Analysis of the Tragic Fate of "Lei Yu" from the Complex Character Relationships

Abstract

"Lei Yu (Thunderstorm)" by Cao Yu presents the tragedy of Zhou Gong Guan, a feudal family in the Republican era, by characterizing different personalities, backgrounds and ethical relationships. As a dramatic work of considerable status in modern Chinese literature, "Lei Yu" contains many profound connotations. From its publication in 1934 to the present, "Lei Yu" has profoundly exposed the problems of the feudal family's autocratic and corrupt times through the meticulous and precise portrayal of its many characters' complex relationships and the gradual clarification of its historical past. This work exposes not only the conflicts of the members of the Zhou Gong Guan but also the class disparity and the status of men and women in the era through the class and gender of each member. At present, academic research on "Lei Yu" is very mature, but there is still some room for research on the analysis of the characters' relationship and tragedy of fate in relation to the author's view of fate and the imagery of "Lei Yu". Therefore, this paper will start with the interpretation of Cao Yu's view of fate, analyze the author's view of "the fatalism of gods and ghosts" and "the view of nature and heaven" in the preface, and then analyze the imagery of "Lei Yu" to derive the tragedy of fate. Then, through the analysis of the imagery of this work, the complex family conflicts and the characters' view of fate behind it are derived, and then the characters' characters, experiences and identities are carefully analyzed through both character tragedies and ethical tragedies, revealing the irresistible tragedy of fate in the relationship between the characters of "Lei Yu", which means that all characters in the play have tragedies in character and ethical relationships.