Analyzing The Peony Pavilion and Romeo and Juliet from a Comparative Perspective of Chinese and Western Cultures

Abstract

Literature, as an important part of culture in terms of ideology, is the most convenient material to study the characteristics of different cultures. This paper selects the masterpieces "Peony Pavilion" and "Romeo and Juliet" of the two great Chinese and Western dramatists, Tang Xianzu and Shakespeare, and compares and analyzes them in four aspects, namely, the background of the creation, plot design, main characters' image, and the ending of the love, so as to analyze the differences between the two works in the spirit of the Chinese and Western cultures, the way of thinking, the concepts of human beings, and the understanding of tragedy.