Abstract

Amsterdam is a classic and worth reading work. Ian McEwan is the author of Amsterdam. This novel has the haunting plot and reveals the humanity’s complexity and profundity, because it implies revenge and resentment. In this paper, the author analyzed three main figures’ characteristics (Clive, Vernon and George) of the novel. Clive is an arrogant, sensitive but somewhat sincere composer; Vernon is a greedy, unmoral and unfaithful kitschy editor, while George is a shrewd and unfaithful husband of Molly. All their behaviors make the readers realize the humanity (such as greed, revenge, jealousy, selfishness, arrogance, desire) of characters in the novel，Human nature in this is showed incisively and vividly. Molly’s death is very cause of Clive and Vernon’s tragedy.  Moreover, by analyzing, the author also found the root cause was themselves who turned their life into tragedy when they were driven by their inside shameful desire. Thereby， When people are not able to control their desires, desires twist humanity.

Key Words: Humanity   Amsterdam   Character  death

摘 要

麦克尤恩的《阿姆斯特丹》是一本精美绝伦并且非常值得一读的小说。小说里有许多令人难忘的情节，本文通过它所蕴含的报复与愤恨，揭示了人性的复杂与深刻。在本论文中，作者对小说中的主要的三位主人公（克利夫，弗农和乔治）的人物性格及行为进行了深刻分析，克利夫是一个自大又敏感但相对真诚的作曲家，而弗农是一个贪婪的，不道德又不忠诚的肤浅报社编辑，作为莫莉的丈夫，乔治是一个城府很深却又对她不忠的人。这三个人物的各种行为都向读者展现了他们人性最真实的一面，其中包括贪婪，仇恨，嫉妒，自私，自大傲慢和欲望等。整本小说将人性体现的淋漓尽致。莫莉的死是导致克里夫和弗农人生悲剧的一个主要原因。通过分析，作者也发现当两位主人公被自己内心深处的欲望所驱使时，是他们亲手将自己的人生酿成了悲剧。因此，当人们无法控制自己的欲望时， 欲望将会扭曲人性。

关键词：人性 《阿姆斯特丹》 人物性格 死亡

1 Introduction
Ian McEwan is a resolute, agile and famous writer, who preserved with writing. He is good at describing modern people’s all sorts of internal uncertainty and fear and exploring the problems of violence, death, love, kindness and evil in a delicate and sharp writing style. Yu Hua once mentioned that when readers look for literary source for the works of McEwan, they are looking for pictures of their own life experience and the reality of the situation as a matter of fact. Most of his works are widely regarded as black comedies. Amsterdam is one of them.