Soft and Moist

(WuHan University 430072，湖北 武汉 430072）

Abstract： Familial love is the purest and the most valuable thing in the world.No matter what contexts it might be, the core of familial love would always be warm.The paper is aimed to find out the everlastingly true and warm familial love in the deformed and indifferent society by analyzing the images of parents in Hard Times and Death of a Salesman.

Key words： familial love; parents; family; social environment

When thinking of the words soft and moist, the picture that comes to the mind is quite the opposite, depicting stiff, harsh and cold.If a flower blooms in the sun, it is just beautiful.But when it blooms in the cold darkness, it would be worth longing for and cherishing.There is no lack of tragedy in classic literary works.They depict the loss of love, broken dreams, repression of society, and even parting family.Among the works that end in tragedy, it is the light in the dark, the teardrop in the coldness that moves the readers.The two words first bring back to Dicken’s Hard Times.Although its title might strike as quite the opposite, it actually reminds of their existence.The “hard” in the title not only means difficult,but also “stiff and rigid” —a kind of utilitarianism that accepts fact but fantasy.But in such a society, did everyone become rigid and impersonal? Of course not.

There are two persons that touch me the most, a mother and a father.

Bounderby is a wealthy banker, businessman and industrialist.But he was also a thoroughly emotionless man, firmly sticking to the supremacy of facts.He was a man of fact.

He, who claimed to have made his fortune on his own, would ramble on at every turn about the tragic events that had happened to him and the tenacity when he was young.Thus, everyone in Coketown knew that Bounderby had not even have one shoe or hear of the name of socks in his childhood.As for the living place,he spent the days in the gutter and nights in the pigsty.Of course, he blamed his mother for all the pains-who had forsaken him in the world, and was the worst old woman.

But it was the “ruthless” mother that brings me sense of soft and warm.

After the theft in Bounderby’s bank, Gradgrind accused Mrs.Pegler of abandoning her family, leaving Bounderby to the maltreatment of his grandmother，and yet now coming forward to her son.Mrs.Pegler rebuked Gradgrind for telling tales and stated that her mother had died before Josiah Bounderby was born, and that he had grown up in the doting love of parents.And Bounderby asked her to stay at home, not to show off or come to him, so she snuck into the city once a year just in order to catch a sight of Bouderby from the distance.But right now, Mrs.Pegler felt more than wronged, receiving all the blame.The one that was to blame, however, was not Gradgrind, but all the story made up by her cherished son Bounderby.How could Gradgrind take all the blame? Bounderby faked his pain and sorrow in front of everyone；he pretended to be suffering from the miserable childhood where he was left by his parents; he did not admit his own mother, who actually was there, under the impression that he did not need love or affection.Even though she had never been admitted, allowed to visit, and even she only got 30 pounds but not a single word from her own son, she was still proud of her own son.In the sharp contrast between the mother and Bounderby,reflected is the difference a person who sees love as the keynote of life and one who aims profits as the life purpose.At the same time, it also reflects the gratuitous egocentric evil of Bounderby, which further serves the author’s purpose, expressing Dicken’s boundless hatred against such capitalists.

All lies will be exposed one day.When the appearance of vanity is removed, all the decadent would turn up.

In this sense, with the moral of “He who finds the proper course has many to assist him.He who loses the proper course has few to assist him”， the light would illuminate the way forward.And Bouderby, lived alone for the rest of his life.

The other person,the father, is of course, Gradgrind.

The marriage between Gradgrind’s daughter Lousia and Bounderby was without doubt a tragedy.But such a marriage that is nothing but properly matched is quite common in that era.What if Louisa refused the marriage? Mr.Gradgrind was not likely to force her to get married.He seemed to genuinely love his daughter.

When Louisa turned to him for help, Gradgrind felt shocked.“Louisa, I can’t tell you, until now, I was so excited about everything I passed yesterday...I always support my things, and suddenly I am embarrassed.” “I think you are under pressure to be forced.” I exposed these things, so I got a conclusion that I can no longer believe in myself.”

This part stirs up my feelings.In addition to the true love for their children, what can make a stubborn person,who has adhered to rations, give up all the values and world views for long? But anyone with strong values would how much courage it takes to change the beliefs.I don’t side with him, but I understand him, even sympathize with him,and am moved that he could finally get on the right track.Father from Hard Times reminds me of another father, Willy from Death of a Salesman.Just like Gradgrind, Willy imposed his own world views and values on his son, ultimately causing the tragedy for himself and his family.Before Willy’s death,there was a big fight because Biff held different thoughts from his.When Biff hugged him crying, pointing out that there was nothing desirable from himself and requesting Willy to give up the illusive dream as well as the stupid things, and face the reality, Willy felt being loved by Biff.He made up his mind to sacrifice for Biff, completing the biggest deal in his life.In the last scene, when Willy learned about how his son felt about him, he spent a long time getting over.His tone of shock and surprise also moved me.Many might think that Willy was not a responsible father, but they failed to realize his efforts to achive success of himself or his love for family and children.It is an important part in American dream to leave the descendants a significant family history.As a man pursuing American dream all his life, Willy understood the importance of family.He just lost the true self and distorted his values by the influence of the society.So at the end of his life, Willy confronted the life and death, in the belief that only in this way could Biff obtain a chance to achieve something.In this scope, he is a good father.

No matter how dark the world is, love is always the brightest and warmest thing, among all of which, the love from parents would always touch our feelings.It quite echoes with a saying, a kid starts with loving the parents, grows up criticizing them and then forgive them.Suppressing and disappointing as the society might be, even the love from a little “abnormal” family is still the softest and wettest part in one’s heart.