1、an analysis of shakespeares tragedy world abstract shakespeare（1564-1616）lived in the transition period from feudal society to capitalistic society. the greatest of all english authors, william shakespeare belongs to one of those rare geniuses of mankind who have become landmarks in the history of w

2、orld culture. meanwhile the works of william shakespeare are a great landmark in the history of world literature. tragedies, especially the four great tragedies, stand for his greatest contribution. in hamlet, the hero is rational and his plan is in-depth, but he always cant put his ideas into actio

3、ns. in othello, the hero othello is a brave hero. he loves and is loved. he always trusts others. from the characters in king lear, we can see the depth and width of life the work reflects. king lears tragedy goes through the whole work. macbeth is the finally completed and the shortest of the four.

4、 it is famous for its quick development. every role and every story in shakespeares tragedy world based on the four great tragedies make our heart and soul moving. through analyzing the characters of the four great tragedies, this article tells people how to choose the right destination when they ar

5、e facing sufferings and ridicule of life. and from them we can find the right way to live and act. key words shakespeare; tragedy; disposition flaw; guilt; ambition 摘要 莎士比亞（1564-1616）生活在封建社會和資本主義社會的轉折時期。在所有的英國作家中，莎士 比亞在世界文學史上是極少數里程碑式人物之一。同樣其作品也是一個里程碑。從藝術上講，莎士 比亞的悲劇是莎劇中成就最高的，而其中又以四大悲劇為代表。 在哈姆雷特這悲劇中主人

6、公是理智的，計劃周到的，但卻總難付諸行動。在奧賽羅里，主 人公奧賽羅是性格剛勇的好漢，他愛著也被愛著。 李爾王一劇的人物形象可以看出作品反映的 時代生活廣度和深度，李爾王的悲劇命運貫穿全劇的中心。 麥克白是四大悲劇中最后完成的， 也是悲劇中最短的一個。它以戲劇情節發展的快速而聞名。 莎士比亞的以四大悲劇為代表的悲劇世界，其中各個角色，各個場景都深深震撼我們的心靈，本文 通過四大悲劇主人公性格分析，指出了面對生活的苦難和人生的荒謬，人們應如何做出選擇。我們 從中一定會找到行事的方針和生活的智慧。 關鍵詞 莎士比亞；悲劇；性格缺陷；罪惡；欲望 introduction william shakes

7、peare was born on the 23rd of april, 1564, in stratford-on avon, warwickshire. he is one of those rare geniuses of mankind who have become landmarks in the history of world culture. meanwhile the works of william shakespeare are a great landmark in the history of world literature. during the 22 year

8、s of his literary work he produced 37 plays, 2 narrative poems and 154 sonnets. but tragedies, especially the four great tragedies, stand for his greatest contribution. the disposition flaw in hamlet which shakespeare processes is over the perfect moral principle. in othello, othello always trusts o

9、thers. but just this nobility and innocence make him guilty. king lears biggest weakness is that he cant distinguish what is the false flattery and what is the faithful emotion and sentiment. macbeth describes that how an ambition makes somebody become a criminal from a famous minister and ends with

10、 an evil monarch. it reflects the awful result of the excessive and continuous ambition for people deeply. all in all, through analyzing the heroes characters, living background and their fate, this article tells people how to choose when they are facing sufferings and ridicule of life. and from the

11、m we can find the principle of doing something and wisdom of living. so when something very important happens, one can face it and deal with it more severely, one can shoulder the burden of life more easily. i believe people can learn more from good tragedy works. i. the four great tragedies heroes

12、analysis a. a tragic herohamlet hamlet is one of shakespeares tragedies. hamlet learns from the ghost of his father the fatal secret of his death at the hands of claudis, his uncle, who marries the widow, has the cold body of the deceased. hamlet lays a trap to catch his uncles conscience, breaks hi

13、s engagement with ophelia, kills the wary old counselor polonius, and is sent off to england under the escort of the treacherous courtiers rosencrantz and guildenstein, to be put to death. on the way, he rises in the night, unseals their murderous commission, rewrites it and seals it with his father

14、s ring, having worded it so that they themselves shall be the victims when they reach england. in a fight with pirates hamlet boards their ship, and is conveyed by them back to denmark, where he tells his adventures to his friend horatio. at ophelias grave he encounters laertes, her brother; and pre

15、sently, in a fencing bout with him, is killed by laertes poisoned sword, but not before he has stabbed his treacherous uncle and forced the fatal cup of poison down his throat. his mother gertrude has just died from accidentally drinking the same poison, prepared by the king for hamlet. it is a reve

16、nge play, like kyds spanish tragedy, and like tourneurs revengers tradey and so on. the renaissance was a violent time and their theatres obsession with things like revenge proves it. but whereas most of shakespeares contemporaries take, and created revenge-heroes who behave accordingly, shakespeare

17、 creates a humane and sensitive hero who is appalled by the task appointed to him. hamlet is a clear representation of shakespeares tragic hero. as the plays tragic hero, hamlet exhibits a combination of good and bad points. a complex character, he displays a variety of characteristics throughout th

18、e plays development. sometimes he is a human and sensitive hero, at other times he is melodramatically violent, cold-bloodedly callous, or even gleefully blood thirsty, both in word and deed. at first everyone sees hamlet as a sensitive young prince who is mourning the death of his father, the king.

19、 in addition, his mothers immediate marriage to his uncle has left him in even greater despair. the combination of these emotions leaves one feeling sympathetic to hamlet. then he becomes a very “human” character. one sees from the very beginning that he is a very complex and conflicted man, and tha

20、t his tragedy has already begun. hamlets anger and grief- primarily stemming from his mothers marriage to claudius- brings him to thoughts of suicide, which only subsides as a result of it being a mortal and religious sin. the fact that he wants to take his own life demonstrates a weakness in his ch

21、aracter. his decision not to kill himself because of religious beliefs shows that this weakness is balanced with some sense of morality. such an obvious paradox is only one example of the inner conflict and turmoil that will eventually lead to hamlets downfall. this internal struggle is obvious from

22、 his best-known soliloquy. to be, or not to be, that is the question: whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous foutune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them. to die-to sleep, no more; and by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the

23、 thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to: tis a consummation devoutly to be wishd. to die, to sleep; to sleep, perchance to dream-ay, theres the rub (from act iii scene ) “to be, or not to be,” shows hamlet contemplating the idea of loyalty, acting upon ones morals and their relation to fighti

24、ng against the challenges of evil. meanwhile, he doubts everything, including love. he hesitates, which makes him enter the tragedy. his tragedy shows the limitation of his thinking as a humanist. in that period, the power of enemy is very big. the beauty and the ugly are turned. the dream of humani

25、st cant be realized. the struggle of hero must end with grey luck. hamlets tragedy is the times tragedy. the liberation and freedom hamlet goes after are too heavy. the sad that dream cant be realized makes him more sufferings. in addition, the limitation of hamlet is also revealed by his far away f

26、rom people. he just wants to change the society by himself. he just remains himself. though hamlet has great wisdom and enough reason, its unrealized to do one thing by his own power. also in that society, nobody wins at last by oneself. hamlet is also a person who believes destiny deeply. until the

27、 last stage of his struggle, he still believes that there is a power which can decide someone to win or fail. he is tied by the old thought. so he hesitates, misses the opportunity and is passive. hamlet, although a complex and unique character, clearly represents the tragic hero. shakespeare wants

28、to tell us that the real world is unreasonable, but he cant solve the question. because of the limitation of time and rank, the great of hamlet is that he can reveal ugly exists in the world bravely, but not how to sweep these sins. the original power hamlet represents is on the stage of childishnes

29、s. they havent enough power to destroy evil. maybe in the other words we can say that they are doomed to tragedy. b. victim of credulityothello othello, a moorish general of venice, has promoted cassio as his lieutenant; iago, who was hoping for the promotion himself, makes plots against cassio and

30、othello to exact revenge. othello has secretly married desdemona, the beautiful daughter of venetian senator brabantio, and iago determines to use desdemona as the means of his revenge. othello believed iagos tricks, so that he killed his wife by his own hand. at last when he finds he has murdered h

31、is wife by mistake, he cant face himself and stabs himself in front of cassio and dies on desdemonas bed, beside her. othello, due to his moorish nature but at the same time morally white and untainted, can be considered grey with the opening of the play. his tragedy is caused by his naivet at trust

32、ing people too easily. in this play, there is a character iago who is contrary to othello in nature. he is the embodiment of evil. he manipulates the development of the play and all the characters in the play and leads a sorry tragedy. iagos living gospel is “one who lives only for himself”. he take

33、s every kind of measures to realize his benefit. facially he is very good and honest. he just wants to get trust from othello. his evil cant be counted and cant be ignored. iago knows the weakness of othellos character. othello is born with white and untainted. he doesnt know he has trapped in other

34、s lie and injury. when iago manipulates othello, othello unknowingly gives in to the temptation, even going as far as telling iago i am bound to thee for ever (iii. iii. 242). othello at this point is completely taken in with iagos mind poisoning and willingly submits to him, yielding to his tricker

35、ies. inevitably with a little push from iago, othello slowly goes down the path of dark and pure blackness, with murder evident in mind. with iagos tampering of his inner moralities, othello turns black like a speeding snowball, once iago set him on the right path. at last the green-eyed monster lur

36、es him to kill his wife and destroy his business, reputation and life. when othello finds his mistake, even though at the end he seems repentant towards the deeds that he has done, he still lost. so he stabs himself and also lefts some words which are full of regret. speak of me as i am; nothing ext

37、enuate, nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak of one that loved not wisely but too well; of one not easily jealous, but being wrought perplexd in the extreme; of one whose hand, like the base indian. threw a pearl away richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdued eyes, albeit unused t

38、o the melting mood, drop tears as fast as the arabian trees their medicinal gum. set you down this; (from act scene ) many critics of shakespeare like to talk about othellos noble temper, and like to study the motivation of evil iago. but in fact, iago stands not only the envy of aspiration and fles

39、h, and also a kind of aeriform individualism. all in all, evil and good is expressed as a never-ending fight in shakespeares tragedies. evil and good is recognized as each quality manifests during a persons lifetime. but only at the moment of death is he able to look back and see what he truly is wi

40、thout hindrance of the other. c. a tragic king created by powerlear king lear, the aging king of britain, is old and wishes to retire from his position of king of britain. so he determines to split his domain evenly between his three daughters: goneril, regan, and the young cordelia. because he make

41、s a very foolish decision, so the tragedy begins. he surrenders all his power and land to his two elder daughters as a reward for their fake demonstration of love towards him. this rash decision leads to his imminent downfall. lear is soon to find out how much love goneril and regan actually have fo

42、r him. its late, he begins to go mad. at last, overcome by his sorrow, lear collapses and dies besides his lone loving daughter. tragedy has been proved to be the most moving in all the literate works. but many critics think that though lear isnt the most perfect work, it has the strongest tragedy f

43、eature. the first reason of king lears tragedy is that his knowledge to nature and society is wrong. more exactly, he doesnt know the society at all. as a king, he lives in a luxury and corrupt environment and he doesnt know how people live outside. he seems only power and respect. so he makes that

44、foolish decision. the second reason of king lears tragedy is that his knowledge to humans rank and value is wrong. lear doesnt know the relation between king and common people. he thinks he is a king and is different from others. his value is over everyone. he believes deeply that even though he isn

45、t a king one day, he still can own respect from others. that foolish decision tells him that he is wrong. after expiring tragedy, his good side in his soul begins to unfold. we see he can not only be mild to other and also be sympathy to the weak. his power of character is not only showed in the cur

46、se of two daughters and also showed in the apologizing to his little daughter. with the development of play, we begin to excuse lear. king lear just like a fable, and tells us some philosophies of life. gloucester begins to see clearly his two sons who is good and who is evil after losing sight. the

47、 same, lear becomes sane after mad. the reasons of lears tragedy have some social reasons and also some individual reasons. it is a kings tragedy and also a commons tragedy. “who am i” shows lear awaking deeply. in fact, he begins to awake from his two elder daughters bad treatment. so he says, o, r

48、eason not the need! our basest beggars are in the poorest thing superfluous. allow not nature more than nature needs, mans life is cheap as beasts. thou art a lady; if only to go warm were gorgeous, why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wearst, which scarcely keeps thee warm. but for true need- y

49、ou heavens, give me that patience, patience i need! you see me here, you gods, a poor old man, (from act scene ) in the play king lear, from the beginning to the end, the evil take the main hero. though the evil are all punished at the end, the good are also not perfect. so we should remember that,

50、if there is more tragedy in art, there is less tragedy in life. d. tragedy caused by ambitionmacbeth macbeth, thane of glamis, is one of king duncans greatest war captains. upon returning from a battle with the rebellious thane of cawdor, macbeth and banquo encounter three witches. they predict macb

51、eth will become the king. by macbeth and lady macbeths insist ambition, macbeth kills the king and is crowned king of scotland, thus fulfilling the witches prophecy. but macbeth goes mad gradually. at last, the princes army is approaching and the play ends with the death of macbeth. macbeth, a very

52、reasonable and moral man, could not hold off the lure of ambition. this idea is stated in the following passage: one of the most significant reasons for the enduring critical interest in macbeths character is that he represents humankinds universal propensity to temptation and sin. macbeths excessiv

53、e ambition motivates him to murder duncan, and once the evil act is accomplished, he sets into motion a series of sinister events that ultimately lead to his downfall. (scott; 236). . not only is macbeth overtaken by his ambition, lady macbeth is also overtaken. unlike macbeth, however, lady macbeth

54、 is overtaken by her ambition immediately. as she reads the letter sent to her by macbeth, which speaks of the new title and the witches prophecies she immediately decides that they must do whatever is necessary to become king and queen. again we see that ambition subverts reasoning. she does not ev

55、en question the motives of these three evil sisters like macbeth does. instead she almost immediately decides that duncan has to be dealt with. this break down in reasoning is very damaging to both macbeth and his wife. though shakespeare doesnt show the hero is bad, at the beginning, otherwise macb

56、eth cant become the hero of tragedy. and aspiration lets him make a further err. we believed that, in the deep heart of macbeth, there is good aspect. just with the rank higher and the power bigger, he wants more. ambition lies in each persons heart but some one asks for it over the limitation that

57、will end with tragedy. so macbeths action is disapproved. when he awakes, everything has happened and one cant start from the beginning. just seyton, an officer, comes in and reports lady macbeths death, macbeth then delivers this rather cynic monologue about the meaning of life. she should have die

58、d hereafter; there would have been a time for such a word. tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time; and all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. out, out, brief candle! lifes but a walking shadow, a p

59、oor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing. (from act scene ) in conclusion, the reasoning of macbeth and lady macbeth is completely subverted and undermined by their insatiable ambiti

60、on. throughout the novel we see that the macbeths ambition completely subverted their reasoning abilities and eventually lead to their downfall. so macbeth warns us that ambition lies in everyones heart, we should control it rightly. ii. the influence elements of the four great tragedies accomplishm