The author stands from Scott's perspective and expresses an extremely depressed and sad mood after losing the competition. The old saying goes: "Those who succeed are princes and those who lose are bandits." To a certain extent, it reveals people's acceptance psychology and the atmosphere of social reality. In judging the tragedy of Scott's Antarctic expedition, Zweig obviously used the fact that he was a biography to give the losers their due historical position and to inspire people to think deeply and long-term about the significance of the event.
Expresses the author's high praise for Scott, which means that although Scott failed in the fight with nature and his body fell, his mind withstood the test and changed. Incomparably noble. The destruction of value and beauty is of course a great tragedy.
For humans, the first person to arrive has everything, and the second person is nothing. The "sadness" of "tragedy" is well explored. To sum up, there are "four sorrows": "the sorrow of death", "the sorrow of failure", "the sorrow of testifying" and "the sorrow of the world".
Greatness is great because although this is a tragedy, it embodies the exploration team members’ spirit of courage and strong collectivism, and shows the explorers’ perseverance, perseverance, self-challenge, and dedication to their cause. Their good character reflects their life attitude of being honest and trustworthy, and facing success and setbacks calmly.
About "The Great Tragedy"
"The Great Tragedy" is Zweig's biography of the British Antarctic expedition headed by Scott. This biography was written by the author based on some of the negatives, film reels, letters and suicide notes left by Scott, using his genius literary imagination. By studying and researching this biography, we can gain many enlightenments and gains.
About the content of "The Great Tragedy"?
Anyone who has a little knowledge of Antarctica knows that the scientific experiment station established at 90° south latitude of Antarctica is named Amundsen —Scott Station. This is to commemorate the two earliest scientific explorers in human history to reach the South Pole, the Norwegian Amundsen and the British Scott. After Peary successfully reached the North Pole, Scott led the expedition to leave Britain for the Antarctic on June 1, 1910. In October 1910, they landed near Cape Evans, New Zealand, and prepared to conquer the South Pole from December of that year to January of the following year. But at this time, they received news that the Norwegian Amundsen was leading another expedition to the Antarctic and wanted to "compete with him for the honor of being the first to reveal the secrets of the stubborn earth." So Scott and his party set off in a hurry on November 1 "to fight for the country's honor." After a fierce competition, Amundsen's team arrived at the South Pole first on December 14, 1911, while Scott's team arrived on January 18, 1912, nearly five weeks later than Amundsen's team. In the end, Amundsen returned victoriously. The flag of success will always fly at the South Pole. Scott and other five heroes who attacked the Antarctic were starved and exhausted by the sudden early arrival of the cold weather in Antarctica. They struggled with the severe cold for more than two months on the way back. Finally, he slept in the vast ice and snow.
Scientists who study the history of Antarctic exploration point out that Amundsen’s victory and Scott’s failure did not lie in the careful planning of the two, but in the fact that the former relied on rich practical experience to formulate plans and the latter relied on reasoning. to make plans. Amundsen concluded that neither human physical strength nor Siberian ponies could withstand the severe cold of Antarctica. Only Arctic Huskies could pull sleds in the polar circle. So he used 20 fat and strong dogs to successfully complete the journey to the South Pole. Round trip. Scott mainly used Siberian ponies and a small number of Huskies. As a result, the dogs ran away and the ponies froze to death. The team accepted a severe challenge prematurely. In the future, they could only rely on people. Pull the sled forward. In this way, the speed of progress will be greatly reduced, and disaster will become inevitable. However, the author Zweig ignored these scientific issues and instead wrote about this event in a literary style with great emotion from the perspective of the noble and tragic spirit of human beings conquering nature. It is exciting to read.
This biography is written by the author based on some of the negatives, film reels, letters and suicide notes left by Scott, using his genius literary imagination. Because the original work was too long, when I selected it as a text, I deleted the previous part about Scott and his party's expedition preparations and departure to Antarctica, and mainly retained the part about their desperate return from Antarctica and their tragic demise. This is the main part of the full text. Most of Scott's spirit and wonderful sentences are concentrated in this part.
About the author
Zweig (1880-1942), Austrian writer. Born into a wealthy Jewish factory owner family in Vienna. In his youth, he studied philosophy and literature in Vienna and Berlin. After 1904, he served as editor of "New Free Press". Later, he traveled to Western Europe, North Africa, India, America and other places. In France, he met Verhaeren, Romain Rolland, Rodin and others and was influenced by them. Before World War I, he was engaged in the translation of foreign literature (mainly poetry). After the war broke out, he published the anti-war play "Jeremiah", engaged in anti-war activities with Romain Rolland and others in Switzerland, and became a famous pacifist.
After 1919, he lived in seclusion in Salzburg for a long time and devoted himself to writing. In 1928, he was invited to the Soviet Union and met Gorky. He fled to Britain in 1938 and became a British citizen. Arrived in Brazil in 1941.
He committed suicide with his wife in Petropolis, near Rio de Janeiro, on February 23, 1942.
Zweig’s main achievements are in biographical literature and novel creation. Zweig, who was upright and conscientious, wrote countless magnificent and touching chapters full of sympathy for the suffering in the world. One of the most popular German-language writers of the 20th century. The ideals he pursued throughout his life were humanitarianism and spiritual freedom. From a humanitarian standpoint, we praise the sympathy, love and forgiveness between people, and hate the intrigues, hypocrisy and callousness of the bourgeoisie.