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1、 封面题目用2号Times New Roman字体加粗Love in the Pavilion Vs Love in the Balcony-Du Liniangs Vs Juliets Love Journey （如果有副标题，则用小2号Times New Roman字体加粗） 姓 名张 莉院 系现代文理学院专 业英语教育3号黑体班 级3号楷体2008级01班学 号成 绩小2号Times New Roman加粗。2号Times New Roman加粗。正文用小四号Times New Roman，2倍行距。小标题用小四号Times New Roman, 加粗。The Peony Pavilio

2、n by Tang Xian Zu and Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare are two extraordinarily significant works about feverish love on eastern and western drama stages. The two great contemporary dramatists, who lived in vastly different cultures of east and west, presented their respective masterpieces alm

3、ost at the same period （The Peony Pavilion in 1598, and Romeo and Juliet in 1596）, which shared similar themes of the hero and the heroines pursuing genuine love relentlessly, even to the sacrifice of death. Further study may help reveal more detailed differences on the historical background and cre

4、ating beliefs. Following the two female protagonists love journey, this paper attempts to reveal the similarities of seemingly-coincident scheme and then trace the reasons which cause the differences of the two works. I. The background of the two works.The Peony Pavilion was written in an era when C

5、hina was going through a rigid, repressive style of Neo-Confucianism known as Daoxue, which emphasized proper outward displays of behavior and rituals in the Middle and Later Ming Dynasty. Tang Xianzu, a learned scholar, felt dismayed and suffocated with the society, he resigned from the court offic

6、ial and then devoted to the literary works. Meanwhile in western country, European society was going through the Renaissance, a revolutionary movement of advocacy of humanism. Shakespeare favored the freedom of love, and the stability of society, turned against the family feud and felt hatred for th

7、e feudal aristocracy which was a constant threat to a stable social structure. Romeo and Juliets power of youthful love celebrates the capacity of love to conquer ossified social conventions. Its final tragic ending of the death seems to be the only escape to end feud of the two families in that soc

8、iety. In both texts, the deaths of the two heroines, both are from rich and powerful official family, result from lovesickness. Their behaviors are regarded as independent and somewhat rebellious, given the context in which the play was written. The two beautiful adolescents suffer from pain deeply

9、in their love journey, and finally die touchingly of lovesickness. II. Du Liniangs Love Journey Vs Juliets Love JourneyA Sprouting of love.书名或作品名用斜体。In The Peony Pavilion, Du Liniangs aching for love is aroused firstly by the ancient poem from the Book of Odes about natural emotion between opposite

10、sexes. She can not bear the feudal ethics anymore, so she steals out of the boudoir and into the family garden for a visit. And her lovesickness is derived from her dream in which she encounters the handsome Liu Mengmei, who also gets magic dream in which he is foretold, “Mr. Liu, only when you meet

11、 me will you obtain love and rank” by a lady. （Tang 4） The setting of this encounter blurs the line between memory and dream, also it conveys the message that love and fate is often predestined, which may be common in the literary works of Later Ming and Qing Dynasty and could be supported by anothe

12、r love story of Lin Daiyu and Jia Baoyus first meeting in Dream of Red Mansion by Cao Xueqin. Awakening from her dream, Liniang becomes lovesick and restless for the unattainable love in reality, for “he Liu Mengmei had come without a sign and disappeared without a trace.” （Tang 75）. She pleads with

13、 Heaven and later laments, “I looked up at the sky, pity and sorrow stained my eyes. Who knows what sentiments a heart can hold? Who knows what tears could have stealthily flowed? ” （76） This image associating her life with perishing petals also signifies that her life is drifting away because of he

14、r love for Mengmei. This plot may be inconceivable for readers of different culture and age to accept Liniangs ailment of the heart which leads to her death resulted from such imagining reasons. Yet what Tang Xianzu said in his preface to The Peony Pavilion reveals love and passion between the lover

15、s are somewhat unexplainable. “Love is of course unknown, yet it grows ever deeper. The living may die of it, by its power the dead live again. Love is not love at its fullest if one who lives it is unwilling to die for it, or if it cannot restore to life one who has so died. And must the love that

16、comes in a dream necessarily be unreal? For there is no lack of dream lovers in this world. Only for those whose love must be fulfilled on the pillow and for whom affection deepens only after retirement from office, is it entirely a corporeal matter.” Both east and west have their own legends about

17、the god or goddess of Love. In Chinese mythology there are stories about “the old-man-under-themoon” who ties newborn boys and girls destined to be married with a red silk thread. In Roman mythology, Cupid uses an arrow to shoot the hearts of lovers. Romeo and Julies love is represented as a sudden

18、magic spell, Cupids arrow striking, since it happens to both simultaneously! Romeo is shocked, stunned and bewildered by Juliets beauty at the first sight. Similarly Juliet is overwhelmingly attracted to Romeo as if by a seemingly magnetic force. Their immense affection for each other pours out like

19、 a torrent of water in stunning language. Love in Romeo and Juliet is a divine madness, both a wound and a blessing in which no human act of choice was involved. Romeo and Juliet fall in love involuntarily as though a force draws them together. In the balcony scene where the couple make clear their

20、breast, Juliet expresses her concern, struggle and pain, “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name. Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And Ill no longer be a Capulet.”（Shakespeare 60） For the feud between the two families, which may make love unattainable

21、, Juliet also experiences lovesickness. In the Prologue, Shakespeare mentions that the tale of Romeos and Juliets love story will be filled with tribulations, pains and disasters, even be a “death-markd love” （31），partly because of the rather magical and inexplicably powerful moment of their first m

22、eeting at the masquerade ball. BFidelity to love In The Peony Pavilion the predestined love and marriage between Liniang and Mengmeis is so overwhelming and powerful that Liniang would die for it, yet love is not only a reason for her death, but it is also for her resurrection. After her death, Lini

23、ang passes into the ghost world and appears before the Nether Judge Hu. And because of her beauty Judge even wants to make her his concubine. Even though Judge has the power to burn her, slice her, grind her, or turn her into the lowest life form, she refuses and then reveals that she is always long

24、ing for love from a young scholar Mengmei. The Judge says of her affection for Mengmei is a “flagrant disregard of maidenly virtues” （Tang 160）, and confronts her with the fact that her parents do not approve of the man, or even know him. Obviously Liniangs pursuing for love does not conform to the

25、accepted practices of the society, in which a girls marriage was decided by parents order and on a match-makers words. And feudal ethics, especially chastity, strangled women physically and spiritually. Also women were supposed to be submissive. Living in such a feudal society, the heroine, Li-niang

26、 was doomed to suffer the oppression of the feudal ethics. Yet she presents herself as a strong woman who actively pursues the man she loves and reveals her rebellious aspect character. C. Result of loveThe two love stories in the east and west do have similar starting and totally different ending.

27、One leads to a happy reunion and the other results in heart-broken death. Thus dying for love in the two nearly contemporary texts is presented via different approaches in Western and Eastern methodology world. As Zeitlin says, “Conditioned by Western notions of mimesis, we are accustomed to think o

28、f literature as an imitation of life. The corresponding ancient Chinese view would be rather that literature originates in the human heart to make a response to external things.” （Li Qing-jun） This explains Romeo and Juliet and The Peony Pavilion belong to two distinct genres. III. Conclusion Love i

29、s an “eternal subject” in literary works and has been celebrated by cultures all over the world. Shakespeare and Tang Xian-zu take their own ways to show sympathy for the young people in love and made a bold exposure of the crime committed by the feudal society, to celebrate beautiful love through w

30、hich they expressed their political point of view. Whats more, the two female protagonists courage to pursue love is greatly depicted and glorified to inspire and touch readers heartstrings. Shifting our eyes from the past to the present, from the literature fabrication to the real world, we feel re

31、lieved for the present young people who can shake off the feudal chains and enjoy the freedom and happiness of love, but meanwhile we cannot help feeling concerned that some may go to another extreme and take casual attitudes toward love and sex. Maybe thats why the two great works are still worth d

32、iscussing today. Going through the time and space, they are always there to evoke the noble virtue and love from the heart of people, to sublimate the value and significance of love, to guide people to know about themselves and the surrounding society, and to live a worthy life.四号Times New Roman 加粗 居中Works CitedTang Xian-zu. The Peony Pavilion Trans. Zhang Guang-qian Tourism Education Pr