abstract
as we known that the merchant of venice is one of shakespeare’s most important works. it is a comedy. the theme of this play is to extol kindheartedness, friendship and love. and also it reflects the conflicts between the capitalists and usurers at the beginning of the capitalist society. and it expresses the author’s humanist idea on money, law and religion in capitalist society. this thesis analyzes the main figures in the play by using independent and contrast ways. it shows the heavily flavor of humanism at the beginning of capitalist society; and expresses some thoughts for society and human being. the thesis also makes a hard criticism to shylock, who is a representative of feudalism, and puts a heavy humanism on portia. it displays the thoughts of feudalism personality liberation, and stressing the great breakthrough of woman’s status and feminine consciousness in elizabethan era.
key words
character analyzing; humanism; personality liberation; women consciousness
摘 要
众所周知，《威尼斯商人》是莎士比亚著名喜剧之一。WWw.11665.CoM 该剧的主题被定义为对善良、友谊和爱情的颂扬。 本剧不但反映了资本主义早期资产阶级同高利贷者间的矛盾冲突，也揭示了作者对资本主义社会金钱、法律和宗教信仰的人文主义观点。本论文采用了个案分析法以及对比分析法对该剧的主要人物形象作了一一剖析，展示了资本主义萌芽时期人文主义的浓厚气息，表达了莎士比亚对社会、对人类生活的反思，并寄以自己的理想。课题对封建旧势力的代表——夏洛克作了无情的批判，而对形象鲜明、富有光彩的鲍西娅则添上了浓厚的人文主义理想色彩。文章彰显了女性个性解放，突显了文艺复兴时期伊丽莎白当权期，女性地位、意识的重大突破。
关键词
人物分析；人文主义思想；个性解放；女性意识
introduction
the merchant of venice is one of the shakespeare’s famous comedies in his early time. it’s theme is to extol kindness, friendship and love. it is the mirror of the contradiction between business bourgeois and usurer at the beginning of the capitalist society. it’s also expressed the author’s humanism ideas on money, law and religion in this society. there, we mention humanism--the main distinguishing feature of that period, also the brightness characteristic which is shown from the important role in this play.
in this thesis, the author introduces the background of the play firstly. reading the play, we can know that the social background in the play is according with the real society. we know at that time, the society was under the leadership of elizabeth who was the symbol of power in england. next the thesis gives an introduction of the main figures in the play. antonio is rich and kindhearted. from him we can see the spirit of humanism. portia plays the most important part in the play. the thesis talks about her character, her hobbies, and her attitude of love and the inner meaning-humanism of this figure. she is the center of all these figures the play refers to. humanism is an ideological weapon for capitalism to fight the feudalism combat, and also it is the core idea of capitalism advanced-literature in renaissance, and its combat refers to the ideal of feudalism in middle age, especially the religion belief of catholics. after that, the thesis gives more details about the information mentioned above. then the thesis compares the figures to give a highlight of the humanism spirit.
ⅰ. social background of the play the merchant of venice
as is known, england is a developed country. today, it also obtains very important status in the world. it is very necessary to talk about the history of the growth of capitalism in england, especially in 16th century.
a. the social information in elizabeth throne
henry viii died in 1547 and his nine-year-old son succeeded him. the son was known in history, edward ⅵ. the boy-king’s reign was a time of extreme protestantism, for the regency council for him consisted almost entirely of the protestant faction. edward ⅵ died in 1553. only 15years old. then his half-sister, mary, a catholic, became queen. the new queen came to the throne at the age of twenty-five. after the coronation, her parliament passed the necessary legislation to abolish the papal supremacy over the church, and gave elizabeth all the powers over the church which her father had held, though with the more modest title of “supreme government” of the church of england instead of “supreme head” elizabeth died on 24 march, 1603 at the age of sixty-nine. her forty-four-year reign had not only ensured the triumph of protestantism in britain and in northern europe, but had greatly increased the wealth, power and prestige of england. her navy triumphed over the great armada of the king of spain; her sailors’ circum navigated the world, and established a colony on the north american continent which they named virginia after their virgin queen. at home, the merchants were prosperous; the common people enjoyed a higher standard of living than in most other european countries, and her reign was also full of achievements in literature and other arts. after all, elizabeth ⅰwas one of the most successful despots to govern england in english history. ①(李超, 邓兴义:34-37)
b. special social background reflecting in the merchant of venice
the merchant of venice is one of the famous comedy plays written by shakespeare in his early time. the theme of this play is to extol kindness, friendship and love. it is the mirror of the contradiction between business bourgeois and usurer at the beginning of capitalist society. it’s also expressed the author’s humanism ideas on money, law and religion in this society. there, we mention humanism--the main distinguishing feature of that period, also the brightness characteristic which is shown from the important roles in this play. but, what is “humanism”? humanism is the ideological weapon of bourgeois to fight feudalism at renaissance, is also the core idea of the bourgeois’ advanced-literature in this time. be directed against the world outlook of medieval feudalism is the spearhead of struggle, especially the religion belief of catholicism. church refers to god as the centre of cosmos. at the heart of the renaissance philosophy is the assertion of the greatness of man. and the elements of humanism are to establish the central status of human, their dignity and value, to advocate the spirit of rationalism and science and to protest the supreme role of god admired in middle ages.
shakespeare was a man of the late renaissance who gave the fullest expression to humanist ideas. the merchant of venice is one of the important works which finished in the first flowering period of english literature. in this play, heroes and heroines fight for their own ideas and mould their own life according to their own free will and bring us into happy and ideal world with singing, dancing, harmony with nature and freedom from the vices of the world.
ⅱ. analyzing the heroes in the play
in this play, shakespeare portrays many roles. the proportion that male figures taking is much more notable than female’s. so, it's necessary to narrate and display their nature character and symbol.
a. antonio
although the play’s title refers to him, antonio is a rather lackluster character. he emerges in actⅰ, sceneⅰas a hopeless depressive, someone who cannot name the source of his melancholy and who, throughout the course of the play, devolves into a self-pitying lump, unable to muster the energy required to defend himself against execution. antonio never names the cause of his melancholy, but the evidence seems to point to his being in love, and the most likely object of his affection is bassanio.
antonio has risked the entirety of his fortune on oversea trading ventures, yet he agrees to guarantee the potentially lethal loan bassanio secures from shylock. he is willing to offer up a pound of flesh, signifying a union that grotesquely alludes to the rite of marriage, where two partners become “one flesh”. further evidence of the nature of antonio’s feelings for bassanio appears later in the play, when antonio’s proclamations resonate with the hyperbole and self-satisfaction of a doomed lover’s declaration: “pray god bassanio come/ to see me pay his debt, and then i care not”② (act ⅲ, scene iii, 35-36) without a mate, he is indeed the “tainted wether”—or castrated ram—of the flock, and he will likely return to his favorite pastime of moping about the streets of venice② (act ⅳ, scene i, 113). after all, he has effectively disabled himself from pursuing hid hobby—abusing shylock—by insisting that the jew convert to christianity. although a 16th century audience might have seen this demand as merciful, as shylock is saving himself from eternal damnation by converting, we are less likely to be convinced. not only does antonio’s reputation as an anti-semite precede him, but the only instance in the play when he breaks out of his doldrums in his “storm” against shylock②(actⅰ, scene iii, 132). in this play, antonio proves his character is melancholy, cruelty and some seldom saying—homosexual.
b. bassanio
it is said middle ages is the most deathly stillness period in europe. it also can be seemed it’s the time that west europe’s culture and literature go to grave. as to the pillar of spirit, there is nothing except a total series of religious doctrine. in this environment, people used compliment and boast words to exchange their minds and thoughts. in that society, everyone remain under artificial mask wandered in different kinds of occasion. an absolutely undisguised money relationship makes the true human nature into ash during the masks scraped each other. bassanio, a noble who is neatly dressed, whose speech and deportment is natural and graceful, gradually becomes a declining aristocrat by spending without restraint. he is a handsome and intelligent young man. but living in such a society, what his every day’s schedule is to squander money on different meeting and use blandishment speech to talk with other aristocrat. his property is limitation. once he runs behind his expenses, he will ask his best friend—the wealth merchant in venice—antonio for money. from the context, it seems he never returned what he borrowed. to be such a man who wants of lofty aspiration. maybe the best method frees himself from poverty is to get a profitable marriage. and we mostly can make sure; to obtain money is more important than to marry portia. this can be improved in later—he gives his bride’s ring to the clerk. although his lover has declared that if he loses her ring, she will never pardon him.
c. shylock
shylock in this play is the antagonist. he is the model of usurer. most people read him as a bogeyman, a clownish jewish stereotype. he is selfish, curtly, avaricious and niggard. once he has the chance to revenge his foe. he will try his best to make the other into deathtrap. in the court, he is clam and wisdom, even fights for several christian’s joint attack. but most of his speech is coarse, and sometimes “mean”. all of this makes people take unkindly to him. but with the several aspects sagacious with antonio, it makes him be a mult-personality figure. being a pagan who lives in christian society he has strong emotion on racial constriction and the enthusiasm of raising jewish people’s status. living in this society, he suffers too much public humiliation and oppression as he says in the following:
“he hath disgraced me, and hinder’d me half a million; laught at my loss, mockt at my gains, scorn’d my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what’s his reason? 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, heal’d by the same means, warm’d and cool’d by the same winter and summer, as a christian is? if you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laught? if you porion us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?” ②(act ⅲ sceneⅰ50-63)
his frequently mentions of the cruelty he has endured at christian hands make it hard for us to label him a natural born monster. shylock argues that jews are humans and calls his quest for vengeance the product of lessons taught to him by the cruelty of venice citizens. in such condition, his “malicious” is much more reasonable.
besides the facial of shylock’s malignance, actually, he is a person whose sense of decency has been fractured by the persecution he endures. comparatively, those kindness and wisdom christian, in fact, have another hideous feature. so, in my mind, shylock is a man who is worth sympathizing.
iii. analyzing the central character in the novel--portia
the girl embodies the virtues that are typical for shakespeare’s heroines--it has no surprise that she emerges as the antidote to shylock’s malice. she is the pretty-witted aristocrat young girl. she is enthusiasm and graceful; resourceful and humorous; wealthy and beautiful. she is the perfect female who glitters the humanism ideal in her life. this is portia.
a. the essential nature of portia
at the beginning of the play, however, we do not see portia’s potential for initiative and resourcefulness, as she is a near prisoner, feeling herself absolutely bound to follow her father’s dying wishes. this open appearance, however, proves to be a revealing introduction to portia, who emerges as that rarest of combinations--a free spirit who abides rigidly by rules. when bassanio asks belmont to choose his chest, she proves herself to be highly resourceful, begging the man she loves to stay a while before picking a chest, and finding loophole in the will’s provision that we never thought possible. also, in her defeat of shylock, she prevails by applying a more rigid standard than shylock, agreeing that he can get a pound of flesh, but adding that it does not to allow for any loss of blood. anybody can break the rules, but portia’s effectiveness comes from her ability to make the law work for her. after depriving bassanio of his ring, she stops the prank before it goes far, and she even insinuates that she has been unfaithful. these entire can proves portia’s wit, resource, and humor
b. the humanism spirit shown by portia
portia is the main character in this play. she embodies the virtues that are typical for shakespeare’s heroines. being a wealth young girl, she is beautiful, gentle and tender, and full of stratagems. she lives in belmont--a peaceful world, and recruits the newest ideological trends. so, her mind is equipped by humanism. she is a cute girl, even her father’s behest; she would like to abide by. humanism has several contents. one of them is the rationalism object to obscurantism. it advocates treasuring people intelligent. and it is said the most reason of people is dignity depending on the power of rational. rational is human’s nature, science is the source of joyful. so, when bassanio arrives, portia use her resourceful mind to call his attention to pick the correct chest.
i pray you, tarry: pause a day or two
before you hazard; for, in choosing wrong,
i lost your company: therefore, forbear a while. ② (act ⅲ sceneⅱ 1-5)
……
before you venture for me. i could teach you
how to choose right
……
the seeming truth which cunning times put on
to entrap the wisest. therefore, thou gaudy gold,
hard food for midas, i will none of thee;
nor none of thee, thou stale and common drudge,
tween man and man: but thou, thou meager lead,
which rather threatenest than dost promise aught,
thy paleness moves me more than eloquence;
and here choose i: ---joy be the consequence! ② (act ⅲ sceneⅱ 100-107)
this is the evidence that portia never resigns herself to her fate. in order to peruse her own happiness and love, she makes use of her wisdom obeyed her father’s will as well as marry with the mr. right. this is one aspect. the other one is that when she argued with shylock to act defense as a means of attack on the court, and consolidate at every step. shylock thought he encountered bosom friend at beginning. and later, suddenly he realized he has lost his preponderance. portia’s brilliance talent and shylock’s weakened defense, both make people cannot help laughing. considered her attitude towards love and the performance she acts on court. there is no doubt that she is a remarkable humanist.
c. portia--a self-conscious female
portia is a beautiful, dignity and wealth girl. and the most important thing is she obtains strongly female self-consciousness. she knows what is she needs, and try her best to pursue. she has an insight into the world which she exists—the code of ethics, the value…, she knows what’s the role she plays. so, she can vacillate freely in the male society, gets her goal and not to go against the rules. in this play, it seems she just does two things: help her to choose a husband; help her husband to rescue antonio. both of them have fully demonstrated her intelligence, and reveal her anti-tradition figure. it’s the time when she chooses her husband to show her ability to suit male society. portia not only has the female self-consciousness, but also understands thoroughly what is the status and role woman obtains in male society. she knows the method which keeps away from conflicts. to her husband, she is an angle: sheepish, tender and obedient. when bassanio chooses the correct casket, she immediately says she is an “unwise, lack-education girl”. is she really so humble? no. portia knows very clearly that man dislikes woman is more sensible and prior than men themselves. so she makes her modest on purpose. but at the same she would like to show her important role when she gives her ring to bassanio, she says:
myself and what is mine to you and yours
is now converted: but now i was the lord
of this fair mansion, master of my servants,
queen o’er myself; and even now, but now,
this house, these servants, and this same myself,
are yours, my lord: i give them with this ring;
which when you part from, lose, or give away,
let it persage the ruin of your love,
and be my vantage to exclaim on you.②
the aim to be said like that is to remind bassanio she is the very one that’s the
real master in her family. in other words, she is the protagonist in the play, and the male is the costar who stands on the pasive, subordinary rim, and they always do as one is told. this figure-portray denied the traditon gender relationship makes female go from “rim” to “center”, from “object” to “subject”. it’s to deny the traditional female conception. and on the other hand, all of those shows portia is a personality liberation woman.
d. an explanation on portia masquerading as man
the period when the merchant of venice was created was called shakespeare’s comedy period. during this period shakespeare shaped humanities and the arts. british queen elizabeth i is in the heyday of the rule, monarchy solid and economic prosperity. shakespeare in the social reality of the ideals of humanism will be achieved confidence, optimism works filled with forthright and bright colors. there is an idiom said “british is the paradise for woman, and the hell for steed” , which means british female enjoy more free than male, and usually male should adhere to their wife. and the fact related to this is woman benefited more education, especially humanism. most of shakespeare’s heroines have been considered the model of queen elizabeth.③ in the merchant of venice, portia is a miss in a noble family. she is bored with spoon. her nature is lovely, smart, and witty and evens some naughty. her homeland is splendid and luxurious. having some propriety status, portia worries about nothing, and even late when she chooses her husband, she doesn’t think it’s necessary to choose someone who have the equal socioeconomic status. this is one reason why portia would show her heart to bassanio--a declining noble. absorbing the latest ideology, her ideological level has been improved very high. she is intelligent and resourceful. when she has known her husband’s best friend have been accused. in her mind, a good idea has been emerged prior to go to court and fight against shylock.
but there is the key problem--why does portia masquerade as man? wouldn’t she go to the court with her own dress? why should she disguise herself as a black-robed judge? these are the complicated questions in the context. in my opinion, there are three reasons to explain this phenomenon.
it is the fact that woman’s status has been improved a lot, especially at elizabeth’s
realm. there is another important factor about shakespeare’s comedy is “heroes in dress” as one says: “british are the paradise for woman and the hell for steed”. in shakespeare’s comedy, female not only is the protagonist, but also holds the thread of details, and very erudite. portia dresses in black robe, the first function is to pile comedy effect on, and throws the comedy atmosphere into sharp relief. the second function is the following: because humanism consists that the world they inhabit is not to despise but to question, explore, and enjoy. thus, by emphasizing the dignity of human beings and the importance of the present life, they voice their beliefs that man does not only have the right to enjoy the beauty of this life, but has the ability to perfect himself and to perform wonders. and advocate that woman should be treated equal to man. human is bored equal.④shakespeare creates portia, and gives her the endowment to dress up as man. and by using her unruly female speech, the function is to emphasize woman should be treated equally to man. even sometimes woman is much more excellent than man. maybe this is the shakespeare’s (as a humanist) expectation. the last but not the least function is: although woman’s status has been promoted, and the humanism ideological wave is sticking strongly out at the feudalism. males and females treated differently have deep roots in everybody’s mind, including females themselves. portia is clever enough. but she still is a people in the world. she also must obey the rules of convention. some critics say:“when elizabeth ⅰ, ruled the realm, the majority of woman found their access to the public sphere decreasing, as the economic roles they played in the late medieval period contracted. recurrent inflation, land shortages and poverty combined to create a ‘crisis of order’, though it developed new, and in some cases quite subtle, tactics for enforcing the subordination of woman. although the protestant belief in the spiritual equality of men and women according some women greater spiritual dignity and power, and fostered as well a more ‘companionate’ and affectionate mode of marriage, these gains did not translate into economic, political, or social equality”⑤( susan amussen, 1988 and merry e.weisner, 1993)
at the back of portia’s immortality, the play shows us the woman’s bitter which they have beard so long. as an excellent girl, she can’t enter court naturally, instead she masquerades as man. to establish the central status of human, their dignity and value; to advocate the love and equality; and of these are just to work for the expectation and demand of man, there is no business of woman. above all, there is the plot that portia masquerades as man in the play.
iv. a comparative study of characteristic differences
as we know, this comedy is very light and joyful. also its theme is very clean. but many criticisms have analyzed the figures in different angles. so it’s inevitable to make a comparison among the roles.
a. portia and jessica
both of them are the important roles in this play. and both have a wealth father. the basic difference is portia living in belmont, a peaceful, quiet place. and jessica lives in venice, which is a city full of pedal, bourgeoisie and smell of money. as we say‘circumstance creates human’ portia is witty, brave, and humorous, and there is always a clever maid for company. they enjoy themselves and live a very happy life. by contrast, jessica, a lonely girl, because of her father’s niggard and heartless, she has no friend. what she does everyday is just stay at home where is a place called ‘gloomy jail’. she can’t go out to have a play; even can’t open the window to have a breath. her father always worry someone will steal their money and jewels. shylock is the awful father to her. she never dears to say no to her father. so, when she encounters her love---a christian young man, lorenzo. she has nothing to do just packs some money and elopes with him:
jessica: alack, what heinous sin is it in me
to be ashamed to be my father’s child!
but though i am a daughter to his blood.
i am not to his manners. oh, lorenzo,
if thou keep promise, i will end this strife,
become a christian and thy loving wife!②( act ii ,scene iii, p64, 15-22)
here, we can say, the two girls have courage to pursue their own happiness. but portia’s happiness is hinge on her wit. although she is bound to her dead father’s will. she still helps bassanio to choose the correct chest with her wit. to audience, it’s more gratification to be accepted. and it’s a pity for jessica to choose the elopement for their love.
b. portia and shylock
portia is a humanist and she is the embodiment of kind, clever, and bravery. she is the person who is leading the trend of society, also we call her “trend—setter”. by contrast, shylock stands for usurer who is ignorant and backward. absolutely, they are run in the opposite direction. this is the knot that they will conflict directly. the wonderful performance of their conflicts is shown on scene ⅳ—the struggle on court. the way that portia crosses sword with shylock is similar to duke with he. both persuade him first. the little difference is duke has no alternative and portia has a well-thought-out plan. she wins the case with her wit. we can’t hold ourselves to think shylock is defeated by a girl who is as old as his daughter. at that time, he has just lost his daughter. what a pity it is! and at last, shylock loses all he has—wealth, daughter and religion. at that moment, shylock’s misfortunes tend to make him a more sympathetic figure than a comic one. “when you lost something, another one is retuning to you.” maybe that is the true mighty of shakespeare.
c. antonio and bassanio
one is the rich merchant of venice. he is the representative figure of growing bourgeois. he is ostentatious and is generous in aiding needy people. he always lends his money to other without interest. so he obtains much good praise. the other one is a profligate son of the rich. he is the embodiment of powerful noble. except usurer and feudalism, they are the dazzling figure in commercialized society. one obtains numerous money; the other has admirable class status. they are the bosom friend in reality. “money” and “power” work quite well between their friendships. they are antonio and bassanio. we nearly can awaken there are some intimate relationship from their name. no matter if it’s the planned on purpose by author. both they are very young and handsome. they always have some special smell scattered from their body that you can strike in their every breath. is it purity kindness or bewitching eye light? their friendship has been established firmly. antonio helps bassanio over his economic collapse. in turn, bassanio usually listen to antonio’s innermost feeling and the hitch on business. before portia goes up to the stage, they just like a pairs of “sweet lover”. but they aren’t lover, and not a combined community. antonio is a merchant and he has worried so many affairs about his business. maybe the only entertainment item is to scold every unmoral action acted by shylock and to excoriate his curtness, selfishness, stinginess and berate. what these all would happen like that, the reason just because shylock is jew. they are the conflicts of two opposite ideas, identification, convention and religions.
bassanio although is a noble, actually he is a declining aristocrat. he has squandered his money at different meeting, gathering and on woman. not to speak so tactful, he is a playboy who never plans to get a job or doing some business. instead, he would like to life his head from a profitable marriage. when he borrows money from antonio as chip to pursuing portia. antonio says:
i pray you, good bassanio, let me know it;
and if it stand, as you yourself still do,
within the eye of honour, be assured
my purse, my person, my extremest means,
lie all unlockt to your occasion② (actⅰsceneⅰ,p12,135-140)
and when his boats wreck on sea, he has had to obey the contract, and he says:
sweet bassanio, my ships have all miscarried, my creditors grow crule, my estate is very low, my bond to the jew is forfeit; and since in paying it, it is impossible i should live, all debates are cleared between you and i. if i might but see you at my death. notwithstanding, use your pleasure; if your love do not persuade you to come, let not my letter. ② (act ⅲ scene ⅱ p132,315-321)
from these words, we can confirm antonio is the best friend of bassanio. he always helps other not to ask for reward, even sacrifice his life. when bassanio hears the news that antonio will lose his life for him. he returns immediately and gives his lover’s ring back to the clerk to show his thanks. their friendship has been proved so perfect.
conclusion
the period that shakespeare created the merchant of venice was the reign of elizabeth ⅰ. what was the name of that period called “the first flowering period of english literature” and the greatest change began with drama. shakespeare was the representative at that time. in his romantic comedies, shakespeare takes an optimistic attitude toward love and youth. the merchant of venice, in which he has created tension, ambiguity, a self-consciousness and self-delighting artifice that, is at once intellectually exciting and emotionally engaging.
there are two comic characters exists in the merchant of venice. the first one is comedy united with mock. as we see, what the center place this story happened is a city full of the smell of commercialize and capitalism. different race, identification, religion, law and some ideas about fair and unfair are all showed out. in this play, jew shylock performs great greed for money. when he is resulted and treated unfair, he is brewing a strongly dissatisfaction to revenge the christian and graceful gentleman and appealing for equal treatment. in fact, shylock’s characteristic has many aspects. he is a usurer. he is avaricious and stingy. but he also has the pity point: being lost daughter; being humiliated by antonio; being treated unfair in christian society, and his endless miss for his wife. all of his role action has surpassed the friendship between antonio and bassanio, and the propagation of christian by portia. so in the thesis, the author argues shylock not only as a curt, greedy and sly person, but also as a sympathetic figure.
the second distinguishing feature is comedy united with the ideal of humanism. one critic says that shakespeare’s comedies and romances tend to focus on daughters whose age and rank make them desirable spouses for men seeking to improve their social standing. there is no exception of shakespeare’s comedies takes love as the theme. and the most used expression to describe the lover’s relationship in debate. they match with intelligent, minds and sentiments. woman always emerges the victor. they are not only chaste, beautiful, young and more sensible, cuter and wiser than the one whom they adore. and their ability to adapt themselves to changing conditions also is surpasses over man. everything that they want to do will be acted very well, including strives for happiness, in which they are more active than man. at the same time, portia is an independent woman who has attained some measure of financial independence.in this play, there are two main humanists who have been talked about. one is antonio. as we say, he is a wealth, kindhearted merchant in the beginning period of capitalist society. although he has been described as a weak, melancholy and lackluster character in my former paragraph. but we can’t deny that his indeed, actually, can be seemed the action of a real true human in that blood-stained economical system. he is sincere to bassanio, generous to the needy; and kind to his other friends. all of the ideology showed by him puts him at the platform of humanism. and he stands for the superior capitalist, bourgeois which is against usurer and the feudal barons. the other humanist is portia. she is the embodiment of wisdom, beauty, strategy. she is also considered the very one who can represent the liberated woman in renaissance in shakespeare’s play. no matter what roles she displayed: rich heritage, tenderness lover, wise and far sighted lawyer and devoted wife. she gets numerous praises. many people refer her to the intelligent, brave, liberated humanist, but every coin has two sides. at the back of portia’s radiance exists something that would make us deep in thought. is she real liberated thoroughly? utterly the answer is negative. because she still can’t enter court naturally in her dress but disguises her as a man in black-robe. so, we can get the conclusion that discrimination on gender and sex is still a problem that can’t be solved easily in any period.
an analysis of shakespeare’s the merchant of venice from the perspective of the feminism theory manifests the fact that the shakespearean heroines do not fall simply into two stereotypes，namely，the good or the bad. instead，endowed with the modern anti-patriarchal spirit，they are in the center of the stage whereas the men are in a subordinate and marginal position．by doing so，shakespeare has successfully undermined the patriarchal ideology and facilitated the demonstration of the traditional definition of women by a men-centered society，thereby offering a clear silhouette of his feminist ideas．
in a word, the merchant of venice is a comedy play. no matter how sophisticate the character expressed. i think the fundamental of shakespeare is to punish the evil and praise the good. the main melody of this play is still very light and joyful.
notes
①. 李超，邓兴义主编．新编英美概况[m]. 汕头：汕头大学出版社,2004：34-37.
②. shakespeare. the merchant of venice[m]. beijing: the commercial press, 1989：35-36,113,132,104.118,120-122,64,12,132.
③. 朱生豪译. 李尔王[m]. 北京：外文出版社，1999：8.
④. 张伯香. selected readings in english and american literatures[m].北京：外语教学与研究出版社，2002：8.
⑤. amussen, susan. an ordered society: gender and class in early modern england [m]. oxford: blackwell, 1988.
merry e.weisner. women and gender in early modern europe[m]. cambridge university press, 1993.
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