A Comparative Study On The Theme Of Jealousy Between Shakespeare And Natsume Soseki Works

Envy is a universal human emotional experience, as a literary motif,it is often been talked since ancient times. As the Bible says "a sound heart is the life of the flesh, but envy rots the bones." Jealousy is a negative emotion,it not only disturbs the peace of mind,even has a bad effect on families and society.On the basis of adhering to the principle of morality,trusting each other is to be able to keep the relationship of love for a long time. This paper uses the method of influence research and parallel research to make a comparative study of British writer Shakespeare andJapanese writer Natsume Soseki. The jealousy themes and their similarities and differences in literary works of the two writers are analyzed.This paper is divided into three parts:The first part, explain the concept of jealousy.To docomprehensive analysis of jealousy from the perspectives of psychoanalysis and social analysis.so that it has an overall understanding of the concept and causes of jealousy and to lay the foundation for the research of the text. The second part analyzes and compare the female envy in the works of the two writers from the aspects of the envious reasons and behavior.The same point of jealousy is the strong and authoritarian character of the two women in the works. The envious reason includes the differences of the two persons’character features and envious emotional bases.The envy of the former is born of love,and the latter is jealous of vanity.The differences of the behavior lie in the explicit and the implicit and the same point is the anger produced by envy.The third part analysize and compares the male envy in the works of the two writers from the perspectives of the envious reasons, envious behavior, the envied characters and the results.Although the causes of jealousy are rooted in Freud’s emphasis on the Oedipus complex,the deep reason of jealousy is not the same due to the influence of the acquired experience and cultural background.The passion for justice in the west and the reputation of friendship in Japan,these two different cultural characteristics are reflected in the jealousy behavior is revenge and introspection or open and conservative.The forgiveness and love of Christianity is often brought about by the release of the soul,this is also the foundation of the restoration of the dream of Shakespeare’s works. Zen claims to conform to nature and get help from the others which is contradictory with the Natsume Soseki’s characters in thinking and not practical.This is also the reason that the hero wants to use the religion to self redemption,but at last it is ended in failure.