A Comparative Analysis of the Miser Images of Jiansheng Yan and Shylock

Abstract

Jiansheng Yan and Shylock are protagonists in The Scholars and The Merchant of Venice, and was always been an extreme understanding of these two characters. In the traditional reader’s view, as the typical miser images of the literature history,  Jiansheng Yan and Shylock have been criticized by readers for a long time. Through a comparative analysis of the similarities and differences between Jiansheng Yan’s and Shylock’s miser images, and the factors of similarities and differences, this thesis tries to comprehensively interpret Jiansheng Yan and Shylock and provide readers with two more vivid and stereoscopic characters.

This thesis takes the Jiansheng Yan’s and Shylock’s miser images as the research objects, and makes a comparative analysis of the similarities and differences between these two characters as well as the factors of the similarities and differences. This thesis can be divided into four parts. The first part briefly introduces the portrait of characters in The Scholars and The Merchant of Venice; the second part is a comparative analysis of the similarities between Jiansheng Yan and Shylock from four aspects: values of money, self-congnition, family values and the tragic ending; the third part summarizes the differences between the two characters in social class  and moral values; the fourth part states the factors of similarities and differences. The paper holds that the miser images of Jiansheng Yan and Shylock are the products of the different times, and their characteristics also reflect the features of the times in which they live. Therefore, rational and objective interpreting of the characters in the literature involves a comprehensive and deep thorough analysis of the times when they live.

Key words: miser images; Jiansheng Yan; Shylock; character