论《威尼斯商人》中的宗教冲突(2)
5.1 The Theory of Conflict in Sociology.13
5.2 Fate for Jessica14
5.3 Fate for Shylock14
5.4 Unavoidable Fate for Disadvantaged Groups from the Perspective of Conflict Theory15
6 Conclusion….….17
Bibliography19
1 Introduction
William Shakespeare, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist (Net.1), he is a humanist in the period of Renaissance. He is often called “the Bard of Avon”. The Merchant of Venice is one of Shakespeare’s most popular and famous comedies. It is believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Different from Shakespeare’s other comedies, The Merchant of Venice is a problem play in the eyes of many people, although generally it is considered as an ironic comedy which praises friendship, mercy and love (see Russin, 2013:116). It has relatively complicated plots which contain the traditional revenge story of Elizabethan times and some romance plots (see Adelman, 2008:5).
“The play is frequently staged today, but is potentially troubling to modern audiences due to its central themes, which can easily appear anti-Semitic. Critics today still continue to argue over the play’s stance on anti-Semitism” (Net.2). With the spread of this comedy, more and more people go further into this play. Some found the effect of The Merchant of Venice is to incite hatred and suspicion of the Jews (see Creighton, 1909:652). Some people also found the reason that Shakespeare wrote this play is that he was dissatisfied with the oppression by society on Jews, the society which was dominated by Christians. Obviously, there is conflict between Christians and Jews in that time and Shakespeare put this conflict in his play The Merchant of Venice and presents it to us audience.
Conflict between Christianity and Judaism has lasted for centuries. In the Middle Ages, Jews were subjected to devastation, exploitation and deportation from Christians. Also, Jews held the different concept of belief on their religion. Jews thought it was not appropriate to take Jesus the ordinary person as god who was served as god by Christians. Jews think any good result should depend on their own efforts while Christians think that it is of great importance to have the redeemer to guide them.
This thesis will have a brief analysis on the religious conflict in The Merchant of Venice between Christianity and Judaism through the analysis and comparison between those two typical characters, Shylock and Antonio, with the assistance of comparison between other Christians and Jews in this book. However, this conflict can be regarded as a particular social phenomenon. Therefore, my thesis will refer to conflict theory in sociology to illustrate the unavoidable result of the disadvantaged groups at that time and the function of this theory in a general society. Last but not least, I would also like to mention that although conflict in a society is unavoidable due to various reasons, it is of great importance to maintain peace and harmony for the sake of inpiduals.
2 Interpretation of The Merchant of Venice
It is helpful to get an overview of the contents before starting to go further. Though the play is classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare’s other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic scenes, and is best known for Shylock and the famous “Hath not a Jew eyes?” speech (Zhu, 2009:39). Also notable is Portia’s speech about “the quality of mercy” (Zhu, 2009:145). More importantly, in this play, there are dialogues of Jews and Christians which can illustrate vividly the conflict between those two religions.
2.1 Summary of the Play
Bassanio asks Antonio for a loan so that he can travel in style to Portia’s estate. Although Antonio agrees, he is unable to make the loan himself because his money is all invested in a number of trade ships which are still at sea. Then, Antonio says that Bassanio makes the loan from a city’s moneylender Shylock and makes Antonio as the loan’s guarantor. Then they approach Shylock for a loan. Shylock has been long grudged against Antonio for what he has done to him. Although Antonio refuses to apologize for his behavior, Shylock pretends agreeably and lends Bassanio three thousand ducats with no interest. However, if they cannot pay back money, Shylock will be entitled with a pound of Antonio’s own flesh. They finally agree this request.