摘要

汤显祖和莎士比亚是同一时代的两位戏剧巨匠。莎士比亚是欧洲文艺复兴时期伟大的作家之一，是英国伊丽莎白戏剧时代的旗手。汤显祖是中国明代伟大的作家之一，是明清传奇的最主要的代表作家。他们的戏剧作品不仅都代表着一个时代的巨大成就，而且都给后世文学以深远的影响。
半个多世纪以来，许多学者从不同角度对这两位戏剧大师进行了比较研究。他们的戏剧作品如同“一座蕴藏着开采不尽的黄金和钻石的宝藏”，值得不断的挖掘和探索。他们的戏剧作品都穿越时空，为一代又一代的人所欣赏。同时代的评论家已感受到了他们作品的不朽魅力。吕天成在《曲品》中称汤显祖“懒作一代之词匠，竟成千秋之诗豪”。本•琼森认为莎士比亚“不属于一个时代，而属于所有的时代”。
本文拟从三个方面对莎士比亚与汤显祖的作品进行比较。第一部分介绍二位剧作家的生平和社会背景，并且对其进行比较，以期使后文的比较论述更有背景感和说服力。第二部分分别以二位的代表作《仲夏夜之梦》《牡丹亭》为例，比较两位女主人公的梦境的异同，进而对两位主人公进行比较，发现二者对待爱情相同的一面，即痴迷爱情的少女情怀，可为情痴，可为情狂，可为情亡。但由于不同的文化背景，二者的爱情观也有各自不同的特点。第三部分通过研究二位女主人公表达爱情以及对待爱情的不同方式，进一步研究莎士比亚与汤显祖当时不同的创作思想和世事情怀，深刻探究他们的内心世界，发掘出作品更深层次的内涵。
通过以上研究及具体的分析，本文得出了以下结论，在不同社会环境下，莎士比亚与汤显祖均表现出了对人文主义精神的萌芽和个性对传统的挑战，同时通过比较两人作品，反映了社会环境，文化传统的异同。

关键词：莎士比亚  汤显祖  梦境  爱情  人文精神

ABSTRACT

William Shakespeare was contemporary with Tang Xianzu. Both of them were literary figures. William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the “Bard of Avon”. Meanwhile, Tang Xianzu was a Chinese playwright of the Ming Dynasty and he was the representative of Romance of Ming and Qing Dynasties.
For almost half a century, many scholars have studied their works from several points of view. Their works are regarded as rich mines of literary gems which are well worth looking into.
This paper includes three main sections. The first part gives a brief introduction of both the playwrights, including their experiences and social environments. The second part focuses on their masterpieces, A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Peony Pavilion, respectively. By comparing the dreams of two heroines, one can find their similarity, which is the teenager crush on love. Of course, under different social environment, there are also many differences of their views of love. The third part tries to research their ideas guiding creation of the plays by comparing different views and ways of loving of the two heroines.
Through the previous study and the analysis of the two dramas, this paper comes to the following conclusion：both of the playwrights opposed asceticism with humanism, opposed theocracy with human rights. They both challenged to the tradition. On the other hand, one can learn the traditional culture differences of China and West.

Key words: Shakespeare，Tang Xianzu，dream，love，humanism