Thorough Purification in Philip Roth’s The Human Stain Causes the Oedipus Tragedy

Abstract

Purification is a significant theme of Contemporary American novelist Philip Roth’s novel The Human Stain. The different expressions of purification in the novel are self-purification, political purification and moral purification. These different expressions make readers see that people in the novel can not accept their own stain and social stain and try to achieve thorough purification. Coleman, leading character of the novel, is in such an environment and he also purifies himself. Coleman changes himself from a black man to a Jew and severs ties with his own race. However, after political purification and moral purification, he goes to death. Under the joint action of subjective purification and objective purifica-tion, the Oedipus tragedy happens.