The Little Prince, first published in 1943, is the most famous work of French writer, poet, and pioneering aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It is a fairy tale written for adults, a collection of author’s extraordinary imagination and superb artistic talent, but also in seemly simple and plain text contains a profound philosophy. The whole work is pure and poetic, poignant and rich in meaning, in which a pilot stranded in the desert meets a young prince visiting Earth from a tiny asteroid. A pilot, as the narrator in this book, tells the experience of all kinds of adventures that the prince went through during him set out from his own planet for the Earth. Combining the vivid image with the profound implication, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry illustrates the theme of love and responsibility directly to readers, which reveals the true meaning of love. By analyzing the relationships of protagonists, the paper would interpret the theme of “love and responsibility”, approach the love view in The Little Prince from different perspectives, and thus dig deeper significance of modern society.

Appreciating the novella The Little Prince written from pluralistic narrative perspectives and rich symbolic significances, a great number of outstanding scholars all over the world explored it from many angles. S L Ablon carried on the studies on Child analysis of The Little Prince in 1989, which researched children's psychology through behavior and thoughts of The Little Prince. Known as "the French rose", The Little Prince is not only a world-famous philosophic fairy tale, but also a fable pregnant with the meaning of life. Among the foreign researchers, for example, Paul Webster focused on the research of the life and the death of the little prince as early as in 1967, which believes that the life and death of the little prince symbolizes the experience of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry who deeply loved his country and died for France during an air war. Most overseas researchers prefer to explore the substance of The Little Prince combined with the author's life and his other works. And meanwhile, domestic scholars’ studies flourish on the work itself. For instance, the study of symbolism in the little prince from binary opposition(凌学东，2001)plays an important role in developing the work. In the part of its language features, the figure of the novella is explored from the perspective of metaphorical theory(龚北芳，2013). Some researchers study on it in terms of alienation , which focus on the innate character(李千钧，2005). Besides, existentialism is presented thoroughly in the thesis(邱蓉，2014). As a fairy tale reflecting the society, it contains symbolism which is interpreted from the aspect of animal images(黄婷婷，2011). In addition, owing to the social background of The Little Prince, the realistic meaning of The Little Prince came to conclusion that it reflects the era of the Second World War through studying symbolism in the work. Digging into the novel, some researchers focus on the Underlying philosophy of The Little Prince. The analysis on the gist of the work reveals the internal love of The Little Prince (张岳庭，2011). Also, some researchers pay attention to contrast the escaping and returning of the little prince to explain the truth of love in the work(姜雅珉，2007). As for my paper, it will interpret the love view of The Little Prince from the aspect of the relationships among protagonists according to analysis of love indeed in the work（李照冰，2010).The innovation part of my paper is that it sees the characteristics of protagonists and contrasts the differences in the relationship between the little prince and the rose, the pilot and the fox, in order to respectively state what is love and responsibility indeed. The paper aims to emphasize the social significance of love view in The Little Prince and interpret the essential relation of responsibility to love. In addition, the escaping and returning of the little prince is also the reflection to Antoine’s attitude to his marriage. Thanks to another author’s book, Une Lettre de M. de Saint-Exupéry (玫瑰信札，2003), and other researchers’ analyses to the experience of Antoine, the paper will further dig the novella’s love view and the author’s comprehension about love and responsibility. Historically, the love has always been one of the most charming chemical reaction of human beings, and marriage is more a sublimation rather than love. Hence, the studying of extreme thoughts of love and the essence of love and responsibility still has a far-reaching influence in modern society.

Based on all the information or standpoints reflected in these previous studies summarized above, and taking the whole evolution of the plot into consideration, it is possible to interpret the love view of The Little Prince with the understanding of love and responsibility.

2. 研究的基本内容与方案

Contents

1 Introduction

1.1 Antoine de Saint-Exupery

1.2 Literature Review

1.3 Layout of Thesis

2 Speculations about Love