英美文学论文

An Analysis of Shylock from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice Abstract:Shakespeare, the colossus in English literature, writes thirty-seven world-famous plays as well as one hundred and fifty-four universally appreciated sonnets during English Renaissance period. As we all know, The Merchant of Venice is one of the most outstanding comedies of Shakespeare. The story happened in Venice in 16th century. Shylock is a typical character in this play. He has long been regarded as a mean, cruel and inhuman usurer.

Key words: Jews; Tragedy; Religion; Christian

Merchant of Venice is one of Shakespeare’s most famous comedies. Shylock, the character in the play, has always been translated into a greedy, mean, cruel usurer. However, as time goes by, people become aware of the tragedy in the play.

1.Introduction

1.1 Introduction of Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in England. The world’s greatest poet and playwright who creates many lifelike characters, such as Hamlet, Romeo, Juliet, King Lear and Shylock. He is a famous actor, dramatist and poet during the English Renaissance. He is often referred to England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon”. Among Shakespeare’s plays, his comedies have enjoyed the great reputation both at home and

abroad. Basically, comedies are shown in someone’s life.

1.2 Historical Background

Merchant of Venice happened in Europe in 16th century. The situation of the society at that time was that Christian unified the whole country in the political, and the Roman church pitched that the Jews were an ethnic group which suffered disgustful. Jews were seen as the champion of all evils and became the prime target that could shift all contradictions in Europe.

As economic, Jews were limited and expelled in employment and operation, and the property was often deprived innocently. Jews, prohibited to occupy the land in law in Europe, besides, Christian also forbade the Jews to work on Sunday, but according to the kosher Jews needn’t to operate on the Sabbath day. And they lived every day with the threat of deportation, the fluid or volatile world situation was familiar to them, thus they had lost a lot of opportunities to work.

After manufacturing system established to European cities, they still felt restricted on manufacturing business. In the Late Middle Ages, the business capital had increased. Though meanwhile Jews had suffered much of limitation in trade, financial and so on. Europe’s rulers also limited the employment prescribed by income tax, and a variety of means such as fines and confiscation of property without cause to achieve the purpose of robbing the Jews.