The role of poetry in characterization in A Dream of Red Mansions: 1. Depicting characters and expressing their personalities.
In A Dream of Red Mansions, there are usually two ways to express the characters' characteristics, and to outline the characters' images through poems. The first is that the author or others and other third parties comment on the characters with poems, and the characters have the subjective impression of judging the main characters; The second kind is the poems written by the characters themselves, which are used to reveal their own personality and express the different personalities of the characters.
(1) Borrowing the poems of the author or others
The third time, "Jia Yucun Yuan Huan reinstated Lin Daiyu and left her father for Beijing", Daiyu and Baoyu met for the first time. The author first describes Baoyu's appearance and clothes in detail, followed by a poem by others:
Later generations have the word "Xijiang Moon", which is very accurate. The word yue:
Looking for sadness and hatred for no reason sometimes seems crazy. Even if you are born with good skin, your stomach is rough.
Poor and ignorant, stupid and afraid of reading articles. What about libel if you act in a remote and perverse way?
He also said: wealth does not know happiness, and poverty is unbearable. Unfortunately, we failed to live up to the good times, and there is no hope for our home country.
The world is incompetent first, unparalleled in ancient and modern times. Message to Wan Kun and Gao Liang: Don't affect this shape!
As a noble son, Baoyu seems to be a silly boy in his poems. Although he lives a luxurious life, he should not be as sad as usual, but he just "looks for sorrow more than death in his heart", despises all fame and fortune and "doesn't know the world" He is a boy who is perverse, detached from the world and unconventional. Such a character is doomed to be unable to bear a feudal family.
In these two poems, the author belittles Baoyu with secular eyes, but deep down, he is full of sympathy and praise for Baoyu, pinning his ideals and wishes on him, like mocking and praising him, and using the "irony" commonly used in A Dream of Red Mansions, he profoundly depicts Baoyu's rebellious thoughts and character.
As Zhi Yanzhai said: "In the General Department, pens and pens belittle Baoyu, and everyone laughs at Baoyu and slanders Baoyu."
(2) The characters write their own poems.
If the author or other people's eyes judge the main characters' subjective images, then the poems written by the characters can best reflect their distinctive personality characteristics through what people say.
The thirty-seventh chapter "Autumn Frost Zhai Yuan Night Chrysanthemum Writing Occasionally Knots Begonia Society" and the thirty-eighth chapter "Lin Xiaoxiang's Chrysanthemum Picking Poems, Wu satirizes crab poems" are about the chrysanthemum poems sung by people in Daguan Garden. These two chapters describe the poems of the main characters in A Dream of Red Mansions in detail, and show distinctive personality characteristics through their poems.
In Bai Haitang's poems, Baochai's poems:
During the day, cherish Fang Zi and cover the door, and join hands with the urn to fill the moss basin.
Rouge washes away the shadow of the autumn platform, and ice and snow absorb the soul.
You know that flowers are brighter when you are pale, but how can you get jade without trace when you are worried?
If you want to pay for Bai Di, you should be clean. If you don't talk about Tingting, you will faint.
Xue Baochai is a woman deeply bound by feudal ethics. She is knowledgeable and versatile. She usually pretends to be steady and generous, and she is silent. "It's none of my business. I don't know anything when I ask." The "pity for elegance" in her poems is just a manifestation of her self-esteem. Taking Bai Haitang as a metaphor, she wrote about the dignity and reserve of an aristocratic family, which is not only a self-warning, but also a warning to others. Poetry is like a person. The whole poem has elegant language and solemn style. Her personality and unique style can be seen from this poem "Ode to Bai Hai Tang", so Zhifu said: "Baochai's poems are all written by herself."
Lin Daiyu's poems "Chanting Chrysanthemum", "Asking Chrysanthemum" and "Dream of Chrysanthemum" are novel in conception and unique in style. "Who is lonely and proud? Is it too late to bloom now? " "When you wake up, who complains with you, and the grass is cold and smoke is infinite!" These euphemistic and sad poems are full of strong emotional color, and their images profoundly reflect Lin Daiyu's contradictory psychology of being aloof, unconventional and unable to find a way out, which plays a very important role in shaping Lin Daiyu's character.
Second, express the emotions of the characters.
In A Dream of Red Mansions, in order to express the mood of the characters at this moment, the author uses various ways such as detailed description and psychological description. However, this is not enough. The author also uses the characters' own poems to express his feelings and feelings.
Back to chapter 34, "In love, I mistakenly advised my brother because of my sister's fault." After Baoyu was beaten, Daiyu went to see Baoyu with a pair of eyes swollen like peaches and understood each other's thoughts. Then in the evening, Baoyu deliberately avoided Aroma and asked Qingwen to send two old handkerchiefs to Daiyu.
This Daiyu is considerate and persistent. I am happy to think that Baoyu can understand my suffering. I don't know if my suffering can be completed in the future, which also makes me sad. If it weren't for this, I would have sent two handkerchiefs ridiculously suddenly. It is frightening to think of private letters again. Ever since he was like this, I have often been troubled and sad, and I feel very ashamed. "So thoughtful, first, the insides boiling, not touching. He ordered the name of a lamp, but he couldn't remember such things as suspicion and taboo. He dipped his pen in ink and then wrote to two old handkerchiefs:
First of all:
My eyes are full of tears, my eyes are full of tears. Who should I throw them to? It's not sad that you gave me a generous gift.
Second:
Throwing pearls and rolling jade only steals, the town has no intention of relaxing. It is difficult to wipe the sleeves on the pillow, so he is set on fire and stained.
Third:
Beads on the colorful line are hard to collect, and the old traces of Xiangjiang River have been blurred. Thousands of bamboos in front of the window, no fragrance?
Tipo San Jue is a classic lyric work of Daiyu. Baoyu asked Qingwen to send two old handkerchiefs. Daiyu realized Baoyu's painstaking efforts and was moved in her heart. Their long-term emotional struggle, unspeakable sadness, and all kinds of suffering in lovesickness all seem to see the dawn after seeing these two old handkerchiefs, so she publicly expressed her feelings and expressed her joy after this feeling became clear, which is also her voice.
Third, hint at the fate of the characters.
A prominent artistic feature of A Dream of Red Mansions is that "grass snakes travel thousands of miles in ashes". In the judgment of the twelve women in Jinling, the author adopts the method of pre-description, revealing the news in advance through poems, suggesting the fate and ending of each person. The application of poetry is superb in artistic structure.
Jia Baoyu's wandering in the fifth time in A Dream of Red Mansions, and the verdict of twelve women in Jinling overheard by Baoyu, predicted the fate of Daiyu, Baochai, Yuan Chun, Yingchun, Xiangyun, Miaoyu, Tanchun, Xichun, Xifeng, Qiaojie, Li Wan, Qingwen, Xiren and Xiangling. Here, take Wang Xifeng's judgment as an example to analyze:
All the birds from the last days know that they love this life.
Obeying two orders, three people were in a daze, and crying to Jinling was even more sad.
"Every bird" is the word "phoenix" in traditional Chinese characters, implying Wang Xifeng. "One obeys two orders and three people are dull" refers to the changing process of her husband Jia Lian's attitude towards Xifeng: everything is obedient when she gets married; "Second-order" is interpreted as "cold", which means that her husband is gradually cold to her and begins to give orders to her; "Three-person wood" refers to the fate that she was finally abandoned by "spelling". "Crying till Jinling is sadder" is a tragic portrayal of her returning to her family after divorce.
It is impossible to achieve this fantastic effect if it is expressed in a completely documentary way. Only with the help of the stylistic advantages of poetry can the fate of characters be hidden in poetry through metaphor.
Cai Yijiang's comments on the poems and songs in A Dream of Red Mansions say: "The poems and songs in A Dream of Red Mansions are an organic part of the plot and character description of the novel. The poetry of A Dream of Red Mansions is not only the embellishment of plot development, but also closely combined with the development of characters and stories, which is itself the object of expression. "
Poetry in A Dream of Red Mansions, like the soul of the novel, is used to depict characters. It is closely mixed with characters and stories, and it is reflected in every role. The artistic image of "thousands of people and thousands of faces", the personality characteristics and spiritual world of different characters are closely related to the clever use of poetry. The poems in A Dream of Red Mansions are like a colorful garden, which is beautiful and unforgettable.