preface
In Shakespeare's novel The Merchant of Venice, the most fascinating and influential characters are Baucia and Sherlock.
Jessica, the daughter of Sherlock, who is related to these two protagonists, is also an important character.
Her status is a character that is difficult to notice, and compared to Bosia, she is a woman with an independent spirit and a rebellious spirit.
Jessica's racial identity, religious identity, marital status, and uncertainty in life are all valuable topics.
In The Merchant of Venice, Jessica's multiple identities become the focus of attention.
This article focuses on the core question of "Can Jessica get the same happiness as Bosia", and explores the diversity and uncertainty that Jessica shows in real life.
Jessica's Jewish identity
Jessica best reflects the character of the protagonist Borcia from the action.
In 1600, Bosia wrote on the cover of the play: "Pausia chose a husband in three boxes according to his father's will", apparently obeying his father's will.
Jessica subverts her father's will and controls her father's wealth.
Bosia marries a man who pretends to love her, while Jessica takes her own action and picks a man for herself who is willing to marry.
When they got married, they both surpassed their husbands in wealth, but after marriage, Bosia dominated, while Jessica was at a disadvantage.
Bosia is the true owner of Belmont's utopia, and Jessica becomes Belmont's invader, a pagan.
Pausia cleverly applied his ring to Barcelona Neo, and as a rare woman, he was given a chance to get married.
In addition to Jessica's escape and the wealth stolen from Sherlock, taking her mother's turquoise ring to waste on something stupid like a monkey, a traditional symbol of bestial desire.
For Bosia, the ring had a sacred significance, elevating her status with men and marriage, and establishing her identity as a leader of women.
Jessica took the ring and made her father even more angry, which made Sherlock's roar louder and made Sherlock feel the urge to rip a piece of meat from Antonio.
The difference between Borsia and Jessica is that Borsia is an intelligent Christian woman who is a good daughter who obeys her father's wishes.
On the other hand, Jessica, who left him alone in front of Sherlock and robbed him of his property, is simply a complete cultist.
Baucia's marriage is still undecided, his marriage is still between the man who chose the box and his father, and Baucia assisted Bassanio in choosing the silver box when he chose the box in Barcelona.
At the same time, he had always followed his father's will, and the marriage was also approved by him.
Instead, Sherlock agreed to Jessica's marriage during a trial where his life was threatened.
Bosia is a submissive Christian, and Jessica is a man who has freed herself from her father and Judaism.
This contrast neatly illustrates the existence of two different norms in Elizabethan England, between Christianity and Judaism.
In this view, Bosia was appreciated for obeying her father and showing her kindness, because both she and her mother were honorable Christians.
Jessica escaped from a Jewish family and converted to Christianity.
This shows that as a Jewish, Sherlock should be betrayed, abandoned and ridiculed by his own daughter.
Jessica's multiple identities and religious identities
The Christian system, as well as Spanish lineage laws, produced the identification and definition of the Jewish nation.
In Christianity, the early religion was because the death of Jesus was caused by the Jews, who were permanent slaves.
In theory, the process of conversion turns low, enslaved Jews into superior, free Christians.
The national identity of the Jews would not be compromised if the converts had power over Christians, or if they enjoyed special rights generally reserved only for Christians.
In early proselytic societies, Jews who were considered to have a lower rank of faith could reach heights higher than Christians by proselytizing.
Like a gift from God, conversion is seen in one way as a privilege that puts Jews above Christians.
What is more, the conversion made the distinction between Christians and Jews no longer obvious, leading to a crisis.
Faced with this crisis and the resulting confusion about classification, religious communities in Spain tried to implement a law called the "pure-blood law."
Sherlock demonstrates the traditional values of Judaism by showing that Jessica's blood is in her blood.
The affection between them is delicate;
Sherlock is a serious father, while Jessica is a very rebellious little girl, and the relationship and relationship between the two shows the background of a typical Jewish family.
Sherlock's attitude towards Jessica at home is completely in line with the strictness of the Jews and the rules of the Old Testament.
Compared to Jessica's "home is hell", Belmont is simply "heaven".
She doubts her father's love and resentment towards him, and the relationship between them is something she was born with.
At home, Jessica has no identity, no appreciation, and no one to care for, which shows that Jessica is a Jewish woman, and a true portrayal of most Jewish women.
Because of her low status, she had to convert to her beliefs in order to be promoted.
But as a Jewish, she was either considered a "Gentile" or a Jew.
She changed her faith in a different way than her father, and she could not have any influence on her son's ethnic and religious views.
She was also a "Gentile", and in Belmont, where women such as Baucia were dominated, she did not gain any status, and she also betrayed her mother to win her favor.
Jewish men were believed to have a national nature against conversion, which was often manifested in their skin and blood.
Jewish women are not treated differently because they are different from Christianity, and the sincerity and validity of their conversions is unquestionable.
At the same time, the conversion of the Jews helped them consolidate the authority of Christianity over the unbelievers.
In this play, Salerio uses some national words with different skin colors and different blood ties to distinguish Sherlock from Jessica.
Sherlock was covered in darkness and blood.
Jessica's skin is as white as ivory, her blood is as white as liquor, and her skin is much whiter than that of Jewish men, this phrase is applied to Jessica, saying that her skin is extremely white.
Jessica looks "white" and Sherlock looks "darker", and although both are Jewish, there are still differences in skin color, blood, etc.
The distinction between skin color and negative attributes comes from classical and religious sources.
In ancient Rome, dark-skinned people were considered slaves, while in Christianity, dark-skinned people were considered evil and devilish.
The black man is a symbol of evil and incorrigible nature, and the white man is a symbol of noble Christians.
In this play, Baucia and Antonio are often referred to as "fair" or with "white skin", white also referring to Christianity, and dark-skinned people referring to heretics.
Uncertainty in the play
During a conversation with Rolanzo, Rolanzo asks why he likes Jessica and tries to explain to him that Jessica is not a standard Jewish girl.
He described Jessica's virtues, such as justice, wisdom, honesty, and qualities that most Jews did not have, in her words.
He liked Jessica not because she was a simple Jewish woman, he liked Jessica because she was a heretic with Christian potential, he could make her a Christian, and she brought him wealth.
Jessica fell in love with the Christian Rolanzo, and through marriage saved her soul and gained a new identity in Christianity.
However, since the show does not mention when and where their wedding took place, people have questioned this.
On the contrary, it was Baucia who held a humble marriage ceremony before leaving, and in contrast to whether Jessica became a true Christian, it is unknown.
The fifth scene is important to Jessica and important to Sherlock, and this scene highlights her place in Christianity and her compassion for Sherlock.
Jessica is a woman who may become a Christian when she gets married, but she is still influenced by Judaism.
For Rolanzo, she has the dual identity of "daughter of the Jew" and "beloved wife", but the latter is still uncertain.
The fifth, Sherlock's defeat, is intertwined with the success of other believers, and this one, she is her last words, and her image, like a sad song.
In addition, Jessica's characters in this play also borrow classic humorous habits and Elizabethan romancetic stories.
Show the contradiction between a rebellious child and a mean father.
Jessica and Rolanzo's "love", Baucia accepted Jessica, the two lived together in Belmonte, transcended the gap between faith and wealth, and became a perfect love that transcended faith and wealth.
Jessica symbolizes the transition from bondage to freedom, from misfortune to happiness.
However, the worry is that Jessica still has a "Jewish" tone, so she still has not been able to free herself from her "Jewishness".
In the fifth act, when she and Roranzo are only two people, they have an intimate and romantic conversation that tells people stories about Troylos, Tisper, Queen Dido, Medea.
Troy Ross is in Shakespeare's play Troy Ross and Cressida, a woman who can forget her father because of her love.
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is based on the legend of Pyrams and Tisper.
The Roman author Virgil's Aeneid chronicles Empress Dido's love for Aeneas, who broke her promise to her dead husband and never married again.
Medea is a typical character in the novels of Euripides, Medea was betrayed by everyone for love, and had a son and a daughter, but in exchange for being betrayed by her husband.
All four novels are a love affair full of betrayal and tragedy, which is fused with symbolic devices such as "Moonlight Night" and "The Difficulty of Marriage", all of which provide clues to the tragic ending of Jessica's tragic love.
Jessica seems to be blinded by Rolanzo's rhetoric and commitment, and she also questions Rolanzo's love and commitment.
Jessica's disastrous is that her fate hides her sad love with a beautiful curtain.
She tries to get rid of, rebel against fate, tries to be the master of her own destiny, she is shrouded in the sadness of love represented by mythology, and cannot escape the fate of "she is really evil" as she debuted.
epilogue
In Shakespeare's work, Jessica is a multifaceted woman with multiple identities who evokes the affection of the listener but at the same time disturbs people's perceptions of themselves through questioning ethics.
Jessica's rebellion, her racial identity, her religious beliefs, her marriage, are all unknowns, and none of these can make her as happy as Baucia.
She is the daughter of Sherlock, an outcast pagan.
Money binds her to the four protagonists, and her love does not have a father, money, a husband, a master, and an inescapable tragedy like Bosia.
In this tragic Jessica fate, we can glimpse the situation and fate of excluded women during the Elizabethan period, their initial identification with the Jewish people, and the tragic fate of many women similar to Jessica.
This is also the reason why women like Jessica who are marginalized by society like to watch this kind of movie.
She has a rather happy ending-style tragic love, anxiety caused by religious views and racial identities behind multiple identities;
All uncertainties could not make her a true "Christian woman" or truly happy like Bosia.
Although her story seems perfect, it is actually a tragic relationship, combined with the uneasiness brought about by her religious beliefs and national consciousness, which does not make her truly happy.
Bibliography:
[1] Tan Peisheng, "On Drama"
[2] Yu Qiuyu, "World Drama"
[3] William Shakespeare's Complete Works of Shakespeare, Volume 1, translated by Zhu Shenghao
[4] Shang Rui, Wang Xiaoling, "A Study of the Merchants of Venice under the Cultural Conflict between Christianity and Judaism"