Abstract

For scholars both at home and abroad who have an addiction to Shakespeare’s writings, King Lear is absolutely a valuable work, on which many effective textual researches have been done, and they draw lots of conclusions that would make people be enlightened at once, such as the praise and affirmation for human beings, the rich and vivid plot, and the expressive language and so on. These comments are undoubtedly correct, but not comprehensive, because they often ignore the religious feelings of Shakespeare and his plays’ inherently sacred and noble quality. In fact, it should be said that Shakespeare’s religious thought is one of the primary reasons for this drama’s eternal charm. The thesis analyzes the religious theme of King Lear with the help of a serious reading and the cognition for author’s life and his creative background.
    This paper consists of five parts, mainly using the methods of aggregate analysis and comparative analysis. The first part describes Christian mythology prototype in King Lear; the second part and the third part respectively introduce the growth of Lear’s personality and the tragic hue of King Lear under the religious vision; the fourth mainly concentrates on some religious knots related to King Lear; and the last part gives a brief analysis of Shakespeare’s inherent ideas about religion reflected in his other works. And then, combining times background with social context, both of which were affected by the UK Christianity at that time, this paper tries to answer the question that why there should be this religious complex in King Lear, hoping that this thesis can make the play and its religious thought more fully understood.

Key words: Shakespeare; Lear; King Lear; Religious thoughts; Tragic hue

摘  要

对众多国内外莎翁迷而言，《李尔王》是一部很有研究价值的作品，他们对其魅力之源已做过认真的考究，得出不少让人觉得豁然开朗的结论，诸如对于“人”的称颂和肯定、生动而丰富的情节、极富表现力的语言等等。尽管这些评述都是正确的，但又都未能做到周全，缘由之一便在于它们往往忽略了莎翁作品中固有的崇高而神圣的品质以及莎士比亚的宗教情怀。事实上，莎翁的宗教思想是《李尔王》享有永恒魅力的重要原因之一。该论文通过对《李尔王》的深入阅读，联系作者的生平以及其创作背景的相关介绍来分析小说的宗教主题内容。
本文正文部分包括五个方面，主要采用综合分析法、对比分析法。第一部分介绍《李尔王》中的基督教神话原型；第二、三部分分别介绍宗教视角下《李尔王》中主人翁李尔的个性成长及剧中的悲剧色彩；第四部分重点阐述与《李尔王》有关的宗教情节；第五部分则简要分析莎士比亚其他作品中所蕴含的的宗教思想。最后，结合当时深受基督教影响的英国时代背景及社会背景，本文试图回答《李尔王》中为什么会有这些宗教情结，同时，希望本文可以使莎翁的这部作品及其宗教思想能够被更全面地理解。

关键词: 莎士比亚；李尔；《李尔王》；基督教思想；悲剧色彩