| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立中正大學 === 外國語文學系 === 81 === The inconstancy of Fortune is the most prominent phenomenon in
Pericles. Pericles suffers many rises and falls of fortune,
which are usually accompanied by the threat of death. The only
way to ease this threat is recorded in Antiochus' highly
symbolic riddle, a riddle of reproduction. So my essay is
devoted to a study of the reproductive symbols in Pericles. The
upheavals that threaten the safety of Pericles and his family,
whether they come from human causes or natural ones, derive
mainly from the imbalance of the four elements. So in Chapter
Two, after analyzing the quality of each element, I will try to
study their influences on characters and how these characters
manage to survive elemental strife. According to classical
cosmology, the imbalance of the four elements comes from the
movements of the planets. In Pericles the planets are replaced
by three deities who bear planetary names. Therefore the third
chapter will try to analysis how these deities have governed
the elements and what their relationship to the theme of
reproduction is. However, even benign deities are too evasive
for human understanding; human beings hence need a more
constant guarantee of security. When deities are absent, human
beings have to rely on their own power. Since an individual's
power is too weak, human beings will try to gather together
gather together so that they can oppose danger more
efficiently. Chapter Four will try to analyze the collective
efforts made to resist the forces of inconstancy. They are
society, marriage, and knowledge. Crises force feeble
individuals to assemble, from which society emerges. Marriage
is applied to prolong the life span of a group by bounding its
members with a stronger tie--blood relationship. It also helps
indivduals to remain in part physically alive after death.
Knowledge, a by-product of society, promises individuals
another form of immortality. The whole play, therefore, can be
read as a brief history of mankind's pursuing of immortality.
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