Tragedy is a concept that originated in the west and a major type and genre of drama. The tragedy of ancient Greece has always been religious, rooted in the "fate" that is thought to dominate people all the time. Although Aeschylus, the "father of tragedy", believed in human power, he believed that human power was limited after all, not to solve many problems in real life, thus forming a contradictory view of family education and destiny. Prometheus suffered great pain in order to help human beings survive and progress and realize their ideals, which Aeschylus could not explain clearly. Sophocles' tragedy profoundly shows the conflict between human subjectivity and objectivity. King Oedipus is a question of Oedipus' personal fate. The tragic hero will not lose his strong character in the difficult fate, and he will fight against the difficulties stubbornly. However, fate played a trick on him, holding it high for a while and falling badly for a while, and all efforts could not change his doomed life trajectory. So Aristotle called King Oedipus a model of fate tragedy.

The fate tragedy of ancient Greece closely depends on myths and legends, and comes from a keen understanding of the pain and sin of life. In ancient Greek mythology, the nemesis, who was responsible for facing up to death, crime, fear and despair, was in charge of the prophecy, but she still held a place, although she was later replaced by god of light. Apollo's prophecy represents a rational choice, but it can't be fully grasped, because Nemesis reserved her right to predict fate and karma-the realization of her prophecy is a punishment, so fate becomes difficult to understand and grasp.

During the Renaissance, humanism advocated "people-oriented" and "people-centered"; Emphasizing and praising people's value, dignity and strength, advocating human nature, opposing divinity, advocating human rights and opposing theocracy have greatly improved people's status. People began to dominate themselves, so the root of tragedy turned to people themselves, and a "character tragedy" appeared. Hamlet's typical distraction, hesitation in belief and delay in action have created a new type of tragedy. He vowed to avenge his father, but delayed it again and again, feeling that he was in hell. The ultimate cause of this tragedy is original sin, that is, the sin of existence itself, that is, the tragedy of fate. Thunderstorm, on the other hand, transcends the two modes of "tragedy of fate" and "tragedy of character" and embodies the third tragic situation that Schopenhauer said: "tragedy of existence".

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Historically, Thunderstorm has always been regarded as a tragedy of fate, and the layout of characters and their complicated conflicts are only regarded as a coincidence and a tragedy brought by "fate".

Cao Yu is familiar with Greek tragedies, Shakespeare, O 'Neill, Chekhov and Ibsen. Thunderstorm is deeply influenced by them in art: the plot is rich, the image is vivid, the dramatic conflict is sharp, the structure is rigorous, the style is vigorous and dignified, and the tragic atmosphere is strong. At the same time, he also dabbled in modern eastern and western philosophical works, which made Thunderstorm not only contain the lofty mystery of ancient Greek tragedy, but also integrate the concern of western modernism for human nature. Cao Yu "sympathizes with Schopenhauer's gloomy life" and loves "Nietzsche's abundant vitality and superman's thought". According to the will theory of materialism and the philosophy view of expressionism in the new philosophy era, the root of tragedy has turned to existence itself, which is the theme that Cao Yu wants to express-the tragedy of existence.

. Shi Ping is regarded as the most powerful witness to accuse fate of playing tricks. Indeed, thirty years ago, when she was only as big as Sifeng, she was cruelly abandoned. She felt so humiliated and sad that she didn't want to die. Living, dragging a child, how much bitterness and blood and tears will there be in this 30-year life, it is hard for outsiders to imagine, and after 30 years, how cruel the blow in the twilight is! She shouted to the sky that her grievance was unfair and retribution, but it had nothing to do with the ancient Greek view of fate. The power of God rules the world; Nemesis predicted fate, and all tragedies turned into fate, which was arranged by God in advance. This is the tragedy of fate.

But I think that the "fate" that Shi Ping has been talking about in Thunderstorm is just a verbal excuse that China people are used to, because they can't explain and get rid of the tragic reality and have no exact reference. But did Shi Ping give in? No, after all, she is a strong woman with great spiritual strength and "abnormal moral strength"! "I don't trust people in this world", this sentence contains how much bitterness, sorrow, blood and tears Shi Ping has suffered in the past 30 years! She cursed the world, but she still fought against it. For 30 years, she endured unbearable suffering, endured the biting pain of her spine, got married three times and worked as a maid, but she bravely survived and bravely resisted the unfair experience. Does she believe in fate? No, did she stop hating? No, either. She is kind and pure. Who can not be moved by her respectable self-esteem and self-improvement? She has two other beloved children who have found their own happiness in their unhappy lives. Although the hand of darkness once again enveloped her, a love destined 30 years ago finally entangled her again. The relationship between Sifeng and his drought-striken fields made her irresistible. In desperation, facing the cruel "Heaven", she made a choice: "Let's go together." She resisted the relentless impact of ethics and morality and fought relentlessly with her bloody reason. The fatalistic thoughts and ethical concepts in the minds of the lower working people in feudal society are not fatalistic thoughts in the works themselves.

Shi Ping is crazy after all. People think this ending is a tragedy of fate. She worked hard, but in the end she failed. But anyone can conclude that Shi Ping can't compete with the irony of his own fate after all? Don't! There is no connotation of ancient Greek tragic philosophy mentioned above. Like the characters in the play, Shi Ping's different status and relationship caused each other's harm, which eventually led to a tragedy, that is, a tragedy of survival. Oedipus' heroic struggle has always been in the hands of "God". God can make waves, God can be capricious, and the tragic hero Oedipus is created between joys and sorrows. However, what he can't grasp is human existence itself. Thunderstorm expresses such a theme with its own plot and artistic structure.

Every character in Thunderstorm is the undertaker of the tragedy, and plays a tragic role, regardless of whether it is rich or poor. The eight characters in the play all have their own strong intentions and desires and act for their own purposes. Only in the surface structure can we see that what Zhou Puyuan pursues is to maintain his dignity and family order; What Fan Yi pursues is to keep his drought-striken fields and let his drought-striken fields accompany him forever. Want to avoid, escape from Zhou Fu. Sifeng wants to go with his drought-striken fields and combine with them. Zhou Chong is chasing the love of Sifeng; On the other hand, Shi Ping wants to take Sifeng out of Zhoufu and get her out of danger. Guilou wants to keep his position in Zhoufu forever; On the other hand, for the benefit of the working class, Lu Dahai must resolutely oppose Zhou Puyuan. They regard themselves as a kink point and form a multi-layer network of contradictions with others. The emergence and development of any group of contradictions and conflicts are intertwined with other contradictions. The potential conflict that has been brewing in the deep structure for 30 years has caused all these entanglements to break out in an instant. Extremely complicated and tense conflict, the last eight people failed, Fan Yi couldn't leave his drought-striken fields, and his drought-striken fields couldn't leave. Shi Ping can't take away Sifeng, nor can Sifeng combine with Zhou Ping; Without Sifeng's love, I can't go back to Zhou's home. Lu Dahai's strike failed, and Zhou Puyuan completely lost family order and dignity. This family, dead, dead, crazy, and the living are also in pain.

Fan Yi is the most "thunderstorm" figure. She can be said to be the embodiment of Thunderstorm, manipulating the contradictions and conflicts in the surface structure and driving the whole script. It was what she did that frustrated the pursuit of Zhou Ping and Sifeng, and also excavated the root of a tragedy between Shi Ping and Zhou Puyuan, which disrupted the original situation and completed the tragedy. She wants his drought-striken fields to accompany her, but she doesn't just want his drought-striken fields. She is a quiet woman who can "love you like a fire, be so passionate, hate you like a fire and burn you up". She was placed under house arrest in this seemingly isolated Zhou Mansion for 18 years. Lonely and dreary life, heavy suffocating air, made her suffocate. The power of feudal society and the absolute authority and dictatorship of Zhou Puyuan family made Fan Yi's ideal of existence contrary to reality, and her existence appeared in the form of tragedy because of her instinct to pursue a repressed life-she had no hope, just quietly waiting for death.

Zhou Ping, a young man from the countryside, nourished Fan Yi, a dying flower, with his enthusiasm and desire and a little rain and dew, and gradually came to life. She loved according to her personality and gave her life and reputation to Zhou Ping. After all, his drought-striken fields are not Zhou Puyuan. He is timid. He is definitely not worth paying countless love and sacrifices for him. As a gentleman of Zhou Mansion, he was baptized by the democratic thought during the May 4th Movement, dissatisfied with his father's bossiness and disrespect for women, and incest with his stepmother was also the requirement of personality liberation. However, Zhou Puyuan's successor, for example, tried his best to be a dutiful son of the society and class represented by Zhou Puyuan. Based on this position, he became the son of Zhou Puyuan, obedient, and almost unconditionally agreed with Zhou Puyuan's words and deeds. He fell in love with Sifeng, and tried his best to escape from Zhoufu, breaking off the relationship with her. His change of heart and his fear worked: he was afraid that the relationship with Fan Yi would spread, which was not allowed by his father, public opinion or the whole ruling power.

Zhou Ping did not dare to break with Zhou Puyuan and the social forces he represented and follow the so-called "conscience" in feudal society, but "conscience and cowardice are the same thing" (Wilde). His cowardice, violation and denial of Fan Yi have itself fallen into a most embarrassing situation. After 30 years of parasitic life, he has become an empty waste. The decadent lifestyle of the landlord class stifled the vitality and ambition of his young people, and his hatred and dissatisfaction with his parents' society could only be turned into respect and obedience. But he wants to escape from this family and seek a new and more meaningful life, because he can't stand this kind of survival.

However, Fan Yi did not allow Zhou Ping to get rid of this tragic living situation. Her personality exploded like a thunderstorm to pursue the liberation of her personality. A woman can't be bullied by two generations. This woman with new ideas will not give up the struggle easily. But after all, she is a member of the landlord class. As an individualist, she can do whatever it takes to achieve her goal: her son is pulled out to destroy the combination of Zhou Ping and Sifeng; Gui Lu is Sifeng's father, so he can't stay in Zhou Jia. His drought-striken fields can only accompany her, and she will be satisfied with the unnatural relationship of hypocrisy and deception, rather than resisting. As a result, everyone's pursuit of human nature is bound and damaged by their own status and complicated relationship, and they fall into the tragedy of survival.

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"Tragedy is to destroy the valuable things in life for others to see" (Lu Xun's words). So what did the thunderstorm destroy? This family tragedy tortured, destroyed and destroyed the struggling humanity of eight people through the conflict between family relations and ethical concepts. The tragedy of survival has also been staged. Shi Ping is crazy, destroying her kind and pure beauty of human nature.

There is a difficult emotional entanglement between Shi Ping and Zhou Puyuan, which has been entangled for more than 30 years and eventually led to a great tragedy. It is widely believed that Zhou Puyuan is a hypocrite. His feelings for Shi Ping are completely false and hypocritical; Shi Ping is a disgruntled woman. She hates Zhou Puyuan, but she has no love. Is it really that simple? It won't cause so many grudges and complicated relationships between characters. In fact, there is truth in Zhou Puyuan's humanity, and love is always buried in Shi Ping's heart. All people have human nature, but dialectically speaking, human nature has two opposites, and Zhou Puyuan and Shi Ping are no exception.

It is said that Zhou Puyuan is the root of all evil and the maker of tragedy, but this tragedy is not his will, and he is also the biggest tragedy undertaker. Thirty years ago, he fell in love with a maid The son of a master, a modern youth influenced by western culture, took this step under the bondage of feudal ethics. Can he think that his love with Shi Ping is false? I'm not sure whose will Shi Ping was forced to leave, but it is conceivable that family factors can't be ignored. After all, he and Shi Ping are figures of two classes. The feudal marriage concept of "suitable for each family" did not allow him, a gentleman of the Zhou family, to accept the maids of the lower class and only marry a rich lady. Zhou Puyuan was an intellectual who came from a big feudal family. He pursues the life of the ruling class and the upper class. What he wants to do is to be a "good person in society". Therefore, Shi Ping, 30 years ago, became the abandoned child he pursued, which eventually led to the tragedy 30 years later, but this was not his original intention. Because it was a painful choice for him after all, he also loved Shi Ping, and only after the conflict with his social status did he give up Shi Ping. He has always left Shi Ping's son with him, reminding him of the child's mother Shi Ping to erase his existence, and often inadvertently touching his memories of Shi Ping. As he himself said, "Don't think my heart is dead. Do you think a person will forget when he does something he can't bear? " According to the person who officially married the Zhou family, he remembers Shi Ping's birthday every year. Even because I was sick all my life, I kept the habit of closing the window. "In order not to forget you and make up for my sins." He kept her habit of "living" and showed a kind of repentance, which still had some moral and emotional power in his heart. Out of affection for Shi Ping, in his later incomplete marriage life, he showed overbearing indifference and kindness to Fan Yi in order to maintain his majesty and establish a "calm" and "perfect" order of his proud family. But at the same time, he also lives in the emotional loneliness of losing the real joy of husband and wife and the joy of father and son. He missed the sincere and beautiful life with Shi Ping, so as to reduce his moral burden and inner coldness, just as Niehe Liudov saved Katyusha out of the need of self-salvation, which proved the positive side of his deep humanity. He has been living in an emptiness, and the absolute authority on the surface can't make up for his love life. What he can do is to anesthetize himself with indulgent life and memories. His life is a tragedy in itself. However, when Shi Ping appeared in front of him, he was panicked and terrified. He drank "What are you doing here?" Extremely contradictory attitude and completely different tone exposed his hypocrisy, ruthlessness and selfishness, but this could not hide his feelings for Shi Ping. Shi Ping appeared again, and he was glad, but all he had to do was say, "Good! How much do you want now? " Because he is a capitalist with feudal landlord class thoughts, what he wants to do is a very "decent" figure. Thirty years ago, he gave up his love for Shi Ping, which led to a tragedy on the road to survival. Therefore, Zhou Puyuan, a seemingly cold, selfish and hypocritical person, will not be understood by anyone. He can only pay homage to and remember the people he really loves in his heart and express his love in a tragic way. He loves what he can't love and can't love what he loves. Sadly, the crystallization of their love: two sons, one became his class enemy; And the other party gave him a cuckold husband, but he didn't notice it. Under the surface of majesty and sanctimonious, he was pushed to the most shameful position by his son. How pathetic his living environment is!

Look at Shi Ping's feelings for Zhou Puyuan. She hates it, obviously, it goes without saying. But there is love in her hatred. Thirty years ago, she loved him just as Xifeng loves Zhou Ping today. A woman from the lower class is not poor in Zhou Puyuan's eyes, but only "Miss Mei" in her mind, but her status as a "servant girl" firmly locks her and binds her. The feudal marriage concept of "suitable for each family" made her not recognized in Zhou family. He loved Zhou Puyuan with infinite tenderness, but there was always an invisible wall between them, which could not be broken even with the crystallization of love. In the hierarchical society, the relationship between love and feudal ethics collided, and Shi Ping failed. Leave a long and miserable life for 30 years. When we first met 30 years later, she didn't have any particularly jealous enemies. A woman's affectionate and soft-hearted nature determines that she can't hate Zhou Puyuan completely. When she saw the enemy she loved and hated 30 years ago in the room reflecting the past, she suddenly returned to the situation 30 years ago, feeling vague and sentimental. In a contradiction between unwilling to admit each other (due to ambition) and unwilling to deny each other (due to emotional instinct), she finally could not help but guide Zhou Puyuan to recognize herself step by step. She said, "You can't imagine that Shi Ping will be so old that you don't even know her." This sentence is a combination of sadness and sadness, and naturally it is not gentleness without femininity. She continued: "Park, are you looking for Shi Ping? Shi Ping is here. " This is simply a lingering call, an immature expectation. This shows her mixed feelings for the man who failed her. But she and Zhou Puyuan can't be together. Not only Zhou Puyuan can't accept it, but also Shi Ping can't accept it. The dilemma of choice made her struggle.

Shi Ping can't erase her feminine tenderness. The inevitable fragile factors of human nature itself cannot be explained by reason. It is a factor of tragedy, but it is by no means dominated by "fate", but a factor of survival itself. When Shi Ping left Zhou's home with the sea wounded by the inferior, reason prevailed, but when the sea was going to take revenge on Zhou's home, Shi Ping said, "If you hurt Zhou's people, you are not the master or young master of Zhou's home. As long as you hurt them, I will never recognize you. " This shows how much she hates Zhou Puyuan. She said to Sifeng, "People's hearts are unreliable. I'm not saying that people are bad. I just hate that human nature is too weak and changeable. " This is also her epiphany on human weakness after suffering. Based on this, she naturally forgave Zhou Puyuan. This is the real Shi Ping, absolutely different from the fortitude of an iron-fisted woman, because she is just an ordinary working woman.

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Human nature itself is contradictory, that is, the contradiction between superego, ego and id, and the conflict between human nature and social moral order and rational law. Zhou Puyuan and Shi Ping, in this way, also exist between Sifeng, Zhou Ping and Fan Yi, and it is difficult to break through the emotional influence of human nature. So eight people parted ways, but inevitably intertwined into a big net, intertwined with each other, but entangled more and more tightly, the suffering of the soul will inevitably lead to all destruction. Thunderstorm is a collection of contradictory expressions of various forces, conflicts of different classes and positions, complex relationships between people and conflicts of ethical relations. It transcends the level of practical utility and rises to a higher level where writers reveal and explore human existence, which has a deeper connotation.

In this way, Thunderstorm shows the worst tragedy in the world. It happens to everyone, not the monarch (such as Oedipus) or the hero who saves the world (such as Hamlet). It doesn't let us go outside the world to find the root of any tragedy, because tragedy lies in existence itself. It contains the tragedy of human existence itself.