《罗密欧与朱丽叶》和《梁祝》的对比研究(2)

Juliet: My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite. (Act Two, Scene II)
She loved Romeo and devoted all her heart into love.
Juliet: go ask his name. —If he be married,
My grave is like to be my wedding bed. (Act One, Scene V)[10][P30]
In her secret rendezvous with Romeo, in dealing with her parents’ forcing of her marriage to Paris, she showed extraordinary intelligence. She put forward every plea she could think of to stop or delay the projected marriage. She pleaded that she knew too little of the proposed husband, that she was too young for marriage, that it was still too soon after the death of Tybalt. When she failed to persuade her parents to delay the wedding, she took Priest Laurence’s advice and drank the phial bravely[11][P100]. Here Juliet’s brave character was shown through what she said and did.
She was a complete rebel of the feudalism society. She was bold enough to seek love in defiance of the enmity of the two families. After the first sight of Romeo, she knew he was the only son of her father’s great enemy. But she was still determined to love him and made appointment for their tryst. Then she decided to arrange for marriage and lay all her fortunes at Romeo’s foot and follow her husband throughout the world. When she found that her lover had died, she killed herself to show her loyalty to Romeo and the tenacity to pursue happy life. She would rather die than marry Paris, whom she did not love at all. The enthusiastic love encouraged her to throw away all the shyness and said directly to her lover: “Please tell me where you go, I will dedicate myself to you, and go with you to any place.”[12][P42] Both Romeo and Juliet went ahead without any hesitation. They just followed their natural instinct, never accommodated themselves to the feudal ethics. They vividly displayed the humanist spirit of the English Renaissance.

3.2 The characterization in The Butterfly Lover
Compared with Romeo and Juliet, Zhu and Liang were not complete rebels of feudalism[13][P39]. They were only the typical examples of literary figures against the feudalism. Liang was so gentle and weak that he did not take any positive actions to protect their love. When he knew that Zhu would get marry with Ma Wencai, he accepted the fact, instead of taking some measures. He was not so brave to resist or elope with Zhu. He just showed his love sickness lonely, and died for his love in the end[14][P42].

By contrast, Zhu was more positive, in spite of the fact that she did not defeat the feudalism. But she tried and did make some decisions by herself. Her disguising up as a man was actually a revolt against the social bias. Later her determination to die for love with Liang deserved greater honor. She pretended to agree to the arranged marriage but on condition that the wedding procession must bypass her lover's graveyard. They were coming along when she all of a sudden jumped out of the bridal sedan and rushed to Liang's tomb, where she bitterly condemned the feudal ideology that had thwarted their love.
She was driven to despair completely and had to keep hope in the following life, by dreaming to become a butterfly and be together with Liang life after life.
The heavens took pity, and the tomb opened up itself as if to receive her. She threw herself in to join her loved one in death[6][P5].
What people saw next was a pair of beautiful butterflies flying out of the opening, dancing happily here and there in the free air signifying the happy reunion of the troubled two, but only in death.

3.3 The differences of the characters between these two pairs
As we know, a person’s behavior, thinking, and even the moral quality, are all formed by the influence of culture[15][P35]. The cultural discrepancy between western countries and China brought about different characterizations. The author of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare, was the most outstanding writer in the period of the English Renaissance. And the feature of the English Renaissance was humanity, which encouraged human being to enjoy the happiness in this life[16][P31]. But in China, the feudalism suppressed humanity completely. Therefore, if we compare Liang and Zhu with Romeo and Juliet, we shall find the Chinese lovers were more reticent and the western pair more outspoken. Both the western and the Chinese heroines love the heroes, but Juliet was straightforward while Zhu was reserved. Zhu fell in love with Liang at first sight, and in the following three years, they both studied together, lived together, but Zhu was still chaste. Educated by the traditional ethics, she could not bravely express her love to Liang like Juliet. On the other hand, Liang complied with the ancestors’ instruction, and paid all his attention to study. He did not fight for his love and pursue his own and Zhu’s happiness like Romeo at all[17][P131]. However, Liang gave his life for missing and love finally.

4. Play construction
Finally, the study of the play organization or construction also opens a window for a better understanding of these two love tragedies. We will look into how each story developed, and how the pace of development conformed to their inpidual theme presentation.

4.1 The development of the conflict in Romeo and Juliet
After the dance party finished, Romeo sneaked into Juliet’s garden and expressed his love to her without reservation, even did not care that the members of Juliet’s family would kill him. Fortunately, his love gained Juliet’s reply. She also accepted his love without giving any thought to restraint. They made a solemn pledge of love to each other. Until now, their love had not been infringed and obstructed. But they not only pursue a temporary happiness, what they want was to love each other forever. Therefore, they decided to get married secretly and waited for a chance to leave their hometown. And with the help of Priest Laurence, they had their dream come true and held a simple wedding. If there were not any misfortune, everything would become quiet and go well. But something happened.
Two hours later, Romeo killed Juliet’s cousin without any choices, because he had to safeguard his family honor and protect his friend. This was the first sudden change, which formed a huge twister, involving all the roles into the conflict. Because of this, Romeo was exiled and had to leave Juliet. All of these made Juliet sorrowful. Her parents made a misunderstanding and thought that she was sad of his cousin’s death. Therefore, they ordered Juliet to get married with Paris. That was the second sudden change.
It was in vain for Juliet to stand against her parents. So Juliet had to turn to Priest Laurence for help. And Priest Laurence gave her a liquid medicine, which would make her sleep deeply, and look like dead. So long as Romeo came back and took her away, their love and lives would be saved. But unfortunately, the priest did not send the letter to Romeo in time because of the pestilence. That was the third sudden change.

After Romeo came to the Cemetery, he misunderstood that Juliet had died. As a result, he drank the poison. After several minutes, Juliet woke up but she also killed herself for love. These three sudden changes took place closely, nearly without any intermission.
Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt was so arbitrary that Romeo had reached the end of his forbearance and killed him without choices, which seemed to happen by chance. In fact, it was inevitable at the background of the family feud. This first sudden change made the story develop quickly. And the leading roles had to face the reality from then on. Therefore, every action, every sudden change would become the background of the next matter. They pushed the story ahead, made the conflict sharper and sharper. So facing every sudden change, Romeo and Juliet took corresponding measures until the play conflict burst out sharply, reaching its peak. This love story only lasted for four days. The first day, Romeo and Juliet met in a dance party and fell in love with each other at first sight. Then there were three sudden changes in the following three days. The plots of the story were quite well-knitted, and the quick pace of its development corresponds to the character features of Romeo and Juliet, energetic and fast-moving.

4.2 The development of conflict in The Butterfly Lover
The Chinese were an implicit people at that time. Most of the traditional Chinese would not express their feeling directly[8][P7]. And The Butterfly Lover was from the folk legends. Therefore, the development of the conflict went about at a snail’s pace, just like Zhu’s love to Liang. Distinguished with the sudden changes in Romeo and Juliet, there were not any sudden changes in The Butterfly Lover, from beginning to the end, which made the conflict of the play develop slowly.
Both the feelings and actions of the leading roles developed step by step. And there were some intermissions between their actions. The complete story lasted for more than three years, beginning from Zhu going to school and ending by their becoming butterflies. During the three years, so many things happened. Of course, the play plots were not as close as Romeo and Juliet’s. And the conflict was not so tense like Romeo and Juliet’s, either.

4.3 The different endings of the two plays
The endings of Romeo and Juliet and The Butterfly Lover seemed to be the same, but in fact, they were quite different. The Butterfly Lover was a love tragedy. It reflected the contradictions existing between the advanced youth and the backward social system. But it did not deject people after they enjoyed it. On the contrary, it stirred up people’s courage and confidence to pursue freedom and happiness, for it ended the love story with a romantic plot: Liang and Zhu became two butterflies upon death. They flied in the blue and bright sky together, a beautiful rainbow hanging in the sky, thousands of kinds of flowers sending out wafts of delicate fragrance. What a beautiful picture it was! How could a person feel sad at such pretty scenery? Of course not. On the other hand, people grieved at the end of Romeo and Juliet. Both lovers won their love, but with the sacrifice of their lives. At the same time, the two families turned toward each other and swore friendship and peace，and the lament entangled people for a long time. People cannot help feeling sad and tearful when the play finished. The end of The Butterfly Lover changed the basic atmosphere of the play. By contrast, the end of Romeo and Juliet added a sad atmosphere to the whole play[18][P490].

5. Conclusion
Love is an everlasting topic. Romeo and Juliet and The Butterfly Lover, these two pretty love stories, were both the odes to youth and love. They were just like two sisters, but lived in different countries. And because of the distinct cultures, there exist differences in theme presentation, characterization, and play construction. With this further investigation of these differences, we gain a more direct view of the conflict between love and feudalism. Meanwhile, it will surely help strengthen us in our pursuit of love[19][P28].

Bibliography

[1] 李昂. 不同民族交相辉映的爱情颂歌--《罗密欧与朱丽叶》与《梁祝》之比较[J]. 辽宁教育行政学院学报, 2005年7月第7期
[2] 程英. 壮丽的太阳与秀丽的月亮—试析《罗密欧与朱丽叶》与《梁祝》之差异及其文化成因[J]. 河南广播电视大学学报,2005年第1期

[3] Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet[M]. Oxford University Press,1997
[4] 乔丽. 《牡丹亭》与《罗密欧与朱丽叶》戏剧冲突之比较[J]. 全国中文核心期刊艺术百家,2005年第3期
[5] 同[4]
[6], [8], [9], [10]同[3]
[7] 黄小红,李继华. 罗密欧与哈姆雷特:两种人格类型的表现及演变[J]. 韶关学院学报(社会科学版), 2003年5月第24卷第5期
[11] 同[1]
[12] 欧阳雪浩. 从《罗密欧与朱丽叶》与《梁祝》看中西民族文化心理[J]. 绍阳师范学院学报,2001年第3期
[13] 赵海红. 爱欲与伦理--《罗密欧与朱丽叶》与《梁祝》之比较[J]. 福建师范大学福清分校分报,2003年第3期
[14] 同[12]
[15] 同[2]
[16] 王茂恒. 人文主义的交响绝唱--《牡丹亭》与《罗密欧与朱丽叶》对读[J]. 教学大参考2004,2
[17] 索绍武. 懦弱无能,作茧自缚[]. 西北民族大学学报,2005年第4期
[18] 王淑英. 凄美的理想与悲壮的现实--《罗密欧与朱丽叶》与《梁祝》爱情结局的比较[J]. 福建工程学院学报,2005年10月第3卷第5期
[19] 李景尧. 一部影响深远的爱情悲剧—谈《罗密欧与朱丽叶》[J]. 吉林艺术学院学报,2001年第2期