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。WWW.11665.CoM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 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 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 ⅰ)
“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 naiveté at trusting people too easily. in this 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 actⅴ scene ⅱ)
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, 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 ⅱ scene ⅳ)
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 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 ⅴ scene ⅴ)
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 .beside reading and writing he was taught latin and greek.
in 1577, he left school because of the poor of family. but in his early years, shakespeare became well acquainted with theatrical performance. in 1582 shakespeare, at the age of 18 years old, married a farmer’s daughter anne hathaway who was 8 years older than he. in the following years, they had three daughters and a son.
shakespeare arrived in london in the year 1586 or 1587. at that time, britain entered a short thriving period under elizabeth, the drama was rapidly gaining popularity among the people. by the end of 1580 shakespeare was known as an actor and playwright in one of the leading companies of players. shakespeare’s activities as a dramatist, poet and actor, lasted till the year 1612 when he retired from the stage and returned to stratford. shakespeare died on the 23rd of april, 1616.
we can’t deny that shakespeare’s growing experience plays an important role to his creative life.
b. the social background
only one of the four great tragedies of shakespeare’s maturity was written and performed during elizabeth’s reign, but it was in elizabeth’s england that shakespeare spent the first thirty nine years of his life, and it was in this society that he learned his craft as a dramatist. during this period, the society was not stable. elizabeth inherited the english throne at a time of political and economic chaos. the english reformation had forced the country into a comparatively isolated position in europe and at home the religious upheavals had taken their toll on the nation’s stability. by the time of her death in 1603, the picture was very different. in many quarters, perhaps in most quarters, elizabeth in her latter years was a very unpopular ruler.
james, it is insisted, may not be elizabeth’s immediate offspring, but he is her legitimate and inevitable heir, legitimized by a process which is magical and indeed
almost holy for the phoenix as a symbol of rebirth was much used by christian writers; its reduplication of the image of christ rising from the grave made it irresistible. james is hymned as the divinely-sanctioned heir, the natural and blessed successor to elizabeth. the rhetoric, the imagery, even the rhythms, all suggests a smooth transition of english power from elizabeth to james. nonetheless, shakespeare and fletcher’s hymn to the smooth transition from the tudors to the stuarts has a kind of truth about it. another three tragedies of shakespeare were written during this period.
from his works, we can see the shadow of the society. just in this environment shakespeare can writes these great works, especially the four great tragedies. also we can say that time create hero.
iii. the revelation of thetragedy works
shakespeare shows his talent writing skill absolutely in the host disposition portray. but we can not neglect that shakespeare puts all sorts of disposition weakness in a dangerous environment. because he knew disposition weakness in peaceful years is only in the life slight defect; but in the evil environment, disposition weakness then becomes the fatal weapon.
hamlet’s disposition flaw is that he can’t put his ideas into actions. the hero othello is a brave hero. but he trusts others too much. he lost his own observation. from the characters in king lear, we can see the depth and width of life the work reflects. his biggest weakness is that he can’t distinguish good and wrong. this comes from his environment. macbeth’s tragedy is from his insist ambition. it reflects the bad contribution of the excessive and insisted ambition for people deeply.
the true meaning of tragedy is to let people face the suffering of life. this can’t make people pessimistic; on the other hand, tragedy leads people to learn about the truth of life. so when something very important happens, one can face it and deal it more severely, one can shoulder the burden of life more easily. people can learn more from good tragedy.
conclusion
no wonder that shakespeare’s works are so fondly cherished by the greatest minds of mankind and among them by karl marx, who regarded shakespeare as one of the “two greatest dramatic geniuses the world has ever known”, the other one is aeschylus.
the most profound theory in the classicalism is about that of human nature, and it presents barely in shakespeare’s four great tragedies－various tragedies occurred in the lives caused by some character flows without being treating, constantly accumulated oneself and finally lead to the horrible end .
although in shakespesre’s each tragedy finally all evil will be requited with evil, but all heroes’ weakness is totally unable to resist evil. the effect of each tragedy is inevitable. after reading these, we feel only sad? it’s not the truth. when one has to consider the problem of life or death, it’s time for him to wake. when one’s idealized knowledge to life is crushed before reality, he begins to know the suffering of living, the nonsense of life and the tragedy. then he starts to face his future. this is a severe question for everyone and an unavoidable question for everyone during growing. i think maybe this is the true meaning of shakespeare’s tragedy world based on the four great tragedies.
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