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1、The Interpretation of Shylock in The Merchant of VeniceName:李娅 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 representati
2、ve 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 re
4、venge spiritI. The social background of the workThe 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 reality,
5、 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 became
6、 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 Commonwe
7、alth 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 rat
8、e 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 befor
9、e 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 repre
10、sentative of the cruel and avaricious money-lenders . In the play,Shylock doesnt 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 who adve
11、rse 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 guarding t
12、he 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 victim,in
13、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 sight . 2).
14、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. 3).At t
15、he 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 lover carry
16、ing 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 oppressed 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
