本科自考《英修辞学》Literature-14.03.26.docVIP

Shakespeare Shakespeare is a giant in world literature. It is thought that Shakespeare was born and passed away on the same date, that is, April 23. University Wits, his rival, called Shakespeare “an upstart crow”, who made himself beautiful with others’ feathers. In fact, Shakespeare was endowed with special super capabilities of turning the common into the brilliant and the super masterpieces. His 154 sonnets are usually deemed as the only direct expression of his feelings and the reflection of his own life experiences. His greatest works are his four great tragedies, namely, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. His characters are in fact a mixture of individual characters and type characters. In other words, we can see very unique qualities and somewhat common qualities in his characters at the same time. Shakespeare is without doubt, or universally acknowledged as the greatest master in terms of the English language, who made the most remarkable contributions to the forming and developing of the English language we have been using as a single hand. One of the major themes of Sonnet 18 is that life is short, beauty is fleeting, but poetry is long and art is permanent. A summer’s day is considered as the most beautiful thing in the world. You are even more beautiful than the most beautiful thing in the world. From my heart of hearts/ the very man of men/ the handsome of handsome/ the professor of professors=SUPERPROFESSOR The poet gives a brief list of demerits of summer: 1) violent winds; 2) period of summer being too short; 3) the sun sometimes being too hot; 4) dark clouds dimming the golden face of the sun. In short, the beauty of every beautiful object declines sooner or later, either by chance or by the natural course. However, the poet holds that his friend enjoys eternal beauty or eternal summer. Why? Because you have been written in my sonnet, which is eternal, and the eternal sonnet will make your beauty eternal. Death always boasts that everybody,