On The Philosophy Of Human Nature In Shakespeare's Four Great Tragedies And Sonnets

In the history of world literature, Shakespeare's sonnets can stand the test of time. In the case of the artistic level in the renaissance, it was characterized by the combination of truth, kindness and fairness. It does not generally copy the social life in England in the renaissance, but artistically summarizes the true social life. Its true vitality consists in combining the bright side of human nature, namely, truth, kindness and fairness.As it is in sonnets, the most important ideology in the four great tragedies is the dark side of human nature, i.e. to criticize and expose the false, the evil, and the ugly. Because of his further understanding of social nature, he learned that human nature is not perfect at all, and it includes some evil ingredients such as wild ambition, greed, sexual passion, and so on. If the condition is allowed, it is possible for them to expand, and destroy themselves, e.g. Macbeth. What's more, he concluded that human nature couldn't be decided by inborn factors, and it was changeable. Power and status will make a man lose human nature and his notion of self; in the same way, the experience of suffering may arouse the bright factors of human nature, such as with King Lear.In the four great tragedies, on account of his comprehensive understanding, his tragedies showed us broad life .The strong people's roar, the weak people's groan, the winners' laughter, and the failure's wail can be heard here .We can see in the four great tragedies, some struggled for justice, ideals, truth or their own or others' happiness, while others struggled for their own interest, reputation, greedy desire and wild ambition. Different kinds of conflicts and struggles resulted from them. As a matter of fact, the depiction in the tragedies is one that describes life, reality, and the inner world.Although Shakespeare's tragedies were filled with gloomy scenes, it showed the great force in the struggle and the lofty side of human nature. The truth, kindness, and fairness were specified, and the hope and truth were left in the world. This is the positive side Shakespeare showed us, and it is also his optimistic attitude towards the future. Shakespeare's tragedies are not pessimistic at all, and every tragedy gives us clear enlightenment: our world was not destroyed by bad men, instead positive and healthy force was gradually strengthened in struggle. Human nature would be better, and the wheel of history couldn't be prevented by any evil force. Even if the good and the evil perished together, justice and truth are left in the world in order to encourage the successors to struggle to alter the unreasonable reality and for a bright future.In the tragedies, although the heroes and heroines can't break away from the ultimate fate of death, their spirit, justice, and truth can't be overcome by death. Thus, they win moral support. This is the essence of the four great tragedies and also the focus of this paper.