《牡丹亭》与《仲夏夜之梦》中“梦境”的对比研究

A Comparative Study of The Dreams in The Peony PavilionAnd A Midsummer Night’s Dream哈尔滨师范大学王梦莹《牡丹亭》与《仲夏夜之梦》中“梦境”的对比研究AbstractThis paper will carry a comparative study on common points of two classical romantic dramas between 16th and 17th centuries——The Peony Pavilion and The Midsummer Night’s Dream. Tang Xianzu(1550-1616) ,the author of the Peony Pavilion and William Shakespeare（1564－1616）, the author of A Midsummer Night‘s Dream lived in the same historical period. Both of them were regarded as the most outstanding and influential drama creators in the literature history of their countries. The Midsummer Night‘s Dream was one of reprehensive works of Shakespeare, which has been adapted into movies, stories, games, and paintings. Similarly, The Peony Pavilion was also the most important works of Tang, which consolidated his significance not only in The literary circle of Ming dynasty but also in the Chinese ancient history.The last part is the conclusion. After a series of analysis, this paper draws these conclusions: the depression of love and sex is the logical resource of two dreams. The process of dreams is also the confliction between secular ethics and individual consciousness. The satisfactory results of the two works are the reflection of ideological emancipation.Key words:comparative study the P eony Pavilion A Midsummer Night’s Dream dreams摘要本文将对十六,十七世纪东西方两部重要的戏剧巨著进行对比分析——《牡丹亭》和《仲夏夜之梦》，并总结分析出两部作品中“梦”这一意象的相同点。

《牡丹亭》的作者汤显祖(1550-1616)和《仲夏夜之梦》的作者莎士比亚（1564－1616）生活在中西方相同的历史时期，却处在不同的社会背景下。

两位作者在本国都被视为戏剧发展史上最杰出，最具影响力的剧作家。

《仲夏夜之梦》是莎士比亚的代表作之一，自问世以来，被多次改编为电影，故事，游戏，绘画等。

同样，《牡丹亭》也是汤显祖一生中最重要的作品之一，不仅奠定了他在明代剧作家中杰出的地位，更使他在中国文学发展史上写下了浓墨重彩的一笔。

第五章为结论部分。

经过一系列分析后，本文得出如下结论：主人公在现实生活遭受的中性与爱情的压抑是两“梦”的心理起源；两梦的发展过程也是人性与自我意识同封建伦理道德抗争的过程。

而两梦的圆满结局，体现了人们思想解放运动的成功。

关键词：对比研究梦《牡丹亭》《仲夏夜之梦》A comparative study of two dreams in the Peony Pavilionand A Midsummer Nig ht’s Dream1 Introduction1.1 Tang Xianzu and The Peony PavilionTang Xianzu(1551-1616)，who also named Yi Reng, was borned in Lin Chuan city, Jiang Xi province. He was admitted to the government in his 34 and he once in charge of former Nanjing minister At first, he was once a politician who tried to achieve the political aim to serve for the people. But he was disappointed by the increasingly corrupt social misfits. As the witness of the corruption of the bureaucracy, he once remonstrated the emperor to arouse his all efforts to make the country prosperous. However, the emperor decided to expel Tang to Xuwen city out of wrath, where Tang became a minor official. Then he was transferred to a county magistrate in Suichang County of Zhejiang, in the term of five years, he accomplished great achievement and gained the respect of local people. However, he was suppressed by local forces. Therefore, he finally resign the position. After backing Hometown, he began to devote himself in poetry and drama creation. Tang was also called ―Chinese Shakespeare‖because his outstanding accomplishments of drama writing. He had four representative works:The Purple Hairpin, The Peony Pavilion, Tale Of Nanke，Tale Of Han Dan .In 2000, Tang Xianzu was included in the list of the 100th cultural masters in the world. There will be a worldwide commemorative activities for the 400 anniversary of the death of Tang Xianzu Shakespeare and Cervantes, which shows his academic and literature status in 2016.1.2 Shakespeare And A Midsummer Night’s DreamWilliam Shakespeare (1564 –1616) was an English poet and playwright who was widely regarded as one of the greatest writer not only in the English language countries but also the world's preeminent dramatist. He also did great contribution on the development of English language. He had representative of the four major tragedies ：Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth, and for comedies: The Merchant of Venice and more than 100 first sonnets. Many of his plays were popular and published for many times during his lifetime.Shakespeare was a re s pected poet and playwright in his lifetime. However, it was the 20th century when his works was introduced to all over the world. In the 20th century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.In t he Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hermia could not accept the marriage arranged by her father. Therefore, she decided to elope with her lover Lysander at night. Hermia told her best friend Helena her plan. However, Helena , whose love had been rejected by Demetrius ,decided to win back his favor by revealing the plan to him. Meanwhile, Demetrius, who has been chosen as Hermia‘s husband, decided to chase Hermia out of dignity. Meanwhile, there was also something happening in the fairy world. Oberon, king of the fairies, quarreled with his queen Titania for her rejection to give him Indian boy. Oberon decided to seek for ways to punish Ti tania‘s disobedience. Coincidentally, he was to provided with a flower called ―love-in-idleness‖, which would made the victim lose his consciousness fall in love with the first living thing he sees when he awakes. Oberon applied the juice to Titania in order to distract her. Puck puts the juice on the eyes of Lysander, who then fell in love with Helena. When Oberon found these mistakes out, he made Puck apply the juice to Demetrius. But then Hermia‘s two ―lovers‖ temporarily turn against her in favor of Hel ena because of puck‘s mistakes. Meanwhile, Nick Bottom, a stage-struck weaver, is spotted by Puck, who transforms his head into that of an ass. Titania is awoken by Bottom‘s singing, and she immediately f ell in love with him. While in this state of devotion, she encountered Oberon and casually gave him the Indian boy. Having achieved his goals, Oberon released Titania and orders Puck to remove the ass‗shead from Bottom. The magical enchantment was removed from Lysander but was allowed to remain on Demetriu s, so that he may reciprocate Helena‘s love.These young people eventually found their true lovers.Theseus and Hippolyta arrived at the forest at that time. After understanding the whole story, Theseus over-ruled Egeus's demands and arranged group wedding. When recalling the experiences in the forest, The lovers thought that it is not reality but a fantastic dream.2 Literature Review2.1 Study of The Peony PavilionThe Peony Pavilion has been a masterpiece that won great popularity. In the period of Ming and Qing dynasties, one of the most important topic was the accurate time when the work was published. In period of the Republic of China, Wang Guowei published his book about the history of Chinese drama where he has explained his opinions on the peony pavilion from the perspective of aesthetics.(Wang ,2010)At the period of The People's Republic of China, the study of the peony pavilion can be divided into two parts. One of them concentrates on the perspective of class struggle and anti-feudalism. In 1980, Chen Zhongfan pointed that Du had the spirit of "indomitable struggle" Du had Reckless sprits made her dare to struggle for her love.（Chen, 1980:495）In 1981, Ni Fuxian praised her can consciously put forward her ideal and carry out it through efforts.（Ni,1981) . In 1985, Mao Xiaotong quoted In 1985, Yu Qiuyu pointed that the Peony Pavilion showed obvious rebellion to the reality of the Ming Dynasty and the ideological system of the feudal society (Yu, 1985). The opposition of "emotion" and "reason" was also the opposition of love and marriage. (Yao, 1985) In 1987, Pan Jianhong pointed that the Peony Pavilion exposed the contradictions of the feudal ethical code and the young people and showed the coldness and hypocrisy of the feudal family relations.（Pan, 1987）.In 1992, Zhang Geng and Guo Hancheng pointed that the Peony Pavilion reflected the eager of marriage freedom of young people under the suppression of feudal system（Zhang1992）. In 1994, Shao Zhiqian pointed that urged for the freedom of the depressed people（Shao,1994）.In 2002, You Guoen pointed that through the love story of Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei , the author song great praises of the pursuit of freedom and strong personalityspirit(You,2002). In 2007, Liu Dajie pointed that the literary value of the Peony Pavilion is the praise of young people‘s strive for the independence of marriage, fight for the liberation of individuality and the fight against the feudal ideology (Liu, 2007). Love itself is another topic of studies .In 1983, Wang Zhiwu pointed that it showed the rationality and the tremendous power of love.(Wang,1983 ). Then In 1985, Yao Mang pointed that t he Peony Pavilion tried to break stereotypes of the "romantic" and created a kind of true love.In recent years, as the development of cultural communication, the Peony Pavilion has attracted the interest of foreigners. For example, In 1994, Judith T. Zeitlin published the paper‖Shared Dreams: The Story of The Three Wives' Commentary on The Peony Pavilion”. In 2003, Catherine Swatek published her paper Persons, Roles, and Minds: Identity in Peony Pavilion and Peach Blossom Fan.2.2 Study of A Midsummer Night’s DreamA midsummer night's dream was one of the most popular dramas written by Shakespeare, Many people came into contact with Shakespeare by this work. It has always been a hotspot in research circle of Shakespeare. However, in recent years, this work was broadly adapted in psychological and educational analysis.In 1998,Francene Davis Kirk did research on students‘ enthusiasm on Shakesp eare‘s dramas and the scientific ways to promote their study. it was showed that students were more active in the study of A Midsummer Night's Dream. (Kirk, 1998)In 2009, David S. Schneider made a study on the stage performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream. (Schneider, 2009)In 2010, George Eleftheriades made a study on A Midsummer Night's Dream from A pedagogical perspective.(Eleftheriades,2010)At the same year, Veronica published her paper “North Star and Southern Cross: Shakespeare's Comedies in Australia, 1903–1904”,it showed the great influence of a Midsummer Night's Dream in Australia.(Kelly,2010) In 2014, Steve Orman made an analysis on the comedy skills used by Shakespeare in this work.(Orman,2014)In 2016,In the paper of Sarah Carter, A Midsummer Night's Dream was used as an overtly intersexual text.(Carter,2016)In 1841, Lin Zexu organized scholars to translate The Encyclopedia of Geography, in which Shakespeare was firstly introduced to China.In1841, YanFu referred to Shakespeare in Evolution and ethics. When Shakespeare was writing unrhymed versewith goose quill, he could not imagine one of his peers was doing similar thing in the other side of the world.（Yan, 1981: 39）.2.3 Significance of The ThesisAs the development of cultural communication, both the two works have been more and more popular at the other side of world. However, the comparative study of them from the perspective of dream is remained to be developed. This paper will make analysis the similarities of the two works from the perspective of dream. The analysis will be developed in these aspects：Firstly, what is the common logical resource of two dreams? Secondly, what is the essence of the process of two dreams and what is the core spirit conveyed by them? Thirdly, both of the two works have satisfying results after a mixture of comedy and tragedy, so what sprits could be reflected by the results? What were the similar social and ideological factors of two writers?3 The Dreams in The Two Plays3.1 The Dream in The Peony PavilionDu Liniang, the protagonist of the peony pavilion, lived in Ming dynasty (1368-1644) when people, especially women were strictly limited by feudal ethics. There was a theory named three obedience and the four virtues impacted on women. The former means that a woman is required to obey her father before marriage, her husband during marriage life and her sons in widowhood. Their marriage should be arranged by their father, after getting married, they must show absolute obedience to parents-in-law and husbands. Their tolerance to concubines was a main standard to judge their virtue. If their husbands die unfortunately, it was almost impossible for them to remarry. Their center of life should be their children. They would take the responsibility of managing family for them. The latter contains fidelity, physical charm, propriety in speech and efficiency in needle work and wifely submission and virtue. Women did not have freedom to decide anything including their marriage the whole span of life.Du was born in a family which sticks to asceticism. She could not step out of her chamber without the permission of her parents. Her mother was even afraid that the embroidered flowers and birds on Du‘s skirt w ould remind her daughter of sex. She criticized Du harshly after knowing her tourism to garden. Du‘s teacher was a pedantic old man, who deliberately misinterpreted the romantic poems as carrier of three obedience and the four virtues. As a girl who was in her fifteen, she was eager for love.When she sauntered in the spring garden, she was intoxicated by the beauty. All kinds of flowers bloomed with no one appreciated them. The sight stroked a chord in her heart ,so she signed：―See how deepest purple, brightest blossom, open their beauty only to dry well crumbling. ―Bright the morn, lovely the scene, listless and lost the heart----where is the garden "gay with joyous cries?‖ (Birch23)The beauty of flowers reminded her of the condition of her. Her charm of woman was going to bloom like the flower, but there was no one to appreciate it. She felt upset because her eager of love could not be satisfied in real life. Therefore, she signed helplessly: "Here I am at the double eight, my sixteen years, yet no fine ―scholar to break the cassia bough‖has come my way. My young passions stir to the young spring seasons. But where shall I find an ‗entrant of moon‘s toad palace‘ (Birch19).In some way, she found a way out of depression in her dreamland. There are no rules and limitations in dream. So she had sexual experience with Liu by the side of flower, which can never happen in her real life. Her fascinating sexual experience was described in this way: ―Against the weathered rock，he leaned my wilting body then as he laid my jade limbs down. Smoke issued from jade in warmth of wun,by balustrade Past swing there I spread the folds of my skirt.‖ At that time, she became a real beautiful blossom, Liu Mengmei was the one who can appreciate and enjoy her beauty.3.2The Dream in A Midsummer Night’s DreamThe condition in the A Midsummer Night’s Dream was similar. Hermia lived in an Athens city where women‘s freedom in marriage was also strictly limited by a piece of law which was quite s imilar with ―the three obedience‖ that we mentioned. Male citizens of Athens city had the power of forcing their daughters to marry whomever they chose. If a daughter refused, she would be sentenced to death. Hermia faced the conflict between love and law. Her father did not care about her feeling. He judged the quality of a man by his own standard regardless of the real thought of his daughter. So he asked Hermia: ―Why do you refuses to marry Demetrius? He is really a worthy gentleman!‖(Shakespear e16).Hermia could not tolerate her father‘s autocratic arrangement, she said: ―I‘m sorry, Dad! I can‘t be his wife.I don‘t love him. I‘ve fell in love with Lysander.‖ (Shakespeare16). Then her father made a very strict warn: ―If you don‘t marry Demetrious, I will use the ancient right of Athens, asking to put you to death according toour law!( (Shakespeare16)‖Hermia once begged her father for her marriage freedom sincerely:―Oh! Please, please do not! My dear father! Don‘t you love me anymore? Do not give me up, p lease! ‖(Shakespeare17)but her request was rejected by her father. It was difficult to make her dream come true in real life. So Hermia chose to get far away with her lover. But she did not enter another city or country but broke in to a fairyland that was filled with beauty and mystery. Shakespeare applied young people an illusory place without any rules and laws where they can express their love freely. Actually, it did not exist in real life. Their freedom in love and marriage is impossible like Arabian nights. But in the magical jungle, where everything was possible any kind of love was reasonable. they could get the romantic, fantastic and lyrical atmosphere from the supernatural world of and fairies，they could feel the emotion which wass hard to express from the leading characters in the present world. Both the fairies and the magic flowers did not exist in real life. Furthermore, it wa s fairies‘ power which was superior to the secular laws that helped her to gain her love. When they came back to Athens, they gained the support from Duke, who persuaded Hermia‘s father to allow their marriage.4 Similarities of The Two Works in Several Aspects4.1 Logical Resource of Two Dreams:Dreams in the two works are used as situations where characters could express their passion freely and pursuit for love bravely. Therefore, dreams were actually the media for authors to show readers the core sprit of works. When it comes to logical resources of dreams in the two works, we should be aware that any literature work can not be isolated from society. The experiences of protagonists are influenced by certain historical and social background.Supposed there had not been so many rules and barriers against their pursuit of love, it is not necessary for them to experience dreams mixed both sweet and bitterness. We can draw a preliminary conclusion here: Du and Hermia can not achieve emotional and sexual satisfaction and can not change the situation by virtue of their own strength in real life. Therefore, the author adopts dreams as illusory scenes to make their demand satisfied. In 1899,238 years after the death of Shakespeare and Tang Xianzu, Sigmund Freud, an Austria psychologist, published The Interpretation of Dreams. He analyzed the relationship between the dream and reality. His conclusion can be used to analysis thepsychological origin of the dreams. According to Freud, if people‘s desire cannot be satisfied in reality, people tend to turn to illusion or fantasy to get emotional relief or desire satisfaction. Therefore, emotional depression in reality is the logical resource of dreams in two works. It is emotional depression of sex and love in real life that catalyzes the production of dreams.In Freud‘s view, all dreams are forms of ―wish-fulfillment‖ (Freud53) — attempted by the unconsciousness to resolve a conflict of some sort, whether something recent or something from the recesses of the past. People have a lot of individual unconsciousness suppressed under the threshold of consciousness. The unconsciousness is in control of man‘s primitive instincts,which is particularly strongly influenced by unique environmental stimuli play occur in and impulses of desire mainly based on sexual instinct. Although the personal desire only exists in the surface of the unconsciousness, it impacts great influence on each individual. In the process of personal growth, this unique natural desire to be transformed into ―memory‖ gradually. It is deeply rooted in emotions and won‘t go away forever. Freud defines it as ―complex‖. It exists firmly in the people‘s heart and break through mind control of consciousness when there is appropriate stimulation in outside world. Therefore, the complex is a psychological force of domination. It controls people‘s behavior. Complex in people‘s heart pushes unconscious psychological desire to reality .But consciousness always doing everything to prevent. So as a compromise, the complex has to turn itself into a fantasy or dream to make the repressed instinctual unconsciousness activities getting symbolic content.Therefore, the depression of love and sex in real life promotes the dreams of Du and Hermia, It is a daydreaming in which human instinct of desire in fantasies get deformed satisfaction. There are many kinds of barriers against peoples‘ fulfillment of wishes, but dream are not limited by time, location, or rules of real life. Du is in the confusion that their freedom in love and sex are chained by the society. So the authors put them into illusory conditions to reach emotional reflex and satisfaction. they can not express their love and passion in real life, their desire for love and sex were depressed by the secular rules and gradually become the ―complex‖in the bottom of their heart. So the authors provide them for a dreamland where their ―complex‖ outbreak violently. They expressed their passion and love freely in dreamland and pursuit for love freedom bravely.4.2 Process of Two Dreams ：The process of the two dreams is not only the process of self-liberation of protagonists but the confliction process between new thoughts and old ethics. In The Peony Pavilion, it was a complex process for Du to gain marriage freedom. Du‘s conscious desire got symbolic content. Therefore, Du‘s love, dream, death, resurrection, and her happy ending were all fantastical compensation of reality. The process of the dream itself was also the process in which Du struggles against the secular ethics and to gain her marriage freedom. In the dreamland of Midsummer Night’s Dream, the young people show their enthusiasm and passion.Young people broke off the limitation of secular world successfully here. After a series of fascinating experiences filed with happiness and bitterness,Both of Du and Hermia faced with confliction between marriage freedom and secular rules. But at first they were nothing but rebellious in the eyes of others. They could not exist without the protection of paternity in the eyes of others. However, they began the pursuit of love in dreams. They become brave gradually in this process. When they came back to reality, they are no longer girls who can be just identified as rebellious or different, they are totally independent woman who have their own judgment.At the beginning of the Peony Pavilion, Du was a restless girl in eyes of others who is bored from the arranged and abstinent life. However, if she did not encounter the right man in her dream, maybe the most rebellious thing she can do the whole span of life was just dropping from class and slipping to the garden. However, the dream awakes her desire of love, and then she spared no efforts in her pursuit of love freedom. In the Peony Pavilion, True love could even conquer the barrier between life and death. Her death and resurrection were the transformation not only her fate but also her sprits and soul. After her resurrection, her father threatened her that if she wanted to persist her relationship with Liu, she would be expelled from family. Then she would rather abandon the relationships with parents than give up her love. It reflected her resistance against feudal ethics of ―three obedience and the four virtues‖. Here her characteristics are perfectly accomplished by her experience of dream.To Hermia, the experience in dreamland is the catalyst of her self-independence. Furthermore, it helped her be free from the confliction between law and love freedom was irreconcilable. If she does not escape, she would have no choice but to marry a manshe does not love. But if her plan of escape was exposed, both she and her lover would be punished harshly by the law. Their romantic relationship may became a tragedy eventually. However, the author made her break in to a fairy forest that was not limited by secular laws. Her escape to the forest is a kind of escape from reality. Several characters claimed that they had experienced very fantastic dreams: even the fairies sing a song: And now, if any offended with this story of fairies and their tricks, they have only to think that they have been asleep and dreaming. And I hope no one will be hard to please as to be offended with this pretty, harmless Midsummer Night’s Dream.We can see that after experiencing their dream,there are two dialogs among the four young people:1. Hermia: Oh! Lysander, the doings of the night are too strange! Do you still love me or not?Lysander: I am still crazy about you! But I dreamed I love Helena ……how mad!Hermia: Ay! I had the same dream!2. Helena: Me, too. Now I just wonder if Demetrious love me as in the dream?Demetrious: Helena, I promise, now all my faith and all virtue of my heart is only you! I do wish you, love you, long for you, and will forever more be true to you. (Shakespeare 155)In the process of her dream, Hermia once felt heart broken and puzzled because of the awkward situation caused by ―love-in-idleness‖. H owever, after the dream, she have more firm faith on their romantic relationship. Then, Herima takes her courage to persuade her father again. Here she becomes a woman with self- dignity and independent judgments. Thus the process of Hermia‘s dream is also the process in which her sprits and independent characteristics are developed.4.3 Result of Two DreamsSo far, this paper has accomplished the analysis of two dreams‘ logical origin. Then here comes a new issue: in what way can the two dreams be identified as useful and meaningful in the development of the whole story. It comes to the analysis of sprits reflected by the results. The Peony Pavilion and Midsummer night's dream should be classified in the category of comedy, but they also had some components of tragedy. BothHermia and Du Liniang have to experience pain and danger. For example, Du Liniang experienced the baptism of the dead the resurrection. The pain and strife showed her dissatisfaction on the rules. In The Midsummer night's dream there was a cruel piece of law that creates atmosphere of depression. Both of the two dreams reflected the process of the awakening of people‘s self- consciousness and sprit of self-development. For Du and Hermia, they got the satisfying results after the experiences filled with a series of struggle and pain.However, the satisfying results of protagonists were not only the results of their marriage and life. They were also the result of their self liberation. The Peony Pavilion and a Midsummer Night’s Dream show people two women‘s similar expe rience in different social background. Dream was not only the result of their dissatisfaction of life, but also the motivation of their awakening. Their rebellious inspiration gave rise to their suspicion on rules and law. The unchangeable reality was catalyst of dreams. The fantastic experiences in dreams were encouragement that promotes their awakening of self-consciousness. Liberation of humanity and the pursuit of freedom were not easy. However, the protagonists eventually broke the chains and got satisfying results. Therefore, the victory of Du and Hermia also represented the victory of ideological liberation.5 The Differences of the Dreams in the Two Plays5.1 Conflicts between Freedom And Secular RulesBoth of the two works reflect the conflicts between marriage freedom and secular rules. But there are also differences in the form of conflicts. At the beginning of the Peony Pavilion, there was no obvious conflict. Du was bored of lessons arranged by her parents. However, instead of rejecting then directly, she chose to appreciate the beautiful scenery in the garden to relief herself. If she did not encounter Liu Mengmei in the dream, maybe she would accept her arranged fate eventually.Therefore, the conflict between marriage freedom and secular ethics was not fully presented at the beginning, it became more and more acute gradually as the story developed step by step.However, in a Midsummer Night’s Dream, this conflict has been showed fully and directly at the beginning without a gradual process. Hermia‘s freedom was hampered by rules, so she decided to escape with her lover immediately without any hesitation.。