A Comparative Study On Joseph Conrad’s And Lao She’s Tragic Consciousness

Tragedy is a serious art, and its theme is destruction, through which people reflect on the survival and nature of human beings. With the development of the western literature, "the boat of tragedy" has been floating, sometimes up, other times down, for thousands of years. The tragedy art is always an enduring topic in the traditional aesthetics system. Tragedy art expressed its deep reflection on the social life through the literary works. Human beings always have endless desires with only a limited ability; meanwhile, they have free spirits but there is no broad stage for them to perform. These contradictions created a tragedy, essentially resulted in progress and civilization of human beings.With the development of history, western tragedy system is in continuous evolution and development. At the end of the nineteenth century, tragedy idea system mainly embodied in the reflection of real life survival predicament, doubt and denial of survival value. Doubt, denial and alienation gradient are the theme of modern western tragedy. Joseph Conrad is one of the pioneers of the western modern literature, whose novels reflect the distinctive features of the development of modern western tragedy. As a "people’s artist," Lao she has always been known for his unique humorous comedy style. Especially under the influence of western culture, Lao she learned to use the weapon of tragedy consciousness, he expressed the deep comprehension of the society where he lived in very polite and well-written words. He put characterizes of tragic life and ideas of society into a real and vivid world.There is a common theme lying in the styles of their literary works Heart of Darkness and Camel Xiang Zi, the characters in the works were endowed with a more profound tragic meaning. Conrad’s tragedy consciousness system can be divided into two parts:the decline of civilization and human nature. By describing the loneliness of the self and the absurdity of the world, they deepened the modern people’s survival tragedy theme ---- alienation. While Lao She’s tragedy consciousness also can be divided into two parts:the first part is to reflect the contradictory theme of his era and the reality of social life. Based on the author’s unique background and life experience, Lao She explore where the tragic life should be returned. For those needing direction in their tragedy lives, he has offered a series of characters in his works for jump-starting their own self-analysis.Although there is no intersection in their lives, there are countless connection between Conrad and Lao She. This thesis starts from analyzing the reasons for tragedy consciousness of Conrad and Lao She to explore their tragic sources. By comparing the character’s tragic fate in Heart of Darkness and Camel Xiang Zi, We can know the differences and similarities of the original cause of tragedy consciousness between Conrad and Lao She caused the tragic fate and how it will develop and so on. By comparing the character’s tragic fate in the heart of darkness and camel Xiang zi, we can get the fact that they deepened and extended the theme of tragedy, which make us reflect on the tragic conditions we were in, the declination of civilization and the ultimate sob of humanity. In the end, with their unique artistic style and writing technique, they deepened the themes and the expression of ideas. It is helpful to make us influenced and inspired by the works, meanwhile we can easily get to the hearts of the masters. With different cultural backgrounds in the West and the East, both authors have the same compassion souls, sharp eyes to reveal what is hidden behind the quiet society, and their works remind us to pursuit for the bright future even in easy lives.