literature.doc

Literature Reveals Our Hidden Selves to UsMaybe it is difficult to give a comprehensive, strict and exact definition to literature, but we all know that the roles literature plays in the process of our growing up, in our recognizing our own characters and personality, and revealing our hidden selves are quite self-evident. Take my own experiences as examples. Overtly, I am a girl who is quite confident, outgoing, resolute and decisive. But when I read Shakespeares tragic play Hamlet, suddenly, I get to know that indecision is as a matter of fact a convert shortcoming of my characters. In Hamlet, the prince is portrayed as a typical representative of humanists during the renaissance period, which acknowledged and emphasized the value and rights of man. Being in such a general environment, Hamlet embraced humanism, so he respected man, revered his parents, cherished friendship and believed in love. The entire world in front of him was an ideal one. And in the bottom of his heart, his father was an ideal man and the marriage between his mother and father was the example of unswerving loyalty. But the miserable reality then made him a walking corpse. His father died all of a sudden and shortly after the kings death, the queen Gertrude married the young brother of the king, that is, Hamlets Uncle Claudius. As a result, the ideal world went bankrupt in the brutal reality. For Hamlet, after all that had happened, the firm belief collapsed just like a mountain fell into pieces. The breaking of his ideal threw him into a cruel and torturing situation. At this time, he thought about converting all the sorrow, sadness and bitterness of life into strength and planned to take action against the adversities of life as well as his personal foes. However, the inborn weakness of his characters-indecision hindered his realization of action. And this weakness was the deeprooted source of his tragedy. He from then on became from a happy prince to a remorseful, poor wretched creature. In the play, there is a famous piece of his meditation which displays his weakness of indecision: “To be, or not to be-that is the question:Whether tis nobler in the mind to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune 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 shocksThat flesh is heir to.”This piece conveys the information that the prince just couldnt decide on whether to live bravely or to die briefly; whether to face up to what life endowed him; whether to shoulder the responsibility to be a son of a noble man murdered by vicious plot; whether to take arms to revenge his enemies both personal and national immediately.This thought-provoking meaning of the masterpiece makes me reflect on my own problems. Recently, there are two thorny troubles which are always haunting me day and night. The one is that, two months ago, I encountered a boy with whom I fall head over heels in love. But the question is that there is a great distance in academic degree between us. I am currently a postgraduate, a would-be candidate for master degree, while the boy got only the high school diploma. But the strength of love is fantastic and I just cant resist his attraction. Besides, I am fully aware that for love, what really matters is the closeness and the size of inner heart rather than the degree of purely objective things. Thinking of this, I am extremely and relaxed. His kindness and humor help me to forget the pressure of study and life. However, the reality is that, according to the traditional Chinese view, this kind of match is rather inappropriate and irrational. The persuasion from the classmates, friends, parents and even the teachers around make me shrink back and hesitate. They give me a complete analysis of my situation and try to talking me into giving up and making a mature and rational decision. But on the other hand, I respect, admire and long for love. I remember that once one said love is a fallacy. And who can speak totally clear about it. Yet, the worldly practical opinion presses on me and aims at making me a victim of it. Under such a condition, I hesitate now and then, being unable to make a final decision: to embrace love courageously or to give it up heartless. And every night when I go to bed and every morning when I wake up, my indecision tortures me overwhelmingly and seems to tear me apart. Love is so beautiful and holy, but unfortunately I just cant shake off the traditional view which I grow with and am accustomed to in the end. And by reading Hamlet, from his tragedy, I seem to foresee my own misfortune caused by such a god-awful and damned indecision. Literature helps us to reveal our hidden selves to us and recognize what we are but can not easily help us to overcome what we dont want in ourselves. Another less tormenting trouble caused by indecision that also annoys me is that: I do part-time job as a tutor of a pair of cute brother and sister who are born into a rich family. I like the two kids very much. But the parents are ignorant, conceited and arrogant. The mother is especially fault-finding. Besides, the family atmosphere is quite oppressive. Being a person who loves free and relaxing circumstance, I surely cant stand up with such an awkward situation. And the unbearable ignorance, arrogance and conceitedness shown by the parents let me feel disgusting. Thus out of my dignity, I dont want to stay any longer. While in another place, I have been teaching the two kids for more than one year, and have built a harmoniously close relationship with them. Therefore, I am grudging leaving them. As a result, I struggle between the two sides of my thought and cant make a satisfying decision. And the appreciating of the famous play Hamlet, I begin to realize this kind of indecision and self-contradiction are the innate and hidden aspect of ones characters, which sometimes make people hard to achieve a balance between the related matters.When demonstrating the hidden us, literature help us to purify and supervise our soul at the same time. For this reason, I adore Virginia Woolfs works very much especially her employment of “stream of consciousness” in Mrs. Dalloway to unveil peoples mental and psychological activities. This style of writing put the readers to think of themselves subconsciously. For instance, in Mrs. Dalloway, the following description will probably make us ponder over ourselves:“How much she wanted it-that people should look pleased as she came in, Clarissa thought and turned and walked back towards Bond Street, annoyed, because it was silly to have other reasons for doing things. Much rather would she have been one of those people like Richard who did things for themselves, whereas, she thought, waiting to cross, half the time she did things not simply not for themselves; but to make people think this or that; perfect idiocy she knew (and now the police-man held up his hand) for no one was ever for a second taken in. oh, if she could have had her life over again! She thought stepping on to the pavement, could have looked even differently!”This part clearly shows us that, sometimes, we have no alternative but to do things that we are unwilling to do. We are in a dilemma and have no way out but to act disloyally to our own heart even though every one has a disposition to be rebellious in the innermost. Maybe this is also a weakness of our hidden selves. Writing here, I cant help thinking of myself. For so long a time and in the most cases, I am doing things out of my parents, brothers and sisters and even the teachers and friends but not my own at all, that is, to do things passively just for the happiness and enjoyment of the others. In my life, I have done something that I dont as a matter of fact like. On the contrary, I have to give up what I really have interest in because of the responsibility to family and the expectations of the people around me. In some sense, that is, some of us are living for others rather than ourselves. What a misfortune!And then in the same book, another episode also arouses peoples comparing the character of Mrs. Dalloway with us. The episode goes like this:“For it was not her one hated but the idea of her, which undoubtedly had gathered in to itself a great deal that was not Miss Kilman; had become one of those specters with which one battles in the night; one of those specters who stand astride us and suck up half our lifeblood, dominators and tyrants; for no doubt with another throw of the dice, had the black been uppermost and not the white, she would have loved Miss Kilman! But not in this world! No.It rasped her, though, to have stirring about in her this brutal monster! To hear twigs cracking and feel hooves planted down in the depths of that leaf-encumbered forest, the soul; never to be content quite, or quite secure, for at any moment the brute would be stirring, this hatred, which, especially since her illness, had power to make her feel scraped, hurt in her spine; gave her physical pain, and made all pleasure in beauty, in friendship, in being well, in being loved and making her home delightful rock, quiver, and bend as if indeed three wee a monster grubbing at the roots, as if the whole panoply of content wee nothing but self love! this hatredthere were flowers: delphiniums, sweet peas, bunches of lilac; and carnations, masses of carnations.she breathed in the earthly garden sweet smell as she stood talking to Miss Pym who owed her help, and thought her kind, for kind sheand all the sweet peas spreading in their bowls, as if it were the evening and girls in muslin frocks came out to pick sweet peas and roses after superbly summers dayevery flower seems to burn by itself, softly, purely in the misty beds;! Moe and more gently, as if this beauty, this scent, this color, and Miss Pym liking her, trusting her, wee a wave which she let flow over he and surmount up!”This except is probably talking about one thing that if thee is a people who always look closely at your demerits and faults and who is always critical about your bad aspect of the inner heat or to be exact, the evil-side of your nature, you will resist and even show hatred to him or he just like Mrs. Dalloway hated the idea of Miss Kilman but not the person itself of her. Here I recalled that once in my life, such kind of phenomenon also occurred to me. I have a sincere male fried and we got to know each other almost ten years ago. Therefore, he knows clearly about what kind of girl I really am. Being a frank friend, he always lashes out at both my week point and vanity. In most of the cases, he tells me the true self of me without saving my face, which makes me feel that he can see through me and all what he says and analyses seem to the sharp point. Maybe, it is out of my vanity and self-ego, I fears what he thinks and says but without the denying the fact that I like the person of him because of his frankness, sincerity as well as his trustworthiness. But befo