闺房试探与邦国权谋——《暴风雨》中弈局的叙事隐喻

Boudoir Courting and Machiavellianism: Narrative Metaphor of Chess in The Tempest

在《暴风雨》的最后一幕,莎士比亚以一场未完成的国际象棋棋局引出全剧结局。这场对弈的空间呈现、叙事功能和隐喻效果,都明显区别于莎士比亚早期作品中的象棋典故。对弈双方寥寥数语的台词将这项游戏消遣与赌博、诱惑、欺骗、暴力、阶级冲突和政治内乱联系在一起,对弈场所既是现实又是幻境,戏剧意象从米兰达的闺房、普洛斯彼罗的岛屿延伸到整个欧洲乃至世界,由一方棋枰生成“剧场异质空间”,产生芥子纳须弥的剧场叙事功能,使真实与想象、主体性与客体性、完全掌控与不确定性等等造成戏剧冲突的对立因素融合在一起,将剧情引向充满开放性与不确定性的结局。

The final act of The Tempest is opened with a game of chess,which differs from Shakespeare’s previous allusions to the game.This article examines this dramatic engagement with chess and its narrative function.When contextualized in the continuum of the game as metaphors in medieval and early modern literary texts,the dialogue between Miranda and Ferdinand over the chessboard immediately associates this aristocratic pastime with gambling,trickery,violence,class contradiction,and political intrigue.In this way,the scene expands the play’s dramatic space from a chessboard to the prospects of Europe and the world.