《伊丽莎白》英文观后感
《伊丽莎白》是谢加·凯普尔执导，凯特·布兰切特、杰弗里·拉什等主演的剧情片。本片描写了一场调子深沉、充满险情的宫廷政治斗争，伊丽莎白与罗伯特勋爵的爱情因为她变成英国女王而被迫变质，西班牙国王与法国国王的求婚更使她的婚姻变成各方争逐的政治交易。以上是百度而来的。寒假又重新看了一遍这部电影，感触还是很多的。今天还是献丑一篇英文观后感，以后还是尽量写中文吧。多读书多看报，向大家学习。
It is a truth universally acknowledged that the power of love is huge. It can help one conquer sorrow, hatred and other negative thoughts and create gorgeous wonders during his life. Moreover, in the long process of history, there is a love that can even change the destiny of a country. Whose love is so powerful?
It is Elizabeth`s—— the Virgin Queen of England. During her forty-five years` ruling, she devoted all herself to England and never married anyone else except England. It was just because of her unmarried life that started the formation of “the sun never sets”. But what caused her to choose to be a lonely woman all the lifetime? What enabled her to change the destiny of England? And from her unusual choice, what can we learn?
Adversities reshaped the character.
Elizabeth had had a miserable childhood and undergone great difficulties before she finally got the throne.
On the one hand, the tragedy made by her father became a lingering shadow in her love world. Her mother, Anne, was sentenced to death due to the fabricated extramarital love affair when she was less than three years old. Besides, among her other five mothers, one divorced, two of them were beheaded, and the other two died of difficult delivery. On the other hand, her destiny turned around the marriage of her father. At one time, she was both her father`s favorite and the successor to the thorne and then, she was ignored to be a deserted bastard after her mother had been executed. All of these, to some extent, threw light on her that there was no dependable man at all and she must be self-reliant.
What`s more, she had even been locked and imprisoned in the London Tower for the reason of the accusation of treason by her half-sister Mary for two months. During this helpless and hopeless period, she became to realize that her tenacious and independent will would ensure that she could overcome any difficulties, no matter how desperate they were. Besides, nothing else would be more important than the throne. When she was in the tower, she helplessly shook her head and murmured to herself, but with no despair; she was so frightened and fragile, even did not know anything to do, but she did not give up.
In all, the affliction suffered in Elizabeth’s experience had greatly contributed to the reshape of her character. How dependent and tenacious she was!
The decision to put the interests of people and country in the first place set the foundation.
Apart from her great spirits of independence and tenacity, Elizabeth`s sense of identity and responsibility drove her to abandon her personal love as well.
In fact, Elizabeth often received offers of marriage. Of these, she made the closet relationship with her childhood friend Robert Dudley. At first, she was still filled with romance and dreams, like other common women. When she was put into the London Tower, she felt so frightened and helpless that she could do nothing except continually trembling there. There was only one person, her Robert Dudley, could give her a little warmth. What`s more, he was so handsome and charming. Thus, there was no reason for her not to fall in love with him. She spent every minute with him and considered him as the source of her strength and courage, heartily hoping this could last for good.
However, just when Elizabeth immersed herself in her heaven of love, a series of bad news came. The failure of the important battle with Spanish and the conflicts between Protestants and Catholics which were increasing and escalating day by day, vanishing her dreams into the air. The situation became so critical that her people were in an abyss of suffering and her country was on the verge of breaking down. If she persisted in her personal love affair, she would not only lose her own life, but her throne, her country as well. As the last direct heir of the Tudor dynasty, how could she take the blame for being subjugated? From then on, she began to have a clearly knowledge of the unchangeable fact that as the queen of England, she did not belong to herself but to her people and her country. She must take the responsibility to save her people and safeguard her country as well. For the sake of those, she had no other choice but to put a higher value on her people and country and consider marriage out of duty rather than personal preference.
In conclusion, she gave up her personal love for her beloved people and country. How great she was!
Lessons learned from Mary guided the right direction.
After Elizabeth had made up her mind to bury her own happiness and top the problems of how to maintain unification and strengthen England as the first priorities, the question became how to deal with the suitors` proposals.
In the view of Parliament, it was vital that either she married and produced an heir or just designated a successor who could be legally ratified. Elizabeth, however, took a totally different view on this matter after she had drawn a lesson from Mary`s fortune. Just as a proverb says, lessons learned from the past can guide one in the future.
In 1565, Mary married Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, which kicked off a series of wrong judgments. After the marriage, Mary handed the throne to her husband, who quickly became unpopular and infamous for presiding over the murder of Mary`s Italian secretary David Rizzio. In February, Darnley was murdered by conspirators. Shortly after his death, Mary married Earl of Bothwell, who was considered the leader of the conspirators, arousing suspicions that she had also masterminded Darnley`s death. At last, she had no alternative but to hand the victory to Elizabeth. From this, Elizabeth learnt that being a queen was certainly different from being a king. In stark contrast with a king, who could still hold the throne even though he was incapable of ruling at all, a queen had to face the situation whether to hand the power over to her husband or pass the crown to her heir. As the case of Mary showed, marriage risked a loss of control and of foreign interference in political and religious affairs. Elizabeth clearly knew that whomever she married to, it meant sharing power and forming alliance with that country. In terms of the European situation, when countries had different religious believes and individual interests, avoiding the alliance with any country was the maximum interest of England. Because on one hand, if she was aligned with Spain to fight against France, it would easily make England be subordinate to Spain. On the other hand, if she married the French little prince who believed in Catholicism, it would inevitably for her to alienate her people who believed in Protestantism. What`s more, if she named an heir, her throne would be vulnerable to a coup. Taking those into consideration, she did not marry anyone. How intelligent and foresighted she was!
Resourcefulness guaranteed the success
Elizabeth was such a tenacious, insightful queen. However, what I have all mentioned above were not enough to reflect her greatness. Indeed, what made her a rare and phenomenal woman was her strategy about the marriage. That is to say, she made marriage a chip to bargain with the suitors of any nation from which England needed help and support.
After she had realized that it was not wise to marry any of the suitors, she started the plan to utilize marriage as her most useful diplomatic weapon. She did not refuse the proposals, because she knew the continuous proposals could prevent other nations from establishing the alliance. Instead, she always pretended to be glad to talk about her marriage. She also invited her suitors to the England Palace and did her utmost to attract them, making them feel it possible to win over her heart. In this way, she kept the balance among the big countries and won the national interests to a great degree. What`s more, as Elizabeth had expected, her suspending marriage successfully gave rise to the dissension between France and Spain, prompting them to fight with each other. As a result, England earned a precious and peaceful period to develop its own strength, especially in the military and the sea power. When Spanish armada invaded England about thirty years later, the strength of England was not the same as it had been. It defeated the Spanish armada and became the maritime overload. But for Elizabeth, the result would never happen.
Once she decided to treat the marriage issue only as an aspect of foreign policy rather than her personal happiness, she had the sense and ability to set England as a great power in the world. How clever and resourceful she was！
It is really hard to imagine a woman can be so independent and tenacious; it is really hard to imagine that a woman can bury her personal happiness and live the life without a lover; it is really hard to imagine that a woman can raise a country with her own hands. But Elizabeth achieved. There is no wonder that she was respectfully called the most brilliant rose of England. As the great Burghley exclaimed “in all graces, by nature, by calling, by long experience, she was of such perfection as none can attain unto”. What a steel rose she was!