Drama conflict is a complete form of movement, including drama action, reaction and contradiction resolution. Thunderstorm and Teahouse are both driven by dramatic conflicts. But there is still a difference between the two.
In Thunderstorm, dramatic conflicts are sharp and concentrated. Sharp, because its conflict is irreconcilable, the conflict between Zhou Puyuan and Shi Ping, the conflict between Zhou Puyuan and Lu Dahai, the conflict between Zhou Ping and Fan Yi, and the conflict between characters are irreconcilable. Although the relationship between these characters is complicated and there are many conflicts, dramatic conflicts are always concentrated on these people. These conflicts show that the story revolves around several central figures, and the contradiction of class position runs through the whole play.
Teahouses are different. Generally speaking, there is no direct and specific conflict between characters. The script describes three periods and sets up layers of obstacles for the role's behavior. Reveal the conflict between the people and the old times through the changes of personality characteristics and destiny of people from all walks of life. The author points directly at that era, and every conflict between characters implies the conflict between people and the times. This special conflict is manifested in the fact that there is no complete story in the whole play. Instead, many pictures of life are interspersed together to form an axial picture, and the display of the axis is the development of the plot. Without a central figure, Wang Lifa only associates with tea drinkers and does not play the role of a central figure like Zhou Puyuan and Lu Shiping.
In addition, the balance of power between the two sides of the conflict is also different. The feudal ruling forces dominated the thunderstorm, but the justice represented by Lu Dahai dared to fight, and Shi Ping had a clear understanding of this. Even Fan Yi never missed the opportunity to pursue his own happiness. So the two forces collided strongly, causing a huge impact and accelerating the demise of the decadent forces. But in Teahouse, the ruling class still dominates the society, but the positive characters in it can't find the object of resistance, and people can't resist this powerful force of society.
Second, China's dramatic figures
Both plays have created characters with distinctive personalities, and these characters are often branded with society. From them, we can see the great influence of society on individuals. However, the two authors have different emphases. For example, both dramas reflect the distorted humanity of deformed society: Zhou Ping and Fan Yi in Thunderstorm, and the incest of Sifeng and Zhou Ping. In Teahouse, Mr. Chen and Mr. Lin want to buy wives, Mr. Song starves himself but can't let the birds starve to death, and the dying eunuch wants a fifteen-year-old girl to be his wife. These are all abnormal behaviors caused by the abnormal society at that time. But in Thunderstorm, we can find a direct character-Zhou Puyuan, who caused this ending. But we can't find it in the teahouse. All kinds of characters live in their own circles and tracks, and their tragedies are caused by invisible times.
At the same time, both plays have written about the influence of blood relationship on characters. In Thunderstorm, Zhou Ping and the sea are brothers, but they become enemies. The author emphasizes class opposition. Most of the characters in Teahouse are "inherited from their fathers", while Xiao Er Dezi, Xiao Liu Ma Zi and Tang Xiao Tie Zui are all doing their fathers' old jobs, which are more promising than Lao Zi. Er Dezi is just a rogue thug, but Xiao Dezi has become a political accomplice bought by the official imperialist Kuomintang. Pockmarked Liu is just a trafficker, but Pockmarked Liu has become the agent of Director Shen and the "manager" of a "flower company" that specializes in women. Tang Xiao's iron mouth became the Shi Tian of "Huang San Road". In this way, the author wrote the history of oppressors becoming more and more cruel, accurately reflected the social reality at that time, and highlighted the opposition between the times (society) and people.
Third, dramatic language.
The language of Thunderstorm and Teahouse are both successful, which can express the characters' personality characteristics and are rich in subtext and action. Interestingly, there are similarities between the two scripts, and the language of the same character in the script is changing. Let's focus on Zhou Puyuan and Wang Lifa.
Zhou Puyuan's language change is due to the development of the plot.
In the dialogue between Zhou Puyuan and Shi Ping in the second act of Thunderstorm, when he asked Shi Ping "You-what's your name", he was very curious. Later, when I learned that Shi Ping was not dead, I suddenly stood up and said, "Who are you?" At this time, the inner anxiety has been shown. When; Shi Ping asked him if he wanted to see him, and he immediately said no. At this moment, he panicked. Later, because he was afraid, he didn't want to get involved in this topic and told Shi Ping to "go down first".
Later, after he recognized Shi Ping, he first threatened, "What are you doing here?" "Who sent you?" The tone is so harsh. Later, he coaxed: "Don't think my heart is dead. Do you think a person will forget when he does something he can't bear? " You see, these furniture are all your favorite things in the past. I have kept them for many years in memory of you. ""Your birthday-April 18-I will remember it every year. Everything depends on your formal marriage to the Zhou family. Even if you get sick because you gave birth to Pinger, you should always close the window. I keep these habits.
Structural Comparison between Teahouse and Thunderstorm
Understanding the structure of Teahouse is of direct significance to understanding the theme of the play. In order to let students deeply understand the uniqueness of the structure of Teahouse, the suggestion can guide students to compare the differences between Teahouse and Thunderstorm.
The difference between them is that the dramatic structure of Teahouse is called Tujuan Opera. There are no complete plot clues and conflicts throughout the work, but the activities of many characters drive the development of the plot. Thunderstorm and Teahouse reflect similar social times, but adopt a compact and concentrated drama structure. The author skillfully uses the methods of "retrospect" and "interlude" to interweave "the present drama" and "the past drama", which fully shows the sharp and concentrated contradictions and conflicts between Zhou and Lu, and the plot develops fiercely.
There are more than 30 characters in the second act of Teahouse, and nearly 20 people have lines, but these characters have no obvious distinction between primary and secondary, and everyone has few lines. They passed each other in the teahouse and talked about their own affairs. The language actions of the characters in the play are to intercept a cross section of them in the teahouse. These countless pictures are organized to form a scroll painting, which gradually unfolds with the plot. There are not many characters in Thunderstorm, but the relationship is complicated. There are masters, times, and characters' language actions all revolve around the same contradiction. In the past 30 years, the contradiction between Zhou and Lu has always been intertwined and runs through the whole drama. The characters are also fully reflected in the development of the plot.
Look at the plot again. There is no unified plot in this scene. Although there are many people, the relationship is not complicated. Everyone's story is single, and the connections between characters are basically single-line and small-scale. The whole play is composed of small plots and stories that happened in the teahouse one after another, which is unremarkable. Only five people in the second act of Thunderstorm have lines, but there are husband and wife, father and son, and mother and son. The complex blood relations such as brothers, masters and servants, and the characters who have these relations are all in a contradictory whirlpool, with a dense structure like a spider web, which is extremely dramatic.