William shakespeare (1564- 16 16) was the most important writer, outstanding dramatist and poet in Britain during the European Renaissance. He created a large number of well-known literary works, which occupies a special position in the history of European literature. Known as "Zeus on Mount Olympus of human literature", it is also known as the four great tragedians in the history of drama together with the three great ancient Greek tragedians Aeschylus, Sophocles and euripides.
Poet william shakespeare was born in Stratford, England on 1564. Although he received a good basic education, he didn't go to college. Shakespeare married a 26-year-old woman in 18, and gave birth to three children in less than 2 1.
A few years later, he came to London and became an actor and playwright. He stood up at the age of 30 and became famous in the theater. Four years later, he has become a leading figure in British drama. In the following ten years, he wrote Julius Caesar, otero, Macbeth and King Lear.
Shakespeare has lived in London for more than twenty years, while his wife has been living in Stratford. When he approached his fate, he retired to his hometown of Stratford. Shakespeare died around his 52nd birthday. His descendants are all dead.
Shakespeare left 37 plays to the world, including some common plays that he co-wrote with others. In addition, he also wrote 154 sonnets and three or four long poems.
As far as Shakespeare's genius, achievement and reputation are concerned, it seems a little strange that his name failed to rank among the best in this book. I rank Shakespeare so low, not because I don't appreciate his artistic achievements, but because I think literary figures generally have little influence on human history.
The activities of religious leaders, scientists, politicians, explorers, philosophers or inventors often affect the development of many other fields of human struggle. For example, the progress of science has had a great impact on economic and political affairs, and also affected the development of religious beliefs, philosophical views and art.
A famous painter may have a great influence on the works of later painters, but his influence on music and literature may be very small, and he has no influence on exploration and other fields of human struggle. A similar statement applies to poets, playwrights and music composers. Generally speaking, literary figures only have an influence on literature and art, but in fact they only have an influence on the special field they are engaged in. It is for this reason that no literary, musical or artistic figures are included in the top 30, and only a few figures are included in this book.
So why are there literary figures in this book? This is because appreciating literature and art has a certain direct influence on everyone's life (although this influence is not always great). In other words, a person may spend some time listening to music, some time reading, some time painting, and so on. Even though the time we spend listening to songs has no influence on our other activities (this is definitely an exaggeration), this part of time still represents the boring time in our lives.
An artist may have more influence on our lives than the time we spend listening, reading or watching his works. This is because his works are likely to have an impact on the creative activities of other writers, and their works are what we experience and appreciate.
In some cases, literary and artistic works have more or less definite philosophical content, which will affect our views on other issues. Of course, literary works are more like this than music or art works. For example, in Romeo and Juliet (Act III, Scene 1), Shakespeare asked the prince to say, "Don't be soft on the murderer, or you will encourage the murder." The ideas put forward here (whether people accept them or not) have distinct philosophical contents, which may have an impact on people's political attitudes, rather than enjoying the Mona Lisa and other influences.
It seems indisputable that Shakespeare is second to none among all literary figures. Relatively speaking, few people talk about Chaucer, Virgil or even Homer today, but if Shakespeare's plays are to be staged, there will definitely be a large audience. Shakespeare's genius in writing is unparalleled, and his words are often quoted-even those who have never seen or read his plays. Besides, his fame is not a flash in the pan. In the past 400 years, his works have brought a lot of joy to readers and critics. As Shakespeare's works have stood the test of time, it is reasonable to speculate that they will be widely welcomed in many centuries to come.
When evaluating Shakespeare's influence, we should consider that without him, his works would not exist at all (of course, the similar statement applies to every literary figure, but this factor is not particularly important when evaluating the influence of ordinary artists).
Although Shakespeare wrote in English, he was indeed a world-famous figure. Although English is not a complete world language, it is closer to the world language than any other language. In addition, Shakespeare's works have been translated into many literary works, and many countries have read his works and staged his plays.
Of course, the works of some popular writers will be despised by literary critics, but unlike Shakespeare, literary scholars spare no effort to praise his works. Generations of playwrights have studied his works in an attempt to acquire his literary temperament. It is precisely because of Shakespeare's great influence on other writers and his constant appreciation by the public that he won a quite high ranking in this book.
① "MonaLisa": also known as "La Giokenda" La Cioconda. It is Leonardo da Vinci's most famous work, completed between 1503- 1506. Although the Mona Lisa in the painting is dressed in mourning, the mysterious smile on her face and the natural description of the background have become a work full of strong hints and many legends have been produced. bale
Interrupt 42 20 14-07-20
A: About the author:
Shakespeare (1564- 16 16) is the main representative writer of the European Renaissance and "the father of English drama". Born into a businessman's family, he studied in a local grammar school as a teenager, and was fond of drama and poetry. Later, he dropped out of school because of family circumstances, and went to London to make a living at the age of 20. Worked as a handyman and groom in the theater. 1590, he became a hired actor and began his career of stage and drama creation. Later, he became a shareholder in the troupe and toured. During this period, I met some young aristocrats and college students, who were influenced by ancient culture, Italian Renaissance culture and humanism.
During the period of 1590- 16 12, Shakespeare made brilliant achievements, creating 37 plays, two long narrative poems and a volume of sonnets (154). 1608 or so, he was awarded the status of hereditary gentleman and returned to his hometown until the end of his life. The basic idea of all Shakespeare's works is humanism or humanitarianism. Its highest achievement lies in drama, which can be divided into historical drama, tragedy and comedy. It broadly and profoundly reflects all aspects of British society from 16 to 17. Shakespeare's plays are famous for their vivid and tortuous plots, magnificent ideas and rich contents. Most of them adopt multi-clue structure and naturally combine various dramatic factors. Its characters have distinct personalities and always show their own characteristics with their richness and complexity. The language is colorful, fresh and meaningful, full of philosophy and poetic. His creation embodies the literary achievements of the European Renaissance.
B: content outline:
Shakespeare's four tragedies, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth, are his four most famous tragedies. These stories are all taken from historical legends in Europe.
The drama "Ha" tells the story of Prince Hamlet of Denmark returning to China to attend the funeral. His father's ghost complained and told him to take revenge. The prince pretended to be crazy and arranged a "play-in-play" to prove the crime of the new king killing his brother. After killing the minister by mistake, the prince was sent abroad. He had an insight into the plot of the new king and turned back halfway. The new king prepared a poisoned wine sword to challenge the minister's son to duel with the prince and tried to kill him. Finally, the three of them died together, and the mother died of drinking poisoned wine by mistake.
The drama "Pride" tells the story of a Venetian general Othello the Moor and Desdemona, the elder's daughter, falling in love, breaking through the resistance of the family, getting married and going out together. Iago, the flag official, framed Desdemona for having an affair because of personal grievances. Othello believed the recruit and strangled his wife with his own hands. Finally, when the truth came out, Othello regretted it and drew his sword and committed suicide.
Lee tells the story that King Lear of England gave all his land to his two sweet-talking eldest daughters and married his honest and frank youngest daughter to France. Finally, he was abused by his eldest daughter and his second daughter, living in the wilderness and dying crazy.
Scottish general Macbeth was seduced by witches and driven by ambition and his wife. After that, he was haunted by nightmares all day and lost in thought. His wife also went crazy and committed suicide. Finally, the prince led a crusade, and Macbeth was defeated and died.
Othello (1) tells the story that Othello, a noble Moore, was carried away by jealousy because he listened to the slanderous words of Iago, the flag officer, and strangled his innocent wife Desdemona, and then he regretted committing suicide. Othello was a frank, brave and generous fighter. Desdemona was naive, regardless of family opposition and social discrimination, fell in love with him and married him. However, although their love overcame racial discrimination, it did not escape the plot of Egu. Iago pretended to be loyal and treacherous. Because he could not be promoted to lieutenant, he held a grudge against Othello, tried every means to kill Othello and his wife, and finally did not get a good end. Through this image, Shakespeare profoundly exposed and criticized the extreme egoism of the emerging bourgeoisie in the primitive accumulation period.
(2) King Lear describes a despotic and tyrannical bad king, who suffered a tragic ending because of his headstrong attitude. The purpose of tragedy is also to expose the egoism in the primitive accumulation period and criticize the greed for power and wealth. The tragedy also reflected the British reality that farmers were displaced at that time. In the fourth scene of the third act, after being driven out of the house by his two daughters, King Lear ran to the stormy wilderness and cursed her daughter for ingratitude. In the thunder and lightning, Lear shouted to the poor people: "Naked unfortunate people, no matter where you are, you must endure such a ruthless storm. You have no tiles on your heads, you are hungry and your clothes are riddled with holes. How can you stand such a climate? " Here, Shakespeare expressed his sympathy for the homeless farmers through King Lear's mouth, and also revealed the contemporary reality. However, immediately following the above paragraph, Lear said, "Those who enjoy wealth and prosperity, open your eyes, come outside to appreciate the sufferings endured by the poor, give them some blessings that you can't enjoy, and let God know that you are not heartless!" ? This idea of seeking help from the exploiting classes to solve social contradictions is precisely a kind of humanitarian thought to reconcile class contradictions.
(3) Macbeth careerist General Macbeth triumphed from the battlefield. Driven by ambition and egged on by his wife, he took advantage of the opportunity of King Duncan's visit to his home to regicide himself. Finally, the bloody usurper was defeated and died by Duncan's son, the noble MacDef. His wife also died of schizophrenia. This tragedy profoundly reveals the corrosive effect of personal ambition on people and is a masterpiece of Shakespeare's psychological description.
(4) Hamlet (160 1) is the highest achievement of Shakespeare's drama creation, and tells the story of Hamlet, a Danish prince, revenging his father. The tragic plot is as follows: Prince Hamlet of Denmark received a humanities education at Wittenberg University in Germany. Because his father died suddenly, he returned to the motherland with a deep heart; Soon, his mother married the new king, his uncle, which made him even more embarrassed. The new king claimed that Lao Wang was killed by a poisonous snake in the garden. Just as the prince was wondering, the ghost of Lao Wang appeared and told him that this "poisonous snake" was the new king, and told him to avenge his father. Hamlet thinks that his revenge is not just a personal problem, but a problem of the whole society and country. He said he had the responsibility to rectify Gankun and save the sky from falling. He considered all aspects of the problem, but he was afraid to expose his heart, that ghosts were fake, that he was afraid of falling into the trap of bad people, and that he was upset and unhappy, so he had to pretend to be crazy. At the same time, his uncle also suspected that he knew the secret and sent people everywhere to spy on his actions and worries. Even used his two old classmates and his lover to spy on him. He took advantage of the troupe's performance in the palace to adapt an old play "The Death of a Miscellaneous Aunt" which plotted to kill his brother, in order to test his uncle. Before the play was finished, my uncle felt guilty and couldn't sit still, so he left in a hurry. This proves that uncle's crime is true. Uncle feels that things are not good, and privacy may be discovered. Polonius, the palace minister, put forward a plan to let the mother call her son to a private house to talk and hide behind the curtains to eavesdrop; The prince found someone behind the scenes and thought it was an uncle, so he stabbed him to death with his sword. From then on, the traitor king used the method of impeded his life, sent him to England, and asked two students who were watching him to bring a secret letter asking the king to kill the prince when he landed. However, hamlet noticed that the secret letter was changed halfway, but instead asked the king of England to kill two messengers; He jumped on the pirate ship and came back from danger. Only when I came back did I know that my lover Ophelia went crazy and drowned because of her father's death. The traitor king took advantage of Polonius' son Leontes' revenge for his father, and plotted to kill Hamlet with a poisonous sword and wine at Bijian. As a result, both Ha and Lei were poisoned by swords, the queen drank poisoned wine and the traitor was stabbed to death. Horatio, a friend of the prince's last will, spread his wish.
C: appreciation and evaluation:
Shakespeare's tragedy is mainly the contradiction between ideal and reality and the disillusionment of ideal. The contradiction between the humanistic ideal and the evil potential of the real society constitutes a dramatic conflict. The play depicts a group of people with humanistic ideals and describes their tragic struggle, destruction and moral strength with evil forces. Hamlet, for example, is a typical image of humanists. The tragic accident shattered all his cherished ideals, revenged his father and reorganized Gan Kun, which made him feel that the task was arduous, so he was depressed, hesitant and lost in deep thinking.
In art, tragedy is the highest achievement of Shakespeare's plays. First of all, the use of multi-clue technique reflects the vividness and richness of the plot. For example, in Ha, three revenge clues are arranged, with the revenge of the prince as the main line and the other two clues interspersed. There are also two parallel and interlaced clues in Li. Secondly, the characters are vivid, and the author is good at depicting the inner world of the characters in depth, making their characters more plump and profound. Such as Hamlet's famous monologue, full of philosophy. The process of mental breakdown after Macbeth's murder is more delicate and real. In addition, the author is also good at exaggerating the atmosphere, creating a tragic atmosphere and setting off the psychological activities of the characters. For example, the image of night and blood runs through the drama "Mai", which is gloomy and horrible. In "Lee", there is a storm in the wilderness, and there is a strong sadness and anger ... all these make Shakespeare's tragedy an immortal masterpiece in the history of literature.