the character of Hamlet as a man of contemplation rather than action. With the intolerable burden of the duty to revenge his father’s death and the challenge of evil forces, Hamlet seems to withdraw into a mental world which is thrown into a conflict or a choice between life and death. The philosophical speculation mixed up with a deep pessimistic outlook resists against action at first, but later awakens the hero out of his melancholy to a sense of the “enterprise of treat pith and moment”, indicating that he is to do something for what he concerns himself with. 10.
【正确答案】 Although James and Twain both worked for realism, there were obvious differences between them. In thematic terms, James wrote mostly of the upper reaches of American society, whereas Mark Twain dealt largely with the lower strata of society. Technically, James pursued psychological realism, but Mark Twain’s contribution to the development of realism and to American literature as a whole was partly through his theories of Local Colorist in American fiction, and partly through his colloquial style.
Henry James believed that reality lies in the impressions made by life on the spectator, and not in any facts of which the spectator is unaware, such realism is therefore merely the obligation that the artist assumes to represent life as he sees it, which may not be the same life as it “really” is. James shifted the ground of realistic art from the outer to the inner world. Mark Twain preferred to represent social life through portraits of local places which he knew best. He drew heavily from his own rich fund of knowledge of people and places. He confined himself to the life with which he was familiar. By quoting from his own experience, Mark Twain managed to transform into art the freedom and humor, in short, the finest elements of western culture.
