Zweig and his decapitation complex
Wen Chongtian Baicai
War can destroy as well as create. Judging from the major battles throughout the ages , the three months of war brought us not only the destruction of the city, but also the economic decline and the displacement of the people. The poet Homer of the Aegean Sea used his Iliad to describe an unprecedented war between humans and gods as early as a few centuries BC. The romantic French bard also sang a stirring Roland poem in the distant era of ignorance. Song, far away in China in the east, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, one of the four great wonders, and how heroic Zhou Lang's battle in Chibi was when "the captives were wiped out in ashes while talking and laughing".
About a century ago, Austria, the country of music, was ravaged by war twice. However, it was under the haze of the war that a great writer came into being. This must be said to be a great writer. It's a miracle, but if you look at this writer's personality and personality, everything is so logical.
In that era when demagogues were blinded, he kept a cool head and, as an anti-war activist, shouted into the embattled situation and risked his life to meet with a writer from an enemy country— - That writer was Romain Rolland, his lifelong friend. He always worried about the future of Europe and the world with his humanitarian beliefs of democracy and equality. But in the end, just when fascism was about to perish, he and his wife Both take poison. This writer who cared about the country and the people never won the Nobel Prize for Literature, but he was loved by readers all over the world.
He is Stephen Zweig.
Many people should be familiar with a letter from a strange woman. The story of the infatuated, persevering, and fateful woman in the article is so tear-jerking. In Zweig's writings, women with such delicate and fierce personalities abound. They pursue individuality and equality, and in line with the belief of "Give me freedom or give me death", they show tenderness and longing for freedom. In their hearts, whether it is a strange woman, an anonymous ordinary woman born into a lower class such as an abortion woman, or a real lady who stood at the top of the hierarchy such as Mary Stuart and Mary Antonette, they are swayed in their hearts. In the reflection of the soul, there is always a manly fortitude.
If an article of 10,000 words can only describe a "flat" character, then biographies such as Marie Antoinette and The Decapitated Queen can undoubtedly better demonstrate the multiple perspectives of a woman. image.
Mary Stuart and Mary Antonette, two Marys, two former Queens of France, two women with unparalleled beauty who captivated the country, their final fate was also to be incense on the guillotine. Xiaoyu died.
The goddess Norns always likes to create so many coincidences. It seems that she deliberately lets the mortals chosen by the Muse discover the secrets. Then, the Muse chose Ci among the ten thousand people. Weiger, let this master of writing about women write biographies of two noble women who were destined to die on the guillotine.
It can be said that the fates of Mary Stuart and Mary Antonette are legendary. As the last incarnations of an era, they will inevitably end up at the end of the road. On the stage of history, since fate has chosen them to perform a tragedy of "falling red all over the ground and returning to silence", they cannot retreat, even if a cold guillotine stands in front of them, they cannot escape. That is their fate.
Fate gave these two weak women a huge test, a test about the times and changes. The former gave Mary Stuart a fiercely conflicting religious reform, and the latter gave Mary Antonette's shocking French Revolution was not something that women who embodied Baroque and Rococo could bear, but they were not at the right time.
Mary Stuart's father made a prophecy before he died - my country was born because of women, and it will also die because of women! The young Goethe was also shocked when he saw the unfortunate mural, which revealed the clues to Marie Antonette's final misfortune. In fact, almost everyone saw the tragic ending that these two queens might encounter in the future, except themselves.
The two women standing at the top of the wave of the times, with their incomparable vitality, belief in the pursuit of freedom, and unparalleled charm, attempt to become the trendsetters of the times, but they do not know that the abyss is already secretly approaching them step by step. Come.
Mary Stuart and Mary Antonette, who are as delicate as flowers, are also as fragile as flowers. Just a miserable storm is enough to make their fragile bodies fall red and wither all over the ground. . But it is precisely under this charming and delicate appearance that two people who dare to pursue, have free personalities, are unconstrained, and have strong self-esteem are deeply hidden. Because of this, they invariably end up with each other. The charm of being a woman, not the majesty of being a Queen or Queen to impress their people! You know, this kind of charm is so unreliable, just like their gorgeous but empty appearance, like an elevated Japanese floating bridge, beautiful but easy to fall over.
Yes, their beauty is enough to overwhelm all living beings. Dupree once praised Mary Stuart, the Scottish rose: Look at her, my eyes will be satisfied, you will never see a more beautiful thing than her.
The many portraits of the Queen without exception show us such a touching appearance: charming face, slightly pointed nose, gentle eyes, quiet red lips, not dazzling, but full of charm, God is creating She always chose his most precious materials. Another queen, Marie Antoinette, who was herself the incarnation of Rococo art, although she did not have the alluring appearance of Queen Stuart, in fact, she inherited all the looks of the Hasburg family: a flat forehead , thin lips, but just one glance is unforgettable, especially her beautiful eyes, which are sometimes filled with tears and sometimes beaming with joy. The deep myopia makes her beautiful eyes rippling and swaying when they are slightly squinted. It is difficult to write a picture that touches people's hearts.
If we use some modern words to describe these two charming women, then Mary Stuart, who is studious, well-spoken, and accomplished in art, can be called intellectual and charming. , and Mary Antonette, who is playful, energetic and has nothing to do with leisurely contemplation, can be regarded as avant-garde and cute.
The two women with very different personalities were quite similar in some respects, so that when they walked through different scenery and finally faced the cold guillotine, they showed the same perseverance. and dignity.
As descendants of the Stuart dynasty and the Hasburg dynasty, this queen and the queen paid tribute to all the people in the last moments of their lives, when the crowns on their hair had fallen. People showed their demeanor as kings.
The wise and knowledgeable Mary Stuart thought about the meaning of her death on the eve of her execution. In fact, many years ago, the queen embroidered a sentence on a satin dress: I The end of is my beginning. Of course she couldn't understand the meaning of this sentence at that time, but now, on the eve of her losing her life, she understood that only her tragic death was the beginning of glory! Catholics all over the world, as well as the Holy See, will remember her death as a great martyr, and every gesture she made will be recorded in history. At the same time, it was also the year she fought against her for more than twenty years. The enemy - Elizabeth's final success! It may be said that if other stars had governed her destiny, she would have ascended the throne of the Queen of England as she ascends the second steps of the guillotine.
However, history will not change due to changes in personal will, even if that person is a noble queen. In fact, people did not criticize Elizabeth more for what she did. Everyone respected and praised the queen who brought them into the golden age. However, it was those writers, historians and artists who criticized this unfortunate queen. The tragic fate that passed by like a meteor was favored. When Zeus abandoned her, the Muse of literature and art stretched out his hands to her, just as Zweig said in his autobiography The World of Yesterday: In In my biographical literature, I do not write about characters who have achieved success in real life, but only about characters who maintain a high moral spirit. For example, instead of writing about Martin Luther, I write about Erasmus; instead of writing about Elizabeth I, I write about Mary Stuart; instead of writing about Calvin, I write about Castellio. .
But the tragic hero will never be Marie Antoinette. This cynical queen only knows how to use the phoenix crown on her head to build a dreamy Trianon, or to live freely. He visited major theaters and casinos in Paris, but never expected to gain greater power. This simple and kind-hearted woman will always be like an immature child, although one day in the future she will finally understand the admonitions her mother once gave her; this queen of Rococo art will always stand in the salons and salons of the upper class in France. At the forefront of fashion, although she devoutly hopes to stand among the people one day in the future, that is already a turbulent era when the great revolution cannot be reversed!
Similar to Mary Stuart, who was driven by female instinct and nature to pursue love, this queen had to focus on grooming herself and pursuing pleasure because of the unspeakable privacy of her bed. He didn't take the throne seriously either. She did not know, nor was she willing to know, how to run a country, and she focused only on how to become the model of dress for all French women every day, acting as a courtesan who walked out of one salon door and immediately entered the door of another ball.
For a woman who was born into an imperial family and achieved supreme status without any effort, what does the crown that can be reached with her hands count?
Mary Stuart and Mary Antonette became the most powerful kings and queens in Europe in their early teens. They stood at the pinnacle of their lives. What else would they not fall to? What about the ones under your feet? Everything comes so easily, which makes them bold and rash. One of them acts hastily and impulsively, while the other puts everything into practice without thinking about it. This is where Elizabeth is completely different from them - the former governs the country like playing chess, cautious and careful, while the latter is like taking risks. , brave and reckless.
There is a saying: Character determines destiny. This whirlwind personality will definitely lead to their tragic ending, even if God gives them crowns when they are born, even if these two overconfident women think that no one can take them away from their heads, so they can Give orders at will, because that is your innate divine power! But the reality is that the guillotine finally caused their crowns to fall, along with their beautiful rolling heads.
Behind the differences between historical figures is a huge historical background. Mary Stuart and Mary Antonette stand precisely in the shadow of this history. They themselves illustrate this very well. The great contradiction of this era.
In the sixteenth century, Mary Stuart, who was standing at the forefront of the storm, felt for the first time the changes of the times. The royal family declined, the nobility split, the knights declined, and the cancer of the Reformation spread to the European continent like a plague. , even the British Isles on the other side of the strait were not spared. People gradually lost confidence in the corrupt Holy See, but this was just a prelude to historical changes! Under the cover of the cassock, there is a larger and more turbulent undercurrent ready to move, and that is the bourgeoisie hated by Marie Antoinette three hundred years later, who was worried that France would follow the footsteps of England.
No force can stop the progress of history. Mary Stuart, who represents the declining knight class, and Mary Antonette, who clings to the declining feudal royal power, will eventually be buried under the torrent of the new era. Only their deaths can blow the horn for the arrival of another era.
History is as cold and ruthless as the guillotine, but it is the death of these two peerless beauties that adds a legendary and dramatic sadness to the afterglow of the setting sun.
Zweig wrote in The Severed Queen: Elizabeth, a realist, succeeded in history and politics; Mary Stuart, a romantic, succeeded in poetry and legend achieved success. Yes, many playwrights in the world tend to prefer characters with tragic fates. For example, the Chinese historian Sima Qian praised the tragic hero Xiang Yu in his historical records. As a writer full of personality and non-conformist, he It is reasonable to choose Mary Stuart and Mary Antonette, two women with tragic fates, as the protagonists of his biography.
He once wrote a poetic drama called Thersites, and the protagonist Thersites in the play was the ugliest person in the Greek coalition during the Trojan War. He is timid and talkative. He was scolded by Odysseus and later punched to death by Achilles. He is a typical example of a non-heroic character. But Zweig chose him. This is what makes him different from great poets such as Homer, and his creative personality lies in this, that is, he is never willing to praise those so-called heroes, but always just Focus on the tragedy of the underdog.
Zweig is good at writing tragedies, which is not unrelated to the era in which he lived. He has experienced two world wars, witnessed the fall of two countries with his own eyes, and personally experienced the devastation caused by the war to the whole of Europe. It was not only physical, but also human hearts. The fear of war was deeply imprinted like morphine. Entering the veins of Europeans, some died, while others lived, but as numbly as death. These memories tightly twisted the sensitive writer's heart like a boa constrictor. He saw clearly that the river was in decline and people's hearts were not as old as before. He saw through the ugliness of clowns and the lies of imperial literati. He did not want to be that kind of person. As a person As a humanitarian, he cannot use his pen to instigate others to participate in those cruel but labeled wars as glorious. As a patriot, he cannot see his country becoming gloomy under the rule of fascism again and again. He wants to speak his own heart, and at the same time, he wants to speak the heart of the times. He wanted to help others, but at that time he helped himself first. Therefore, Erasmus's most personal and obscure work was born. He said: From the moment I began to create tragedy, I began to reflect on the tragedy of the times. I no longer feel very painful.
So, it is not so much that Zweig chose Mary Stuart and Mary Antonette, but rather that they were deeply attracted by their experiences of suffering, resistance to fate, and final fate of beheading. Zweig.
End
This is also my thesis on foreign literature. I hope it can help you...