A Comparative Study Of The Tragic Spirit Between Hamlet And Snow In Midsummer

This paper concerns with the comparative study of the tragic spirit between the representative tragedies of Shakespeare's Hamlet and Kuan Han-Ching's Snow in Midsummer. Although many scholars have done lots of studies of tragic spirit, the spiritual clue of Shakespeare's tragedy and Kuan Han-Ching's tragedy, blank spots still exist in this field. Among those studies, there is not any systematic and comparative study between the tragic spirit of these two tragedies through the historical background and theory support.Based on the historical and aesthetical researches and studied from the angle of human cultural origin, this paper tries to use the comparative method and parallel study to find the origins and development of the historical and cultural practice of Shakespeare's time and Kuan Han-Ching's time, focusing of the process of how the relevant cultural psychology, the humanistic art spirit, and the origin and development of the tragic spirit. On the other hand, this paper tries to study intensively the tragic spirit in Hamlet and Snow in Midsummer.Chapter One of the thesis introduces Shakespeare and Kuan Han-Ching's life that both have suffered from destroying their ideal for liberty and both have had the relevant tragic spirit in their mature tragedies and especially in Hamlet and Snow in Midsummer. Chapter Two elaborates the tragic spirit which as a literary and art form for human ideal for liberty and expression has the same factors that include the heroism and the inner conflicts. Chapter Three and Chapter Four compare some differences on origin and style for the different cultural psychology and humanistic spirit under the influence of their cultural practices of the tragic spirit in these two tragedies. The last Chapter is the conclusion of the thesis. It is concluded that Shakespeare's tragic spirit mainly displays the dilemma between the history and ethics and Kuan Han-Ching's tragic spirit mainly pays closer attention to the human ethics being harmed in the social reality. In a broad sense, we could call Shakespeare's tragedy the fate tragedy and Kuan Han-Ching's tragedy the hero tragedy. Both tragic spirits express their own aesthetical beauty through the tragic spirit of the masterpieces.