《威尼斯商人》中主要角色之分析.pdfVIP

The Study on the Main Characters of The Merchant of Venice Abstract The play The Merchant of Venice came into being in the period of Renaissance. During the period, writers began to sing in praise of man, but not only to God. Humanism became main stream in art and literature. More important than his historical sense of his time, Shakespeare in his plays reflects the spirit of his age. Shylock, a Jew money-lender, was hated widely in and out of the play. This figure was thought as a representative of rapacity and greed in the western literature. He is a Jew. He hates Antonio, and Antonio hates him. In the long period of the western history, especially when Christian became the only most important religion, Jew was not a group of people welcomed by Christians, though some time there were no practical and direct conflicts between the two. The Merchant of Venice brings together different characters of different religions. Shakespeare uses the character in this play to reflect the sixteenth century views on Christianity and Judaism. Portia is a woman who has seemingly good intentions. And she is a character that seems to obey rules and also violates them. When she accepts her father ’s order and way to pick suitor, she obeys that; when she disguises herself as the judge, her acts and speech seem to violate usual social rules. Portia’s saving Antonio and punishing Shylock would be considered to be the victory of mercy. She avoids slaughter and saves Antonio successfully, and calms down the truculent heart of Shylock. So the goodness of Portia is not her wit, but the heart of mercy. The subject of mercy is represented successfully here. The characteristics, positions and functions of the main characters in the play The Merchant of Venice are quite different a