A Reading Report on The Merchant of Venice
After reading The Merchant of Venice, I have a deeply understanding of Shakespeare and his works, especially The Merchant of Venice, next, I will make a report of The Merchant of Venice according to what I understand.
In my reporting, I will introduce the contribution of Shakespeare, the brief introduction of The Merchant of Venice, the psychological study of different characters in the plot, and the comments of the whole reporting.
William shakespeare Among the greatest English authors, William Shakespeare is one of the rare geniuses of mankind who have become landmarks in the history of world culture.The works of William Shakespeare are a great landmark in the history of the world literature for he was one of the first founders of realism, a masterhand at realistic portrayal of human characters and relations.William Shakespeare is one of the most remarkable playwrights and poets the world has ever known.1.The following aspects are his art of creation:1).His major characters are neither merely individual one nor type ones, that is, each characters not only has his or her own personalities, but share features with others.2).Widely using the psychoanalytical approach, he shows the characters’ inner mind
comepletely.3).He seldom invents his own plots; instead, he borrows them from some old plays or storybooks, or from ancient Greek and Roman sources.4).In his writing, disguise is also an important device to creat dramatic irony, usually with woman as man.
5).He often wrote skillfully in different poetic forms, like sonnet, the blank verse, and the rhymed couplet.2.The main theme in Shakespeare’s play: 1).Three categories: comedies, tragedies and history plays.2).His history plays are mainly written under the principle that national unity under a mighty and just sovereign is a neceity.3).In his romantic comedies, he takes an optimistic attitude towards love, friendship and youth.4).His tragedies often portray some noble hero who faces the injustice of human life and is caught in a difficult situation whose fate is closely connected with the fate of whose nation, The heros have some weakne in their characters, which finally lead to their tragic falls.3.General Comments on Shakespeare:Shakespeare has his progreive siginificance, but he also has the limitations of his age and his own social station.In terms of current people’s eyes, he really made a great contribution to the literature.It is hard to measure his effects in drama and poetry.To sum up, he is a great writer.
The Merchant of Venice:1.The Brief Introduction:it is well-known that The Merchant of Venice is one of the Shakespeare’s
famous comedies wrote in his early time.Its theme is to praise the humans’ good qualities-kindne, friendship and love.This drama not only shows the contradiction between bourgeois and usurer at the beginning of the Capitalist society, but tells us the writer’s humanism ideas towards the money, law and religion at that time.(Humanism: the main distinguishing feature of that period, also the brightne characteristic which is shown from the important role in this play.
)In this article, the writer use the method of psychological study of characters as well as comparason to analysize each charactor in this play, showing the profoundatmosphere of the humanism at the beginning of bourgeoism.It exprees the writer’s thinking of current society and people’s life, at the same time, he puts his ideal dream in his play.In this play, the writer criticizes Shylock, the typical role of the Capitalist society, while the writer gives the ideal elements of humanism to Portia, a woman with the beauty both in her appearance and her inner heart.In such a way, the play leave the impreion that women make a breakthrough in their rights, equality and recognization.In the proce of liberating, women play a very important role.
2.Plot: Baanio fall in love with Portia, but he has nothing else, so he turn to his friend Antonio.Antonio would like to help
Baanio, but he has no money at hand, so he borrows money from Shylock on one condition that Antonio must return the money on time, or he will lose one pound of his meat.Antonio accepts, and promises that he could return, However, Antonio’s ship couldn’t return on time, so he fail to return money.Shylock hates Antonio because he always helps poor, which affects his busine.So Shylock determines to kill Antonio.When they go to the court to judge Antonio’s crime, the judger has no any idea to help Antonio, at the very moment, Portia appeares as a judger, and she comes up with a good idea to help Antonio, finally she succeeds, what’s more, she gives Shylock a serious punishment for his mean and sympathylene.
Charactors Shylock: a Jewish usurer, he is a typical tragic-comic character in the play,because he accumulates as much wealth as he can and even his daughter has no right to use one of his money.He is also cruel, for he would rather to kill Antonio than accept the three times’ money.On the other hand, he is also a tragic figure, he can not be treated equally by the society, he must use more money to get safety, he love money, but he have to use his treasure to make sure his safe, so he wants to revenge.
Portia a typical figure of humanism, she has new knowledge, and she is smart, because she make full use of the law to help
Antonio smartly.So she has the humans’ good qualities-kindne, friendship and love.It can be said that Portia is the figure of new women, the symbol of humorous, happy, and generous, and the figure of brave shows in defending for her husband in the court.In terms of many people’s eyes, it is a complex case, while a young lady Portia can make it very easy.The reason why she is so praised is that the writer wants to puts his ideal dream on this woman.
Antonio a newly-appeared merchant in bourgeois, the writer beautifies him in the play for his friendship, his forgivene, and his tolerance towards the Shylock’s murder as well as the death.He has the spirit of ancient Roman’s hero.After all, he has the qualities-honest, humanism.
Baanio is willing to help others and showing sympathy to others, but he doesn’t know how to struggle with those who wants to trap him, that is, he doesn’t know how to protect himself.He shows his weakne all the time.
Comments: After reading The Merchant of Venice,I realize that though money is eential in our daily life, however, we still have many things much important than money in the world.Do not be confused by the money, and my principle with money is that money, enough is better than overflow.In our daily life, we shouldn’t judge someone by his position and money, but his
personality.We shouldn’t be scared by the sudden trouble, instead, we should face those trouble with our wisdom just like Portia.Besides, we should treasure our friendship in this complex society with countle benefits, we will have a better life under our friendship.
