If you love literature, you must not miss Shakespeare's work, because this is a great writer who can not only make you cry, but also make you laugh. If Hamlet is a great tragedy, then The Merchant of Venice is a great comedy. In the process of laughing and crying, you must be able to feel the emotions of the author, feel the liberation and freedom of humanism. Today we will interpret the hilarious "Merchant of Venice" together to see what is so clever about this work.
The Merchant of Venice is not really a complete comedy, it is actually the most satirical of all Shakespeare's comedies. This is a drama work, and the whole story basically revolves around the two stories of "one pound of meat" and "three percent of the kiss". The protagonist of the story is the Venetian merchant Antony, who, because of his confusion, borrows some money from a Jewish merchant in order to help his friend propose marriage, and this fierce merchant explains that if he does not pay it back, he will cut a whole pound of flesh from Antony's chest. No one believed that Anthony would not be able to repay the money, but the weather was unpredictable, and finally Antony's merchant ship hit a rock at sea, and he lost money, and there was really no money to pay back to the Jewish merchant.
When the story is recounted here, the main line is moved to Miss Portia. In order to choose her own Ruyi Langjun, the rich lady Portia put the small photo in the three boxes of gold, silver and lead according to her father's last words, and whoever could find the small photo would marry him. Antoni's friend Bassanio participated in the marriage proposal, he did not choose a valuable joint venture with the Prince of Morocco and the Prince of Aragon, but chose a lead box, and the small photo was indeed inside, and the proposal was successful. Bassanio rushes to save Antony with his wife, Portia, who seizes on the inadequacy of the contract and demands that the Jewish merchant must cut just one pound of flesh, and the cruel Jewish merchant loses the case, and the comedy ends.
Throughout the novel, the two protagonists are mainly the ruthless Jewish merchants Sherlock and Anthony, and Sherlock is not actually a complete villain, this person is fierce, but there is something worthy of sympathy. For a long time, the Jewish nation has been regarded as an inferior nation, and Christians have always had deep contradictions with the Jews, especially Antony's repeated insults of Sherlock as "pagans", which is actually a true portrayal of the contradictions between the two religions. Shakespeare wrote bluntly about ethnic contradictions, thus creating the image of a flesh-and-blood Sherlock, who was not just a businessman, nor just a loan shark, a despised and repeatedly hurt "pagan", and it was precisely because of this that his nerves were so sensitive and fragile.
Antonio, on the other hand, is a completely positive figure, he is a commercial capitalist, Shakespeare does not write that he is rich, but he helped his friends to borrow money from Sherlock, especially when the court sentenced, he is bent on death, without the slightest taste of blaming his friends, such a person is incomparably great. When the Jewish merchant lost the case, Antonio did not continue to pursue and fight, not to demand that all his property be confiscated, but to demand that he be treated leniently.
The merchants of The Merchant of Venice have given us great inspiration, and in today's moneyistic society, many people have forgotten how to write friendships. Many people's so-called friendships are all based on money and profit, such as the friendship between Bassanio and Antonio, which we have hard to find. Antonio generously donated money for his friends, and at this moment when the court decided to live or die, he never complained about his friend, can the current "wine and meat friend" do it? We live in a world full of "friendship" and we have a lot of friends to eat and drink together every New Year's Day. But we live in a "lonely" world at the same time, because when you lose money and status, you will also lose these "friends".