The Acceptance And Application Of Ovid’s Metamorphosis In Shakespeare’s Plays

Renaissance literature is rooted in the tradition of Western classical literature,and Shakespeare’s plays are no exception.Ben Jonson’s comment that Shakespeare is "small Latin and less Greek" has since aroused constant debate among Shakespeare researchers.Until today,the study of Shakespeare’s classical learning has become an important issue in the history of Shakespeare.This paper selects the Metamorphoses,which has a significant influence on Shakespeare,as the representative,and tries to sort out the relationship between Shakespeare’s plays and classical literature from two aspects of empirical analysis and text.From the empirical point of view,the second chapter mainly introduces the circulation of classical literature from the Middle Ages to the Elizabethan Age,as well as the translation and dissemination of Ovid’s Metamorphoses.Shakespeare’s life experience,education and reading habits are the necessary conditions for the study of the subject,but in order to fully understand how the classical literary tradition influenced Shakespeare’s plays,we must start from the inside of the text.From the perspective of text,the third to the fifth chapters of this paper respectively selects three different genres of Shakespeare’s plays: Comedy,Tragedy and Romance.From the plot,language and ideological core and other aspects of Shakespeare’s plays to analyze how the Metamorphoses is received.Meanwhile,it combines with the background of times to study the effects mutiply through the text reading,reception aesthetics,mythological research and feminism and other theoretical methods.The third chapter of this paper mainly takes A Midsummer Night’s Dream as the research object.Starting from the mythological world and the secular world described by the play,it explores the archetypes of the mythological characters Titania and Obron in the play,as well as Shakespeare’s reference and transcendence from Metamorphoses in shaping the characters.This chapter also analyzes and explains the two views of love and marriage expressed in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in combination with Metamorphoses,showing the progress and limitations of Shakespeare’s views of love and marriage formed under the influence of the Elizabethan social environment.The fourth chapter of this paper mainly takes Titus Andronicus as the research object,and it shows shakespeare’s imitation of Hecaba and Procne’s revenge story in drama plot.At the same time,close reading of the text is used to show the profound influence of Metamorphoses on the drama in terms of the use of metaphors and language characteristics.In addition,this chapter also sorts out the creative environment of Titus Andronicus.The classical tradition of revenge tragedy and its development during the Elizabethan period,showing Shakespeare’s acceptance and innovation of this tradition.The fifth chapter of this article takes Winter’s Tale as the research object,from the perspective of archetypal criticism and feminist theory,which presents the narrative styles of different seasons of the drama.From "winter" when mother and daughter are separated to "spring" when mother and daughter are reunited.The dramatic atmosphere from "winter" to "spring" is transformed by an important stage cue.The first section of this chapter focues on the relationship between this stage cue and Metamorphoses.And the return of Hermione borrows from Pygmalion’s transformation of the statue into a real person in Metamorphoses.By borrowing and using allusions in the Metamorphoses,Shakespeare recreated the play Pandosto by Greene,which not only reflected Shakespeare’s understanding of the classical tradition,but also reflected his rich imagination and profound insight into the social reality.