Abstract

Matin Eden tells a struggling story that Martin tries hard to become a famous writer but chooses suicide to end his life after seeing the cruel side of capitalistic society. Futhermore, it tells a love story between Martin and Ruth which motivates Martin to persist in his writing profession. However, in their loving relationship, so many divergent conflicts emerge out that finally tear down their love to face reality. Why could such seemingly strong love easily die? Is their love really built on a solid basis that involves giving, caring, responsibility, respect and knowledge as Erich Fromm states in his book The Art of Love? The main purpose of the paper is to solve these questions. It is divided into three parts including background, body and conclusion. In the background, the main contents of two books Matin Eden and The Art of Love are clearly and logically introduced. And this paper’s body has been divided into two parts, too. Within the first part, focus is put on detailed analyses of Martin and Ruth’s characters combined with concrete plots in the novel. It is necessary to know what kind of people they are if we want to analyze their loving relationship, because love is an activity which consists of two individual persons. In the second part, according to a clue of Erich’s theory structure, much deeper explaination is given towards their love. The conclusion summarizes all research, at the same time, builds a bridge to love attitudes of today’s society. It will be better if this paper brings some inspiration of necessary way how we treat with love to today’s young men and women.

Keywords: Martin Eden; The Art of Love; elements of love; knowledge; seperateness

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

1. Introduction-1

1.1 Background-1

1.2 Purpose of the study-1

1.3 Significance of the study-2

1.4 Article Structure-2

2. Literature Review-3

2.1 Research on Martin Eden-3

2.2 Research on Martin Eden from love perspective-3

3. Analyses-6

3.1 Analysis of Martin and Ruths’ background and character-6

3.1.1 Martin-6

3.1.2 Ruth-7

3.2 Analyses based on The Art of Love-8

3.2.1 Analysis from the perspective of seperateness-8

3.2.2 Analysis from the perspective of other four elements-9

4. Conclusion-12

4.1 Major findings-12

4.2 Current Meanings-12

4.3 Limitations-13

References-14