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1、Shakespeares Purpose of Portraying Shylock in the Merchant of VeniceI. IntroductionWilliam Shakespeare (1564-1616) is one of the most remarkable playwrights and poets the world has ever known. With his 38 plays, 154 sonnets and 2 long poems, he has established his giant position in world literature.
2、 He has also been given the highest praises by various scholars and critics the world over. In the past four hundred years, books and essays on Shakespeare and his works have kept coming out in large quantities. Ben Jonson once wrote a person once wrote a poem eulogizing Shakespeare as being “not of
3、 an age, but for all time”.Shakespeares greatness as a playwright and the success of his plays on the stage from Elizabethan England up to the present-day world chiefly depend upon his penetrating exposition of human nature, his lively paintings of human life and his truthful reflections of human re
4、ality. His works provide us with a vivid and authentic panorama of his age. All this, for Shakespeare, has been achieved through his unremitting endeavor in bringing about his lofty ideal of humanism and his painstaking efforts in mastering various techniques. He is not only a master of English lang
5、uage but also a genius of character portrayal and plot construction.The Merchant of Venice ranks with Hamlet as one of Shakespeares most frequently performed dramas. Written sometime between 1594 and 1598, the play is primarily based on a story in Il Peotone, a collection of tales and anecdotes by t
6、he fourteenth-century Italian writer Giovanni Florentine. There is considerable debate concerning the dramatists intent in The Merchant of Venice because, although it conforms to the structure of a comedy, the play contains many tragic elements. One school of critics maintains that the drama is fund
7、amentally allegorical, addressing such themes as the triumph of mercy over justice, New Testament forgiveness over old testment law, and love over material wealth. Another group of commentators, observing several ambiguities in the plays apparent endorsement of Christian values, contends that Shakes
8、peare actually censures Antonio and the Venetians who oppose Shylock. In essence, these critics assert that the Christians discrimination against Shylock, which ultimately results in his forced conversion from Judaism, contradicts the New Testament precepts of love and mercy. Other commentators sugg
9、est that Shakespeare intentionally provided for both interpretations of the drama: although the playwright does not entirely support Shylock, they contend, neither does he endorse the actions of Antonio and the other Venetians in their punishment of the Jew.With its two outstanding incidents, the wi
10、nning of a break by undergoing a test , and the demanding of a pound of human flesh by the money-lender, which occur in a number of earlier narrative ,Shakespeare built his play on a double plot. The first plot is about the winning of a bride by undergoing a test .Am impoverished young Venetian, Bas
11、sanio, asks his good friend. Antonio, for a loan so that he might gain in marriage the hand of Portia, a rich and beautiful heiress of Belmont. When Bassanio and Potia meet, they fall in love at the first signt, but before she can surrender herself , Bassanio has to pass the test of the caskets, ord
12、ained by her dead father. The test is to choose among a good, a silver and a lead casket the right one that contains her portrait. Partias joy is as great as that of Bassanio when he has chosen correctly. But their rejoicing is interrupted by the arrival of a letter from Antonio. The second plot is
13、about the demanding of a pound of human flesh by the money-lender. Antonios money is all invested in mercantile expeditions. In order to help Bassanio he has to borrow from the Jewish usurer, Shylock. Shylock has made a strange bond that requires Antonio to surrender a pound of his flesh if he fails
14、 to repay him within a certain period of time. Antonios letter now releases that his ships have all been lost, and he is penniless, and will have to pay the pound of flesh. The plots join in the trial scene of Act IV.The bound issue has come before a court of law at which Portia appears disguised as
15、 a young lawyer instructed to judge the case. She first appeals to Shylock to have mercy, but when he insists on the letter of the law she lets him have it; he may take his pound of flesh but there is no mention of blood in the bond; if he sheds a single drop of a Christians blood, his lands and goo
16、ds will be confiscated by the State according to the law of Venice. Thus, Antonio is saved, and Shylock has to undergo certain severe penalties, including compulsory conversion to Christianity, Act V concludes the play with jubilant celebrations of the happy union of several pairs of lovers.II. Shyl
17、ocks NatureOf Shakespeares earlier comedies, The Merchant of Venice is certainly the most outstanding one in which Shakespeare creates tension, ambiguity, a self-conscious and self-delighting artifice that is at once intellectually exciting and emotionally engaging. The sophistication derives in par
18、t from the play between high, outgoing romance and dark forces of negativity and hate. The traditional theme of the play is to praise the friendship between Antonio and Bassanio, to idealize Portia as a heroine of great beauty, wit and loyalty, and to expose the insatiable greed and brutality of the
19、 Jew. But after centuries abusing of the Jews, especially the holocaust committed by the Nazy Germany during the Second World War, it is very difficult to see Shylock as a conventional evil figure. And many people today tend to regard the play as a satire of the Christian hypoctic and their false st
20、andards of friendship and love, their cunning ways of pursuing worldliness and their unreasoning prejudice against Jews.Shylock-the Jewish moneylender, is one of the most interesting and one of the most Controversial of Shakespeare characters. The discussion of The Merchant of Venice generally cente
21、rs on Shylock. Shylock is not onstage most of the time, and does not appear at all in the final act. Why then do we feel that he is the center of the play? Shylock is given the most passionate, most memorable speeches and actions in the play, and his character is etched in bold strokes across its en
22、tire surface, leaving an indelible human being as well as an outrageous villain and comic butt, and has become all things to all men. Some readers view Shylock as a proud and a passionate man who has long stored up in his heart the humiliation suffered at the hands of the hostile Christian world and
23、 are now ready for revenge. Shylock is the villain of the piece; there is no doubt about that. He hates Antonio for hindering his business and for treating him with terrible contempt in public, and we must not doubt that from the very beginning Shylock had hoped to get his revenge on Antonio by arra
24、nging the flesh-bond. Jessicas elopement and theft of his money and jewels increase Shylocks resentment against the Christian world, so that, although he might have had second thoughts about executing his revenge, they no longer trouble him after Jessicas elopement. Having found him victimized by An
25、tonio, Shylock wants as well as he gets. Symbolizing the stern justice of Old Testament law, Shylock is a passionate man thirsting for revenge and the ridiculous figure of stereotyped Jewish obstinacy, hatred. And literalness. Usually comic, he is at times grotesque, and at times even touching “Hath
26、 not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew lands.” (Shakespeare 795). He is a villain of perseverance and restless energy, who is, nevertheless, foiled by good Christians in the end.A. A Schemer, Hypocrite, Baleful Person In Shakespeares play The Merchant of Venice. Shylock, a wealthy Jew is one of the main ch
27、aracters. During the play his merciless and uncompassionate nature is revealed. He seeks the life of another man because he is bent on revenge. One of the main themes of the play is anti-Semitism. Most of the main characters show some hostility towards Shylock because of his religion, including Anto
28、nio - the merchant of Venice - his Christian enemy. However this is balanced, to an extent, as Shylock frequently and openly admits that he hates Antonio, For he is a Christian (Shakespeare 820). He will not rest until Antonio is dead and in my opinion this is indefensible. It is Shylock that speaks
29、 its most moving and soulful lines. Shylock tells of his deep hurt at his daughters betrayal, his own flesh and blood having turned against him. He is driven to such distraction that he knows not what he says, My daughter, my ducats, my daughter (Shakespeare 797), the two scramble in his mind. Shake
30、speare artfully conceals the full measure of Shylocks hurt in his ranting by having it reported through the eyes of unfeeling enemies that laugh at it-the way audiences for hundreds of years have reacted to the sorrowful calamity that befalls the despised Jew.The miser was a frequent comic villain i
31、n the drama and literature of the Middle Ages and early renaissance, and Shylock belongs to this lineage. He represents the killjoy against whom pleasure-loving characters unite. He is a schemer whose icy shrewdness daunts. When Antonio enters in the same scene. Shylock reveals in an aside his deep-
32、seated hostility towards the merchant,he is a Christian. For yet his first words to Antonio are fawning compliments, and we immediately recognized the cruel usurer as a hypocrite as well. Throughout the play he is repeatedly associated with the devil. The famous speech in which he seemingly asserts
33、his basic humanity-“hath not a Jew eyes” (Shakespeare 795). Is actually a baleful and chilling assertion of his intention to murder Antonio, Shylock grows more and more malevolent until, in the trial scne. He melodramatically hones on his shoe the knife with which he hopes to kill the merchant while
34、 obstinately refusing to grant mercy, even for huge sums of money. B. A Comical, Humorous, Clownish PersonAs is true of all comic villains there is never any doubt that Shylock will be defeated in the end, and he is there never truly threatening. Further, Shylock is broadly comical at times: in this
35、 respect him somewhat resembles the vice of the medieval morality play. His stinginess has a humorous quality of caricature to it, and he is depicted as a subject for ridicule in all but one of his scenes, even in the trial scene. In his first meeting with Antonio he justifies his usury by citing in
36、stances from the bible, but he comically selects stories of crafty dealing that actually cast him in a bad light. In 2.5, Lancelot mocks his dream, and his obsessive insistence on locking his house is humorously crotchety. In 3.1,following the renowned speech in which he asserts his thirst for reven
37、ge of tonepreparing the audience for a return to Belmont in 3.2presents him as a farcical villain who becomes ludicrous he oscillates hysterically between rage and delight when Tubal tells him of Jessica s extravagance and Antonios misfortune. Even at the trail, Shylock repeatedly makes himself clow
38、nish, chortling over the absent of a surgeon naively exulting in the pretence of Portia that he will win his case, and hastily trying to recover his money when he finds he has lost. C. A Crabbed, Greed Old ManAs a villain, Shylock embodies the negative element in several sets of opposing values whos
39、e conflicts provide the major themes of the play. First, he is the crabbed old man who opposes the expansive young lovers. His daughter flees him, saying that his “house is hell”, and his contrast to Bassanio is carried forward to Portias victory over him in the courtroom, the final scene rings with
40、 Shylocks absence, as young love triumphs. Further, he represents justice, as opposed to mercy, insisting on the letter of the law and refusing to accept any reduction of the terms of his contract with Antonio. Most significantly, he personifies greed, in contrast to the generosity of Antonio and da
41、ughter Portia, in comically crying, “My daughter! My ducats! My daughter! ” Shylock reveals that he loves money as much as, if not more than, Jessica. Among the reasons he gives for hating Antonio is a commercial one: the merchant, in making interest-free loans, has depressed the going rate. Thus Sh
42、ylocks love of money generates acrimony and strife. D. A VictimIt is evidence of Shakespeares creative empathy that even an evil stereotype is developed to the extent that Shylock is. Not content with a conventional stage villain the playwright gives Shylocks personality an extraordinary duality. Ma
43、ny of his speeches, even the most humorous and malicious, can be construed as cries of anguish: the villain is also a victim, we sense. It is easy to deride the two-faced miser who comically equates his daughter and his ducats, but it is also easy to perceive an old man, enraged by betrayal who has
44、begun to lose his mind. The usurer is given an opportunity to justice his practice in, and his solemn citations from the bible have dignity and not to be taken as only self-incriminating. He is finally subjected to a total and humiliating defeat: his oaths on his religion are nullified, and he is fo
45、rced to convert. Shylock hates Antonio not because he is Christian, but because Antonio hates him because he is Jewish. Shylock has suffered years of torment with Antonio and others like him who persecutes Shylock. He is in the right to despise Antonio and for that matter, Christians as a whole, bec
46、ause if you look at that time period, you felt sorry for a Jew, you would be hated very much, Jews were lower than peasants and beggars and thieves, maybe not in money, but definitely in social states. So Shylock can hate whomever he wants to because I think he has earned that right after such tribu
47、lations.III. Shakespeares Writing PurposeFor hundreds of years the Jewish people have been persecuted by Christians on the basis that the Jews were responsible for the crucifixion of Christ. Because of this sin Jews became known as traitors and murderers. This message was being delivered by Christia
48、n leaders, coming straight from the pulpit during sermon. The anti-Semitic attitude of Medieval and Elizabethan culture is reflected in the art of the times. There are drawings and paintings depicting Jews as Devils, thieves and murderers, and the same portrayal was present in the literature and the
49、atre. The medieval miracle-plays overflowed with violence against the Eucharist and the Jews. The miracle-plays were held to send a religious message, but instead left the mark of blood and violence by staging Christians as beating Jews and dragging them through the streets and sometimes even beheading the so-called murderers. During the medieval drama there was rarely a true character, but rather stereotypes and characteristics, possibly due to a lack of self-identity by individuals in that ti
