《李尔王》和《高老头》分别是17世纪英国作家莎士比亚和19世纪作家巴尔扎克的代表作。《李尔王》写于封建主义向资本主义转变时期的英国,书中向我们描写了作为封建最高统治者的父亲以“爱的测试”来作为分割财产的唯一依据但最终因其混淆视听而惨淡死去的故事。而《高老头》是基于资本主义已经成熟时期的法国,它展现了高老头作为父亲全心全意为女儿们付出,最后却被他们狠心抛弃的悲情历史画卷。相隔了两个多世纪的两部文学作品均将视角放在了父爱的悲剧和毁灭上,本文从其家庭、社会环境方面进行挖掘,并详细地分析在典型环境中的典型人物性格,从而揭示出在这两种不同的社会存在中孕育着貌似相似然而其本质上却迥异的人物悲剧根源。 “King Lear” and “tall old man” are respectively representative works of 17th century English writer Shakespeare and 19th century writer Balzac. “Lear King,” written in Britain during the period of feudalism to capitalism, described to us the father of the supreme ruler of feudalism as the sole basis for the division of property but ultimately confused by his “test of love” Audio-visual and bleak death story. The “tall old man” is based on the already matured period of capitalism in France. It shows the old man’s grandfather’s dignity as the father dedicated to his daughters and finally abandoned by them mercilessly. Two literary works separated by more than two centuries focus their attention on the tragedy and destruction of fatherly love. This article explores from the perspective of family and social environment and analyzes in detail the typical characters in a typical environment. Revealing the tragic roots of seemingly similar but essentially different characters in these two different kinds of social existence.