A Comparative Study of Romeo and Juliet and Butterfly Lovers

Abstract

『로미오와 줄리엣』과『나비연인들』 두 작품은 모두 널리 알려진 고전 러브스토리이다. 장미꽃이 활짝 필 때, 꽃들은 그들 각각의 문화에 뿌리를 내리고 대대로 자신들만의 독특한 아름다움으로 독자를 이끈다. 『로미오와 줄리엣』은 셰익스피어의 유명한 작품 중의 하나이고, 『나비연인들』은 중국 민간에서 널리 회자되는 이야기이다. 이 두 작품은 다른 문화, 다른 시대, 그리고 다른 지역에서 탄생했음에도 불구하고, 사랑의 주제에 관해서는 놀라운 유사성을 지닌다. 두 작품의 주인공들은 처음으로 사랑과 봉건제도 사이에서 갈등하고 종국에는 동시에 사랑을 위해 그들의 젊은 날을 포기한다는 점에서 위대한 연애 비극으로 분류된다. 그러나, 여전히 다양한 인물들의 성격 묘사나 비극정신 그리고 이야기의 결말 등에서 분명한 차이점이 있다. 이 논문은 두 작품간의 유사성과 상이성에 대해 생각해보고, 그런 비교 연구가 문학의 범주에서 이 두 작품의 문학적 위상뿐만 아니라 독자의 이해를 보다 증대시킬 수 있을 것이다.

From the comparison between Butterfly Lovers and Romeo and Juliet, it is not difficult to find that some similarities between Western and Chinese literature on the subject of love. Both the West and China have experienced a historic stage of feudalism; Freedom of love was trampled in feudal society, which is true whether in the West or in China. Where there is oppression, there is struggle. Young people in both works struggles bitterly against the oppression. Though they may lose the fight, their spirit is worth praising. With regard to the similar aspects of these two plays, I focused my study on three of the most pertinent points: the feudal societies in which the stories were set, the female theme in each, and finally, the circumstances leading to both couples’ tragic death. The first is the conflicts between love and feudalism in these two works. Both Romeo and Juliet and Butterfly Lovers were products of feudal societies and the loyalty of love is praised by these two touching tragedies. Both the male and female main characters fight for a secular marriage. They are loyal to love and to themselves. In the end, they even bear to sacrifice their lives in exchange for their forever lasting love. The second point of focus is both stories’ the female theme. While there are differences in their intensities of female theme, both women work independently to achieve their successful romantic relationship. These two works both focus on the description and character of the female protagonist for the purpose of highlighting and deepening anti-feudal theme. Zhu Yingtai and Juliet's similar characters are embodiments of firm determination in pursuit of true love. But because they both are born in feudal societies, they need to make more and more efforts to fight against feudal ethics and gain the freedom needed for their love to flourish. The third area of focus is the inevitable death of both couples in each story. As Romeo, Juliet, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai are all born in feudal societies, they encounter many inherent feudal social obstacles that they must overcome in order to win their freedom. As it is so difficult to confront an entire society as an individual couple, their pursuit of love and happiness leads them to a direct conflict between their weak and individual power and the power of a greater society. That is the main reason why the tragic ending is inevitably brought forth. ?A death which in turn, arouses our pathos. In comparison of the two stories we can find several differences: they have different creators coming from differing cultural environments both stories present their respective conflicts differently both stories characters are markedly different in their methods of solving conflicts finally both stories have different final scenes. Firstly, as both stories come from different creators they both possess their own unique ethics. Also, from the analysis of these two works' presentation of similar conflicts we discover that although the environment in which these two pairs of lovers lived is similar and they both have to fight against a feudal society, the difference is that Zhu Yingtai could not resist her family as strongly as Juliet because Zhu Yingtai takes the path of least resistance and follows more closely the rules of social obedience of ancient Chinese society versus Juliet’s more open rebellion against her social norms in following her parents wishes. While both characters come from extremely similar and arguably the same feudal societies (dealing with the repression of women), Zhu’s passive resistance is reflective of a characteristically Chinese method of dealing with conflict whereas Juliet’s open rebellion is also a product her cultural environment. Then from the description of the main characters we can find that although these two works have similar plots, these two pairs of lovers use different ways to deal with troubles because of their different personalities. Finally, these two works have different conclusions. The endings of Romeo and Juliet and Butterfly Lovers seemed to be the same, but in fact, they are quite different. Butterfly Lovers stirs up people's courage and confidence to pursue freedom and happiness by its romantic ending. On the other hand, people grieve at the end of Romeo and Juliet and cannot help feeling sad and tearful when Romeo and Juliet kill themselves. As Romeo and Juliet and Butterfly Lovers happened in different social environments, they have their unique standpoints and shapes of aesthetics for the life. As more and more frequent cultural communication of China and West happens, Chinese and Western aesthetic ideas will move towards the consubstantial trend: Western countries begin to look for the warmth and sensitivity of the Chinese style consolidated within its rational publicity, and China has also begun to absorb the Western humanistic ideas and transfer it from a conservative to an open system, as this is illustrated from the adaptation of Butterfly Lovers. So from the above analysis we can say that although Western and Chinese aesthetics have many differences, they should learn from each other in art forms and they should explore and innovate together in order to achieve the highest aesthetic levels so as to guide the Western and Chinese aesthetics to develop in the direction of poetic flavor and personal health, achieving both societal harmony with individual happiness.