dumb, it won't cry, so it has to endure, endure, endure!" " "He doesn't know that once people with this dumb soul realize their historical mission and unite, they will become a huge impact force, destroy the old world and establish a new world with permanent peace and freedom without exploitation and oppression.

The gadfly's criticism of religion is also incomplete. Strictly speaking, he only opposed the church, not all religions in the general sense, because the gadfly didn't want the religion of Monteyne, but wanted to keep his own religion-Christ. The gadfly didn't realize the essential problem that "religion is the opium that anesthetizes people", and he didn't know how to link the struggle against religion with the concrete practice of eliminating the class movement that produced the social roots of religion (Lenin: On the attitude of the Workers' Party to religion, Selected Works of Lenin, Volume II, page 273). Therefore, the gadfly is an anti-feudal fighter in the period when the bourgeoisie rose and seized power from the nobility, which is essentially different from proletarian fighters.

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Qiongma, who is engaged in revolutionary work with the gadfly and has deep feelings for the gadfly, is another important figure in the novel, a comrade, girlfriend and lover of the gadfly.

Joan Ma and the gadfly are childhood friends. The gadfly fell in love with Qiongma when she was "a little girl with a plaid shirt, wrinkled chest and a braid on her back". With the passage of time, they have grown from naive teenagers to healthy and knowledgeable young people, and the emotional stream has a wave of love, especially the gadfly's love for Qiongma. This is not only because Joan Ma has become a beautiful girl, but more importantly, they have the same ideals, aspirations and language.

The gadfly is not a vulgar pornographic person, nor a love supremacist. His love for Joan Ma has the content of political struggle, and he pursues spiritual comfort and encouragement, which is comparable to Plato's love model. For the gadfly, love serves the revolutionary work. When Yida asked the gadfly to live a happy life with her in South America, the gadfly refused. The gadfly said to Yida, "I don't love you. Even if I love you, I won't leave here with you. Italy has my work, and my comrades ... "In the gadfly's view, career is higher than love.

13 years later, the gadfly met Qiongma again and worked together, but never told Qiongma her true identity. It seems a little cold, but it's not. The gadfly didn't show his true feelings, but he controlled the outbreak of feelings with great self-control several times, which was not painful for him! The reasons why the gadfly does not reveal his identity are as follows: first, it is not good for his work, his career, and even has adverse consequences, which may bring misfortune to Qiongma; Second, the suffering he experienced is directly related to her. The gadfly didn't want to tell anyone about his painful experience and bitter past, including Joan Ma. Third, telling your true identity and revealing your true colors will not make Joan happy-because the gadfly's bumpy and hard life will not make Joan happy. The gadfly didn't want to stir up the sad memories buried in his heart for a long time, which cast a shadow over his new pure feelings with Joan Ma.

The love between the gadfly and Joan Ma is the central clue throughout the book. The fate of their love is not so much a chance encounter as a desire to devote themselves to a great cause. Qiongma and the gadfly bravely resisted the cruel autocratic rule. They put life and death at risk, struggled to realize the ideals of the bourgeoisie and the country, went through hardships and suffered countless disasters. "Their motivation is not from trivial personal desires, but from the historical trend in which they live." (Engels: Letter to Fifi Lasalle (1850 May 18) "The Complete Works of Marx and Engels", vol. 29, p. 583) The love development of the gadfly and Qiongma is a tragic ending, but their tragic love can't be compared with the Great Anti-Yuanyang in the history of feudal times, and it has injected * into the power grab. The gadfly said goodbye to death with comic optimism. The letter that the gadfly wrote to Joan before she died is a confession of her faithful love, a sweet memory of her poetic childhood, and a mystery that she unloaded and aggravated her mental pain. The contradiction between the optimistic tone in the letter and the sad news of the writer's death, the fruitless long-term search for Arthur and the memory of Arthur, and the sudden realization that the person who worked with him not long ago was Arthur's happiness and farewell to Arthur forever all happened in an instant, and the power of tragedy reached its peak at this moment-the gadfly died peacefully, leaving Joan with more painful regrets and deeper condolences.

Voynich is a long-lived (1864— 1960) progressive writer with few works. The gadfly is famous in the world literary world, but it is not mentioned in many books on the history of European literature. The Gadfly was written in 1897, when the proletarian revolution was surging. Marxism has been widely spread, and a progressive writer cannot but be influenced by it. Did Voynich write1the 1930s at the end of the 9th century, and did he praise people? Some words of the gadfly are too high-spirited. But this does not detract from the positive evaluation of the gadfly and the gadfly.

The image of the gadfly will live forever in the hearts of the Italian people and revolutionaries all over the world. The gadfly's tragic death made his image fuller and more vivid. The tragedy of the death of the gadfly does not mean the tragedy of his career, nor does it mean the tragedy of historical development. Marx said: "The last stage of the form of world history is comedy." (Introduction to the Criticism of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, the Complete Works of Marx and Engels, Volume I, page 457) The image of the gadfly inspires the latecomers to fight for the last comedy of world history. As Ye Ye Gollova said in the preface, "The novel The Gadfly will always capture the readers' hearts with its patriotism and revolutionary enthusiasm. "