《李爾王》、《哈姆雷特》以及《馬克白》悲劇中之崇高場景和崇高感覺的相融共存

莎士比亞的皇室悲劇：《李爾王》、《哈姆雷特》、以及《馬克白》以瘋狂和死亡著名。將悲劇人物的極端情緒與相對應的場景並置，是為了悲劇結局—死亡—而鋪陳或預示。埃德蒙·伯克 (Edmund Burke) 定義了兩個審美範疇—優美與崇高，後者源自於痛苦和恐懼，是悲劇人物所表達的極端情緒。基於伯克對崇高的美學解釋，本研究假設這三部悲劇可能展現崇高感覺與崇高場景融合以預示悲慘的結局。有些主角在極端感情中掙扎時，他們就出現在崇高的場景中，漆黑的夜晚、懸崖峭壁、高山、暴風雨、無邊的大海都可能與他們被摧殘的心靈相匹配。本文的研究方法採用愛德蒙·伯克針對自然景物氣候和人類情感所提出的定義和弗洛伊德針對人類心理所提出的觀點來細細分析崇高場景和悲劇角色之崇高感覺相互搭襯的關係。在《李爾王》劇中，愛德伽偽裝成一個乞丐帶領他悲痛欲絕的父親(格洛斯特)到月光照耀的多佛懸崖。李爾王因為大女兒和二女兒的背叛而感到痛苦，所以離開女兒住處，隻身一人獨自在暗夜的暴風雨中遊蕩。在《哈姆雷特》劇中，哈姆雷特深深思念他死去的父親，因而在夜景中形象化了鬼魂。在《哈姆雷特》劇中的夜景，奧菲莉亞失魂落魄，唱著哀歌來哀悼她死去的父親。《馬克白》被公認為最黑暗的戲劇之一，本劇的開場就以閃電雷鳴的場景來歡迎三位女巫，她們說出了有關馬克白稱王的預言，因而讓這位崇高且恐怖的反派角色謀殺鄧肯、班柯、麥克德夫人和她的孩子們。驚恐萬分的馬克白夫人在夜間場景中產生視覺幻象。這三部悲劇中的崇高場景包覆了悲劇角色的崇高感覺，同時也反映了隱藏在悲劇背後的痛苦與悲傷。總而言之，崇高感覺和崇高場景有著類似的黑暗和無邊無際，基於這種同質性和相容性，兩者相融共存，本文舉例說明悲劇角色的崇高感覺和崇高場景互搭的美學境界。  Among Shakespeare’s royal tragedies, King Lear, Hamlet, and Macbeth are renowned for madness and death. Juxtaposing tragic characters’ extreme emotions with corresponding scenes is to pave the way for or foreshadow a tragic ending—death. Edmund Burke defined two aesthetic categories—beauty and sublimity, the latter is derived from pain and fear, which are the extreme emotions expressed by tragic characters. Grounded on Burke’s aesthetic explanation of sublimity, this study hypothesizes that these three tragedies may show a fusion of sublime feelings and sublime settings, foreshadowing dismal denouements. As some of main characters struggle with their extreme feelings, they appear in sublime scenes in which dark nights, cliffs, mountains, storms, and boundless sea may match their devastated minds. This study draws on Burke’s definitions of natural elements and human emotions and Sigmund Freud’s views of the human psyche to scrutinize the juxtaposition of tragic characters’ sublime feelings and sublime settings. In King Lear, Edgar, disguised as a beggar, leads his grief-stricken father, Gloucester, to a moonlit cliff at Dover. Lear, seriously affected by his elder daughters’ betrayal, feels emotional pain, and hence roams alone at night in a thunderstorm. Hamlet, obsessed by a deep feeling of sadness for the death of his father, visualizes the ghost in night scenes in Hamlet. Ophelia becomes distracted, singing a mourning song as a lament for her father’s death, at night in Hamlet. As one of the darkest plays, Macbeth begins with thunder and lightning that welcome three witches. The sublime and terror-striking villain, Macbeth, kills Duncan and orders the murders of Banquo and Lady Macduff and her children. Horror-stricken, Lady Macbeth experiences visual hallucinations in nighttime scenes. To sum up, this article exemplifies the aesthetic effects in which the tragic characters’ sublime feelings merge into the sublime settings in these three tragedies based on the homogeneity and compatibility.