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Cao Yu grew up surrounded by the love and care of women, but these women suffered severe persecution and faced immense hardship. His sister, after marrying, initially believed she would have a happy family and life, but her husband cheated on her, and she was subjected to humiliation and abuse, ultimately dying with resentment. Duan Ma's situation was equally tragic; due to the harshness of the world and the decline of morality, all her relatives passed away one after another, leaving her alone in the world. Under the corrupt feudal system, women were oppressed and abused, without the power of choice or the ability to break free from the system. Seeing countless women with tragic fates, Cao Yu felt profound sorrow and a heavy sense of powerlessness. His childhood experiences gave Cao Yu a deeper understanding of the plight of women, recognizing their low status and the oppression they suffered under feudalism. Therefore, Cao Yu cared about women's safety and development, always holding deep sympathy and sincere concern for them. 2. Acting Experience Cao Yu's strong interest in drama and rich stage performance experience fostered the formation and development of his feminist consciousness. Cao Yu was born into an official family and has loved drama since childhood. He had the means and energy to listen to and watch plays. As a child, Cao Yu followed his stepmother to listen to plays and developed a great interest in Chinese drama. In middle school, Cao Yu joined the Nankai New Drama Troupe and actively participated in plays. Due to the prevailing social atmosphere at the time, men and women could not perform together, so he mostly played female roles. However, he always performed them perfectly, which amazed and delighted the audience. His first leading role was in Ibsen's "An Enemy of the People", but his most successful and memorable performance was "A Doll's House". Cao Yu's portrayal of Nora gave Lu Ren, who watched the play, a great surprise. He commented: "Cao Yu's portrayal of Nora is indelible in my mind. ... He portrayed the relationship between Nora and Helmer, and even the nuances of her emotions, with great delicacy and skill. This is truly captivating."[2] Cao Yu delved into the inner world of female characters, portraying their joys and sorrows to the fullest and their every move perfectly. Cao Yu's theatrical experience allowed him to gain a deeper understanding of women's predicaments, their yearning for freedom, their desire for equality, and their persistence in liberation, laying a solid foundation for his later theatrical creations. 3. Marital and Romantic Experiences: Cao Yu's theatrical creations were inseparable from the soil of reality. His views on women were also deeply influenced by his marital and romantic experiences. In his early years, Cao Yu fell in love with a young maid in his family, and this first love influenced his views on women. The maid was pure, kind, intelligent, and beautiful, but she was not in school. Cao Yu harbored unrequited love for her. The regret between Cao Yu and the maid prompted him to create the characters of Zhou Chong and Si Feng. Later, while studying at Tsinghua University, he fell in love with Zheng Xiu, a law student. Because of the regret and sorrow of unrequited love, he actively pursued Zheng Xiu, eventually winning her heart and making her his wife. He had a strong love for Zheng Xiu and hoped that she would reciprocate with the same fervent love. Because of his intense yearning for love, he created the character Fanyi, a woman who dared to love and hate, possessing the most cruel love and the most unbearable hatred. Cao Yu's early plays featured distinctive, self-reliant women, but his disharmonious marriage and immoral extramarital affair led him to shift his creative focus, developing a greater appreciation for traditional women. Su Fang in *Beijingers* was based on his extramarital lover, Fang Rui. Cao Yu's marital experiences brought him both joy and sorrow, allowing him to empathize with women's inner world, observe details others overlook, and understand their pain and suffering. This, in turn, led him to recognize women's resilience and gentle nature. Therefore, he...
The influence of Western tragedy on Cao Yu's views on women was profound, deeply influenced by ancient Greek tragedy, Shakespearean plays, and the works of renowned playwrights such as Ibsen, O'Neill, and Chekhov. Ancient Greek tragedians, especially Euripides, placed great emphasis on women's issues, family problems, and gender relations, criticizing male dominance and expressing pity for the tragic fate of women. Shakespeare's characters are fully developed, vividly portrayed, and their inner emotions are expressed with great depth. Ibsen skillfully analyzed society from the perspective of marriage and family, recognizing the social tragedy caused by the inequality between men and women, and showing boundless sympathy for women in their disadvantaged positions. Ibsen's *A Doll's House* exposes the gap in status between men and women in capitalist society, the hypocrisy and deceit of men, and the oppression and restriction of women; it is a manifesto for women's liberation. Nora's life is like that of a doll, manipulated and used by her father and husband, lacking self and freedom; her final departure is a resolute resistance against patriarchal society. In contrast, Chinese women, under the cannibalistic feudal system, were treated like puppets, subservient to their fathers at home, their husbands after marriage, and their sons after their husbands' deaths, with no autonomy whatsoever throughout their lives. Cao Yu not only witnessed the tragic fate of women in the dark reality but also recognized the inherent spirit of resistance within women themselves, actively dedicating himself to the cause of women's liberation. Although Cao Yu encountered Chekhov's works relatively late, he deeply admired Chekhov's plays. Chekhov's dramas had the greatest influence on the formation and development of his views on women and his own dramatic writing. Chekhov's plays are full of poetry, freely expressing emotions, reflecting real life, and revealing profound meaning in the ordinary. This directly influenced Cao Yu's later dramatic works, leading to works like "Peking Man," which differed from his earlier works characterized by intense conflicts and passionate expression. Chekhov's works are characterized by a quiet melancholy, sadness, and a touch of bright optimism. The female characters created by Chekhov often possess a unique, melancholic beauty. This aesthetic inclination directly influenced Cao Yu's creation of Su Fang, a gentle, submissive, suffering, selfless, helpful, and loving character who loves others more than herself. Su Fang lives in the Zeng family, dependent on them, having to care for the old master Zeng while enduring the torment of falling in love with a married man. She felt pain and sorrow for the hardships of fate, but her forbearance and submission were beyond imagination; she felt happy as long as others were happy. She possessed a tragic beauty, a sorrowful beauty. Furthermore, Cao Yu's plays were also influenced by Chekhov's integration of comedic elements into tragedies. Su Fang's experiences were tragic, but her departure with Rui Zhen in the end was a comedic ending. Cao Yu himself had a compassionate heart for women in difficult circumstances, and Western tragedies further stimulated his sympathy and sorrow. From Western tragedies, Cao Yu learned methods and techniques, creating plays that moved millions, and gaining insights into strength and spirit, promoting the women's liberation movement. 2. The Imprint of the May Fourth Era As the oppression of the Chinese nation by the feudal autocracy deepened, Western ideas of freedom, equality, and democracy spread widely in China, leading to the vigorous May Fourth Movement. The May Fourth New Culture Movement pursued freedom and equality, opposed feudal autocracy, promoted the awakening of democratic consciousness, and pushed for the liberation of individuality, the most important aspect of which was the women's liberation movement. Chinese women had long suffered under the oppression of feudal ethics and were powerless to control their own destiny and future in a patriarchal society. They desperately needed liberation and to break free from these constraints. Influenced by the Enlightenment and the May Fourth Movement, countless patriots contributed to the cause of women's liberation, opposing the old culture and criticizing old morality. Famous figures such as Guo Moruo, Wang Jingxi, and Bing Xin spoke out for women. Cao Yu was one of them. He examined society with compassion, seeing the male chauvinism and the constraints placed on women by feudal ethics in a power-driven society. Therefore, he drew strength from the works of Lu Xun, Guo Moruo, and others, relying on his understanding of the dark realities of society...
(I) Zhou Fanyi: A Woman of Passion and Defiance, Struggling Like a "Thunderstorm" Zhou Fanyi is a woman who struggles like a "thunderstorm," pursuing individual liberation and resisting feudal oppression. Born into a noble family, she is cultured and poised. A bourgeois intellectual woman, she received a modern education and was influenced by the May Fourth Movement's democratic ideals and the women's liberation movement, possessing a certain degree of rebellious and resistant consciousness. Intelligent and beautiful, she is passionate and defiance, yearning for and longing for love, but her desire for freedom and equality, and her pursuit of individual liberation, clash with feudal autocratic ideas. Feudal ideology firmly imprisons her soul, making her feel bound, both physically and mentally.
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