摘 要

E. M.福斯特是20世纪初最有影响力的小说家之一，他的作品主要关注人性、爱、相互交流以及人与人或人与自然之间的关系。《离开科罗诺斯之路》是福斯特早年创作的短篇小说，这篇小说对于探讨老年群体、人与人之间的交流以及年轻人与老年人之间的关系具有十分重要的意义。《离开科罗诺斯之路》中的科罗诺斯源于索福克勒斯的希腊悲剧《俄狄浦斯在科罗诺斯》，作者引用这一典故是为了更好的达到反讽的目的。因此，为了让读者更深入地了解小说的主旨和作者的写作意图，本篇论文对索福克勒斯的《俄狄浦斯在科罗诺斯》这部希腊悲剧进行了简要的介绍，而且还将这两篇作品进行了对比分析，以为接下来的课题研究打下基础。

本论文主要从福斯特的这篇短篇小说中研究老人的精神需求，与此同时，人文主义思想作为一个重要的理论思想也被分析和运用于论文课题的研究过程中。此外，本论文的研究也非常注重其现实意义。常言道，文学作品是一个时代的反映，然而，小说《离开科罗诺斯之路》中所反映的问题不仅在20世纪初的英国社会中存在，而且在当代的中国社会中也很普遍。当前，随着中国老龄人口数量的不断增长，老年人的问题也变得越来越严重。我们应该怎样和老人相处？我们应该如何提高老年群体的幸福感和满足感？对于这些问题，福斯特的这篇小说给了我们很大的启发，同时我们也会在对课题的研究中找到一些科学合理的答案。

关键词：老人的精神需求；人文主义；《离开科罗诺斯之路》

Abstract

E. M. Forster is one of the most influential novelists in early 20^th century. His novels mainly focus on the theme of humanity, love, mutual communication, and the connection between person and person or human and nature. The Road from Colonus is a short story created in Forster’s early years and it is very informative for exploring the aged group, the interpersonal communication, and the relationship between the old and the young. In order to guide readers to further understand author’s intention, this paper also generally introduces the Greek tragedy written by Sophocles, which is the main allusion cited in the story and it is very important for readers to understand Forster’s story. Moreover, a distinct comparison about the two stories is also arranged in the paper.

However, what this paper mainly intends is to analyze the spiritual demands of the aged, in the meanwhile, humanism as an important theory is rightly employed and elaborated in the process of study. What’s more, this paper also has practical significance. Usually, many literary works are the reflection of their era, but the problems Forster’s story The Road from Colonus reflects not only happened in Britain society in early 20th century, but also exist in modern society of China. With the increasing population of the aged in current China, the problems of the aged are becoming more and more urgent. How to get along with the aged? How to promote the happiness and fulfillment of the group of the aged? All these questions will be studied in the paper.

Key Words: spiritual demands of the aged; humanism; The Road from Colonus

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Brief introductions of the story 3

2.1 The main plot of the story 3

2.2 The humanism of the story 4

2.2.1 The brief introduction of Humanism 4

2.2.2 The embodiment of Forster’s Humanism in The Road from Colonus 4

3 The interpretation on the spiritual demands of the old man 6

3.1 The interpretation on the allusion in the story 6

3.1.1 The general introduction of Oedipus at Colonus 6

3.1.2 The connection between the two works 7

3.2 The interpretation on the spiritual demands of the old man 9

3.2.1 The tendency to nostalgia 9

3.2.2 The desire for harmonious environment 10

3.2.3 The yearning for constant dignity and liberty 11

3.2.4 The hope for heart to heart communication 13

3.2.5 The spiritual comfort towards growing old 15

3.3 Enlightenment of the novel 16

4 Conclusion 18

References 19

Acknowledgements 20

Spiritual Demands of the Aged:
Interpretation on The Road from Colonus from Humanistic Perspective

1 Introduction

The Road from Colonus is a short story written by E. M. Forster, who is one of the most famous English novelists in early 20^th century. E. M. Forster is a representative icon in the transition of English novel from traditionalism to modernism. His works are full of the thought of humanism, which mainly focus on the sincere communication and spiritual perfection（林晓青，2015）. As he himself ever said in The Challenge of Our Times, “Temperamentally, I am an individualist. Professionally, I am a writer, and my books emphasize the importance of personal relationships and the private life, for I believe in them” (姚依东，2007，p5) .

Attracted by his great influence, many scholars study his novels in all aspects and have made many fruitful achievements. Most of the researchers centre on his six long novels, such as A Passage to India, Howards End.

As an author belonging to the realist, many scholars are keen on exploring the thought of liberal humanism and analyzing his reflection on the underside of society so that they can make further research on the development of human and society including the mutual communication, understanding, love, harmonious relationship between person and person, nation and nation, and so on. For example, Lionel Trilling (1943) ever elaborated on Forster’s liberalism in his book E. M. Forster. Erik Yau analyzed Forster’s five novels from his liberal humanism——personal relationship and the idea of collection in his master’s thesis in Zhejiang University named E. M. Forster and his Liberal-Humanism: the Development and Representation in His Major Novels (Eril Yau, 2007). Wilfred Stone (1966) ever highly praised Forster’s subversive individualism in his E. M. Forster’s Subversive Individualism. In his opinions, “Personal relationship counts more royalty to a country” (Stone, 1966, p.15). He called Forster as “a serious humanist and moralist” (Stone, 1966, p.15).

However, there are few scholars to study Forster’s short stories. Forster wrote two volumes of the collection of short stories, and most of his short stories are edited in it. In fact, Forster’s short stories are also a feast of literature.

In terms of his short story, The Road from Colonus, the research about it is limited. For example, Wangjing(2015) ever wrote an article, Displacement and Degradations of Characters: Comparative studies on The Road from Colonous and Oedipus at Colonus, which mainly analyzes the displacement and degradations of characters from the structural perspective and also it reveals the deep irony under the view of the Greek tragedy(王菁，2015). Another example, a literature review named The Brief Analysis of Humanism on The Road from Colonus written by Tang Xinzhu only analyzes the story from the general humanism, such as understanding and peace, the dignity of the human, liberty and responsibility, and respecting for the nature, and so on(唐新竹，2015). These analyses are all under the guide of the general humanism instead of analyzing it in details. In addition, an article named The Psychological Analyses of the Old Man on The Road from Colonus from the magazine just mainly studies on the old man’s mental state through the conflict between Mr. Lucas and his daughter（袁云博，2014）, but the topic is only confined to that story and the author didn’t apply it to the modern society.

On the basis of the former studies about Forster’s works, this paper makes further research on it. Compared with other studies, this paper confines the contents of research to one short story, The Road from Colonus. This short story will be elaborated in details under the guidance of humanism theory. Besides, it will mainly stand at the old man’s point of view to analyze and research, for which the spiritual demands of the aged are deeply explored. What’s more, the studies will combine the thoughts of the story with the modern society, and achieve the connection between theory and reality so that it can make the theoretical research more full of practical significance. All these researches will become significant and will add more fresh blood to the former researches.

2 Brief introductions of the story

2.1 The main plot of the story

The Road from Colonus is a short story created by E. M. Forster in his early years. The brief plot of The Road from Colonus goes like this: Mr. Lucas is an old English milord. He and his daughter Ethel together with Mrs. Forman, Mr. Graham and an English-speaking dragoman have a travel to Greece, which is a place that Mr. Lucas has been dreaming of for forty years. As Lucas said, “Greece is the land for young people, but I will enter into it, I will possess it(王守仁, 2005,P.198).”