The Merchant of Venice

Shakespeare is Britain's the most outstanding Renaissance masters.Shakespeare's play, "The Merchant of Venice" explored the timeless topic of money and love. Money is the world's most valuable things .There is something even more precious than money? Rich and moving story of family ties, witty dialogue, the plot turn, exaggerated the circumstances of Comedy, romance and legend is full of color. Is intertwined with friendship, love, love the world and lead us to understanding what is important in life.

The play tells a story that happens in Italy. A moneyless young Venetian, Bassanio, is making preparations to propose to Portia, a rich beauty of Belmont. He needs money and appeals to his friend Antonio, a merchant of Venice, for help. But Antonio?s money is invested in ships at sea. To help Bassanio in his courtship, he borrows money from Shylock the Jewish usurer. Shylock, who has been insulted by Antonio and other Christians, however, agrees to lend the money on the condition that if the loan is not paid in time, he may cut a pound of flesh from Antonio?s body. With this money, Bassanio goes to Belmont and succeed in the marriage with Portia. But news comes that Antonio?s ship sank and can?t return on time so he cannot pay the loan. Shylock demands his pound of flesh. The case is brought before the court. Antonio is in danger. At the critical moment, a young doctor of law arrives at the court. He appeals to Shylock for mercy with a moving speech, but in vain. Then the doctor admits the validity of Shylock?s claim, but warns him, under pain of death, that he must fulfill the every letter of his bond, taking no more and no less than one pound of flesh, and spilling no drop of blood. Seeing himself thus cornered, the Jew has no choice but to obey the verdict of the court. To everyone?s surprise, the young doctor of law who saves the life of Antonio is Portia in disguise. Finally they live together happily. The story has a happy ending in theory. But I don?t think the end is really happy and is a kind of “grave comedy”.

In this single-minded pursuit of a pound of flesh, his frequent mentions of the cruelty he has endured at Christian hands make it hard for us to label him a natural born monster. In one of Shakespeare?s most famous monologues, for example, Shylock argues that Jews are humans and calls his quest for vengeance the product of lessons taught to him by the cruelty of Venetian citizens. On the other hand, Shylock?s coldly calculated attempt to revenge the wrongs done to him by murdering his persecutor, Antonio, prevents us from viewing him in a primarily positive light. Shakespeare gives us unmistakably human moments, but he often steers us against Shylock as well, painting him as a miserly, cruel, and prosaic figure. But I think Shylock suffers much discrimination for he is a Jew. It?s unfair. All men were born equally.

We can learn much from the play. Money is important, but there are many far more important things in this world. Do not be fooled by the surface. In our real live we should threat everyone equally and do not have color vision to look at other people. And when we meet with unexpected difficulties, we should keep calm and solve it skillfully just as Portia does......

 

第二篇：威尼斯商人读后感及简析

威尼斯商人读后感及简析

威尼斯商人创作于1596-1597年，是莎士比亚早期的重要作品之一。

这部剧作的一个重要文学成就，也是这部作品之所以能够经久不衰并被人们的一个原因就是塑造了夏洛克这一惟利是图、 冷酷无情的高利贷者的典型形象。夏洛克的出现备受人们的谴责，更是人们批判的对象。但我却不以为然，究其原因如下：

（一） 从作品中我们可得夏洛克是一个犹太人。当我在一些资料了解到西方世界对犹太名

族进行血腥统治、奴役以及残忍屠杀。就明白了作品中莎翁塑造下的夏洛克拥有世

上最无耻的贪婪、阴险、凶残的人物形象其实不是空穴来风，而是有很大的历史水

分的。我们的莎翁也不过是反映了当时社会的普遍心理罢了。引用现代潮流解释这

个普遍心理其实就是我们常说的“种族歧视”。这样看来我们所崇拜的的莎士比亚

也是一名追随种族歧视的代表人之一。因此作品中夏洛克的存在便有着深远的意义

了。这样细细看来夏洛克其实是种族歧视的受害人，兼职反抗者。他坚持他的尊严

要求法律公正，敢于对敌人发动报复，但历史告诉我们正义的道路注定是孤独的，只能被淹没或吞噬。

（二） 女儿杰西卡与安东尼奥的朋友洛伦佐的私奔。正因这个剧情从而引出本作品的

焦点“一磅肉”开始展开。主要的戏剧矛盾体现在夏洛克和安东尼奥身上。而

作为正面人物安东尼奥他拥有被人们称赞的高贵品质，而夏洛克只能与唾弃、

冷酷、凶残为知己，遭受来自人们的不公平待遇。但讽刺的是16世纪末期的欧

洲是崇尚法律精神的社会，但所谓的法律平等却背弃了最想拥有他的犹太民族。作为犹太人的夏洛克抱怨自己被看作是个异教徒，他说道：“犹太人没有眼睛吗？犹太人没有手，器官，感觉，情感或者热情吗？如果一个基督教徒误解了一个

犹太人，他又应该怎样去对待这种遭遇呢？报复？报复？我将会把你们教给我

的罪行实施在你们身上”。以及唯一的一个女儿的出走都给他带来了致命的打击。 综上所述，夏洛克的悲剧是由当时社会矛盾造成的，他并不是一个十恶不赦的恶棍。他身为犹太人，凭借自己的勤劳和智慧拼命地积累财富，让自己的家人过上富裕的生活。但在基督教统治的社会并不能证明你是一个热爱生活、应该受到人们尊敬、得到社会庇佑的犹太人，相反因为自己的民族和宗教信仰而备受人们的唾弃、歧视和偏见。为什么我们就不能把我们的同情给予这位失去一切的犹太人爸爸呢？