曹禺《原野》的原型分析及文化意蕴

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Champaign，one of the masterpieces of Cao Yu，has been reevaluated from every aspect in recent years.The present thesis is devoted to discuss the play from the aspect of Prototype Criticism theory.

Northrop Frye，a Canadian scholar，is the first person who applies the prototype theory to literary study.In his masterpiece The Anatomy of Criticism (1957)，he points out that “an archetype is a recurring image in literature”.Later he says with more precise：“I take archetype as any unit of literary meaning，it can be a character，a narrative formula，an image，or a kind of idea drawn from a larger extent of similar descriptions.” Prototype Criticism employs the research findings in anthropology，culturology and psychology and requires that all the literary factors，such as genre，subject，theme and structure should be examined within the cultural integrity.It puts special emphasis on the relationship between literary creation and literary tradition to dig out and interpret the deep implication behind the text.In Cao Yu’s Champaign，the revenge of Qiu Hu，the runaway of Qiu Hu and Hua Jinzi and the relationship between Hua Jinzi and her mother-in-law Mother Jiao have plenty of archetypes in traditional Chinese literature and even in foreign literature.

1.Revenge Prototype

Revenge is the embodiment of natural human law characterized by hypernormal and extremity.It is a special historical and cultural phenomenon existing all over the world and has eternal manifestation in both domestic and foreign plays such as A Chinese Orphan，revolt of the fishing folks and Medea and Hamlet，etc.

Champaign is a tragedy of peasant Qiu Hu revenging the local tyrant Hades Jiao.Hades Jiao contrives to kill Qiu’s father，seizure their property，sell Qiu’s 15-year-old younger sister to brothel，break Qiu’s leg and put him into prison by false charging him as a brigand.After suffering the wrong for eight years，Qiu escapes from the prison only to find that his enemy has died.Therefore，Qiu kills Jiao Daxing，son of his enemy，and kills Jiao Daxing’s son Xiao Heizi by using Mother Jiao.The archetype behind the protean stories is the typical blood feud revenge mode of “revenge for one’s father” and “pay the father’s debt”.It says in Book of Rites that the animosity of one’s father is absolutely irreconcilable.In the era when Confucianism is prevailing，this conception has deeply rooted in people’s mind and the blood feud revenge has become a representation of filial piety.It is the same with the western literature.For example，Hamlet contains a triplex layer of blood feud revenge：Hamlet’s revenge to his uncle Claudius who kills his father and marries his mother；revenge of Laertes，Polonaise's son，to Hamlet on killing his father accidentally and Norwegian prince Portinbras’ revenge on his father’s death.Bearing in mind the revenge mission endowed by tradition culture，Qiu kills the kind and timid son of his enemy when he could not find someone to revenge and is tortured psychologically.Finally he goes crazy in the woods.While digging deeply in the traditional cultural and psychological accumulation of kindred conscious，Cao puts more emphasis，by using the western classical revenge tragedies for reference，on the analysis and portrait of the characters’ psychology before and after the revenge and reveals revenge as his so-called “cruel and natural law”.

2.Prototype of “Runaway”

Runaway is an action and contains certain cultural and psychological meaning as well.It is a valuable way of revealing the nature of characters in literature.In Champaign，Qiu kills Jiao Daxing and accroaches his wife，which forms sharp conflicts with his living environment.Qiu’s runaway，in the third act of the play，is breathtaking and attractive，revealing fully his inner heart and achieving tremendous artistic effect.If Qiu swaggers off after the killing，Champaign will become a pure revenge play，in which the artistic mysterious feature，the horrifying atmosphere，the symbolizing relish and the fascination of the character’s inner struggle will all disappear.We can say that there is no Champaign without the description of Qiu’s runaway with Jinzi.

Archetype of runaway combines Cao Yu’s drama practice and the runaway experience in life and forms a runaway complex.Father of modern drama Ibsen has great influence on Cao Yu，who has acted the leading role in his A Doll’s House and greatly impressed with Nora’s runaway.What can not be neglected is the influence of the runaway plot and representation skill in O’ Neil’s Jones King.When Cao was young，his eldest brother had conflicts with his father and ran away，which greatly incented Cao，too.All these factors accumulate in his conscious and permeate in his characters.

Original image or archetype is a kind of iconic，which occurs continuously in historical process and emerges wherever creative imagination can be expressed freely.It is actually a kind of mythological image.Human beings have been longing to go to the beautiful outer world，of which “Goddess Chang flying to the moon” and “Goddess coming to the mortal world” are the natural expressions.And the later runaway in life and literature may be a derivation of such mythologies in actual life.The runaway people always hold some beautiful longing for the future or the hope of extrication although sometimes they do not know what to do next.In Champaign，Hua Jinzi and Qiu Hu always mention a place，where there are road covered by gold and flying house.This is actually their ideal whither.The rail image which appears frequently is actually the symbol of their longing for the beautiful life.However，Qiu’s bonds undoubtly imply the restriction on their runaway---they actually have nowhere to go.

3.Cultural Archetype of Mother-in-law and Daughter-in-law Relationship

Relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law plays an important role in traditional Chinese family.For a long time，it has formed its unique ethical and cultural implication and become an eminent traditional narrative motif in literature history.In Champaign，the relationship between Jinzi and her blind mother-in-law is like that of a pin against an awl and neither of them would yield to each other.The mother-in-law is hostile to Jinzi and writes Jinzi’s birthday on a wooden doll to lay a death curse upon her everyday，while Jinzi always complains about her mother-in-law，which puts Jiao Daxing in a dilemma.Quarrels between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law have a long history；Mother Jiao in “Peacock Flying to the Southeast” is a widow who brings her son up all by herself.Although her daughter-in-law Liu Lanzhi is beautiful and talented and serves her cautiously，Mother Jiao insists that her son abandon Liu and marry another woman.Finally，Liu drowns herself in a pond and Jiao hangs himself.Lu You，great poet of Song Dynasty，also divorces with her cousin Tang Wan since his mother dislikes Tang.At last，Tang dies in depression and Lu suffers lifelong regrets from tang’s death.Stories of this kind are always about mother-in-law’s oppression upon daughter-in-law，however，there is a sense of self-conscious in the mind of Jinzi，which is never seen on other daughters-in-law.Cao Yu endows new meaning in such traditional archetype.

Ancient ethics make the widow mothers distorted by feudalist spirits bring their sons up all by themselves and put all their hope of life on the sons.When there is another woman who comes to share the love between them，the mother-in-law tends to regard the daughter-in-law as an enemy.With the cultural tradition of filial piety being prior to all other kindness，public opinion and filial piety force the son to punish and banish his wife once there is conflict between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.The daughter-in-law has to obey the mother-in-law whether she is right or not.Relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law in Champaign contains all the above characteristics.

In one word，Champaign is a successful play which employs all kinds of archetypes in creation and moulds a series of typical characters such as Qiu Hu the revenger，Hua Jinzi with her unique character and Mother Jiao who hates her daughter-in-law.Therefore，the text of Champaign has deeper implication in literature tradition and cultural meaning.

Bibliography：

[1] Qiu Yunhua ed.Methods and Cases of Literature Criticism[M].Beijing：Peking University Press，8，2005.

[2] Hall et al.Feng Chuan trans.Introduction to Jung’s Psychology[M].Beijing：Sanlian Bookstore，5，1987.

李 萍：青岛大学文学院。