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The Literature Review ofThe M ystery of Antonio’s Sadness in The Merchant of Venice Written sometime between 1596 and 1598, The Merchant of Venice is classified as both an early Shakespearean comedy (more specifically, as a "Christian comedy") and as one of the Bard's problem plays; it is a work in which good triumphs over evil, but serious themes are examined and some issues remain unresolved.In The Merchant of Venice , Shakespeare wove together two ancient folk tales, one involving a vengeful, greedy creditor trying to exact a pound of flesh, the other involving a marriage suitor's choice among three chests and thereby winning his (or her) mate. Shakespeare's treatment of the first standard plot scheme centers around the villain of Merchant, the Jewish moneylender Shylock, who seeks a literal pound of flesh from his Christian opposite, the generous, faithful Antonio. Shakespeare's version of the chest-choosing device revolves around the play's Christian heroine Portia, who steers her lover Bassanio toward the correct humble casket and then successfully defends his bosom friend Antonio from Shylock's horrid legal suit. Antonio, as the title character, is sad from the beginning to the end of the play but never names the cause of his melancholy even when his friends ask him. Antonio plays the role as an outcast in the play. Shakespeare uses Antonio’s sadness simply as the device to set the tragic tone in the comedy or make Antonio be one of his melancholic characters in his works? Or Antonio is the representative of the complicated human nature? Antonio's unexplained melancholy is a significant element in understanding the play.1. Studies on The Merchant of V eniceKarl Marx once cited that Shakespeare is the greatest playwright in the world. Shakespeare’s come dy The Merchant of Venice is one of the most influential comedies in his works. Shylock has mostly been the center of the research on the play.The Merchant of Venice was first printed in 1600 in quarto, of which nineteen copies survive. This was followed by a 1619 printing, and later an inclusion in the First Folioin 1623. The play was written shortly after Christopher Marlowe’s immensely popular Jew of Malta (1589), a play wherein a Jew named Barabas plays a greatly exaggerated villain. The portrayal of Shakespeare's Jew was and remained comic until the late 1700s at which time he was first played as a true villain. In 1814 Shylock’s role was depicted as a character to be pitied, and in 1879 he was first portrayed as a tragic character. Subsequent interpretations have varied greatly over the years, but since World War II he has most often been conceived of as tragic. The Merchant of Venice has been described as a great commentary on the nature of racial and religious interactions.2. Deficiencies of Previ ous Studies on the Mystery of Antonio’s Sadness in The Merchant of V eniceThe title character, Antonio, begins the play intriguingly: "In sooth, I know not why I am so sad; / It wearies me" (I.i.1-2). Much ink has been spilled with conjectures about Antonio's melancholy: that he's simply melancholic of temperament, that his devotion to Bassanio is homoerotic and the news that this friend seeks to marry has depressed him (Antonio is a name Shakespeare uses also in Twelfth Night for a character with an intense devotion to another male), or that he has an "ominous foreboding" about the events that will transpire in the course of this play. Although those pioneers aroused people to think much of The Merchant of Venice and left us invaluable and systematic reference, and made many achievements in description and explanation of the cause of Antonio’s sadness, there remain many deficiencies.First, The Merchant of Venice,which is considered to be one of Shakespeare’s four great comedies, actually functions as Shakespeare's farewell to comedy. Antonio is one of Shakespeare’s melancholic characters. Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice is undermining all that passes for comic entertainment. Shakespeare uses Antonio’s sadness as a device to set the tragic tone in the comic atmosphere.Second, a lot of issues that are argued about regarding The Merchant of Venice can be considerably clarified if we know something about the audience it was written for. In the modern, post-Holocaust readings of the play, the problem of anti-Semitism inthe play has been discussed a lot. Given that Antonio decides not to seize Shylock’s goods as punishment, we might consider Antonio to be merciful. But we may also question whether it is merciful to return to Shylock half of his goods, only to take away his religion and his profession. Antonio’s compassion seems to stem as much from self-interest as from concern for his fellow man. Shakespeare thus shows a balance of prejudice on both sides. The question whether Antonio is a homosexual in love with Bassanio can also interpreted differently.ConclusionDespite the researches already done and achievements already made on the subject, many frontiers are still waiting to be explored. On the basis of the previous researches by forerunners and adopting new approaches we are to make a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of this subject. We don't mean to suggest that other ways of looking at the play are "wrong." In fact, one of the things that is so great about Shakespeare is that there are so many different ways of interpreting his plays that all work.Works Cited：[1] Brown, D. H. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. West Port, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2000.[2] Chomsky, N. Syntactic Structure. The Hague: Mouton, 1957.[3] Ellis, R. The Study of Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press,1994.[4] Gass, S. “Integrating Research Areas: A Framework for Second LanguageStudies”. Applied Linguistics 1988 (9): 198-217.[5] 程琪龙. 认知语言学概论. 北京：外语教学与研究出版社，2001.[6] 蓝纯. 从认知角度看汉语的空间隐喻[J]. 外语教学与研究，1999（4）:36-38.….[9] 王寅. 认知语言学的哲学基础:体验哲学[J]. 外语教学与研究, 2002(2): 40-42.[10] 赵艳芳. 认知语言学概论. 上海：上海外语教育出版社，2001.。