Cao Yu Early Plays: Survival, Sentiment And To Break Out Of The Predicament Of Life

Caoyu is an outstanding dramatist. In his early creative life, he had created four giant representative works—Thunderstorm, Sunrise, Field and Peking Man, which were classical works and mark the maturation of the modern Chinese drama. These works were produced in the background of alternate between the tradition and modern and mixed between Chinese and western culture.Caoyu's early works have rich modernist connotation, because his deep consideration of life and profound comprehension about existence. In these works, Caoyu expresses his special views about the fate and life, with warm compassion feeling. The sense of life in his works mainly appears as two aspects:firstly, discover the dilemma of existence, revealing all kinds of conflicts and contradictions between human and fate, people and others, human and culture. In his feelings, people live in a narrow cage, and the life is not free under numerous restrictions. Life as a tragedy, for example, nobody can escape from tricks by fate, humanity had twisted in culture chains, and innocence had lost in Interpersonal predicament; secondly, look for the road which could escape from dilemmas, knit ideal life and create bright country. In order to rescue people from the narrow cage, Caoyu find out the hope of new life from the primitive ferity of human. He wants to seek healthy and satisfactory life form, calling the life authenticity. After realized people's predicaments, he is eager for vigorous and strong vitality, pure and free humanity. There is a clue which throughout Caoyu's early works:start from analyzing the dilemmas of human, then finding the value and significance of human existence, and finally exploring the ideal of human existence way. Sincerely concerning for people's reality situation, deep thinking of the true life and looking forward a better future together formed the rich connotation world of his early works.