A Study On The Images Of Usurper King In Shakespeare's History Play

The history play is the important component of Shakespeare dramas, among the researches on Shakespeare's history play, the study of the image King has been the focal point all the time. Shakespeare's history plays involve seven king images mainly, which are divided into two big classes, one class is the kings who get the crown depending on primogeniture hereditary, such as Henry VIII, Henry V ,Richard II, Henry VI..The other one is the kings mounting throne by usurping, such as Richard III , King John and Henry IV. Up till now, the domestic and international study has concentrated on the specific king image mainly. This paper attempts to carry on whole research on the three usurper kings, studying their generality and personality characteristics, investigating the reason why Shakespeare created the kings thoroughly and the tragedy aesthetic significance of king images usurping the throne.The paper is mainly divided into three parts.The first chapter analyzes the three usurpers' generality characteristic and personality characteristics by the close reading. The generality characteristic includes rationality and illegitimacy of usurping. "The illegitimacy "is that the kings obtain the throne without the obedience of the feudal hereditary system, which has brought the unstable factors to the country. Such illegal means of usurping is not allowed by morality and justice, so the usurpers were condemned by the conscience severely. "The rationality" shows that these usurpers are ambitious than legal inheritors, and they have more political ability to managing domestic and overseas business, conforming to national benefit and the will of the people. The personality characteristics are shown: Richard III is cruel person with vengeance, King John is brave but not resourceful king and Henry IV is bold and crafty but melancholy king, in a word the different personality characteristics make their images unique personal glamour.The second chapter adopts the society - history criticism to investigate the background that Shakespeare lived and the reason why he created the history play. This text thinks, through the history play, Shakespeare shows loving care for the period and his political ideal: He thought traditional hereditary order caused the king's power to be too big, which produces the autocratic system and the tyrant, unfavorable to the full play of personal ability, and unfavorable to national development too; on the other hand, seeking the throne by the bloody means will bring the instability of the country and make the usurper kings' conscience uneasy. The more rational, more legal and ideal king in his mind is the king who should have sound physiology and personality, have the ability of govern domestic affair and the gift of diplomacy and have outstanding courage and insight strategy.The third chapter takes three usurper kings into consideration to find tragedy aesthetics significance of them with the theory of the tragedy aesthetics. Shakespeare's history dramas belong to the tragedy esthetic category, so they have the tragedy, the tragedy conflict, the tragedy spirit. The destiny of the king images have tragedy .The tragic conflict includes the external conflict and inherent conflict, the external conflict mainly comes from the conflicts of humanism and feudal ethics and the conflict between autocratic monarchy and the feudal separatism; The inherent conflict is shown between individual free will and conscience condemnation. The Shakespeare's history plays are personality tragedy, the three usurpers' personality weaknesses result in their failure.Shakespeare's historical play is combination of poem and history, which is loyal to the history as well as higher than history. Through the study on Shakespeare's history plays, we can see Shakespeare's conception of history and his political view and then know Shakespeare position, function and far-reaching influence in the history of world literature more roundly, objectively and fairly.