编号200904142009041420 南京航空航天大学金城学院毕业论文题目 A Brief Analysis of Knight Spiritin The Three Musketeers浅析《三个火枪手》中的骑士精神学生姓名沈晨洁学号2009041420学院英语系专业英语（商务翻译）班级20090414指导教师朱娟娟讲师二〇一三年五月南京航空航天大学金城学院本科毕业设计（论文）诚信承诺书本人郑重声明：所呈交的毕业设计（论文）（题目：A Brief Analysis of Knight Spirit in The Three Musketeers ）是本人在导师的指导下独立进行研究所取得的成果。
尽本人所知，除了毕业设计（论文）中特别加以标注引用的内容外，本毕业设计（论文）不包含任何其他个人或集体已经发表或撰写的成果作品。
作者签名：年月日（学号）：毕业论文专用纸AcknowledgementsFirst of all, I would like to extend the earnest thanks to my supervisor, Lecturer Zhu Juanjuan, for her continuing assistance and patient supervision; her heartfelt encouragement and valuable advice have been a strong support i n my thesis making. I’ve learned a lot from her. Without her help, I could not have finished my present thesis successfully.Second, I am grateful to the professors and teachers at the English Department in Jincheng College of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, who have offered me informative and enlightening courses in the past few years.My thanks also go to my classmates and friends who have given me persistent encouragement and confidence in my thesis making.Finally, I sincerely wish to thank my family and relative for their love and all-out support in making this thesis.毕业论文专用纸Table of ContentsAbstract (i)摘要 ......................................................................................................................... i i Introduction . (1)I. A Brief Introduction to The Three Musketeers and Knight Spirit (4)A. The Three Musketeers (4)B. Knight Spirit (5)II. The Knight Spirit of the Four Main Characters in The Three Musketeers (6)A. The Embodiment of Athos (6)B. The Embodiment of Aramis (6)C. The Embodiment of Porthos (7)D. The Embodiment of D’Artagnan (8)III. The Essence of Knight Spirit in Europe (10)A. The Background of Its Emergence (10)B. The Essence of Knight Spirit (11)IV. The Influence of Knight Spirit upon Europe (12)Conclusion (13)References (14)毕业论文专用纸A Brief Analysis of Knight Spiritin The Three MusketeersAbstractThe Three Musketeers is one of the representative works of the romantic French writer—Alexandre Dumas in the 19th century. It’s about an ordinary young man named D’Artagnan who aspires to join the army in Paris, and becomes good friends with other three musketeers, Athos, Aramis and Porthos. In order to protect the reputation of the Queen Anne, they fight against the cardinal Richelieu and go to Britain to collect the Queen’s diamonds which have been given to the duke Buckingham. Finally they foil Richelieu’s scheme and save the King and Queen.This paper consists of four parts. The first part mainly introduces the author, the story of the three musketeers and the connotation of knight spirit. The second part respectively tells the embodiment of knight spirit in the four main characters. The third part analyzes the essence, background of knight spirit. The fourth part states the influence of knight spirit exerted on European people’s national characters and the profound lasting effect on modern western life now. Through analyzing, it comes to the conclusion that knight spirit can be generally concluded to bravery, loyalty, generosity, with honor as its core. It is virtually an aspect of the knight system. Finally, the author finds out the vanity of knights. But it is undeniable that knight spirit plays an important role in western history and gradually evolves into gentleman manners, which still affects modern life.Key Words：The Three Musketeer; knight spirit; gentleman; national character毕业论文专用纸浅析《三个火枪手》中的骑士精神摘要《三个火枪手》是法国19世纪浪漫主义作家大仲马的代表作之一。
故事内容讲述的是，平民出身的达达尼昂到巴黎投军，和其他三个火枪手成为好朋友。
他们为保护王后安妮的名誉，抗击红衣主教黎塞留，从白金汉公爵那里取回王后的钻石，挫败了黎塞留的阴谋。
本文由四个部分组成。
第一部分主要介绍了三个火枪手以及骑士精神的内涵。
第二部分阐述骑士精神在《三个火枪手》中四位主人公身上的具体体现。
第三部分分析了骑士精神产生的背景和骑士精神的实质。
第四部分介绍了骑士精神对欧洲人民民族性格潜移默化的塑造以及对西方现代生活深远长久的影响。
通过分析，本文得出如下结论：骑士精神总体上可归结为英勇、忠诚、慷慨、荣誉感，其中荣誉感居核心，最后发现骑士追名逐利的本性。
但不可否认的是，骑士精神在西方历史上发挥过重要的作用，并且逐渐演变成绅士精神，正时时刻刻影响着现代生活。
关键词：三个火枪手；骑士精神；绅士；民族性格毕业论文专用纸A Brief Analysis of Knight Spiritin The Three MusketeersIntroductionThe Three Musketeer s was written in 1844 by Alexandre Dumas. It is one of the few works which praises male friendship in literature history. Athos, Porthos, Aramis and D’Artagnan are sincere, congenial and cooperated friends. One can even pay the life for another. “All for one, one for all”is their motto. They are symbols of friendship, youth, and bravery. They are the knights walking confirmedly in the wind. Then, the exploration of knight spirit becomes the theme of this thesis. How to express different embodiment in different characters? What are the causes? What is the background? How to view the specific influence on western society in different periods? These are the main topics of this paper research.Generally, previous study of this work can be classified as several major categories: research on the theme of the work, the comparison of different personalities of the protagonists, language style and feature, the comparison of different translated texts, comparison of chivalrous spirit between China and west, etc. Previous studies focus more on analyzing different personalities of the characters, less involved in knight spirit “a ll for one, one for all”. For instance, both Liu Cuilian (2011: 73) and HuoYanan (2011: 73) put forward on youth D’Artagnan, Alexandre Dumas describes him as a crazy ideal incarnation, not willing to insipid who has a strong heart of career, but is full of justice and kindness.Domestic research on knight spirit started relatively late. In the 1980s, some scholars became involved in this research field, under the guidance of several papers; for example, Jiang Shouming (1985: 104) published Knight Systems and Knight Spirit, which mainly focused on the definition of related concept of “knight”. Since the 1990s, many scholars published research in the open academic journals. Such as Ni Shiguang (2003) came out Analysis on Knight Spirit from The Song毕业论文专用纸of Roland. In summary, there are researches from the angle of historiography, from comparison aspect, from a religious point of view to analyze relationship between the religions, from the literature angle. These different perspectives broaden the scope of research in this field and gain a lot of achievements.The author found that these studies often research from the macroscopic aspect, all those researches recognize knight spirit as a common cultural phenomenon in medieval Europe. Generally those studies put emphasis on its generality, its character; however, the microscopic analysis is not enough. Therefore, this paper will research from the perspective of the novel’s plots, characters, differences of knight spirit in the protagonists, and the lasting influence of knight spirit on the whole western society. Given the social background at that time, a profound symbolic meaning can be explored on the musketeers. At that time, French was in the end stage of revolution with a revolutionary, mutinous and war-torn social order. To think out of the box, it is at the same time French breeds spirits of democracy, freedom and righteousness. How was the state of mind of the French people? Did they behave like the musketeers in pursuit of freedom, justice and friendship? In addition, Dumas’s formula serves his story well. His incorporation gives the French people a story that reassured them about their country’s troubles. Popular literature must be considered on two fronts: aesthetically and socially, as literature and as a popular artifact. The best popular literature, like the work of Alexandre Dumas, supersedes the latter category to come into our minds as a work of literature in its own right.In this paper, the author will apply specific text analysis, combined with the background of that time in France, in-depth analysis of “a ll for one, one for all” in the four characters of different concrete behavior and the subtle influence on western national character’s development, which plays an important role for the whole western society and the profound lasting effect will also be discussed.Therefore, this paper will research from the perspective of the novel’s plots and characters to discuss knight spirit in different protagonists and the profound influence on the whole western society. Combined with the background of that time in France, it’s not difficult to see the musketeers embody a deeper symbolic meaning. At that time, France is in the latter period of毕业论文专用纸revolution filled with insurrection, war, and chaos. France is also in a crucial era when democracy, freedom and justice crowd into a cry. How about the state of mind of French people at that time? Are they in pursuit of freedom, justice and love like the musketeers? At this background, this paper aims to explore the connation of knight spirit and the role it has played in European history. What’s more, in modern society, we need to call for moral qualities like knight spirit which is disappearing in the present time.In this paper, the author will apply specific text to analyze the four main characters with their different concrete behavior. In addition, the influence of knight spirit on western national character’s development will also be discussed.毕业论文专用纸I. A Brief Introduction to The Three Musketeers and Knight SpiritA. The Three MusketeersThe Three Musketeers is a marvelous journey and should be appreciated foremost for its engaging story which tells about three valorous young man fighting for their country heroically. The techniques Dumas employed to such a success in 1840, particularly his mastery of the form of the Romance still works today. Dumas gives us a fully developed Romance within his historical framework. He starts with levity and confidence, and ends with moroseness and doubt. He keeps his characters away from being major players in national events. He is not afraid of brazenly attributing human motives to history. In Dumas’s version, France and England nearly fight a war simply because the Duke of Buckingham loves Anne of Australia; John Fenton assassinates Buckingham because of personal reasons provided by Milady. Dumas explains the great events more satisfyingly and entertainingly than any direct explanation of affairs of state could hope to do.The Three Musketeers is a good novel in the history of French during 1625 to 1628. At that time, there was a religious reform in France, the protestant forces became increasingly powerful, and occupied a lot of cities. For French unity, in 1625, cardinal protestant captured the last bastion of La Rochelle city, stripped new political privileges. This period of history is a major political event of France at that time, the book is set in it and it evolves into a spectacular, exciting literary masterpieces. This is Dumas’s consistent writing style, he loves history.In The Three Musketeers, there are a series of interesting characters: D’Artagnan is witty, brave, and friendly; Athos is sophisticated who has an abhorrence of sin; Porthos is rude and reckless; Aramis is flexible and gentle. In studies of published literature, “Youth D’Artagnan is a crazy ideal incarnation of Alexandre Dumas, in the heart of D’Artagnan’s future, life is full of yearning, he is not willing to live feely. He has a strong pursuit for reputation, but he is also very kind”(Liu Cuilian, Huo Yanan, 2011: 72). That kind of justice, loyalty and abhorrence of sin is the mainstream of western culture. People can not deny the fact that such a sense of justice is in great lack.毕业论文专用纸B. Knight SpiritFor the content of knight spirit, a large number of critical essays have come out to discuss about it. “Knight spirit is the aristocratic culture spirit of the upper-class, it is based on the superiority of personal identity, morality and personality spirit, but it also accumulates the Western Europe national ancient warrior spirit of some positive factors”(Jiang Shouming, 1985: 103). Girouard pointed out that “love and respect for individual personality;for the oppressed and generous spirit of bravery and power to sacrifice the whole life”(Girouard, 1981: 61). Knight System is rooted in the super stratum society of mid-century Europe. Acquisition of knight status symbolizes a knight’s entry into the super stratum society. (Gui Zi, 2007) In the western cultural tradition, the medieval knight spirit of the national character plays an extremely important role. In short, it contains elegant aristocratic temperament in the modern Europe national character and the good qualities of keeping promise, helping others, and honoring the sacrifice for a noble ideal.毕业论文专用纸II. The Knight Spirit of the Four Main Characters in The ThreeMusketeersA. The Embodiment of AthosAthos is the eldest of the three musketeers, for D’Artagnan, he is a father of man, the soul of them. Although injured, he still lived the way of a noble knight.“There are five of them,” said Athos quietly, “and we are only three. We shall be beaten! But, for my part, I declare I shall ne ver be taken alive by one of the cardinal’s men” (Dodd, 2003:17).“Either the King’s or the Queen’s. We are their Majesties’ servants” (Dodd, 2003:49).Knight spirit which is composed of moral qualities a knight should comply with, such as bravery, loyalty, generosity, with honour as its core. It is virtually an aspect of the knight system. Knights are eager for honour, with the final aim to obtain praise and prise, raise their status, and gain politiacl rights.Athos, it seems that he cares nothing because of his noble status and it let him be respectable anywhere. Twenty years later, however, he has said something he cares about:“L et’s maintain the monarchy, it is our position” (Dodd, 2003:145).Monarchy and this is Athos really minds because his noble status he thus obtained, all sustained on this.Inadvertently, he will fight for this loyally. In the first part he devoted to maintaining the reputation of the Queen. In the second part he saved Charles I, against Martha Lin. In the third part he helped Charles II. Athos is preferred by Dumas, all the knight virtues of that eras can be found in Athos. Twenty years later, when the four fighted against each other due to political differences, Athos threw away his sword and sweared no matter what happened he would never assassinate his friend.“We used to live together, hate together, love together; we bleed together” (Dodd, 2003:200).B. The Embodiment of Aramis毕业论文专用纸Aramis’s character contains some specific things that the other three don’t have. He retires after being a priest, if so, when he is in the army, he just needs to serve honestly. Why does he participate in many unrelated adventure which is out of his business?In his world, meaningless loyalty and faith, is a kind of natural and unrestrained mentality. Aramis and D’Artagnan, in contrast, prefer the wandering and exciting life.Knight obeys the rules: to be honest, guarantee the church and protect the poor, maintain peace in his own province, and fight infidels. He is loyal to the monarch which is much stronger than their love and devotion to parents. For all women, he is a protector who protects their dignity and purity; for other knights, he is like a brother, courtesy and helpful.Like Athos introduces him: “He is down with a man, and bows to a woman, that must be Aramis.” Such a man, even if everyone knows he is a playboy, there still would be lots of women fall in love with him.Review the formation and development process of knight spirit until death, women can be found from the knight’s childho od to adulthood, women seem to be always indispensable elements in their lives. In getting along with a woman, a sacred, spiritual affection become attached to them, it is based on the knight’s loyalty and the unremitting pursuit with the bravery wisdom and talent as the means, with knight’s ego psychology satisfied, for the purpose of knight’s elegan ce and love. This is exactly the principle Aramis practices. His attitude towards women, is rare appreciation and protection. He is the most considerate among the four. It is a kind man who respects women in that era when women are treated as tools.For the attitude of friendship, Aramis is not inferior to the other three, but his expression way is different. D’Artagnan makes three friends adventure together with him. However Aramis prefers being far away from friends, taking risks alone. As he says:“I think to pull the two good friends co me in is inappropriate, gentlemen, don’t worry, when I die, I won’t lose your face” (Dodd, 2003:263).C. The Embodiment of PorthosTo become a knight, one must accept training and ceremony. Youth must receive training for a long time. At the age of seven or eight, he should act as a servant boy first. When he is 12 or 14毕业论文专用纸years old, he need serve as a squire and serve the lord in the estate. When he finishes his learning, he will attend a sacred oath, represents the purification of body and mind. But on Athos, it seems that there is no such perfect elegant behaviour, he is the most powerful among the four, and is addicted to gambling and alcoholic like Athos, known for his vanity.“I remember it perfectly,” said the innerkeeper. “You mean M. Porthos, of course?”“Yes,” replied D’Artagnan quickly. “My dear man, tell me at once if anything has happened to him?“He is still here, Monsieur.”“I cannot tell you, Monsier. But M.Porthos warned us not to tell anyone. He is a very proud gentleman. ”D’Artagnan laughted. “He is indeed,” he said. That's just what he would do. Well, take me to see him, my good man, and I will pretend to konw nothing about his wound.”(Dodd, 2003:67) “It is shameful for our musketeers to allow an unfortunate fellow to be arrested like that”(Dodd, 2003:31).But in front of the various challenges, he has the courage and loyalty which never loses behind his friends. Heroic spirit is recognized to be the most basic feature of being a knight, because the knight’s career is joining in war, people who do not have this quality are not able to join the knights.Athos, Aramis and D’Artagnan remounted their horses, a nd set out once more, while Porthos was promising his enemy to fill him with a dozen sword thrusts.In terms of origins, Porthos is similar to D’Artagnan, both of whom are from small landlord aristocratic family. He has the simplest dream: big landlord, big manor, blow in front of the neighbours and show off his identity.D. The Embodiment of D’ArtagnanAmbitious and chivalrous, realistic and romantic, these words can be used to describe D’Artagnan. His flexible mind, youth, intelligence and strong power of motivation and determination make him the protagonist of the story. At first he is just a boy who comes from the countryside Gascon, while finally he becomes the marshal of France.Infinite love for motherland can be found in many excellent knights, for example, the description of knight hero William of Orange reflect this phenomenon. When he goes to say farewell to his motherland, he kneels down and writes: “From the French, sweet wind blowing, all there let me think about, may God bless you, I have no hope to meet with you.” As for D’Artagnan,毕业论文专用纸he is obviously patriotic.“And now, gentlemen,”said D’Artagnan, without bothering to explain his action to Porthos; “All for one, one for all, that is our motto, is it not” (Dodd, 2003:31).“Either the King’s or the Queen’s. We are their Majesties’ servants” (Dodd, 2003:49).In order to win the favor of Madame Bonacieux, D’Artagnan can risk his life going to see the duke of Buckingham.“I hope I shall be worthy of her gratitude, and also of yours.” said D’Artagnan, giving the pretty young woman a long, loving look (Dodd, 2003:46).However, D’Artagnan has a very strong desire for wealth and fame. Although he did a lot of resistance to cardinal, finally a deputy musketeer commission led him bow down to the cardinal and give oath to it: “My life belongs to you; from now on it is at your disposal.”When love is useless to him, it would be ruthlessly abandoned. He pretended to be M. De Treville to possess Milady. To his friend, D’Artagnan though show ed very deep feelings for them, but “D’Artagnan decid ed to regard his three partners as tools for success in his secret plan” (Rui Juanyin, 2009: 25). Why did such changes happen? Then, the historical background of the story needs to be discussed.毕业论文专用纸III. The Essence of Knight Spirit in EuropeA. The Background of Its EmergenceKnight system formed in the middle ages of Europe. The primogeniture made young boys go to the outside, with war as main means, to become a professional knight and to be a member of feudal upper class, to get raised from the king. In the 11th century, knights went into the heyday. In the 12th century, there were lots of knighthoods, such as the Knights Templar, the Teutonic Order. At that time, to be a knight was full of honor and fashion, but it often required necessary processes and hard training.The story of The three musketeers occurred during the period of 1625-1628, under the reign of Louis XIII. At that time, all sorts of contradictory forces struggled extremely fiercely. There was a religious reform in France, the protestant forces became increasingly powerful, and occupied a lot of cities. For French unity, in 1625, cardinal protestant captured the last bastion of La Rochelle city, stripped new political privileges. This period of history is a major political event of France, the book is set in it then it evolves into a spectacular, exciting literary masterpieces. For the decline of knight spirit, it can be attributed to the following reasons:First, the decline of the manor economy makes the knight system gradually collapsed; the late middle ages shake the dominance of manor economy. Second, the military and the transformation of the war accelerates the decline of knight spirit. Honor is the core of the knight, but it can also lead to the failure of the war because of the blind pursuit. The application of guns also greatly weakens the position of knight. Third, Christian’s decay shakes the pillar of the knight spirit. On the religious spirit, under the support of a long and brutal crusade, it further strengthens the brave knights for their sacrifice, and loyalty but justice, kindness, humanity and honor has been greatly weakened.With the decline of the feudal society, capitalism is preliminary already in the 17th century; the emergence of these four knights is not surprising. Meanwhile, it suggests that the western knight spirit is in disintegration and毕业论文专用纸the feudal system is declining.B. The Essence of Knight Spirit“Knight spirit is the aristocratic culture spirit of the upper-class, it is based on the superiority of personal identity, morality and personality spirit, but it also accumulates the Western Europe national ancient warrior spirit of some positive factors”(Huang Chunlei, 1985: 113). Broughton (1988) pointed out that “love and respect for individual personality; for the oppressed and generous spirit of bravery and power to sacrifice the whole life.” Knight system is rooted in the super stratum society of mid-century Europe. Acquisition of knight status symbolizes a knight’s entry into the super stratum society.”“Knighthood was about more than just fighting, and it was also about chivalry. At the beginning of the middle ages, this meant good horsemanship, but by 1100 it had become a whole new way of life. Knights were expected to be brave and honorable, to uphold the honor of women, and to protect the weak and helpless, and so on” (Zhou Congxian, 2005: 18).Knight is in pursuit of honor and adventure everywhere in their whole life. Medieval knight is more focused on the personal honor and romantic love. The word “chivalry”appeared, and then developed into “gentleman”. But actually the ideal knight and the reality knight differ a lot. On the surface, their behavior is under the guidance of the divine principle, but that is just the illusion of essence and the reality of their goal is to get into the upper class.Knight spirit is actually a fatal alluring right, bravery, loyalty, patriotism. All these aim to make ones wear honorary title one day in the future.Knight was hypocritical, flamboyant and bellicose. To win the so-called honor, they sparked wars, countless big or small, they sentimentally attached to the smoke of battle; history proves that not all wars are consideration for the people; people desire the stability of life. But the continuous territorial expansion and depredations bring people catastrophic trauma. Knights see themselves as the strong who sacrifice the interests of the weak to render their loyalty to the Lord.毕业论文专用纸IV. The Influence of Knight Spirit upon EuropeThe middle ages ended, knights system became ups and downs in the past, but the knight spirit did not decline. By the media of literary, it regenerated. Medieval hero epics and knight literature, have the same attitude towards knight spirit, both of them regard knight spirit as a kind of ideal and hymn.After the age of cold weapons, knight spirit is turned into gentleman manner. Athos’s pride and honor, Aramis’s love, Porthos’s courage and D’Artagnan’s patriotism, these main qualities, promote the social civilization more gentle in Europe. Later gradually evolved into politeness, respect, dignity, etiquette, this shift of chivalry gentleman, has become a modern civilized life rule of ma n’s basic personality in Europe, and by extension to all over the world. The so-called gentleman requires men paying attention to appearance and clothing clean and tidy. Their manners should be polite, elegant and generous. For example, the western society has formed the custom of respecting female, and today’s gentlemen still keep very obvious knightly demeanors. And current events, such as terrorist attacks, corporate and political scandals and betrayals of public trust, have made people aware of the importance of ethical conduct and personal integrity. People are gradually recognizing that duty, heroism, honest and self-realizing that the 21th century calls for that kind of knight spirit.Knight spirits make contributions to society in another important aspect, which is the admiration of love. This is not literally love of men and women, but a brave knight to a lady, showing absolutely holy ideal love. Prestage (1996: 53), in the western cultural history, said: “The knight spirit cultivate romantic love, on an ideal of woman’s love, a kind of can’t do, not worldly and spiritual love. The ideal woman is one who can make the worshiper noble. This kind of love is not to be praised as love lyric poets sing, but the typical female virtue almost religious devotion.” This spirit of love not only constitutes the knights of the medieval literature, about the main content and basic style, but also composes the social and spiritual life in the pursuit of the ideal in Europe.From knight spirits to gentleman manners, spanning hundreds of years, knight spirit does not disappear, but still deeply influences the later generations.毕业论文专用纸ConclusionIn this paper, the author used specific text and conversations to analyze knight spirits in The Three Musketeers, combined with the background of that time in France and the general content of the story to illustrate the motto “all for one, one for all”on the four characters with different concrete embodiment. The protagonists in the novel are four young men who embrace courage and righteousness. They fight against the cardinal Richelieu who sets all obstacles and finally surmount all difficulties in order to get the Queen’s diamonds which are the emblem of authorization and are given to the duck Buckingham. By doing so, they successfully protect the King and Queen’s dignity and avoid a war between France and England.Athos’s pride and honour, Aramis’s love, Porthos’s courage and D’Artagnan’s patriotism, these main qualities can be generally recognized as typical knight spirits. Then this paper introduces the connotation of knight spirit. Take D’artagnan for clues, leading to the essence of the knight spirits.Knight system is rooted in the super stratum society of mid-century Europe. Acquisition of knight status is symbolizing a knight’s entry into the super stratum society.Knight spirit which is composed of moral qualities a knight should comply with, such as bravery, loyalty, generosity, with honor as its core. It is virtually an aspect of the knight system. Knights are eager for honor, with the final aim to obtain praise and pries, raise their status, and gain political rights.Afterwards, the author finds out the weak points of knight spirits in the four protagonists and illustrates them in detail. As for the influence on western national character, knight spirit plays an important role for the whole western society, which is so profound and lasting. The era of knights has passed away, but knight spirit is not dead. It is not something that is only known to literary scholars and history professors, but it still has its place in modern society. Today there are many paths to knighthood: seeking membership in a knightly order; using a martial art or the tournament; seeking these virtues on our own in errancy. But these external ways are far away from us, to fan this spark into a great fire of our passion, which may be one path where we will meet with success.。