The Tragic Comparison of “Romeo and Juliet” and “The Peony Pavilion”

Tang Xianzu and William Shakespeare, born in the same era, penned the timeless works “The Peony Pavilion” and “Romeo and Juliet” respectively. The Chinese scholarly community has often compared these two plays’ cultural philosophies and dramatic creations. Yet, there is a lack of in-depth analysis of the plot connotation at the micro level. This paper aims to address this gap in research. Through a close reading and holistic, dialectical examination of the narratives, this study focuses on how to plot design influences dramatic effects, compares the presentation of tragedy in both works and attempts to interpret the differences through the lens of dramatic concepts. It was found that, as love dramas containing both tragic and comedic elements, both plays share thematic similarities in their pursuit of love, freedom, individual liberation, and opposition to feudal ethics. However, when examining the narrative plots from a holistic perspective, both works reveal different tragic effects in the two levels of feeling and degree in their romantic plots, which carry comedic undertones, and in their conflict plot with the same central conflict, which is brought about by the differences between Chinese and Western dramatic traditions and the tragic spirit.