聊城大学外国语学院英国文学史与选读课件 Merchant of Venice.ppt

Comedy Comedy In general, a comedy is a play that ends happily for the leading characters. The purpose of a comedy is to amuse and to instruct the audience. Comedy Comedies are concerned with exposing common human folly, and frequently depict the overthrow of rigid social fashions and customs. The Merchant of Venice The most peculiar and controversial one among Shakespeares comedies; A lot of diputes about its genre, themes, characters and the writers intention; one of the gravest of comedies, and capable of being read as a tragedy...---Tucker Brooke Main characters Antonio—A rich merchant who borrows money from Shylock for his friend Bassanio Bassanio—the Venitian gentleman and a fortune-hunter Portia— a beautiful and rich young lady in Belmont not far from Venice Shylock— a Jewish usurer living in Venice The story of three caskets and story of a pound of flesh; Portia----intelligent, enterprising, learned, witty, courageous; the ideal woman of Shakespeare, ---a woman ahead of her times; Some modern critics find her a racist, a hypocrite and a snob. The Character of Shylock The most controversial and fascinating character in the play; a person of complexity; A comic villain who is caught in the tangles of his own trap at one extreme; A tragic hero no less sinned against than sinning at the other extreme; At the time when The Merchant of Venice was created, anti-Semitism prevailed in England. Traits of the stereotyped Jews: greedy, miserly, cruel, full of hatred and revenge, devoid of gentility and interests in music and poetry. As a greedy usurer and a blood-thirsty revenger, he is to be despised and hated. As a strong protester against religious and racial percecution he deserves our sympathy. “I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer