Abstract

Ralph is the protagonist of the great work in Australian literature during the 20th century, The Thorn Birds. Although being a Father, he falls in love with Maggie, which makes him agonize over the conflicts between humanity and divinity. On the one hand, he still performs as a perfect Father, preserving his loyalty to God; on the other hand, his love to Maggie often drives himself mad, and makes him afflicted by his conscience. Moreover, his sentimental attachment to the status as well as his desire for authority further leads to the collapse of his divinity. With the unthoroughness of divinity, he shows a remarkable degree of restraint in not betraying God, which exactly turns against divinity most seriously. When looking into Ralph’s struggling between God and love, readers can clearly see the contradiction of humanity and divinity in asceticism. With a close observation to the character of Ralph, this thesis tries to probe into the collision of humanity and divinity and explore the underlying human nature of some characters in this novel. In addition, the love shackled by the religion will be depicted and analyzed from the aspect of the background of asceticism.

Key words: Ralph, Humanity, Divinity, Love, Asceticism

摘要

拉尔夫是澳大利亚20世纪畅销书《荆棘鸟》中的男主人公。他身为一名神父，却对梅吉产生了世俗的爱情，这使得他一生都游走于上帝与人世之间，挣扎在信仰与情感的边缘。一方面，他依然保存着对上帝的忠诚，维持着世人眼中完美的神父形象，而另一方面他又为这爱情而矛盾、痛苦着。同时，对身份的眷恋，对权力的渴望更进一步瓦解了他的神性。其实，他所有的这些矛盾很大程度上来自于他自身神性的不彻底性，尽管他竭力克制自己，并时时受着内心的煎熬，但思想上的越轨才更是对上帝的背叛。在他不断进行内心挣扎的过程中，当代禁欲主义下人性与神性的冲突被作者鲜明地阐释出。在深入分析拉尔夫这一角色的基础上，本文将着重探讨人性与神性的矛盾与冲突，并进一步结合当时西方宗教背景，探析文中部分角色的人性特征以及宗教桎梏下的爱情。

关键词：拉尔夫， 神性， 人性， 爱情， 禁欲主义

I. Introduction
The Thorn Birds is one of the greatest works in the history of novels in the world during the 20th century. The male protagonist Ralph has drawn much attention from both the scholars and critics.
In The Thorn Birds, before encountering Maggie, his lifelong devotion, Ralph is a perfect Father with a handsome appearance, elegant manners and charming style of conversation that all contribute to his becoming the focus of the public, especially of those young ladies. However, his divinity, or in other words, his loyalty to religion, is severely struck by his falling in love with Maggie, who is a little girl at their first acquaintance. As a result of his unthoroughness of divinity, he suffers the torment of trying to devote to both religion belief and love faithfully, which is much far beyond reality, thus rendering for his torturous life. Therefore, what it turns out to be at the very ending is that he loses his allegiance to both of his faith. Actually, throughout his lifetime, he just performs the role of a Father like an actor in his stage, but to a certain degree, he is a tolerable star in others’ eyes, if leaving his misery inward struggle out of consideration. Besides, technically speaking, the religious background of that age, Asceticism, is an immediate cause of this abortive and twisted love.