Shakespeare's poems and plays occupy an important position in the history of world literature because Shakespeare's works show profound philosophical implications because of their rich life experiences, superb language art and profound philosophical thoughts. For example, he used romanticism, realism and symbolism in his poems and dramas such as Phoenix and Turtledove, The Sonnets and King Lear, eulogized humanism centered on "human", criticized the chronic diseases of feudal society and the ugliness of primitive accumulation of capital's process, and showed profound value consciousness and philosophical significance.
[Keywords:] Shakespeare; Renaissance; Philosophical implication; Philosophical basis of life
First, the era environment in which Shakespeare lived.
The important historical events in the late Middle Ages were the Renaissance, which originated in Italy in the15th century, and the religious reform that swept across European countries in the16th century. During this period, European scholasticism lost its dominant position in ideology. However, in this period, the old and the new appeared in parallel or alternately, that is, humanities and theology, ancient philosophy and scholasticism collided and confused with each other, and their characteristics can be summarized as two major themes: "the discovery of man and the discovery of the world." This shows that in medieval Europe, people were deceived and imprisoned by religious asceticism, which suppressed their innate feelings and desires and distorted normal human nature. One of the great achievements of the Renaissance is the rise of modern philosophy headed by the Renaissance, which represents the overall revival of European society and culture. Most importantly, it represents the revival of human nature, endows people with the dominant position, and endows the "Renaissance" transition period and the distinctive features of modern philosophical and cultural forms. As a great writer in the heyday of the Renaissance, Shakespeare's works (37 plays, 2 long poems, 154 sonnets) are all branded with the times. Whether it is a warm praise of youth and beauty, Love & Friendship, or that man is "the essence of the universe, the primate of all things", it can be said that many characters in Shakespeare's poems and plays are flesh and blood, lifelike and exist in. Its plot, its language, through uncompromising irony and philosophical thinking, and with rational infiltration, strong feelings and profound insight, exposed and lashed the ugliness of the feudal society full of fierce contradictions. Therefore, Marx, the most influential political philosopher in western civilization in the19th century, pointed out that the real value of Shakespeare's works lies in reflecting and explaining the world, exposing all kinds of drawbacks of capitalist society, and thus drawing the conclusion that it is necessary to change reality and transform the world. This should be a true reflection of Shakespeare's personality characteristics, and his poems and plays fully reflect the environment of the times at that time.
Second, Shakespeare's philosophical understanding of life
(1) Shakespeare has rich life experiences.
Shakespeare is a "natural poet", that is, Shakespeare is a poet who walks out of life, that is to say, life itself endows Shakespeare with the aura of artists and the wisdom of philosophers. Shakespeare was not born a genius. From the beginning, he began to adapt old plays and modify other writers' plays for the theater to rehearse. Later, he wrote the script alone. He not only wrote about the king in the play, but also played the role of the king on the stage hundreds of times. He once said, "Life is a big stage". When he created characters through life practice and stage, he was infatuated with himself and the people in the play, and even after the performance, he could not "find himself" immediately. This shows that he organically combined his life practice with the theory of artistic philosophy, devoted himself to the creation of his own characters, and made the characters he played have flesh and blood and souls, and finally really occupied the stage. Shakespeare's life seems to be like his poems and plays, with dramatic plots appearing one after another in his youth. Judging from euripides's tragedy, the first time he stepped onto the stage to "save the scene", as an ordinary handyman, the groom outside the theater made a blockbuster and conquered the audience, as if he had a natural instinct. In fact, he has read and pondered this script many times in his life, and all the lines can be memorized without rehearsal. It can be seen that Shakespeare's artistic life in his youth is first reflected in the stage play, and the emotions and language of the characters are read according to the script from the beginning. With playing this role for many times, he gradually endowed his philosophical thinking with rationality, spirituality, experience and enlightenment with his artistic role and literary image, that is, art and philosophy were integrated.
(B) Shakespeare has superb language art.
This can be seen from his association with Queen Elizabeth. Once, when the Queen asked him "What is the greatest enjoyment of an artist", Shakespeare replied, "A real artist is good at enjoying not only ordinary happiness in life, but also misfortune and pain. The deeper the pain, the more enjoyment you get from it. " What surprised the queen even more was his attitude towards honor: "No matter what talent a person has, if he doesn't shine this talent on others, he will have nothing and certainly no honor." He not only applied his own language art to interpersonal dialogue, but also applied this artistic means to poems and plays he created in the future, which endowed the characters with profound philosophical thinking. Therefore, Shakespeare is one of the giants in the cultural history of the world for thousands of years, and he deserves to be called the greatest playwright in human history by Marx. Thousands of immortal characters created by his poems and plays have become immortal masterpieces of art and philosophy.
Shakespeare has profound philosophical thoughts.
What can't be ignored is that from the interaction between Shakespeare and Elizabeth I, from the Queen's inquiry about the works of Plato, Socrates, teenagers and others, Shakespeare answered them one by one. When he was acting, writing poems and plays, he was already familiar with the ideological essence of these ancient Greek philosophers and ancient Italian poets, which shows that Shakespeare had accumulated rich philosophical resources in his life long before he wrote poems and plays. He was deeply influenced by the thoughts of philosophers such as Bacon, Aokang and Hobbes, and their philosophical wisdom was the inexhaustible source of his poetry and drama creation. As we all know, Hamlet is a typical humanist in Shakespeare's works. Hamlet's humanistic thought is a true reflection of the author's own personal hatred and misfortune, which makes him no longer look at the world with naive eyes, but pay more attention to the darkness, injustice and unfairness of society. These are the results of Shakespeare's careful observation and reflection on real life, and they are important philosophical viewpoints of Shakespeare's life practice.
Thirdly, the philosophical implication of Shakespeare's poems and plays.
The philosophical implications of Shakespeare's poems and plays are mainly reflected in his works, such as The Phoenix and the Turtle, The Sonnets and King Lear.
(A) the philosophical implications of Phoenix and Turtledove
The Phoenix and the Turtledove is published in 160 1, with 67 lines, which is divided into three parts: the first part is to call on birds to participate in the funeral procession, the second part is the funeral speech, and the third part is the lamentation. Limited by space, I won't quote the whole poem here, but I just want to extract the simple, concise and philosophical features of some poems and explain them. The legendary Phoenix is a beautiful bird, living in the Arabian desert and perched in a nest of fragrant wood. It died of self-immolation after living for 500 years, but it was reborn from the ashes. Turtle dove has always been a symbol of love and loyalty. The author put them together to reflect and express love and loyalty with death and rebirth. The artistic conception of the poem is solemn and suitable for funerals. There is a funeral because "love and loyalty are dead, and the phoenix and pigeon have turned into flames." But for this ending, the poet did not generally express his condolences or platitudes about the immortality of love, but adopted a strange expression, such as: "They love each other, but their essence is one; It is obviously two and one, and the number has been destroyed by love. " Here, "essence" and "number" are mentioned, while "two clear, but one complete" leads to contradictory words and enters the field of speculation. However, it is not only numbers that are "destroyed", but also distance and space. For example, "two hearts are far apart, but they are not separated; Although there is distance, there is no space; Between the phoenix and the pigeon, it is so magical. " When magic reaches a certain level, even the nature of things has changed, such as "the physical properties have become bizarre and the body is not the original body;" Homogeneity has different names, not two is not one. " Therefore, rationality itself is also in trouble: "rationality is also confused, seeing is divided, but it is one;" "It's hard to say whether it's me or you, which is very simple and troublesome." Thus, things can't change from simple to complex, and the Garden of Eden and the Golden Age are all dreams. " So reason shouted, "It looks like one, but it's actually a pair. Love is rational and impermanent. I hope it won't fall! " "In this case, it can only sing a lament. Lamentations are real. Let's stop saying "one or two" and "this and that" and say "beautiful, true and rare romance is always simple and harder to find! Only ashes are left. " At the end of the poem, there is something new: the phoenix and the dove have no offspring, because although they are married, they still remain chaste, which is a platonic spiritual combination; Their death indicates that this pure ideal has also been extinct, so: "It is deceptive to tell the truth in the future;" Praise for beauty is only an illusion; Truth, goodness and beauty are buried. Those who are still true or beautiful, please come close to this urn and pray for the dead birds in a low voice. "At this point, the poem ended with a real bird. After abstract thinking, it finally returned to the object of the urn. Although it deviates from the legend of the immortal phoenix, it shows that there is hope of rebirth at a lower level. However, philosophical poetry must be beautiful, and its words are clean and meaningful, which is a kind of beauty. It has contradictions, and its thinking involves big problems in life, which is worth remembering and beautiful. Its form is complete, and the three parts have their own emphases and are also beautiful. Therefore, some critics think the poem Phoenix and Turtledove is a great philosophical poem, saying that it is extremely well written and unique among Shakespeare's works, so I won't quote it here.