Humanity in Hamlet and Journey to the West

大约五百年前，西方世界正处于封建制度和资本主义制度的交替时期。在文艺复兴人文主义的指导思想下，人们对人的价值观和人文精神的重视和提倡，是因为当时人们对人的价值观的高度重视和提倡。作为一个著名的作家和剧作家，莎士比亚通过他的写作体现了这一思想，例如，世界著名悲剧<<哈姆雷特>>。这本书揭示了皇室家族的奢侈现象，以及社会生活的动荡和黑暗的一面。

About five hundred years ago, the western world was undergoing an alternate period of feudal system and capitalist system. During which time people attached great importance to people’s value and promoted personality and human rights because of the guiding ideology of Renaissance—Humanism. As a famous writer and dramatist, Shakespeare reflected this kind of ideology through his work, for example, the world-known tragedy Hamlet. The work revealed extravagant phenomenon of royal family as well as the turbulent and dark side of social life. Particularly, by shaping the image of characters in Hamlet, we can see author’s humanistic ideas. Characters in literature did not need to present their elevated facets because of rigid rank or privilege they were entitled to. Nearly almost the same time, a masterwork appeared in China, Journey to the West. Since Song Dynasty, Cheng Zhu Neo-Confucianism had led the social mainstream values. People’s all kinds of desires were repressed and restrained for a long time due to the guideline of keeping the natural law and abolishing the selfishness. But in Journey to the West, the character Pigsy who had desires for much reflected awakening of human nature regardless of rank rigid and privilege. In this essay, I am going to pick up two characters who were shaped with humanity respectively from Hamlet and Journey to the West.

Western saying goes, There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people’s eyes. Shakespeare was so good at portraying all aspects of personality incisively and vividly. Readers could only see one side or several sides of one feature among his rich and complex characteristics. Broadly speaking, good and evil coexisted in Hamlet. However, such a contradictory selfhood was a successful character for the true reflection of natural humanity. He was a living, breathing human being so even as a preeminent and extraordinary prince, he had personality weakness and fault behavior.  In Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s view, “everyone is a whole,itself a world,everyone is a perfect person is alive,not some isolated character of the fable-style abstraction products”.(Hegel, 303) The reason why Hamlet so successful was the lively selfhood and humanity of the leading role.

As the prince of ancient Denmark, Hamlet was kind-hearted and simple, seeking for a world of the true, the good and the beautiful. He also won high reputation and status among Denmark subjects. he was virtuous and kind-hearted. It seemed that he was entitled to all good qualities, handsome, intelligent, brave and talented. Nevertheless, ideal and reality, nobility and ugliness reversed totally. Father’s death, mother’s remarriage and lover’s betrayal stimulated the evil sides of Hamlet’s inside world. Craziness and revenge occupied his later life. From his attitudes to his mother, we can see how complicated his characteristics were.In the first act of the second scene, through the conversation, Hamlet showed love to his mother. “Queen: Let not thy mother lose her prayer. Hamlet, I pray thee stay with us, go no to Wittenberg.Hamlet: I sall in alll my best obey you. Madam.” (Shakespeare, 14)

He could have just walked away but for the sake of his love to his mother he stayed. Even though he hated her remarriage deeply. He bore with uncomfortableness and pain because he was a filial son. But in the third act of the fourth scene we find Hamlet’s emotions to his mother were so complicated that love and hate were intertwined. As a son, he loved his mother deeply and shouldn’t scold her. But he couldn’t bear the fact that she remarried his uncle so soon. So he just broke out and shouted to his mother,“Hamlet: Such an act that blurs the grace and blush of modesty, calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose from the fair forehead of an innocent love and sets a blister there, make marriage-vows as false as dicers’ oaths. O, such a deed as from the body of contraction plucks the very soul, and sweet religion makes a rhapsody of words: heaven’s face doth glow ; yea, this solidity and compound mass, with tristful visage, as against the doom, is thought-sick at the act. ”(Shakespeare, 36)

Similar situations took place quite often which he was not entitled to such kind of behavior whereas it was his true feelings and emotions. It made him a lively person just around us and we readers can feel the existence of him truly. Shakespeare created a character not playing god but an ordinary person with humanity. That’s why readers love the classic so much and never fade away with time going by.

There is another famous literature work we have similar experiences when read it. In the book Journey to the West, many roles have complex characteristics from which we can see human nature. I will take Pigsy as an example to illustrate how the author gave him a vivid human nature.

In the book, Pigsy is a mixture of a supernatural being as well as person and  animal. The majority of his personality mostly showed humanity. He has both disadvantages and advantages. Unlike Tang Monk, a self-disciplined person, Pigsy is greedy, lazy and has desire for beauty. He was punished by Jade Emperor for dallying with the goddess in the moon Chang’e but never changed this nature. During the process of western journey, he was even difficult to move a single step as long as he met a female character. In the 32 chapter of the book, he wanted to marry into and live with the four beauties’ family which in fact a camouflage by four Bodhisattva. As a result, he hang in the trees all night and had a great suffering. Similar situations happened very often whereas Pigsy didn’t change it at all. He also expressed his fond to money whenever he got the opportunity. On the road to the west, he nearly racked his brain to save some money. In the 38 chapter, Sun Wukong cheated him to take the king’s body in the pit bottom. He did the deal when heard that there were treasures in the bottom. Pigsy always tried his best to gain extra advantages. What’s more, he was selfish and had little willpower all the way along. He sometimes made use of Tang Monk to attack and retaliate Sun Wukong, letting us angry about these. What he often said was, “Let’s divide our luggage and back to where we should stay. I Laozhu go back to my Gao Lao Zhuang and live happily with my Guilan!” Every time when I read about it, I felt angry and disappointed. While Sun Wukong putting up a desperate fight with those evil spirits and tried to rescue Tang Monk, Pigsy just wanted to fall apart and intended on his own life. His behavior just makes people furious. (Journey to the West, 32, 38)

Despite his character shortcomings, he didn’t lose our readers’ love towards him. Even he was one of the most popular character among the whole roles. He liked beauties but never did something beyond his identity. Even in Gao Lao Zhuang, he didn’t compel Cuilan and he actually didn’t break through lust even once. So it actually increased his reality and cuteness. It made everyone laugh when seeing he was teased by the four Bodhisattva or other female demons. He did have an itching palm, but he would never loot that didn’t belong to him. As a matter of fact, he just wanted to save some money to buy a new clothes. In the 76 chapter, he confessed that there was 4.6 points of silver hidden in his left ear. A moment like this was really funny and irritating. What a visual role from whom we readers can see glimpses of ourselves. (Journey to the West, 76)

Apart from his disadvantages showing his humanity, he actually had many good qualities. Do not look that his ponderous appearance, he had quiet a clever head. He prodded Sun Wukong into action to rescue Tang Monk by cheating. Most people cannot help laughing when Pigsy imitating the monsters. And if not his vivid performance, Sun wouldn’t be stimulated and finally rescued their master. And he had a valuable quality which was facing death unflinchingly. Whenever he was captured by monsters, he never surrendered to them. On the contrary, he would be foul-mouthed despite being tortured. He was once hung in the leather bag and steamed in the food steamers. But we didn’t hear one word begging for mercy. So, even sometimes he would run away while fighting with monsters, readers didn’t treat him as a traitor.

To be precise, Pigsy is closer to the secular emotions of people and maybe that’s why we like him so much. Because he was a real ordinary people with human advantages and disadvantages. This book, Journey to the West is the symbol of humanity awakening just like the western classic Hamlet. Both are the earliest founders of human concern in their works and have great influence on later literature works.

Works Cited
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Lectures on Aesthetics, London: Penguin     Classics,1994.
Shakespeare, Hamlet, Washington:Washington Square Press, 2003.
Wu Chengen, Journey to the West, Shanghai: Shanghai Chinese Classics Publishing House, 2011.
Web EBSCO, May 1, 2015

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