Shelley was born in a hereditary aristocratic family, and he was disgusted with the conservative atmosphere and the affected gentlemanly manner of this family since he was a child. At school, he accepted the enlightenment thought of the 18th century, and the utopian socialist trend of thought in early England gave him a profound influence. He once said: I will not curse people with selfishness and company image, I will be attacked. I swear that I will devote my life to the worship of beauty. Shelley's young life was such a spirit of rebellion and struggle from the beginning. From his ode to the west wind, we first felt a peaceful soul, a soul that erased all ugly destructive forces:
It should be said that Shelley is qualified to enjoy the praised secular life. As the eldest son, he became the inevitable heir of his family's noble title and property. He entered Eton's aristocratic school in his youth, and he studied at Oxford University in his youth. He should follow the rules from the country and keep his duty. However, all the family expenses he lent him were spent on books, and he didn't want to sacrifice his spirit in front of his title and inheritance. Shelley lived in a dark age in Europe, and all kinds of reactionary forces gathered together to form a "holy alliance". Under the oppressive rule of the bourgeois regime, democracy and national revolution fell into a trough, and the suffocating atmosphere in society at that time made Shelley's all spiritual qualities shattered. Therefore, in order to get rid of the bondage and obstacles of mental pain, Shelley used the powerful artistic image of a man like the West Wind to vent his pent-up resentment. It can be said that the precise, wild, uninhibited and wanton destructive force in West Wind is exactly the life force that Shelley is eager to pursue, and it is his strong resistance to the torrent of life. When the west wind comes, "people are heartbroken, frightened and dying in disorder" itself, it passes through the clouds in the sky and rises in the sea in a long wave and short wave, and its hands take away everything that does not belong to autumn, bringing the pleasure of destruction and refreshing. This kind of male pleasure, which is always full of vitality, is precisely Shelley's most real life consciousness.
In the past, when we understood Shelley's poems, we regarded the destructive power of the "west wind" as more of a social revolutionary force, which is certainly not wrong. Because Shelley is a poet who always pays attention to politics, studies politics and engages in politics, he hates the dark social reality and hates all ugly forces. His strong desire to change everything old and create a new society is reflected in many of his poems. The strong west wind can of course be interpreted as a symbol of the revolutionary spirit. It is said that the introduction of Lu Xun's ode to the west wind to China places special emphasis on those poems that are out of date and undermine the spirit of the times, because China has many social forms that are bound and hindered and need to be "destroyed" and "reborn". But just like today, we can't simply understand Lu Xun as a political "revolutionary soldier" (here, Lu Xun once accepted Nietzsche's "superman philosophy", and according to Nietzsche's point of view, "destruction and strength" are embodied as the vitality of "superman"), Shelley's image of "West Wind" also borrows Yu Xuan's philosophy about life: the power of life is destruction. The "destruction" here has both the meaning of destruction and the profound connotation of struggle.
In fact, throughout Shelley's life, there was always resistance and struggle. He was expelled from school and his family, and his private life with a civilian woman went against the trend, as well as his eldest daughter eloped with a Swiss teacher and his adventures. This character indicates Shelley's inner anxiety and struggle, as well as his tireless and courageous pursuit spirit. Therefore, by shaping the great artistic image of West Wind, we should see more of Shelley's vitality as a superman.
Finally typed it out. I'm tired of typing. Hope to accept ~