英语毕业论文80882：莎士比亚An Analysis of Shakespeare’s Tragedy World.doc

英语毕业论文 an analysis of shakespeare s tragedy world abstract shakespeare 1564 1616 lived in the transition period from feudal society to capitalistic society the greatest of all english authors william shakespeare belongs to one of those rare geniuses of mankind who have become landmarks in the history of world culture meanwhile the works of william shakespeare are a great landmark in the history of world literature tragedies especially the four great tragedies stand for his greatest contribution in hamlet the hero is rational and his plan is in depth but he always can t put his ideas into actions in othello the hero othello is a brave hero he loves and is loved he always trusts others from the characters in king lear we can see the depth and width of life the work reflects king lear s tragedy goes through the whole work macbeth is the finally completed and the shortest of the four it is famous for its quick development every role and every story in shakespeare s tragedy world based on the four great tragedies make our heart and soul moving through analyzing the characters of the four great tragedies this article tells people how to choose the right destination when they are facing sufferings and ridicule of life and from them we can find the right way to live and act key words shakespeare tragedy disposition flaw guilt ambition 摘 要 莎士比亚 1564 1616 生活在封建社会和资本主义社会的转折时期 在所有的英国作家中 莎士 比亚在世界文学史上是极少数里程碑式人物之一 同样其作品也是一个里程碑 从艺术上讲 莎士 比亚的悲剧是莎剧中成就最高的 而其中又以四大悲剧为代表 在 哈姆雷特 这悲剧中主人公是理智的 计划周到的 但却总难付诸行动 在 奥赛罗 里 主 人公奥赛罗是性格刚勇的好汉 他爱着也被爱着 李尔王 一剧的人物形象可以看出作品反映的 时代生活广度和深度 李尔王的悲剧命运贯穿全剧的中心 麦克白 是四大悲剧中最后完成的 也是悲剧中最短的一个 它以戏剧情节发展的快速而闻名 莎士比亚的以四大悲剧为代表的悲剧世界 其中各个角色 各个场景都深深震撼我们的心灵 本文 通过四大悲剧主人公性格分析 指出了面对生活的苦难和人生的荒谬 人们应如何做出选择 我们 从中一定会找到行事的方针和生活的智慧 关键词 莎士比亚 悲剧 性格缺陷 罪恶 欲望 introduction william shakespeare was born on the 23rd of april 1564 in stratford on avon warwickshire he is one of those rare geniuses of mankind who have become landmarks in the history of world culture meanwhile the works of william shakespeare are a great landmark in the history of world literature during the 22 英语毕业论文 i years of his literary work he produced 37 plays 2 narrative poems and 154 sonnets but tragedies especially the four great tragedies stand for his greatest contribution the disposition flaw in hamlet which shakespeare processes is over the perfect moral principle in othello othello always trusts others but just this nobility and innocence make him guilty king lear s biggest weakness is that he can t distinguish what is the false flattery and what is the faithful emotion and sentiment macbeth describes that how an ambition makes somebody become a criminal from a famous minister and ends with an evil monarch it reflects the awful result of the excessive and continuous ambition for people deeply all in all through analyzing the heroes characters living background and their fate this article tells people how to choose when they are facing sufferings and ridicule of life and from them we can find the principle of doing something and wisdom of living so when something very important happens one can face it and deal with it more severely one can shoulder the burden of life more easily i believe people can learn more from good tragedy works i the four great tragedies heroes analysis a a tragic hero hamlet hamlet is one of shakespeare s tragedies hamlet learns from the ghost of his father the fatal secret of his death at the hands of claudis his uncle who marries the widow has the cold body of the deceased hamlet lays a trap to catch his uncle s conscience breaks his engagement with ophelia kills the wary old counselor polonius and is sent off to england under the escort of the treacherous courtiers rosencrantz and guildenstein to be put to death on the way he rises in the night unseals their murderous commission rewrites it and seals it with his father s ring having worded it so that they themselves shall be the victims when they reach england in a fight with pirates hamlet boards their ship and is conveyed by them back to denmark where he tells his adventures to his friend horatio at ophelia s grave he encounters laertes her brother and presently in a fencing bout with him is killed by laerte s poisoned sword but not before he has stabbed his treacherous uncle and forced the fatal cup of poison down his throat his mother gertrude has just died from accidentally drinking the same poison prepared by the king for hamlet it is a revenge play like kyd s spanish tragedy and like tourneur s revenger s tradey and so on the renaissance was a violent time and their theatre s obsession with things like revenge proves it but whereas most of shakespeare s contemporaries take and created revenge heroes who behave accordingly shakespeare creates a humane and sensitive hero who is appalled by the task appointed to him hamlet is a clear representation of shakespeare s tragic hero as the play s tragic hero hamlet exhibits a combination of good and bad points a complex character he displays a variety of characteristics throughout the play s development sometimes he is a human and sensitive hero at other times he is melodramatically violent cold bloodedly callous or even gleefully blood thirsty both in word and deed at first everyone sees hamlet as a sensitive young prince who is mourning the death of his father the king in addition his mother s immediate marriage to his uncle has left him in even greater despair the combination of these emotions leaves one feeling sympathetic to hamlet then he becomes a very human character one sees from the very beginning that he is a very complex and conflicted man and that his tragedy has already begun hamlet s anger and grief primarily stemming from his mother s marriage to claudius brings him to thoughts of suicide which only subsides as a result of it being a mortal and religious sin the fact that he 英语毕业论文 ii wants to take his own life demonstrates a weakness in his character his decision not to kill himself because of religious beliefs shows that this weakness is balanced with some sense of morality such an obvious paradox is only one example of the inner conflict and turmoil that will eventually lead to hamlet s downfall this internal struggle is obvious from his best known soliloquy to be or not to be that is the question whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous foutune or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them to die to sleep no more and by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to tis a consummation devoutly to be wish d to die to sleep to sleep perchance to dream ay there s the rub from act iii scene to be or not to be shows hamlet contemplating the idea of loyalty acting upon one s morals and their relation to fighting against the challenges of evil meanwhile he doubts everything including love he hesitates which makes him enter the tragedy his tragedy shows the limitation of his thinking as a humanist in that period the power of enemy is very big the beauty and the ugly are turned the dream of humanist can t be realized the struggle of hero must end with grey luck hamlet s tragedy is the time s tragedy the liberation and freedom hamlet goes after are too heavy the sad that dream can t be realized makes him more sufferings in addition the limitation of hamlet is also revealed by his far away from people he just wants to change the society by himself he just remains himself though hamlet has great wisdom and enough reason it s unrealized to do one thing by his own power also in that society nobody wins at last by oneself hamlet is also a person who believes destiny deeply until the last stage of his struggle he still believes that there is a power which can decide someone to win or fail he is tied by the old thought so he hesitates misses the opportunity and is passive hamlet although a complex and unique character clearly represents the tragic hero shakespeare wants to tell us that the real world is unreasonable but he can t solve the question because of the limitation of time and rank the great of hamlet is that he can reveal ugly exists in the world bravely but not how to sweep these sins the original power hamlet represents is on the stage of childishness they haven t enough power to destroy evil maybe in the other words we can say that they are doomed to tragedy b victim of credulity othello othello a moorish general of venice has promoted cassio as his lieutenant iago who was hoping for the promotion himself makes plots against cassio and othello to exact revenge othello has secretly married desdemona the beautiful daughter of venetian senator brabantio and iago determines to use desdemona as the means of his revenge othello believed iago s tricks so that he killed his wife by his own hand at last when he finds he has murdered his wife by mistake he can t face himself and stabs himself in front of cassio and dies on desdemona s bed beside her othello due to his moorish nature but at the same time morally white and untainted can be considered grey with the opening of the play his tragedy is caused by his naivet at trusting people too easily in this 英语毕业论文 iii play there is a character iago who is contrary to othello in nature he is the embodiment of evil he manipulates the development of the play and all the characters in the play and leads a sorry tragedy iago s living gospel is one who lives only for himself he takes every kind of measures to realize his benefit facially he is very good and honest he just wants to get trust from othello his evil can t be counted and can t be ignored iago knows the weakness of othello s character othello is born with white and untainted he doesn t know he has trapped in other s lie and injury when iago manipulates othello othello unknowingly gives in to the temptation even going as far as telling iago i am bound to thee for ever iii iii 242 othello at this point is completely taken in with iago s mind poisoning and willingly submits to him yielding to his trickeries inevitably with a little push from iago othello slowly goes down the path of dark and pure blackness with murder evident in mind with iago s tampering of his inner moralities othello turns black like a speeding snowball once iago set him on the right path at last the green eyed monster lures him to kill his wife and destroy his business reputation and life when othello finds his mistake even though at the end he seems repentant towards the deeds that he has done he still lost so he stabs himself and also lefts some words which are full of regret speak of me as i am nothing extenuate nor set down aught in malice then must you speak of one that loved not wisely but too well of one not easily jealous but being wrought perplex d in the extreme of one whose hand like the base indian threw a pearl away richer than all his tribe of one whose subdued eyes albeit unused to the melting mood drop tears as fast as the arabian trees their medicinal gum set you down this from act scene many critics of shakespeare like to talk about othello s noble temper and like to study the motivation of evil iago but in fact iago stands not only the envy of aspiration and flesh and also a kind of aeriform individualism all in all evil and good is expressed as a never ending fight in shakespeare s tragedies evil and good is recognized as each quality manifests during a person s lifetime but only at the moment of death is he able to look back and see what he truly is without hindrance of the other c a tragic king created by power lear king lear the aging king of britain is old and wishes to retire from his position of king of britain so he determines to split his domain evenly between his three daughters goneril regan and the young cordelia because he makes a very foolish decision so the tragedy begins he surrenders all his power and land to his two elder daughters as a reward for their fake demonstration of love towards him this rash decision leads to his imminent downfall lear is soon to find out how much love goneril and regan actually have for him it s late he begins to go mad at last overcome by his sorrow lear collapses and dies besides his lone loving daughter tragedy has been proved to be the most moving in all the literate works but many critics think that though lear isn t the most perfect work it has the strongest tragedy feature the first reason of king lear s tragedy is that his knowledge to nature and society is wrong more exactly 英语毕业论文 iv he doesn t know the society at all as a king he lives in a luxury and corrupt environment and he doesn t know how people live outside he seems only power and respect so he makes that foolish decision the second reason of king lear s tragedy is that his knowledge to human s rank and value is wrong lear doesn t know the relation between king and common people he thinks he is a king and is different from others his value is over everyone he believes deeply that even though he isn t a king one day he still can own respect from others that foolish decision tells him that he is wrong after expiring tragedy his good side in his soul begins to unfold we see he can not only be mild to other and also be sympathy to the weak his power of character is not only showed in the curse of two daughters and also showed in the apologizing to his little daughter with the development of play we begin to excuse lear king lear just like a fable and tells us some philosophies of life gloucester begins to see clearly his two sons who is good and who is evil after losing sight the same lear becomes sane after mad the reasons of lear s tragedy have some social reasons and also some individual reasons it is a king s tragedy and also a common s tragedy who am i shows lear awaking deeply in fact he begins to awake from his two elder daughters bad treatment so he says o reason not the need our basest beggars are in the poorest thing superfluous allow not nature more than nature needs man s life is cheap as beast s thou art a lady if only to go warm were gorgeous why nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear st which scarcely keeps thee warm but for true need you heavens give me that patience patience i need you see me here you gods a poor old man from act scene in the play king lear from the beginning to the end the evil take the main hero though the evil are all punished at the end the good are also not perfect so we should remember that if there is more tragedy in art there is less tragedy in life d tragedy caused by ambition macbeth macbeth thane of glamis is one of king duncan s greatest war captains upon returning from a battle with the rebellious thane of cawdor macbeth and banquo encounter three witches they predict macbeth will become the king by macbeth and lady macbeth s insist ambition macbeth kills the king and is crowned king of scotland thus fulfilling the witches prophecy but macbeth goes mad gradually at last the prince s army is approaching and the play ends with the death of macbeth macbeth a very reasonable and moral man could not hold off the lure of ambition this idea is stated in the following passage one of the most significant reasons for the enduring critical interest in macbeth s character is that he represents humankind s universal propensity to temptation and sin macbeth s excessive ambition motivates him to murder duncan and once the evil act is accomplished he sets into motion a series of sinister events that ultimately lead to his downfall scott 236 not only is macbeth overtaken by his ambition lady macbeth is also overtaken unlike macbeth however lady macbeth is overtaken by her ambition immediately as she reads the letter sent to her by macbeth which speaks of the new 英语毕业论文 v title and the witches prophecies she immediately decides that they must do whatever is necessary to become king and queen again we see that ambition subverts reasoning she does not even question the motives of these three evil sisters like macbeth does instead she almost immediately decides that duncan has to be dealt with this break down in reasoning is very damaging to both macbeth and his wife though shakespeare doesn t show the hero is bad at the beginning otherwise macbeth can t become the hero of tragedy and aspiration lets him make a further err we believed that in the deep heart of macbeth there is good aspect just with the rank higher and the power bigger he wants more ambition lies in each person s heart but some one asks for it over the limitation that will end with tragedy so macbeth s action is disapproved when he awakes everything has happened and one can t start from the beginning just seyton an officer comes in and reports lady macbeth s death macbeth then delivers this rather cynic monologue about the meaning of life she should have died hereafter there would have been a time for such a word tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time and all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death out out brief candle life s but a walking shadow a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more it is a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing from act scene in conclusion the reasoning of macbeth and lady macbeth is completely subverted and undermined by their insatiable ambition throughout the novel we see that the macbeth s ambition completely subverted their reasoning abilities and eventually lead to their downfall so macbeth warns us that ambition lies in everyone s heart we should control it rightly ii the influence elements of the four great tragedies accomplishment a the living experience william shakespeare was born on the 23rd of april 1564 in stratford on avon warwickshire his father john shakespeare the son of a small farmer settled in stratford and did some business at the age of 7 shakespeare was sent to the local grammar school be