Someone once said: Tragedy destroys the valuable things in life for people to see, and comedy tears apart those worthless things for people to see.
Many facts that have happened also prove to us that tragic stories are more impressive and can withstand the washing of time than those happy results, such as China's classical literature "Dream of the Red Chamber", contemporary novels "Alive", and the four tragic works of the British Renaissance literary hero "Shakespeare".
"Thunderstorm" is China's first realistic tragic drama, which has been performed for nearly a hundred years and has a wide influence on the cultural development of later generations. Not only was he selected into the high school textbook, the plot and character relationship of the big director Zhang Yimou's film "Full of Golden Armor" also fully borrowed the tragic, ethical and fateful settings of "Thunderstorm".
What does this classic drama tell and why is it so acclaimed?
Tragic stories often reflect reality, and the tragedy of "Thunderstorm" is not only the evil of the evil, the suffering of the good and the unpredictable fate, but also the rampant evil world, which is inextricably related to the social environment of the "Republic of China" at that time.
"Thunderstorm" reflects a period of social status during the Republic of China period, from the internal and external troubles at the national level to the changes in folk culture and individual life.
The decline of the feudal empire, the division of the Western concessions and warlords, the 918 incident of foreign aggression, the stubbornness of feudal families, the May Fourth Youth Movement with innovative ideas... These are the thick scratches of that era.
In such a complex era, the whole society is filled with a sense of confrontation, and the fate of the individual can only follow the waves of the big times. At this point, as soon as "Thunderstorm" came out, it had an emotional resonance with society, and it carried the tragedies of too many ordinary people in that era.
Through the description of the scene of "Zhou Mansion" in "Thunderstorm", we can clearly understand the collision and integration between different cultural consciousnesses.
In the spacious and atmospheric building of the Zhou Mansion, there are all kinds of gorgeous classical furniture, as well as pendulum clocks, sofas, electric lights, and photos that symbolize the new era, including modern products such as character dress, cigars, and coal mines. In terms of character cognition, several people in the Zhou Mansion were cultivated and influenced by Western culture.
The story of "Thunderstorm" is roughly set in old China in the 1930s, and on a thunderstorm day, it revolves around a Zhou mansion and two seemingly unrelated but actually interconnected families.
As the core of the whole story, the character performance is the most brilliant place of "Thunderstorm"; Zhou Puyuan, who is inconsistent in appearance, Zhou Ping, who is deeply suffering from incest, the prosperity of the inner desire for love, the greasy and pouring Lu Gui, the inner democracy influenced by the new trend of thought, the simple Zhou Chong........ In these story characters, there is a sense of reality beyond the story.
The story tells that "Lu Gui" and his daughter "Si Feng", who were subordinates of the Zhou Mansion, were dismissed by their stepmother "Fanyi" because of the reason of the eldest young master "Zhou Ping". At the same time, the four feng brothers "Dahai", who participated in the strike in the mine, also came to the Zhou family to ask about "Zhou Puyuan". As a mother, "Shi Ping" also unexpectedly came to this unexpected and fateful Zhou Mansion at the same time for her daughter and son.
The two families completed an unpleasant initial acquaintance at the Zhou Mansion, which was also an intersection of the lower class and the upper capital. With the arrival of the thunderstorm in the middle of the night, the four phoenix trips of the second son of the Zhou family, the lu family, and the relationship between the stepmother "Fanyi" and the eldest son "Zhou Ping" also broke at this moment.
Si Feng rushed to the Zhou Mansion in a thunderous rainstorm, and the intricate relationship and repressed emotions between the two families; the wife who had been abandoned for many years was made public, a pair of half-siblings were sadistic, the stepmother and stepchild had an unruly relationship, the confrontation between strange brothers and father and son, the tension between husband and wife, the half-brother falling in love with the same woman...
When all these entanglements converge in one place, the love and hatred of the two families are like thunder and lightning outside the house, from the accumulation of darkness during the day, the dark clouds covering the sky, the wind and rain of the sunset, the thunder and thunder, until the final night of thunderstorm.
In the end, the cause and effect of all this entanglement ended in tragedy, pain, and remorse under the thunderstorm of the night.
In "Thunderstorm", the tragedy of the destruction of beauty and the birth of "Zhou Chong", the second young master of the Zhou family's pure and innocent yearning for beauty. His yearning for love is different from that of his eldest brother "Zhou Ping", in the original text he said to Si Feng: Yes, I am with you, we can fly, fly to a really clean, happy place, where there is no dispute, no hypocrisy, no inequality, no ...
One of the tragedies of "Thunderstorm", "Prosperity", this woman who was also influenced by foreign ideas was trapped in the Zhou Mansion for more than ten years, and there was a fire hidden in the weak and gloomy face under the long-term repressed life.
"Prosperity" is not yet able to break free from the shackles of the world to pursue freedom, and in his bones he is still deeply bound by feudal thoughts, placing his expectations on other men, and finally ends up with a mental breakdown and madness. The tragedy of the boom was also a tragedy faced by many women in society at that time.
What is the cause of such a family tragedy?
In addition to the intricate influence of feudal society, is it the "Zhou Puyuan" who is dictatorial at home, authoritative and authoritative, and a hypocrite and bloody capitalist on the outside? This important character who did not appear much in "Thunderstorm" but left a deep impression on the world.
Adapted from Thunderstorm's "Golden Armor all over the city", how does it reflect the emperor's hypocritical concern for the empress? It was also a bowl of elaborate soup medicine that forced his son to give it to his mother, who was not ill.
In the text, the majesty of the head of the Zhou Puyuan family in the Zhou family's grand mansion "Zhou Puyuan" is not allowed to be touched by others, whether it is his wife or son, everyone is afraid of him from the bottom of their hearts.
Externally, under the identity of the "Zhou Puyuan" rich merchant, he was a cold-blooded butcher, and the mine oppressed the workers. The sea accused him of taking the lives of many people with the flood that broke the embankment, full of the viciousness and hypocrisy of the capitalists.
In the original text, Fan Yi said: Your father was the first hypocrite, showing a decent man on the outside, but another face behind his back.
In the first acquaintance with Fangyi and even Shi Ping, "Zhou Puyuan" was good at disguising himself as a young master with a lot of gold and knowledge. Between the eldest son Zhou Ping and his stepmother, a relationship between the invisible light was indirectly promoted by Zhou Puyuan, a great evil person who planted all kinds of evil consequences, cold, tough and hypocritical.
In the last thunderstorm night, a mother and son led by Zhou Puyuan recognized and turned over all the hidden mysteries. In an instant, a thunderclap exploded, causing the bitter fruit of three lives and two madmen to appear.
Returning to the writer of the play, "Cao Yu", who came from a family of depressed bureaucrats, has a clear understanding of the feudal family since childhood, not only using the form of drama to tell the current situation of the Republic of China period, but also borrowing a tragic ending to attack the feudal family in which he lived. The appearance of "Thunderstorm" was a powerful blow to the feudal thinking of the time.