（语言学及应用语言学专业论文）解读莎士比亚四大悲剧中的原型.pdf

iii 摘摘 要要 威廉莎士比亚是世界上迄今为止最杰出的作家和戏剧家之一。标志着莎 士比亚创作顶峰的四大悲剧哈姆雷特 、 麦克白 、 奥赛罗和李尔王 一经问世，便引来了无数文人墨客的广泛青睐。大部分学者是针对主题，冲突， 人物和情节对莎士比亚的四大悲剧加以分析， 本文将从原型批评的角度重新诠释 莎士比亚的四大悲剧， 其目的在于探究潜于莎士比亚四大悲剧中的人类共同潜意 识。 本文包括四部分。第一部分是关于莎士比亚及其四大悲剧的简介，同时还回 顾了原型的定义，原型批评的起源及发展。另外，它还表明了作者创作本文的意 图。第二和第三部分是本文的主体，作者的目的在于指出并具体分析四个主要的 原型：替罪羊，罪恶，女巫和死亡及其在莎士比亚四大悲剧中是如何体现的。替 罪羊是奥赛罗中典型的原型，虽然苔丝狄蒙娜是无辜的，但父权社会却不能 接受她的自制，她的死是不可避免的，所以说她不仅是她生活时代的替罪羊，而 且是父权社会的受害者。罪恶是文学作品中经常出现的原型，从原型的角度来看 李尔王中大女儿高纳里尔和二女儿里根是这类恶棍的代表。作为原型意象， 女巫在麦克白中扮演着重要角色，它对麦克白权利欲望的大增和麦克白的堕 落起着加速作用。死亡通常被誉为原型中的原型，它不仅丰富了哈姆雷特的 意义，而且增加了它的文学魅力。任何人都逃避不了死亡无论他曾经多么强壮， 这在哈姆雷特中得到充分的体现。第四部分是本文的结论。它指出莎士比亚四大 悲剧中主人公的悲剧是全人类共同的悲剧，这通过原型得以具体的体现和升华。 关键词：关键词：莎士比亚；四大悲剧；原型 i abstract william shakespeare has been widely regarded as one of the most prominent writers and dramatists in the world. his four great tragedies hamlet, othello, king lear and macbeth, which mark the summit of his dramatic creation and career, have always been the focus of numerous critics and scholars ever since they were played. most of the research and focus have been on analyzing the themes, conflicts, characters and plots, and this thesis attempts to make an archetypal study of shakespeares four great tragedies in order to probe into the “collective unconscious” hidden in the four great tragedies of man. this thesis consists of four parts. chapter one is a brief introduction to shakespeare and his four great tragedies, reviewing the definitions of archetypes, the origin and the development of archetypal criticism proposed. in addition, it reveals the authors intention to write this thesis. chapter two and chapter three are the key parts, in which the author aims to identify and analyze four main archetypes, (scapegoat, evil, witch, and death) and how they function in shakespeares four great tragedies in detail. scapegoat is a typical archetype in othello. although desdemona is innocent, the patriarchal society was unable to accept desdemonas self-control, and her death is inevitable. therefore, she is a scapegoat of the age that she lives and a victim of man. evil is a common archetype in literature. in king lear, goneril and regan are depicted archetypally as embodiment of monstrous evil. witches in macbeth play a vital role as archetype and become an accelerator of macbeths rise to ii power and tragic downfall. death is considered as the archetype of archetypes, enriching hamlet and enhancing its literary significance. nobody can escape it no matter how he is prosperous and powerful, which is stated in hamlet clearly. chapter four is the conclusion of thesis. it reveals to us that the tragedy of the heroes in shakespeares four great tragedies is just the tragedy of man, which is incarnated and enhanced by archetypes. key words: shakespeare, four great tragedies, archetype 1 chapter i introduction a. brief introduction to shakespeare and his four great tragedies william shakespeare, who was widely regarded as one of the most prominent writers and dramatists in all of english literature even in the world, was born in 1564 to a successful middle-class glove-maker in stratford-upon-avon, england. “despite his later brilliance, shakespeare never attended university. but he must have spent some years at the kings new school in stratford, after the age of six” (haydn, 18). at the age of 18, shakespeare married the 26-year-old anne hathaway, and had three children with her. it is not known exactly when shakespeare began writing, but contemporary allusions and records of performances show that several of his plays were on the london stage around 1590. scholars have often divided shakespeares writing career into four periods. until the mid-1590s, he wrote mainly comedies influenced by roman and italian models and history plays in the popular chronicle tradition. his second period began in about 1595 with the tragedy romeo and juliet and ended with the tragedy of julius caesar in 1599. during this time, he wrote what are considered his greatest comedies and histories. shakespeare wrote mostly tragedies from about 1600 to about 1608, his tragic period. many critics believe that tragedies, especially his four great tragedies hamlet, othello, king lear and macbeth, which mark the summit of his dramatic creation. firstly, it is necessary to know what the tragedy is. michael mangan points out the definition of tragedy in a preface to 2 shakespeares tragedies. it is inappropriate to apply the criteria of greek tragedy of the pre-christian era to the plays of the jacobean age. the very term tragedy is one which was used in a variety of ways by shakespeare and his contemporaries, and the instability of generic boundaries which allowed for a free merging of tragedy and satire is a basic feature of the drama of the time (61-2). his four great tragedies always refer to common human themes, such as betrayal, murder, lust, power, ambition and love. the themes are as much an essential part of human nature today as they were all those years ago and reflected in shakespeares four great tragedies exactly. hamlet was a tragedy of the young prince of denmark who had to take revenge upon his fathers murder. othello was a tragedy of how villain iago led to a doomed marriage of desdemona to othello by making use of othellos jealousy and desdemonas obedience. king lear was a tragedy of a king who foolishly divided his kingdom between his two wicked daughters and exiled the young daughter who loved him. macbeth was the last of shakespeares four great tragedies of how macbeth produced the rise to power and tragic downfall of the warrior macbeth. from about 1608 to 1613, mainly tragicomedies, also called romances. shakespeares breakthrough as a writer and dramatist attracts later writers 3 attention and praise. in the following part, the author will list some of them. e. a. j. honigmann in shakespeares impact on his contemporaries indicated that “contemporary poets praised his honeyflowing and his wit; contemporary dramatists, on the other hand, shakespeare enriched everything he toucheddramatic structure, characterization, the web of relationships, down to purely scenic features” (32). it is a proof that shakespeare is a genius not only in poetry but also in drama. in order to explain his significance, margreta de grazia stanley wells in the cambridge companion to shakespeare indicated that in 1598, the cleric and author francis meres distinguished him from a group of english writers as “the most excellent in both kinds comedy and tragedy for the stage” (265). ben johnson praised shakespeare the “soul of the age, the applause, delight, the wonder of our stage” (ibid. 267). all the examples are the evidence of shakespeares literary talent. shakespeares work has made a lasting impression on later theatre and literature. in particular, he not only has expanded the dramatic potential of characterization, plot, language, and genre, but also has set up a good example for numerous later writers including the famous novelist herman melville, thomas hardy and william faulkner. the american novelist herman melvilles soliloquies owe much to shakespeare; his captain ahab in moby-dick is a classic tragic hero, inspired by king lear. scholars 4 have identified 20,000 pieces of music linked to shakespeares works. shakespeare has also inspired psychoanalyst sigmund freud, he drew on shakespearean psychology, in particular that of hamlet, for his theories of human nature. “the english language was in a great change in 16 century, which borrowed vigorous words from many other languages. shakespeare made a great contribution to enriching and shaping english words during the great change” (yang 36). that is to say, in shakespeares day, english spelling were less standard than they are now, and his use of language helped shape modern english. b. a brief introduction to archetypes and archetypal criticism 1. the concept of archetypes the most important concept in archetypal criticism is, as its name suggests, “archetype.” in the following, the author will list the definition of “archetype” proposed by different people. john sinclair defines “archetype” in english-chinese dictionary. he observes “an archetype is something that is considered to be a perfect example of a particular kind of person, thing, system, etc., because it has all their most important characteristics” (84). abrams, m. h. also defines “archetype” in a glossary of literary terms. he points out that archetype denotes recurrent narrative designs, patters of action, 5 character-types, themes, and images which are identifiable in a wide variety of works of literature, as well as in myths, dreams, and even in social rituals. such recurrent items are held to be the result of elemental and universal forms or patterns in the human psyche, whose effective embodiment in a literary work evokes a profound response from the attentive reader. (12) carl jung, who is a swiss psychiatrist and an influential thinker defines archetype in his collective works. the concept of archetypes is the mode of expression of the collective unconscious. in addition to the purely personal unconscious hypothesized by freud, a deeper unconscious level is felt to exist. this deeper level manifests itself in universal archaic images in dreams, religious beliefs, myths, and fairytales. jung observes that the archetypes, as unfiltered psychic experience, appear sometimes in their most primitive and naive forms (in dreams), sometimes in a considerably more complex from due to the operation of conscious elaboration (in myths). . . . the search into the unconscious involves confronting the shadow, mans hidden nature. as archetypes penetrate consciousness, they influence the perceived experience of normal and neurotic people (112). 6 jung also point out that the collective unconscious is considered to consist of preexistent thought forms, called archetypes, which give form to certain psychic material which then enters the conscious. archetypes are linked to instinctual behavior patterns. it is felt that there are as many archetypes as there are recurring situations in life, that when a situation occurs that corresponds to a particular archetype, the archetype presses for completion like an instinctual drive, resistance to its expression may result in neurosis. (113) it can be concluded that jung defines archetype from psychological perspective. northrop frye, who is one of the most distinguished literary critics and literary theorists of the twentieth century, concludes the definition of archetype “at myth level, symbol is a communicable unit; . . . that is a typical or recurring image. by archetype i mean a symbol which can connect a poem with another, conducive to make our literary experience a whole” (anatomy, 142). some scholars say that for frye, archetype borrowed from jung, means a primordial image, a part of the collective unconscious, the psychic residue of numberless experiences of the same kind, and thus part of the inherited response-pattern of the race. thus, we can conclude that archetypes are literary images that grow out of the collective unconscious and reflection of collective unconscious coming from human beings innate experience. they appear in literature 7 as incidents that repeat basic patterns of life. other scholars point out that archetypes are similar motifs or themes that may be found among many different mythologies and certain images that recur in the myths of people widely separated in time and place and tend to have a common meaning, or more accurately, tend to elicit comparable psychological responses and to serve similar cultural functions. we can draw conclusions of the definition of archetype proposed by different scholars. firstly, archetypes are human experiences collected unconsciously over millions of years. secondly, fryes definition of archetype differs from that of jungs in that frye believes archetype should trace based on primitive culture instead of dreams or primordial images. thirdly, “the literary critic applies this term to an image, a plot pattern, or a character type that occurs frequently in literature, myth. it is, therefore, believed to evoke profound emotions because it touches the unconscious memory and thus calls into play illogical but strong response” (wang 18). 2. the origin and development of archetypal criticism as archetypes usually include myths (tales, rituals, totems, taboos, etc.), so “archetypal criticism” is often used for myth and archetypal criticism. however, archetypal criticism owes especially to the following three people for their separate contributions: frazer in the late nineteenth century revealed the recurring mythical patterns in tales and rituals; jung in 1930s and 1940s developed a theory of archetype out of it; and frye proposed, based on the previous two, a whole system of literary archetypal criticism in the 1950s. 8 a. james g. frazer and his the golden bough it can be traced back to frazer who made the pioneering contributions to the development of archetypal criticism in the late 19th. at the beginning of archetypal theory, it was called “myth-criticism” which was intended to find the “the origin of literature from religious phenomena, such as rituals, myths and totems.” the golden bough is one of frazers representative works dealing with the variety witchcrafts and rituals all over the world, which has exerted its continuous influence on later generations. “in the golden bough he tried to show a general development of modes of thought from the magical to the religions and, finally, to the scientific, or the trace of human consciousness from the primitive to the civilized” (zhu 129). he points out the primeval people firmly believed that the magic power was used in ritual and they could synchronize their action with that of nature, in order to make natural power under their control. gradually they realized the failure of their endeavor, so they created and resorted to gods who possessed supernatural power, therefore, religion began to flourish; and later on people began to doubt gods power, and it then made it possible for science to grow. from this development, we can know that some religious phenomena were partly the source of western culture and literature. more important were frazers findings that some of these religious phenomena had the same root with he named “archetype,” which recurred in the myths and literary works of later generations. b. carl jung and his archetypal theory after frazer contributed to archetypal criticism from an anthropologist point of 9 view, jung produced the theoretical basis from a psychological perspective. carl gustav jung was a swiss psychiatrist, an influential thinker and founder of analytical psychology. jungs primary contribution to myth criticism is his theory of racial memory and archetypes. in developing this concept, jung expanded freuds theories of the personal unconscious, asserting that beneath this is a primeval, collective unconscious shared in the psychic inheritance of all members of the human family. jung believed that humans share a single universal unconscious rather than having separate, personal unconscious mind. he coined the term collective unconscious to describe the primordial and universal images, which has existed in human imagination since the existence of human beings. the images that form the collective unconscious, the universal patterns and motifs that pass down from one generation to the later are called archetypes. he applied the term “archetype” to what he called “primordial images,” the “psychic residue” of repeated patterns of common human experience in the lives of our ancient ancestors. jung was also careful to explain that archetypes are not inherited ideas or patterns of thoughts, but rather that they are predispositions to respond in similar ways to certain stimuli. in stressing that archetypes are actually “inherited forms,” jung also went further than most of the anthropologists, who wanted to see these forms as social phenomena passed down from one generation to the next through various sacred rites rather than through the structure of the psychic itself. furthermore, he theorized that 10 myths do not derive from external factors such as the seasonal or solar cycle but are, in truth, the projections if innate psychic phenomena. (guerin 178-9) last paragraph points out the characteristic of archetype. jung also discusses at length many of the archetypal patterns that we have already examined. in this way, although his emphasis is psychological rather than anthropological, a good deal of his work overlaps that of frazer and the others. but, as we have already indicated, jung is not merely a derivative or secondary figure; he is a major influence in the growth of myth criticism. for one thing, he provided some of the favorite terminology now current among myth critics. the term “archetype” itself, though not coined by jung, enjoys its present widespread usage among the myth critics primarily because of his influence. although jung wrote relatively little that could be called archetypal criticism, his theories have expanded the horizons of literary interpretation for those critics who concerned to use mythological approach. c. northrop frye and his archetypal criticism based on jungs psychological theory of collective unconsciousness and frazers study on anthropology, northrop frye develops archetypal criticism. the study of archetypes begins with the world of myth, which is the central informing power that gives archetypal significance to the ritual and archetypal narrative to the oracle. in his