论《威尼斯商人》中的女性主义

论《威尼斯商人》中鲍西亚的女性形象
Abstract：This paper briefly analyzes Portia who is the actress in Shakespeare's famous comedy "the Merchant of Venice". Portia is the central figure of "merchant of Venice", and in the Shakespeare she is also known as the most reflect the Female Heroism of the representative in the Renaissance era. She is the embodiment of wisdom and beauty, she is also the female emancipation and liberation of a typical.
Key words: Portia, Feminist, wisdom, beauty
摘要：该文简要分析了莎士比亚著名喜剧《威尼斯商人》中女主角鲍西亚。

鲍西亚是《威尼斯商人》的中心人物，也被认为是莎士比亚剧中最能反映文艺复兴时代女性英雄主义的代表人物，她是美丽与智慧的化身，她也是女性翻身与解放的一个典型。

从她出庭辩护以及、她的法律观以及她与其他男性的对比上，认为她是个觉醒的女性主义者。

关键字：鲍西亚，女性主义者，美丽，聪慧
1．Introduction
William Shakespeare【1】 was an English poet and playwright. he was widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. The Merchant of Venice, as one of the Shakespeare’s plays,is considered as being of the deepest social implication. Application of a variety of ironic techniques, such as verbal irony, situational irony and dramatic irony, is one of the most conspicuous artistic features of this play, which endows the play with profound criticism, convoluted plots and elusive far-reaching implications. It is a comedy with a great satirical. Many successful stage images sparkled in the writings of Shakespeare, among which there are aristocrats, official and officers. Many female characters are also vividly described in Shakespeare’s plays: beautiful Cleopatra, Othello’s kind wife. As far as wisdom is concerned, perhaps none of them could match with Portia in the Merchant of Venice.
2. Body parts
Portia is idealized women’s image by Shakespeare. She is honest, self-confident, sympathy, intelligent, reflecting the new women of capitalistic class in Shakespeare’s ideal”【4】. She is a new type of people in the Renaissance period. She is beautiful, noble, rich,
but the most important thing is that she has strong independent
consciousness of women. In the play, Shakespeare compared her to the bright moonlight, soft music, and lush forest, so that it can show Portia endowed with both beauty and talent, independent, optimistic and cheerful. She is full of youthful spirit of the character. For Portia, life stress is never despair, difficulties life has never been impassable obstacles, but a ruler to test her will and intelligence.
On the contrary, there is a tragic personage in The Merchant of Venice, that is Shylock. He is considered to be a symbol of cruel and greedy. Compared with Shylock, Portia is the embodiment of justice. She has Shakespeare’s splendor with ideal humanism and strong hope
of surmounting the real world.The big contrast between Portia and Shylock is to foil Shakespeare’s combination of a kind of ideal and reality. Shylock reflects the British society at that time, money is everything, however Portia is endowed with justice and courage. Based on this, Shakespeare expressed his interest towards androgyny through girl -into -boy disguise in this play. In The Merchant of Venice, Portia undoubtedly plays the most significant role, disruptively undoing the masculine authority by rescuing Antonio. Jessica’s disguise implies the transgression of both racial and gender boundaries. The burring of sexual identity resulted from transvestism consists of the possibility to reconstruct gender identity, to achieve fuller individuality and to pose a threat to the repressive system of patriarchal and hierarchical authority. It argues that a broader range of humanity traits is an effective tool in challenging the one sex domination and subverting traditional gender and sexual boundaries, and that masculinity and femininity as complementary elements can formulate a more balanced gender identity. It’s easy to reconcile these two sides of Portia’s character if you remember the Elizabethan view that true fulfillment and happiness can come only from accepting one’s proper place in society.
Portia is independent, but she is not a rebel.At the beginning of the play, under the force of her father to marry the suitor who chooses the right casket among three. In this part, we can’t even see the shadow of the Portia in court. On one hand, she is a spirit desiring for freedom, on the other hand, she has to abide by her father’s rules. She strives，rather th an ignoring the stipulations of her father’s will,finally she use her wisdom finding out true love. Through this, the author indicates women's affiliated status and their limited knowledge of men in that times. “Literacy works is the most effective tool that display society and propagate the rule of man to women. The purpose of all the art form of the men-centered society are to strengthen the sex factor.[1] In the men-centered society, men is initiative status and women is woman and women is in passive status. Then why Shakespeare shape such a female image? On the one hand, it is important for modern spectators to understand
“Shakespeare’s celibate stage”【2】, which indicates all the roles were played by males, according to the British laws during that period. The reason for casting out all female players from stage was partially because women in Renaissance were looked down upon as a creature required strict regulation against their strong sexual desire and dissolute manner. On the other hand, in the Shakespearian age, Queen Elizabeth on the throne had a great social symbolic meaning on women’s liberty as well as on the trend of theatre performance【3】.
3. Concluding
But we have to admit that Shakespeare do not intentionally portrayed her as a feminist, but his subconscious may aware of the power of women. Portia is remarkable among Shakespeare's heroines for being a character of power throughout the play. Patriarchal society views women essentially as supporting characters in the play of life.When faced with those challenges that made others to step backward, she tried best to overcome them and succeed finally in most cases. It is actually her wisdom and sharp wit that lead to comic renewal in difficult situations. In a word, the adaptation of myths in The Merchant of Venice enriches the characterization of Portia, there is no wonder that she is regarded as a heavenly compound of beauty, feeling and wisdom in world literature.
Reference：
1.William Shakespeare：The Merchant of Venice 【M】.New York; Airmount
Punishing,1965.
2.Michael J .Shakespeare’s Celibate Stage: The Problem of Accommodation to the Boy -Actress [C]//Shakespearian G I, Duthie
3.Angela P. Shakespeare's Women [M]. London: David and Charles,1981.
4.陈晓兰.女性主义批评与文学诠释【M】.甘肃:敦煌文艺出版社，1999:13
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