Zhou Puyuan, written by Mr. Cao Yu, is both the creator and the bearer of the tragedy of "Thunderstorm"; he is both the creator of "big family sins" and the direct victim of the Zhou Pu family's tragedy. He is not only the embodiment of exploiter and oppressor, but also the entity of husband and father. In him, there is both cruel and cold "animal nature" and rich and diverse "human nature". The formation of this dual character stems from the destruction of human nature by feudal ethics. There are two standards for literature: first, the depth of human nature's portrayal and the richness of human nature. In world-class literature, the display of human nature must be rich, not monotonous; second, the language must be as rich and inclusive as possible. The classic work "Thunderstorm" was created in the 1930s. It describes the conflicts between the Zhou and Lu families due to blood entanglement and coincidence of fate. The main characters in the play have their own unique spiritual world. Among them, the typical character Zhou Puyuan has rich With diverse "human nature", in "Thunderstorm" he is positioned as an authoritarian and arrogant feudal patriarch and a typical image of an exploiting class capitalist. However, is Zhou Puyuan really as selfish, cold, tyrannical, cruel and hypocritical as many critical articles and literary history have characterized him? Is he a person so bad that he has no family or human nature? It is true that although Zhou Puyuan is not the embodiment of kindness, he treats him with contempt. Is the great criticism completely reasonable? So we need to re-understand Zhou Puyuan. Mr. Cao Yu himself said: "Zhou Puyuan is also a human being. We cannot think that capitalists are inhumane." Although he is authoritarian, he is not inhumane. In the author's humble opinion, Zhou Puyuan, written by Mr. Cao Yu, is both the creator and the bearer of the tragedy of "Thunderstorm"; he is both the creator of "big family sins" and the direct victim of the tragedy of the Zhou and Lu families; he He is both the embodiment of the exploiter and the oppressor, and the entity of the husband and father. Zhou Puyuan is a very real person. He has a tyrannical and cruel side, but from the perspective of human nature, he also has a kind and tender side. In him, there is both cruel and cold "animal nature" and rich and diverse "human nature". The formation of this dual personality stems from the destruction of human nature by feudal ethics. It was this deep-rooted thought that made Zhou Puyuan consciously turn himself into a tool to maintain family interests and feudal ethics. The author Cao Yu, who grew up in a feudal bureaucratic family, realized the constraints of the environment on people and the reality that people are difficult to escape the heavy historical load, as well as the strong penetration of the ubiquitous feudal culture. Therefore, in his writing, Zhou Puyuan’s basic character It's authoritarian. As the head of a feudal family, Zhou Puyuan’s authority is absolute. Feudal cultural tradition requires that men be given absolute authority, and this authority comes from the dual recognition of society and family. Therefore, Zhou Puyuan’s pursuit of social and family authority status It is the responsibility of men to start a family and start a business that is alienated by feudal culture. It is in this kind of internal and external rule that he completes the confirmation of men's value under feudal culture and morality. Here, Zhou Puyuan, an emerging capitalist who had studied in Germany, acted as the enforcer of the feudal ethics that had been embedded in his blood as a cultural inheritance. This in-depth analysis of the human soul not only truly describes the morbid personality distorted by feudal consciousness, but also sadly reveals the unreasonable social system and the autocratic feudal family's disregard for the survival rights and legitimacy that humans should have. Require. Knowing this, we will not simply praise or criticize the complex inner world and emotional expression of Zhou Puyuan. Zhou Puyuan is a "real" "person" of that era and class. Zhou Puyuan is a "real" person - we should look at Zhou Puyuan's feelings for Lu Shiping from the perspective of human nature and class. The author believes that Zhou Puyuan's mentality towards Shi Ping is contradictory and complicated: hurt and regret are mixed, fear and longing are mixed, indifference and sincerity coexist, and he has experienced the changes of hurt, nostalgia, recognition and repentance, showing The loss and return of Zhou Puyuan's humanity reveals the complexity of Zhou Puyuan as a "human being". 'Does Zhou Puyuan have love for Lu Shiping? Critics have a relatively consistent view on this. They all affirm that Zhou Puyuan's feelings for Shi Ping are real. The reason why he misses Shi Ping is a kind of emotional compensation, and it is also because of his life. There are many regrets and disappointments on the road. Although Zhou Puyuan is an evil capitalist who "deliberately caused danger to the river embankment and drowned 2,200 workers, and each worker was deducted 300 yuan for his life," we cannot analyze it solely from a class standpoint in isolation. He said that capitalists must have no humanity; Zhou Puyuan is first and foremost an ordinary person, and humans are animals with emotions. Deliberately drowning workers for money is his humanity as a capitalist. And loving the person he loves requires warm feelings in his life. This is also his human nature as an ordinary person. Deep in Zhou Puyuan's heart, Shi Ping is smart, beautiful, gentle, kind, and virtuous. This hazy relationship with Shi Ping will never fade. In the second act of the script, Lu Shiping has these two lines: "Thirty years ago, it was only three days since I gave birth to your second son on the night of New Year's Eve. You wanted to marry that rich man quickly. "Miss, you forced me to go out in the heavy snow and asked me to leave the door of your Zhou family." Instead of using "you" here, using "you" and "you old lady" actually implies that I have betrayed Shi Ping's main responsibility alone. It does not lie with Zhou Puyuan, but with his large feudal family. The evil forces of the environment were too strong, and in the end he did not cross that threshold. He finally abandoned Shi Ping and returned to the camp of his own class, reaching reconciliation with the traditional feudal forces.

Therefore, to a certain extent, it can be said that not only Lu Shiping was a victim, but Zhou Puyuan himself was also an ascetic and victim of feudal morality. After Zhou Puyuan betrayed Shi Ping, he married twice. The first was to a young lady from a wealthy family who died of depression; the second was to Fanyi, and both marriages were unsatisfactory. Not only that, Zhou Puyuan was also sexually abusive and almost cruel to herself. The script uses Sifeng's words to tell readers that Zhou Puyuan is a vegetarian and chants sutras, and "always hates women's families." Why does Zhou Puyuan suppress his feelings so much, but only misses Shi Ping? The script describes that Zhou Puyuan has been displaying Shi Ping's photos for 30 years. The living room retains the original furniture and decoration positions, maintains the original habits, and loves to wear Shi Ping. The embroidered clothes are used for Shi Ping's birthday every April 18th, and the eldest son is named "Ping". When introduced to others, Shi Ping is beautified as a very virtuous and well-behaved young lady, etc. After all, Zhou Puyuan is a profit-seeking capitalist. When there is a threat to his own interests, just as the American psychologist Maslow said: "The lowest human reaction is the need for safety." He first thinks of protecting himself. Therefore, when the living Shi Ping suddenly appears in front of him, his first consideration is that this will destroy the "perfection" and "peace" of his current family, and will threaten his rights, reputation and status. His ruthless attitude when meeting Shi Ping again is a manifestation of the author's successful realism. But even at this time, he was not ruthless towards Shi Ping. When Zhou Puyuan understood everything and felt relieved that Lu Gui had fully recognized him, he resumed more normal communication with Shi Ping. He wanted to give Shi Ping 5,000 yuan, and later even remitted 20,000 yuan, completely adopting the attitude of "you give birth to me, I will raise you, and you die and I bury you" towards Shi Ping. Although his actions exposed his hypocrisy of "money is everything" and his attempt to use money to "calm down troubles", did they not include the element of repentance of "making up for his sins"? These all reflect the richness of Zhou Puyuan's character. sex and authenticity. Zhou Puyuan's thoughts and feelings are complicated. We cannot deny the authenticity and special atonement of his memory for Shi Ping because of his fear, shame and anger after seeing Shi Ping; nor can we deny his nostalgia for Shi Ping in the past. Deny his selfishness and callousness. Therefore, if we regard the relationship between Zhou Puyuan and Shi Ping only as a class antagonism, and simply describe them as deceiving each other and having no feelings, it is not in line with the development of human nature. Only when we see the richness of human nature can we see the tragedy of human nature. "Thunderstorm" is not fate, it is human nature that is forced to survive in the struggle and goes to destruction. This "complex and primitive emotion", that is, the conflict deep in human nature, is interpreted by Zhou Puyuan, Shi Ping and others. Human nature itself is contradictory, that is, the contradiction between superego, ego, and id, and the conflict between human nature and social moral order and rational laws. The same is true for Zhou Puyuan. As an evil person, he is authoritarian and deviant. He has a selfish and indifferent side. However, his actions are anti-traditional. He is full of tenderness for the people he loves, and it is difficult to break through the influence of human emotions. This This is the real Zhou Puyuan, a person with dual meanings, who combines human nature and bestiality, sincerity and hypocrisy. Only in this way can Zhou Puyuan become Zhou Puyuan. If his character is simplified and formulaic, then Zhou Puyuan can only be the incarnation of a concept, a label, and a zombie, and it is impossible to become a flesh-and-blood and vivid literary image. Therefore, as I understand it, Zhou Puyuan has a dual personality shaped by the feudal cultural tradition: the absolute authoritative ruler of the feudal family and the capitalist with "rich human nature".

Although his sins far outweigh his temporarily restored good nature and conscience, it might be more meaningful to give him back his natural cultural background!