Festival Sacrifice And The Death Of Scapegoat

Through the perspective of cultural anthropology and with the method of close reading, this paper is aimed to analyse Thunderstorm from the whole structure as well as the culture meaning of the drama. In Chapter One, the characteristics of the structure of Thunderstorm is analyzed. Thunderstorm is composed of a prelude, four-act drama and an epilogue. There is a kind of peaceful and solemn atmosphere which was created in the prelude and the epilogue, just like in the church. It is very different from the anxiety and suffocation in the four-act drama, the difference brings dramatic tension between these two parts. Moreover, the anxiety and suffocation in the middle part were enclosed by a circle-wall which is produced by both the prelude and the epilogue, while the power of Chaos is schematized. Therefore, a circle structure is presented in Thunderstorm. It is worthy enough for us to pay attention to a secret line-relationship inside the circle structure. In the afternoon before Spring Festival, the daughter and the son went to see a doctor with their mother. During the time they spent in the hospital, the dramatist told an old story. After he finished the story, the mother brought the children back and had dinner. The chronological order like this brought the audience an illusion. The story is, to some extend, related to the cure of the mother's disease. By analysing the line-relationship, the author found a mode of story inside the drama:firstly, the mother was ill on the day before Spring Festival; secondly, aboriginal sacrifice to gods was presented in a dramatic way. Finally, the mother was cured after the sacrifice.In Chapter Two, the circle space inside the four-act drama is explained. It is this circle space that shows us the carnival of the sacrifice. Here, the tragedy and the comedy happened at the same time, the farce and the vulgar play are mixed, the fairy tale and the mystery play dance hand in hand. These literary styles are mingled to celebrate the carnival of the festival; here, people abandon the temporal moralities as well as the worldly ethics, jumping out of the normal trail of real life, freeing their desires of subconsciousness, and experiencing a kind of strong carnival feeling. Moreover, the strict and hierarchical pyramid of the Zhous is teared by two brutal powers. Finally, it is destroyed in the relax of the eroticism and the carnival of the sacrifice.In Chapter Three, the target moves to the specific reason of the sacrifice and the death of the scapegoats. The four-act drama is concerned with a separate emotional state among people, and it is this state that explains the disease of the mother in the prelude.In order to change this state, three young men are killed by the wizard of the sacrifice for gods. When the sacrifice ends, the mother walks out of the hospital. This shows the effect of the sacrifice, which also indicates the cure of both the mother's illness and the other people's souls. From this point of view, people could get rid of the separate emotional state and get along well with each other. The structure of Thunderstorm, which contains "the beginning of the suffering—sacrifice to gods—the ending of the suffering", absorbs the personal life experience into the common life experience of human being. With the protection of the whole men, the individual gets power and courage to face the frustrations in life.In my opinion, it is this reason that makes Thunderstorm achieve her eternal artistic charm and rich culture meaning.