Search

A Comparative Study of the Theme of "Martyrdom" in Chinese and Western Literature--Take "Romeo and Juliet", "Liang Zhu", "Paradise Lost" as an Example

Author(s)

Xinyuan Gu

Affiliation(s)

Southwest Minzu University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China

Abstract

The main characters in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Chinese folklore and Yueju opera “Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai”, and Junichi Watanabe's Paradise Lost are all martyred because of the contradiction between their personal wills and social realities. But due to the different times and family backgrounds, the writers' understanding of the characters under the same theme and the differences in their performances, the three pairs of main characters also face different times of turbulence and the burden of the yoke. However, due to the different times and family backgrounds, the writers understand and express the characters under the same theme differently, and the three pairs of protagonists also face different turbulence and shackles of the times, which carry the concepts and thoughts of different times and social environments, different countries and cultural traditions as well as different writers.

Keywords

Martyrdom; Comparative Literary Thematics; Love Tragedy; Similarities and Differences

References

[1] Wu Chunlan. Life and death in love[J]. Fujian Forum-Humanities and Social Sciences Edition,2008(S3):123-124. [2] Cuan Fengchun. From the martyrdom works perspective of the great contrast between Chinese and Western values[J]. Manson, 2012(4):15-16. [3] Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet [M]. Beijing:Jinghua Publishing House,2016. [4] Junichi Watanabe. Paradise Lost [M]. Translated by Zhu Jiarong. Beijing: Writers Publishing House,2010.