浅析欧亨利短篇小说成功的秘诀Word下载.docx

1、O. Henry was the pseudonym of the American writer William Sydney Porter （September 11, 1862June 5, 1910）. He was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, the son of physician Algernon Sidney Porter. His mother died when Porter was three and he was placed in the care of his paternal grandmother. He left s

2、chool at fifteen and began work in his uncles pharmacy where he became a licensed pharmacist. He later moved to Houston, and then to Austin, Texas. After a series of jobs, in 1891 he became a teller with the First National Bank in Austin where he was charged with embezzling funds, a charge some stil

3、l question. Leaving his wife and daughter, Porter fled to New Orleans, then to Honduras, but returned because of his wifes deteriorating health. She died shortly before Porter was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to five years in prison. While in prison Porter started to write short stories t

4、o support his daughter Margaret. Using the pen name O. Henry, his story, Whistling Dicks Christmas Stocking appeared in McClures Magazine in 1899, a dozen more stories followed. After serving three years he was released from prison in 1901. He moved to New York City in 1902 where he wrote a story a

5、week for the New York World. His first collection, Cabbages and Kings was published in 1904. The second The Four Million, published two years later included the famous; The Gift of the Magi. The equally famous The Ransom of Red Chief, was included in Whirligigs published in 1910. O. Henry published

6、ten collections and over 600 short stories during his lifetime gaining worldwide acclaim as Americas short story writer. Henrys last years were troubled by alcoholism, ill health, and financial problems. He died of cirrhosis of the liver in a New York hospital almost penniless. Today the O. Henry Aw

7、ards are an annual recognition given to outstanding short stories, the O. Henry Pun-Off World Championships are held each year in Austin, Texas hosted by the citys O. Henry Museum and a clever use of twist endings in any story is termed an O. Henry Ending.B. Artistic features in his works1. A prelim

8、inary introduction of his works In O. Henrys works, sometimes we can see the reality of human living, good and evil, the value and meaning of life, the darkness of society, as well as bitter tears with smile. But such works of O. Henry are too few, his works, among half of them cannot be regarded as

9、 masterpieces while a few are difficult to read. I think, this is probably because O. Henry has written too fast and too much, causing those uneven works. Whats more we could find some plots in his works where the writer repeated himself and humored only for the sake of humor. However, in order to m

10、ake living, O. Henry had to write quickly, which is really such a bad thing- probably the work Confessions of Humorist is the portrayal to this sorrowful reality by O. Henry.More than half of O. Henrys novels are realism, but there are also some works in a different style such as the The Dream which

11、 was not finished before he passed the world. The main role Murray has been put into prison when he was dreaming, before to be sentenced to death, the reason for this penalty is that “Murray, the criminal accused and convicted of the brutal murder of his sweetheart - a murder prompted by jealous rag

12、e,” and “ at first faces the death penalty, calm, and, to all outward appearances, indifferent to his fate.” at this time, “As he nears the electric chair he is overcome by a revulsion of feeling. He is left dazed, stupefied, stunned. The entire scene in the death chamber the witnesses, the spectato

13、rs, the preparations for execution becomes unreal to him. The thought flashes through his brain that a terrible mistake is being made. ”（Henry 734-735）This novel only owns two pages while the style is totally different from his past works and looks like a modernistic work. And when talking about cre

14、ation intention, O. Henry once said like this: I want to show the public that I can write something newnew for me, I mean a story without slang, a straightforward dramatic plot treated in a way that will come nearer my idea of real storywriting（Henry 734）.What a great pity that we cannot appreciate

15、the twist ending method of O. Henry in this work forever. Another special work is Roads of Destiny, though it has the similar structure with Arabian Nights, fable-style brushwork, but taking a whole look, it can be regarded as a paper in the stream of consciousness.The iterated description between d

16、reams and realities in the novel The Magic Kiss, making the works style close to the stream of consciousness, or it can be regarded as the stream of consciousness. But the ideological level of the level is rather common. In the part of Art and Literature in Times, there is an Essay from Collections

17、of O. Henry, which records 12 poems and some letters. But these letters are basically satire with litter artistic value. His letters are very humorous and some are as interesting as his novels. There is one thing we have to notice that he mentioned his creation theory in a letter. The following is s

18、ome abstract:I want to write a story of a person- not a special person, but a kind-while, at the same time, I want this person to present “the kind of natural human”, if such a person really exists. The novel is without lessons, without moral speech and without theory development. I want it to be th

19、e idea of a person, a true record of unfortunate and adventure.The truth does not in disguised objectively under the name of something. I refer that, for the main role, everything is true opinion and evaluation. I want to let everyone see how God put him into impasseI want to let everyone know what

20、he can do for this（Xiao 12）.O. Henrys short stories are well known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization and clever twist endings. In this thesis, I want to make a preliminary analysis on the success of O. Henrys short stories from the following parts: dramatic scene, characterization, use

21、of puns, surprising endings, the beginning and some other proofs. 2. Reason for the thesisThe reason why I want to do a research of O. Henry is that firstly he really owned a high status in the world literature. His works has been widely spread throughout the world. Then it is my personal love of th

22、e writer. I was deeply impressed by his surprising ending when I first read the story The Gift of the Magi. And the figures in O. Henrys works are all very lovely and kind and also remember by readers after their first reading. II. Dramatic scenes in O. Henrys short storiesA. Dramatic scene in Psych

23、e and the SkyscraperO. Henry is such a writer who is good at seizing typically dramatic scenes which are interesting and full of philosophy. In the story Psyche and the Skyscraper, the chief actress Daisy is loved by two boys at the same time. Once she goes to the roof of the Skyscraper for great si

24、ghts with the philosopher. The philosopher talked too much about the knowledge he gained from encyclopedia such as the distance between the Sun and the Earth, the orderliness and movement of stars etc. To an average reader, these should be rather simple and common, while in Daisys eyes, these are to

25、tally shocking and seems like a swindle made by the philosopher. At length Daisy chooses the other person as her husband. In the story, the writer sharply criticized the ignorance of those people who lived at that time in an ironical tone（Shen 24）.B. Dramatic scene in to See a DoctorSuch typical dra

26、matic scenes are very common in O. Henry works, in the story To See a Doctor, the leading actor has got a distracted nervous breakdown, due to the over-therapy method of the doctor in the city, e.g. the doctor takes the leading actor to madhouse for recuperation; let him do coordinated movement and

27、training that are impossible to endure; or let him diet according to special recipe. Through those afflictions, the patient becomes full of ambivalence while the illness becomes worse and worse. Later he learned that there is a special kind of herb can cure his stubborn disease while it is very diff

28、icult for attaining. In order to cure the disease, Tatum takes the leading role into the mountain for a month and search for the herb, all the people in the village say that the disease has turned out better. At the moment the leading role completely understands that actually the so-called herbs do

29、not exist, the village doctor only wants to take the patient for climbing mountains and enjoying beauties, making a close contact with the nature, thus you will relax your mind and body. The writer expressed his wisdom in an exaggerated and humorous way between the lines with thought-provoking philo

30、sophies.When reading this story, when hunting for novelty, we should also have a scan at life in O. Henrys eyes and learn to judge between truth and falsehood. Only in this way we can understand the novel clearly, then holding the essence and historical value of the novel.III. Characterization As I

31、have mentioned before, I love the figures in O. Henrys short stories and they are all kind lovely and honest. In this section, I will make an introduction of these figures. A. KindnessKindness is one of the biggest characterizations in O. Henrys works. The figures in O. Henry works are all reluctant

32、 to help others no matter how difficult the situation is or how great efforts they will make, such as the main role Berman in the short story The Last Leaf. Berman is a typical representative for the poor in the artistic circle and his action reveals the previous friendship existed between those people who are leading a poor life but willing to help others. And his actions also are a reflection