《凯尔特的薄暮》中的道德世界及其社会历史意义研究

论文总字数：58313字

摘 要

威廉·巴特勒·叶芝（1865-1938）受到唯美主义、浪漫主义、象征主义、神秘主义和玄学诗的影响，其诗风格独特多变。叶芝早期的创作主要受浪漫主义的影响，不仅风格华丽而且往往呈现一种梦幻的氛围，1983年出版的《凯尔特的薄暮》便属于这种风格。《凯尔特的薄暮》恰到好处地将叶芝自己在神游状态的冥想和爱尔兰西海岸流传得唯美神话传奇相结合，构造了一个极善与极恶对立的简单纯朴的精灵世界。这个简单而纯粹的精灵世界是对未被英国殖民前的爱尔兰的隐喻。本文通过精灵之间以及精灵与人类的互动分析精灵世界的二元对立、精灵对物质追求和金钱的仇恨以及精灵对高尚道德品质和精神追求的赞誉，与19世纪末20世纪初爱尔兰现实社会中的善恶交织、对物质的极致追求和对美德的鄙弃形成对比。叶芝认为爱尔兰从前纯粹的道德世界在英国殖民主义和与工业革命相伴而生的物质主义的冲击下逐渐瓦解，故而借对《凯尔特的薄暮》中精灵世界的赞扬批判英国殖民主义和物质主义对爱尔兰的影响。

论文由三个部分构成：引言、主体和结论。引言部分包括叶芝的生平和作品介绍、文献综述、简要文本分析和篇章结构说明。主体部分由四章组成。第一章重点介绍叶芝在《凯尔特的薄暮》中塑造的精灵世界的善恶两极分化。叶芝塑造的善良精灵以绝对正面的形象出现，代表着一切高尚的道德品质。而他塑造的邪恶精灵往往以全然的反派形象出现，代表着一切污秽邪恶的缺陷。这样极善与极恶的对立正是由于精灵从不将善恶掺杂的简单性格决定的。第二章阐述了精灵世界中对物质追求的鄙弃和对金钱崇拜的厌恶，与19世纪末20世纪初的爱尔兰现实社会对比。通过对精灵世界的赞美反映叶芝对殖民主义和物质主义的反思。第三章聚焦精灵世界中对高尚品德的赞美和追求，与当时现实社会中为物欲而抛弃道德的现象对比。借赞美崇高的精神追求表达叶芝对被殖民前的爱尔兰纯粹的道德世界的向往。第四章具体阐述《凯尔特的薄暮》中的道德世界与现实世界的对立、叶芝对殖民主义和物质主义的反思以及他为恢复爱尔兰文化传统做出的努力。最后得出结论，叶芝通过塑造一个二元对立的道德世界将善、恶两极化，批判殖民主义的贪婪之恶，赞扬爱尔兰人传统的道德伦理意识。

关键词：威廉·巴特勒·叶芝；《凯尔的的薄暮》；殖民主义；物质主义

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments I

Abstract II

摘要 IV

Introduction 1

Chapter One The Binary Opposition within the Moral World 4

1.1 The Confrontation between the Goodness and Wickedness of Fairies 4

1.2 Fairies' Judgement on Humans' Moral Values 7

Chapter Two The Debasement of Material Pursuit within the Moral World 10

2.1 Fairies' Hatred for Money 10

2.2 Fairies' Disparagement on Material Pursuit 11

Chapter Three Promotion of Integrity within the Moral World 13

3.1 Virtues Embodied by Fairies Themselves 13

3.2 Fairies' Awards to People with Virtues 14

Chapter Four The Socio-Historical Significance 16

4.1 Contrasting Social Morals 16

4.2 Yeats’ Reflections upon Colonialism and Materialism 21

4.3 Yeats’ Endeavor to Restore Irish Cultural Tradition 22

Conclusion 24

Works Cited 26

Introduction

William Butler Yeats was one of the most widely admired and extensively studied writers of the twentieth century. Yeats attracted so much attention not only because of his eloquent and beautiful lyric poems but also because his devotion to political and cultural upheavals associated with Ireland (He Lin, 121). As a sensitive writer, Yeats had been reflecting on his relation with the external world and the genuine relation between Ireland and Britain. Such reflections are the main creative resource of his poems and dramas. Yeats had been improving his writing during the lifetime, which is reflected in the change of his writing style and repeated revisions of his early works. He also won the Nobel Prize in 1923. Apart from his literary achievement, Yeats' not quite successful engagement in political and cultural campaigns also makes him a captivating figure. He took an active part in the establishment of the Irish National Theatre (The Abbey) because he believed that the independence of Irish culture entailed an awakening middle class and the theatre could bring his works to a wider range of audience (David Holdeman, 35). But the theatre movement seems not that successful because Yeats' dramas usually deal with great controversial themes. However, he did not give up the original plan to attain Irish independence by raising his compatriots’ cultural awareness. He encouraged young Irish writers to write in Gaelic and employ traditional Irish themes and materials in creation (Nagy Gregory, 1999).Yeats' plan to regain Irish independence through cultural movement was inspired by the poet Sir Samuel Ferguson who retold ancient Irish legends and sagas in English. Since then Yeats started to integrate Irish themes into his works and he even hailed such legends and sagas as the repository of national tradition and spiritual truth (Catherine Bernard, 78). Henceforward, Yeats integrated Irish legends and sagas into his creations and The Celtic Twilight is one of the representatives.

The Celtic Twilight combining Yeats' own experiences in trance and the Irish folklore retold by peasants living along the western coast of Ireland, manifests Yeats' firm belief in mystic power and deep love for Ireland (Mills Harper Margaret, 48). The Celtic Twilight is an all-embracing collection of Irish folklores and fairy tales whose writing style is quite flexible and imaginative. Differing from Pu Songling's Title of a Collection of Bizzare Stories, it is not a simple collection of fairy tales but Yeats' exploration of and reflection on the mystic otherworld and the reality.

In order to explore the otherworld theoretically, Yeats joined the Golden Dawn which is an occult society and he also shows an interest in theology and Oriental religions like Hinduism and Buddhism (Alexander Macbain, 89). Through repeated meditation and experiment, he finally created his own philosophical system in which lunar movements were used to explain a person or an object's features and speculate on their past and future. This lunar vision theory is derived from the experiment carried out by Yeats and his wife, in which Yeats asks some questions and his possessed wife replies in trance (Mills Harper Magaret, 128). Yeats holds the point that each man’s life has a corresponding position in the cycle of twenty-eight incarnations analogous to the phases of the moon(W.B. Yeats, 109). The full moon of phase 15 represents a superhuman condition with full subjectivity. At this stage, a being's body and soul becomes one in a completely beautiful and self-sufficient form. The unseen moon of phase 1 symbolizes a superhuman objectivity from which a new cycle starts. Between these two phases, it gradually progresses as the proportion of objective and subjective influence varies with time. From phase 2 to phase 8 (from the first crescent to the half), one’s nature mainly stays objective and moves towards phase 15. After phase 15, the process reverses so ones comes back to the world instead of retreating into spiritual solitude and it sinks back to phase 1 little by little. Between the physical deficiency of phase 26 and the mental deficiency of phase 28 lies the potential sage incarnated in phase 27. At this point, the saint keeps balance between the selfhood and the external world so that he can attain permanent harmony with the cosmos. However, for people who are not ready to become saints, the cycle will continue (David Holdeman, 69). This theory is elaborated in A Vision, in which Yeats employs this theory to speculate on the future of Europe. He contended that the jointed effect of World War I, the Russian Revolution and the constant uproars in Ireland indicates that Europe is experiencing a reversed process in the twentieth century. Yeats' eagerness to accelerate this reversed process can be seen in The Celtic Twilight as he argued that the world before the booming industrial revolution is much more beautiful and comfortable. However, this occult theory is not widely accepted for lack of a solid base.

What's more, scholars and reviewers focus on the modernist features of Yeats' works. They debate with each other over whether Yeats can be taken as a modernist writer. People who do not think so argues that his doubt about Europe's artistic traditions is not as profound as that of typical modernist writers like T. S Eliot, and Yeats himself was reluctant to be classified as Eliot's companion. Nevertheless, others claimed that features of literary modernism like rapid movements and unexpected juxtaposition appear in Yeats' late works(Lee Oser, 2007).

Above all are the main research directions of Yeats' works. This thesis draws attention to The Celtic Twilight. Five main chapters will be devoted respectively to the binary opposition of the moral world that is depicted in The Celtic Twilight, fairies' debasement on money and material desire, virtues that pursued by fairies, the antithesis between the moral world in the book and that of reality and Yeats' reflections upon colonialism and materialism.

Chapter One The Binary Opposition within the Moral World

The moral principles that Yeats formulates are embodied by the fairies in The Celtic Twilight. The vivid image of good fairies embodies the bright side of human life while the negative image of evil fairies stands for various vices and sins. The moral world in the book is apparently divided into two parts and there exists a clear-cut boundary between them, as Yeats insists that the fairies are very simple and never blend their love with hate. Therefore, good fairies believe in people's benign nature and try to explore the brightness of the world. Whereas evil fairies see through the darkest side of human beings and intend to elicit their sinful desires. However, after all, both the good and the evil fairies convey the ethic of punishing evil-doers and encouraging people to be upright.

1.1 The Confrontation between the Goodness and Wickedness of Fairies

The moral world within The Celtic Twilight is very simple and pure, which means that there is a strict criterion about the good and evil. In other words, an evil person cannot be regarded as good although he may also have some moral merits. Yeats created the moral world of duality by setting the good fairies to be against evil fairies for they represent two totally opposite moral values.

Generally, good fairies interact with human beings more directly by guiding them to do something good. John Kirwan was a great horse-racing man and once he arrived in Liverpool with a fine horse that he intended to ride in a horse race. That evening, as he wandered by the docks, a boy came up to him, saying that where he stabled his horse would catch fire at midnight so he re-stabled his horse as the boy advised so. The stable was burnt down as expected and the boy came again to ask Kirwan to allow him to ride in the incoming horse race. John Kirwan agreed. The boy won the race and asked for no reward other than John Kirwan's promise to take good care of the boy's mother who lived in Kirwan's land and in return, the boy would always keep an eye on Kirwan's horses (W. B. Yeats, 46). The boy guides Kirwan to do good deeds by promising to keep his horses from evil, from which good fairies' desire to keep people on the right track can be seen. To some extent we can see fairies' effort to cultivate goodness in mortal hearts just like Yeats strive to restore Celtic moral qualities in the modern world.

The goodness embodied by fairies is often antagonistic to the wickedness symbolized by fairies. In contrast to the good fairies, evil fairies often appear greedy, selfish and cruel in The Celtic Twilight. Besides, evil fairies seem to be accustomed to playing tricks on mortals and inducing them to pervert. Evil fairies' greed, selfishness and cruelty are often seen through the interaction between the evil fairies and mortals. And they are prone to see the world from the darkest side so that there are no innocent people in their eyes and they try to explore the vice in people and disparage people for their moral deficiencies. Usually, they induce mortals to pervert by making use of their weakness, especially people's greed for the treasure in the fairyland. Just as Yeats points out, people have become greedy for the treasure of fairies after nearly exhausting theirs:

In the dim kingdom there is a great abundance of all excellent things. There is more love there than upon the earth; there is more dancing ... and there is more treasure there than upon the earth. In the beginning the earth was perhaps made to fulfil the desire of man, but now it has got old and fallen into decay. What wonder if we try and pilfer the treasures of that other kingdom (W. B. Yeats, 50)！

The greed and eagerness for quick success precipitate the O'Byrnes who was once a glorious family to fell in the trap of the wicked fairies. They passed down a message to the O'Byrnes saying that they would have a big fortune after three generations' death at the sight of the treasure. The O'Byrnes had never slightly doubted this prophecy so they constantly dug the treasure. Although the first and second O'Byrne already died for seeking this foretold fortune, the third one still took over this task without fear of death. Even so he believed that it was worthwhile to exchange his own life for the whole family's bright prospect. Evil fairies make use of the O'Byrnes' voracity to kill them and they may play the same trick on the next generation of the O'Byrnes (W. B. Yeats, 38). The spell may not be broken forever and the O'Byrnes may continue to sacrifice their lives meaninglessly for the treasure in fantasy. Evil fairies discern the mortals' defects and enlarge them by tempting them with extreme extravagant things that mortals are longing for but cannot obtain, which finally results in people's corruption. The confrontation between the good and evil is also manifested through good and evil fairies’ attitudes towards mortals. Unlike good fairies’ upright image, evil fairies always appear cruel, greedy and selfish to people.

As is known to all, the fairy kingdom is a place where fairies enjoy eternal happiness and there is great treasure in the fairy kingdom. However, evil fairies are always greedy so they also covet the possession of humans. They often travel to the mortal world in packs and pillage women from their husbands, parents and children. No matter good or evil, the fairies are generally good-looking, which means they can have beautiful wives, but evil fairies are not satisfied with that and thus come into the mortal world, carrying women into the fairy kingdom. In this process, their selfishness and cruelty also can be seen, for they never care about the feelings of the carried-away mortal beings.

There was a woman in Sligo who was taken away when she was walking with her husband in a garden. After seven years' separation from her son who was a baby when she was kidnapped by fairies, she was allowed to announce to her son where she had been imprisoned in these years. After the son came, she treated him with fairy food that could convert mortals who ate it to a fairy. However, her plan to keep her son in the fairyland failed for the boy knew the tricks that evil fairies liked to play (W. B. Yeats, 32). A more melancholy story happened to a newly-married young couple.The bride was abducted by a fairy troop when the bridegroom was entertaining the guests. Not long after, the bridegroom died because of the lost of his beloved one W. B. Yeats, 22). According to the folklore, these selfish and impersonal creatures carry mortal women into their dim kingdom because they need wives. But actually, there are enough beautiful female fairies in their own kingdom. It's unnecessary for them to take journey to the mortal world to make less attractive women to be their wives. They just kidnap them regardless of those victims' bonds with the mortal world, which usually causes tragedies. They satisfy their insatiable greed by looting and ravaging and never take the consequence of their wrong deeds into account. Those evil fairies will never feel regretful because of their greedy, selfish and cruel nature.

1.2 Fairies' Judgement on Humans' Moral Values

Generally speaking. fairies value goodness a lot they even think that even a person is killed , if only he/she has a good heart, they can bring him/her to life with a touch of rod (W. B. Yeats, 61). In other worlds, goodness outvalues all the other qualities. As long as people have a good heart, sometimes their mistakes will not cause any serious consequences other than a bickering.

Once upon time, there was a king who was beset by lack of a male heir so he went to consult his chief adviser. And the chief adviser suggested the king sending someone to a designated place to catch a fish and letting his queen eat it. So the king did what he was told so. The cook baked the fish and during this process, she touched the fish carelessly and put her finger into mouth. Later on , the queen eat the fish and gave birth a baby. The cook who tasted the fish carelessly also had a baby. The prince was named Bill and the kid of the cook named Jack. Bill and Jack were sent out to study together for a while and they were more and more identical to each other as they grew up. At last, two boys looked like twin brothers, which vexed the queen a lot because it was quite hard to recognize her own son. Thus, she consulted the chief adviser and he proposed a good solution. The queen distinguished her son successfully and tried to kick Jack out of the castle. Jack was angry because he regarded Bill as his brother. Before he left, Jack told Bill that if harm happened to Jack, that water on the top of the well would be blood and the water below would be honey. Jack went to another country and saved the princess from a demon. The princess married him. However, on the wedding night, Jack was tempted out of the castle by an chanted deer which was sent by the demon's mother whose son was killed by Jack. The demon's mother revenged on Jack and changed him to a rock. Bill got the message that something bad happened to his brother from the change of the water in the well. So he went to find Jack. When he arrived at Jack's home he was recognized by Jack's wife as Jack but he did not clarify his identification and slept with the attractive princess. The demon's mother knew his arrival and sent the deer again to tempt Bill. However, Bill penetrated the trick and killed her and brought Jack to life. They returned to the princess together. Although Jack found Bill's liaison with the princess he just forgave Bill for his good heart to save him (W. B. Yeats, 63).

This long story abstracted from The Celtic Twilight proves that fairies attach great importance to humans' kindheartedness. It is cannot be denied that Bill indeed violate the moral principle to sleep with his friend's wife. But in the fairies' eyes, this moral deficiency is negligible compared with his heroic behavior to save Jack from the demon. Since he has the same appearance with Jack, Bill could have pretended to be Jack forever as long as he did not go to rescue him. But Bill chooses to save Jack and apologize to Bill for his moments of lapse. Thus, at last Bill is not punished and leads a happy life with his brother and sister-in-law, from which we can see that fairies regard the goodness as the most important moral quality and they judge on people mainly according to people’s kind behaviors. This is determined by good fairies' own benign nature.

Owing to their own goodness, the fairies prefer people who stick to moral principles, so they sometimes take justice to punish wrong-doers and award those with virtues. Once a man picked up a wallet on the street and finds there are three hundred dollars’ notes in it, a big sum of money for him. Thus, the man put aside the wallet silently and pretended that he had never picked up anything on the street. The owner of the wallet was a ship captain and the notes belong to his employer. He was too frightened to face his employer after losing the wallet so he committed suicide. Later on, this news spread to the ears of the man who picked up the wallet. He started to become restless and ill and passed away not long after the death of the ship captain. After his death, a fairy captured his soul to make sure that he would not be released until he felt regretful(W. B. Yeats, 37). As it turns out, the fairies value integrity so much that in order to maintain this moral order they spare no effort, even engaging approaches like spiritual torture. In the fairies' eyes, it is the dishonest man's immoral behavior that results in the ship captain's suicide. Therefore, fairies make the man suffer from spiritual torture to warn people not to do dishonest things.

Chapter Two The Debasement of Material Pursuit within the Moral World

In the moral world within The Celtic twilight, the material pursuit is disparaged, which is manifested through fairies punishing people who discard good moral qualities in order to acquire material satisfaction. Money, as the bridge to material satisfaction, is inevitably disdained by fairies. In this book, people who covet fortunes and pursue extreme material satisfaction is punished by fairies since fairies generally hold the moral value that money and excessive material sufficiency is the root cause of people’s moral corruption.

2.1 Fairies' Hatred for Money

Stories to exhort people not to covet things that do not belong to them run through the whole book. All of these stories transmit fairies’ hatred for money worship. And they even play tricks on those who worship money a lot and is willing to sacrifice all the noble qualities for money. In most cases, these people usually get retribution for their greed. The story of the Three O' Byrnes attests to this.

Three O'Byrnes believed the prophecy that their family would finally get rich after three generations' death at the sight of the fortune guarded by evil fairies. Whether the O'Byrnes obtain the treasure that three generations have sacrificed lives for is not revealed in Yeats' description. However, no matter whether the fortune is acquired or not, is it really worthwhile to exchange three generations' wonderful lives for it? Even enormous fortune will be used up one day but people can create wealth endlessly as long as they live. When this fortune is finally exhausted whether the O'Byrnes will carry on the loop again? From my perspective, fairies want to test people's ambition and values by spreading the so-called prophecy to the O'Byrnes. The O'Byrnes may already know that is the trick of fairies and how dangerous it will be to covet the fairyland's treasure but they still choose to believe it, because they are too anxious to regain their former glory quickly. Thus, although they have already sacrificed two O'Byrnes to find the treasure, the third O'Byrne still prepares himself for death at the sight of the fortune and firmly believes that his family's prosperity will be regained after his death. The O' Byrnes may not be likely to regain the former glory for their greed for the fortunes that do not belong to them and they finally get the retribution that every O' Byrne died at the sight of the fortune that they had been long for.

The O'Byrnes' craze for imagined treasures characterizes the money worship of the people who lived in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, whose moral values had been impacted by the overwhelming industrial civilization.

2.2 Fairies' Disparagement on Material Pursuit

As fairies hold a hostile attitude toward money worship, they also detest people who sacrifice their good moral qualities for the pursuit of material satisfaction. Fairies often make these immoral people to suffer from spiritual torture.

Once, a man picked up a wallet on the street and he found that there were three hundred pound's notes in it, which was a huge sum of money for him. Therefore, he decided to put aside it and use the money to squander the money to his heart's contents. The ship captain who was the owner of the wallet was very anxious because the money belonging to his employer was in it. He was too frightened to face his employer so he committed suicide. Later on, the greedy man got this news and started to feel unease. Gradually, he got ill and passed away not long after the suicide of the ship captain. However, the story did not end here. The dishonored man's soul was trapped in his house so that he could not go to the otherworld and realize incarnation. People often heard noises from his house, which were regarded as the painful cry of the restless soul. It was not relieved until years later the house was put down (W. B. Yeats, 37).

From the above story, fairies' hatred for people's extreme material pursuit can be seen. The man who picks up the wallet indeed enjoy the material satisfaction that he desires for a while but he pays the price to suffer from spiritual torture for many years. The fairies intentionally impose spiritual suffering on this man as the retribution for the tragic consequence caused by his dishonored behavior. Fairies try to warn people that sometimes their dishonest behavior not only affect themselves, more likely, it cause irreversible harm to other people just like the ship captain in this story.

Chapter Three Promotion of Integrity within the Moral World

The moral world depicted by Yeats in The Celtic Twilight centers on the fairies' hate and love as well as their attitudes towards fortunes. These moral values are transmitted to readers by storytelling. In this process, men and the fairies are either pro or against each other. The general principle that fairies hold in this book is that moral qualities like goodness, honesty, conscientiousness, and so on outweigh the pursuit of material satisfaction.

3.1 Virtues Embodied by Fairies Themselves

As Yeats described in The Celtic Twilight, good fairies represent all the noble moral qualities. Good fairies appearing in The Celtic Twilight are kind-hearted, enthusiastic and honest, which are often seen through their interaction with mortals. Usually, good fairies can coexist with human beings and sometimes they even actively guide and remind people. These properties are expressed through their interactions with human beings(Du Zhiqing, 81).

In most cases, fairies are friendly and sometimes they even offer help to people on their own initiative. Since fairies are kind and gentle in most time, it is acceptable for them to live with mortal beings without causing harms. Once upon a time, there was a family made up of five children and two adults. The only laborer of the family were the elder sister and the elder brother. They sold herrings on market everyday and the income was too low to support the whole family. However, they lived and kept on good terms with a fairy. The kind-hearted fairy decided to help them and made sure that all their herrings were sold out to guarantee the family a relatively comfortable life (W. B. Yeats, 25). The fairy’s philanthropic behavior attests to fairies' amiable attitude towards man. Apart from offering support to people secretly, sometimes fairies remind people to avoid dangerous situations in a more overt way.

Mrs. Arbunathy, who lived nearby the "Fairies Path" along which fairies traveled every night, left the door open at night when she was waiting for her son. A tall man who she had never seen before came in and sat beside her husband who was sleeping for a while. When Mrs. Arbunathy asked him who he was, he just suggested her not leaving the door open at that time any more. The man comes from the fairyland and kindly warns the Arbunathys in case that supernatural creatures may hurt the Arbunathys (W. B. Yeats, 35). Besides, fairies also take responsibilities to care for people in some cases. Under this circumstance, they warmly remind people, too. When Mrs. Nolan was caring her dying child, some weird noises of the closed door and windows distracted her. After opening the door, the noises vanished and she found her child dead so she realized that the noises were the warning from the fairy who attended the soul of the dying child (Patricia Monaghan, 128). The fairy makes noises to draw Mrs. Nolan's attention and remind her that the door is supposed to be left open so that the child's soul can go to the otherworld.

Fairies are enthusiastic when they befriend people by giving suggestions on crucial matters, as is epitomized by the friendship between a wee woman and a housewife whose name is unknown to the readers. When the housewife was standing on the construction site of his brother-in-law's new house, a wee woman propped up and told her to inform her brother-in-law to move the house to the designated place for their family's long-term prosperity and good fortune. The woman followed the instruction but her brother-in-law did not place the new foundation exactly as the wee woman entrusted. Later on, bad luck fell on his wife and the wee woman got very angry. However, it seemed that the little woman was fond of the housewife very much because she continued to instruct her to evade bad luck and even came to her house to spend All Hallows’ Eve with her family though eating alone (W. B. Yeats, 40). The wee woman's eagerness to help mortals that she likes to live a lucky and happy life proves the fairies' enthusiasm for man.

3.2 Fairies' Awards to People with Virtues

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