The Characteristics of Shakespeares Tragedies

ANYANG INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 《英美文学史》本 科 期 末 论 文

莎士比亚悲剧的特点

The Characteristics of Shakespeare’s Tragedies

系（院）名称： 外国语学院 专业班级： 10级本科二班 学生姓名： 徐蕾 学 号： 201009010064

2013年 1 月

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目录

English Abstracts and Keywords......................................3

中文摘要、关键词..........................................3

Introduction ......................................................4 Chapter 1 The Characteristics of Shakespeare’s Tragedies .................................4

1.1 Analyzing from the Cultural Background .............................................5 1.2 Analyzing from the Protagonist of his Tragedies......................................5

1.3 Analyzing from the name of his tragedies …………………………….....6

Conclusions ..............................................................................................7 参考文献 ………………………………………………………………………......7

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The Characteristics of Shakespeare’s Tragedies

Abstract : Shakespeare is the greatest dramatist of the English Renaissance. Among all his works, his tragedies influence us widely . Tragedies always reflect the author’s cognition of reality much more deeply. In Shakespeare’s whole life, he leaves us a lot of immortal works. Among which, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth are considered as “Four great tragedies”.These are not only the core works of Shakespeare’s tragedies, but also the turning point of all his works. And his tragedies has his own characteristics. Now, I will take the example of his tragedies, analyze the characteristics of his tragedies.

Key words: Shakespeare Tragedies Characteristics

莎士比亚悲剧的特点

摘要：莎士比亚是英国文艺复兴时期最杰出的戏剧家，他的悲剧作品更是影响广泛，悲剧往往体现着作者对现实更深刻的认识。莎士比亚一生留下了许多不朽的名著，而其中的《哈姆雷特》《奥赛罗》《李尔王》和《麦克白》则被公认为“四大悲剧”。这是莎士比亚悲剧的中心作品以至莎士比亚全部作品的转折点。莎士比亚的悲剧也有他自己的特点。现在我就以他的悲剧作品为例来分析他的悲剧的特点。

关键词： 莎士比亚 悲剧 特点

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Introduction

As we all know, only we have a good knowledge of the author’s background can we well understand his work. Now, I will share you something about Shakespeare.

William Shakespeare (1564--1616) was born on April 23, 1564,into a merchant’s family in Stratford-on-Avon. In 1582, he got married and had three children. It was probably because he had to support his growing family that he left for Landon. Shakespeare wrote 37 plays, 154 sonnets and 2 long poems. He is the greatest dramatist of the English Renaissance. Shakespeare is above all writers in the past and in the present time. He died on April 23, 1616. Shakespeare is surpassingly great because his works never fail to be bear a kind of closeness to human life and never fail to be the mirror reflecting human nature.

Chapter 1 The Characteristics of Shakespeare’s Tragedies

In general, in the early period of Shakespeare’s dramatic career, mainly writes histories and comedies. and later, mainly writes tragedies and tragicomedies. Then at last end up with The Tempest. However the “four great tragedies” just write in the transition period. With the enrich of his experience and the mature of art, the author has an increasing profound understanding of the reality. But as a royal dramatist , he writes all of his thoughts into his works silently. Especially Hamlet just writes in the turning point, and also obviously reflects the beginning of the whole turning point. And the other three works based on this point, developing, deepening, reaching the top of outstanding art. Therefore , the ideal reflected by the “four great tragedies” is the most typical. Thu ,we can analyze the characteristics of Shakespeare’s tragedies just through the “four great tragedies”. As far as I am considered, we can analyze the characteristics of his tragedies from this three aspects, that is the cultural background, the protagonist and the name of the works.

At the beginning ,you should have a knowledge of the “four great tragedies”. Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth are Shakespeare’s four greatest tragedies. They have some characteristics in common. Each tragedy portrays a noble hero,who face the justice of human life and is caught in a difficult situation and whose fate is closely connected with the whole nation. Each hero has his weakness of nature; Hamlet,the melancholic scholar-prince, faces the dilemma between action and mind; Othello’s inner weakness is use of by the outside evil force; the old king Lear who is unwilling to totally give up his power makes himself suffer from treachery and infidelity. In king Lear, Shakespeare has not only made a profound analysis of the social crisis in which the evils can be seen everywhere, but also criticized the bourgeois egoism; and Macbeth’s lust for power stirs ups his ambition and leads him to incessant crimes. In these tragedies Shakespeare portrays the weakness of each hero and shows the conflict between the individual and the evil force in the society.

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Now ,since you both have already had a knowledge about Shakespeare’s four greatest tragedies and some basic characteristics in his works, I will show you some other characteristics in his tragedies.

1.1 Analyzing from the Cultural Background

we will analyze from the cultural background. What is known to us all is that Shakespeare is the greatest dramatist of the English Renaissance. And , humanism is the essence of the Renaissance. It emphasizes the dignity of human beings and the importance of the present life. Humanists voiced their beliefs that man was the center of the universe and did not only have the right to enjoy the beauty of the present life,but also had the ability to perfect himself and to perform wonders. With the increasing serious social contradiction of capitalism, humanism has strong confliction with social reality. Shakespeare is worried about the future of our human beings. This endows his tragedies rich humanism. Therefore ,There is no doubt that his tragedies have the characteristic of humanism humanity. His dramatic work can be divided into three major periods. And ,the “four great tragedies” are created in the second period, which stand for the top of Shakespeare’s works. And at that time, the enclosure of commons drove thousands of peasants off their lands, living in miserable condition. The life ideals of humanism and the dark social reality had strong confliction, the ideal of humanism was in danger. While Shakespeare’s tragedies focus on reveal the contradiction in protagonist’s inner heart and reflects the spiritual crisis ordeal they experienced, which has profound humanistic thoughts.

I will take the example of hamlet. Hamlet is produced in the most flourishing times of his work period. It is not only Shakespeare’s representative works, but also the typification of drama in the world. And Shakespeare place his own humanistic thoughts in the protagonist Hamlet, that is the criticism towards the English society and the confirmation towards humanity. In the view of Hamlet, the world should be harmony and beautiful. He has the glorious hopes for human beings. While the suddenly dead of his father , the hurriedly remarriage of his mother and the royal polt revealed by the ghost, all of this made him saw the ugly and dark of the reality. These unexpectedly changes heavily blowed his ideals and send himself in pain suffering. Facing the ruthless reality , Hamlet called out “Demark is a prison... The world is a bigger prison... And Demark is the worst prison...”. This reveals the sharp confliction between the humanistic thought and the social reality. Through Hamlet does not complete his sacred mission, he wins a moral victory and the confirmation to the humanistic loft ideals. So ,in the view of Shakespeare’s cultural background ,it is not difficult for us to find the humanistic humanity characteristic of his tragedy.

1.2 Analyzing from the Protagonist of his Tragedies

we will analyze the characteristics of Shakespeare’s tragedies from the protagonist of his tragedies. If you have read Shakespeare’s tragedies, it is not hard for you to find that most of his tragedies are end up with the death of the protagonist, and

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