Abstract

As an eminent comedy in Shakespeare’s early time, The Merchant of Venice reflected the social conflicts in early capitalism time and praised love and friendship through the beautiful lines and wonderful plot. In the meantime, this masterpiece of Shakespeare conveys the spirit of humanism in Renaissance time. But the reflection of justice in that time by this play is usually neglected. By analyzing the sense of justice in Merchant of Venice, we can better understand the ideas that Shakespeare intent to express.

This essay intends to analyze the sense of justice in each character’s mind in Merchant of Venice and explore the justice that Shakespeare wants to express. The essay is mainly divided into three parts: the first part illustrated the writing background, including Elizabeth’s heyday and Renaissance. This part also introduces some basic principles on justice. The second part explores the sense of justice in ancient Greece, and in medieval time. The third part is the analysis on the sense of justice in each character’s mind. By analyzing the sense of justice, the Shakespeare’s sense of justice and his paradoxical mind can be revealed.


Key words: Merchant of Venice, justice, ancient Greece, medieval, Renaissance, paradox


摘要

作为莎士比亚早期重要的喜剧作品，《威尼斯商人》以其优美的语言、生动的情节，反映了资本主义萌芽时期的社会冲突和矛盾，歌颂了友情、爱情等主题，传递出浓厚的文艺复新时期的人文主义思想。然而，通常被人忽略的是，威尼斯商人中同样反映了当时社会的公平正义观之间的冲突。而分析这些公平正义观，有助于我们研究莎翁在创作《威尼斯商人》过程中，试图传递的的思想和观念。
本文试图通过联系、对比分析出《威尼斯商人》中各人物表现出的正义观，并由此总结出莎士比亚试图传达的正义观。文章主要分为三个部分，第一部分是背景介绍，主要叙述了文艺复兴时期和伊丽莎白一世的黄金时代所拥有的时代特点和这些特点对于《威尼斯商人》作品的影响。此外，本部分还对公平正义的概念作了大致的论述。第二部分则是对古希腊两大哲学家柏拉图与亚里士多德正义观的探讨，以及对中世纪正义观的介绍。第三部分则是结合上文的正义观和时代特点，对《威尼斯商人》中各人物所传达的正义观进行分析，最后通过这些人物的正义观总结出莎翁的正义观和其内心的矛盾。

关键词：威尼斯商人,公平正义，古希腊，中世纪，文艺复兴，矛盾