The Spiritual Function of Hannah Jelkes in The Night of the Iguana

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Title:	The Spiritual Function of Hannah Jelkes in The Night of the Iguana
Other Titles:	《鬣蜥之夜》中韓娜·基爾科斯精神之重要性
Authors:	王緒鼎
Keywords:	Hannah Jelkes;The Night of the Iguana;Tennessee Williams;spiritual function;Taoism
Date:	2016-05-26
Issue Date:	2016-09-27 02:11:04 (UTC+8)
Abstract:	This paper explores the spiritual function of Hannah Jelkes in The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams, who creates Hannah Jelkes and Maxine Faulk as binary opposites in the play. If Maxine metaphorically stands for the physical reality, Hannah clearly represents the spiritual reality, thus in a pitched battle between the flesh and the soul, Maxine is fighting mainly for the physical Shannon while Hannah is fighting chiefly for the spiritual Shannon, who is the fulcrum of the play. As I have already discussed Maxine’s case elsewhere, I will mainly focus on Hannah’s spiritual function in this paper. Williams creates Hannah as a spiritual savior whose appearance is serene and saintly, whose manner is refined and poised, and whose behavior is kind and compassionate. Hannah’s dramatic function in the play is to save Shannon from his spiritual limbo, and her ways of helping him is not only spiritual but also multidimensional, and all her ways indicate an important influence by Oriental culture in general and by Taoism in particular. With her acquired Taoist concepts, Hannah is able to help Shannon to endure his mental suffering, to turn his miserable inside out, to see the cold reality, to fight against his haunting “spook,” to face the hard external world, and to finally come to terms with life. Thus Hannah’s saintly appearance, her courageously poised manner, her unfaltering fortitude, her kind behavior, her compassionate actions and her serenely educational talking to help Shannon all can prove the important influence by Chinese culture and Taoism that help frame the structure and the development of the play.
Relation:	Proceeding
Appears in Collections:	[Graduate Institute & Department of English] Proceeding

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