谢里丹作为英国的戏剧大师在其短短的五年创作时间里虽仅留下六部作品,但有的作品至今还在上演,令观众回味无穷。谢里丹的成名作《情敌》表现出与同时代作品迥然不同的艺术特色:1)针砭时弊的主题;2)个性人物;3)创造性的语言。剧作家通过此剧讽刺了当时资产阶级贵族青年对于流行的感伤主义小说中的各种浪漫思想的迷恋,揭示了感伤主义文学的毒害。 Sheridan, the masters of the British drama, has left behind only six works in his short five-year creative period, but some works are still being staged so that the audience will have a great aftertaste. Sheridan’s famed masterpiece, “The Rivals,” shows artistic features that are very different from those of his contemporaries: 1) pinpoint themes; 2) personalities; and 3) creative language. The playwrights used the play to satirize the infatuation of then bourgeois aristocratic youth with the various romantic ideas in popular sentimental novels, revealing the poison of sentimental literature.