Humanism is a kind of outlook on life, ideals and values, and a noble spiritual realm. It should be practiced and pursued by people at any time, so it is eternal. Today, human society has entered 2 1 century, and material civilization has reached a fairly high level, but the high development of material civilization does not mean the corresponding improvement of spiritual civilization. On the contrary, egoism, utilitarianism and money worship are eroding human spiritual life on a large scale. Romeo and Juliet's persistent pursuit of humanistic spirit shows their dignity and value as human beings, which is the beauty of the script.
Shakespeare was one of the most successful writers in the European Renaissance. In his works, bourgeois humanism is the most abundant and artistic. His works made the most powerful public opinion preparation for the rise of the bourgeoisie. His creation can be divided into three periods ideologically and artistically. In the first period, he wrote about ten comedies and one tragedy. His comedies mainly do not satirize social reality, but express humanistic ideals, praise love and friendship, and preach personal liberation, freedom of marriage and personal right to strive for happiness. At the same time, the criticism of rebellious ideas, feudal morality and feudal oppression also revealed some ugliness exposed by capitalism. This kind of comedies include A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Much ado about nothing, Everyone is happy and so on. Romeo and Juliet, written in 1595, is the only tragedy created in this period, but its ideological connotation is completely consistent with the comedy of this period. Romeo and Juliet died tragically for love, but their love was so pure and beautiful. Their love finally overcame feudal oppression and prejudice, showing the vitality and ultimate victory of humanistic spirit.
Humanism is the "soul" in Romeo and Juliet, so it is necessary for us to understand the concepts of "literary revival" and "humanism". Renaissance refers to the cultural and ideological revolutionary movements that took place in many European countries from 14 to 16 century. During this period, the ancient Greek and Roman cultures were rediscovered and valued, hence the name. It started in Italy, and later it spread to Germany, Britain, the Netherlands and other countries. 14 and 15 centuries, due to the development of urban handicrafts and commodity economy, capitalist relations of production gradually formed within the European feudal system. In order to reflect their own interests and demands, the emerging bourgeoisie put forward humanitarianism, that is, humanism, under the banner of reviving ancient Greek and Roman culture, opposed medieval asceticism and religious views, got rid of the shackles of the church on people's thoughts, and overthrew all the authority and traditional dogmas as the basis of theology and scholasticism. Great progress has also been made in natural science. The new discoveries of Copernicus' Heliocentrism and Columbus in geography and Galileo's invention in mathematics and physics shattered old religious ideas and promoted people's new understanding of the universe and nature. In the process of national formation, a culture with national characteristics has gradually emerged and a unified national language has been established. During this period, European literature and art have made great progress, such as Dante's poems, Boccaccio's novels, Leonardo's paintings, Michelangelo's sculptures, Montaigne's essays, Shakespeare's plays and so on. Humanism refers to a basic value ideal and philosophical concept that runs through bourgeois culture, namely bourgeois theory of human nature and humanism. It emphasizes that man is the "subject" and the center, and requires respect for man's nature, interests, needs and the possibility of his creation and development. Humanism, as a trend of thought, is a new cultural movement of the emerging bourgeoisie and the civil class against feudalism, medieval theology and asceticism. From this, we can easily see that Shakespeare was a great master in the Renaissance in Europe, and his lofty humanistic thoughts ran through his whole drama creation. Romeo and Juliet strongly embodies his humanistic outlook on life and ideals. The reason why this play has such lasting artistic charm is that it is full of full humanistic spirit.
Romeo and Juliet depicts a thrilling love tragedy through ups and downs of dramatic conflicts, many vivid characters and beautiful lyric language. The hero and heroine were born in two feudal families. They fell in love at first sight when they met by chance, but they could not be combined. They turned to Father Lawrence, who sympathized and understood them and held their wedding in secret. However, as a feudal parent, Kabu Park Jung Su betrothed his daughter Juliet to a young aristocrat, Paris, and forced her to get married immediately. Juliet turned to Lawrence again, and the priest gave her sleeping pills to fake her death to avoid disaster. Romeo was sent to exile in mantua for killing Tibolt, the nephew of Lady Cabo Park Jung Su. Romeo was deeply saddened by the news of his wife's "death" and decided to return to Verona overnight and commit suicide by taking poison beside Juliet. Juliet, who woke up from a coma, saw that her husband was dead and committed suicide by drinking poison. The tragic ending of Luo and Zhu made the parents of both sides see the heavy price of the feud and make up under the auspices of the prince. From the synopsis of this story, we can see that Capulet and Montague, two feudal parents, represent stale and declining feudal thoughts and traditions. They are narrow-minded and arbitrary, ignoring the freedom and love of young people, leading to hatred and conflict between families, bringing turmoil to their cities, losing their children and bearing the consequences. Romeo and Juliet represents a new humanistic thought. They fought bravely and tactfully against feudal ideas and traditions. Although the end of the struggle was a tragedy, they won the victory and promotion of humanistic spirit. What we feel in the tragedy is Shakespeare's surging passion, high fighting spirit and lofty ideals.
Of course, in this play, Romeo and Juliet, the two young protagonists, are the most concentrated and strongest in humanistic spirit. These are two characters carefully shaped by the author, and they are the artistic images of the writer's humanistic ideal.
Romeo was born in a big feudal family, but he didn't inherit the feudal tradition and thought, but followed the development of the times, betrayed the feudal family and became a firm humanist. He is sincere, brave, educated, capable and has a loving heart. He pursues an independent, free and beautiful love life. Even if he mistakenly "loves" his enemy's daughter, he never flinches. He fell in love with Juliet and regarded the Capulet family as his own relatives, hoping to resolve the old feud; He is faithful to love, willing to be exiled for love and lover, even at the expense of his own life; He values friendship. When his friend was killed by an enemy, and his love faced "risk", he drew his sword to help kill the enemy, but his love suffered "disaster", which showed his noble character. It is in the development of a series of stories such as family conflicts, love hardships and friendship with friends that his humanistic spirit and demeanor are fully displayed. Juliet is only a noble lady of 14 years old, but she is brave, strong and wise. She broke through the shackles of a big family, fell in love with Romeo boldly, and entrusted her life to her lover. She knew Romeo's exile was hopeless, but she never wanted to marry the young aristocrat Paris. She lied to her father several times with wisdom and risked her life to take sleeping pills, all in order to realize her beautiful love; She thinks that love is as important as life. Romeo died, and she also took her own life.
The relationship between life and death between Romeo and Juliet is really shocking. This pure, noble and tragic love has eclipsed countless secular love.
14-16th century European humanism was the outlook on life and values of the emerging bourgeoisie at that time. Today, it naturally has the limitations of many times. However, its ideological core of taking people as the "subject" and demanding respect for humanity and value is not out of date. Under the background of the large-scale loss of "humanistic spirit", Romeo and Juliet still has spiritual nutrition that we need to learn.