威尼斯商人中夏洛克的人物形象分析

1、The Interpretation of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice Name:李婭 Class: Literature (3) My own views: revenge spirit and the suggestion to ChineseAbstract: The Merchant of Venice was the masterpiece of William Shakespeare, who was the greatest of all English authors and especially a feeble representat

2、ive of English drama in 16th and 17th century England. In this work Shakespeare gave a vivid picture of the Jews in Christian society. The Merchant of Venice is one of the four comedies written by William Shakespeare and Shylock is the most characteristic person shaped in this comedy. I will address

3、 myself to three parts in this paper: the social background of the work, character analysis of Shylock and appreciative remarks about Shylock. In this paper,Id like to focus on analyzing character of Shylock from the suffering of Jews and his revenge spirit. Key words: Jews victim tragic character r

4、evenge spiritI. The social background of the work The Merchant of Venice was written by Shakespeare at the end few years of the 1590s. During theses years,British social contradictions gradually sharpen up. Shakespeare began to feel the contradictions between his humanistic ideals and British realit

5、y, so the later comedies that he wrote after 1596 were converted to enrich with both optimistic cadence and social satire factors. The Merchant of Venic is one of the most outstanding comedies of Shakespeare which were enriched with social satire. The authors creative attitude towards the works beca

6、me to change because that British social contradictions gradually sharpen up. At that time,the oppressions that Jews were suffering in British, no less than that Jews suffered in any other countries in Europe. From 1290.Jews began to be expelled from British and until 1649 in which the British Commo

7、nwealth was established ,this injunction was abolished . Jews lived in British at that time lived a difficult life. They were suppressed seriously by Christian ,so they dared to allocate asset in case their assert being expropriated and they have to make living by lending out money at an exorbitant

8、rate of interest. We all know The Merchant of Venice was created in 1596 and Shylock is a typical affronted Jew in this play. The readers of The Merchant of Venice often regard Shylock as a gainful,greedy and cruel money-lender and conspue him. How many of us really know the social background? So be

9、fore I analysis the character,Id like to emerge the social background. I hold Shylock is a creation of circumstance. II. Analyzing character of Shylock A.Generally speaking,Shylock always left a cruel, greedy and gainful money-lender image to the readers of The Merchant of Venice. 1). Shylock is a r

10、epresentative of the cruel and avaricious money-lenders . In the play,Shylock doesn't demand more than several times payments, but a useless piece of flesh. From it case we can see that Shylock has a strong sense of revenge ,which means once he catched a chance,he will insanely revenge to anyone

11、 who adverse to him. Setting traps to Antonio step by step,he just wants a useless piece of flesh. Except that flesh,what else could he get? While Shylock said its a super fishing bait. How cold and heartless he is! 2).Moreover, Shylock is more of a miser than a beast. He lets a treacherous lackey g

12、uarding the door, but feel little secure. Even his servants ran to his enemy because of too much hunger. Likewise ,by the end,when Shylock failed to the court , he wants to three times payments back, which revealed his natural greed and the true face of an avaricious miser again.B. He is a pitiful v

13、ictim,in other words,Shylock is a creation of circumstance.1).From objective perspective,Shylock has reasonable and complex motivations to the Antonios revenge. In fact ,Antonio is a obstacle both for Shylocks fortune seeking and for his own source of income,Shylock must chase Antonio out of his sig

14、ht . 2). He is an affronted Jew who suffered much in the hands of the Christians. At that time, Shylock dared to allocate asset in case his assert being expropriated and he had to make living by lending out money at an exorbitant rate of interest. I sympathy for his racial oppression and humiliation

15、. 3).At the ending of The Merchant of Venice, all the characters got a happy ending except Shylock. I can not say that Shylock is not the tragic character in the comedy. It seems that a series of misfortunes happened to him,from his servants run away to his enemy,then his daughter eloped with her lo

16、ver carrying Shylocks property, at the ending even lost his own part of the surplus property. He played a double penalty and nearly all the evils and misfortunes concentrate on one character- Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. C.Shylock is a brave avenger who was trying his best to support an oppres

17、sed nations dignity. Even though he failed to challenge that society, I admire his revenge spirit very much.1).He is a fair-and-square avenger because it is allowed for him to cut a pound of flesh from Antonios body at his age in British. At that time,the contract is legal, while default is illegal.

18、 The default debtor would have been severely punished. Ancient Rome in the " law of the twelve tables " provides that creditors have the right to sell the debtor as slavery, even a number of creditors could cut the debtor into several pieces. In contrast, Shylock asked for a pound of flesh

19、 is not the most cruel.2). He is a brave and ambitious avenger. For an individual, Shylock is a single Jew who get bullied and insulted from Antonio and other Christians. He was leading an unhappy life but how about his clansmen? All of the Jews suffered much in the hands of Christians. He is not a

20、coward but chose to react back to these Christians. It is he a brave Jew who want to work off all the Jews national humiliation. Nowadays ,we Chinese are living in a democratic society and our citizens dont have to worry about being suppressed or humiliated . However,the history of national humiliat

21、ion that we should never forget. I guess every Chinese know “Nanking Massacre”,in which is was Japanese who committed mass murder,looting, rapes and other war crimes,even totally killed a number of thirty thousand Chinese in Nanjing capital. While the Japanese leaders refuse to confess their sins by

22、 distorting the criminal history in Japanese text book and pretend that they did nothing to Chinese. And what is more,the hateful Japanese want to plunder the Diaoyu Islands from China to Japan. When the “Diaoyu Islands Event” occurred,I can say few Chinese did reaction for defence. Does our Chinese

23、 become dumb to ever national humiliation? Definitely, “No” .If every Chinese could have the revenge spirit as Shylock did,China would rapidly become powerful around the world. So, Id like to say that please all the Chinese people its time for us to take up our weapons with the wisdom of our mind to

24、 fight against bravely. Starting from refusing to buy Japanese production. We do have revenge spirit. Please remember “to survive in every folder, and develop in the face of adversity.”III.Appreciative remarks about ShylockShakespeare is a dramatic genius in the character shaping of Shylock. Before

25、he wrote The Merchant of Venice,another dramatist -Christopher Marlowe had written The Jew of Malta in which the hero also is a Jew named Barabas who is a worst villain and can do anything for the sake of purpose. While in Marlowes work, Malta doesnt have antagonist and just the audience who out of

26、the play could condemn him. Compared with two characters Malta with Shylock, Shakespeare sharped the character more complete and more real than real. In The Merchant of Venice, Shylock is a wise,cautious and eloquent Jew who made a fortune by lending out money at an exorbitant rate of interest,which

27、 let the Christians have reason to hate Shylock. Moreover, to the Elizabethan public,Shylock was simply a despised creature,a Jew and a usurer,and his miserliness and his “eagerness to dig for another the pit into which he himself falls”seemed “not terrible but ludicrous.” Yet at same time I feel th

28、at Shakespeare himself did not completely share the prejudices of his age,for he showed that Shylocks hardness and cruelty were the result of his passionate nature and of the abnormality of his position in society. So that in spite of everything,he has come to appear in the eyes of later times as a sort of tragic symbol of the degradation and vengefulness of an oppressed race. IV. Conclusion The Merchant of Venice gave a vivid pi