This is a comedy, but after watching it, there is no joy at all. It looks like all I have in my head is sympathy for Sherlock, sympathy for the Jews. And what seemed like a happy ending in the end was not.
It seems to me that Sherlock should have cut off a pound of Antonio's flesh. But in the end, Antonio was saved, and Sherlock's property was divided and executed. It was an unexpected ending. According to common stories, Antonio is the protagonist of the "positive characters", while Sherlock is the "negative character" who is extremely sinful. Antonio has the powerful aura of the protagonist given by Shakespeare, and he can't die if he wants to. In many stories, when describing the confrontation between good and evil, the positive characters will definitely suffer some setbacks. The negative characters will have the upper hand first, and then the ending will turn things around. The positive characters will win a big victory and live with his friends Happy days and the villains are either killed or killed anyway.
But there is never justice and injustice in the world. Some are just a sense of justice and a sense of injustice.
Just like the recent series of aggression against China. We defend our homeland, believing that we are just and the great powers are unjust. However, is it really so?
The relationship between the strong and the weak is basically that the strong bully the weak, and the great powers, as a series of powerful countries in the world at that time, are not related to you, and you have so many good things here, can you not hit you? Who is it? Therefore, China and foreign powers, the former is neither just, nor the latter is unjust, but the position you stand determines the emotion you show when you look at a certain event.
In the eyes of Christians, Jews are infidels, hateful, evil, ugly, sinful worthy of death, and not worthy of mercy. So that no one felt anything wrong with the series of oppression of Jews in the film, but they were full of justice and righteousness; in the eyes of the Jews, Christians were enemies, oppressors, unforgivable, and they were going to hell forever. Can't turn over. So when Sherlock can kill Antonio he will throw away his money. Because the thrill of revenge had taken over his mind, he wanted revenge more than he wanted money. Sherlock is a mercenary person and an out-and-out miser. The only thing that can make him give up his money is revenge against Christians, and the hatred in his heart is evident. At the same time, his daughter took his money and ran away with his enemy. How could he resist not taking revenge?
However, at the end of the day, Sherlock just wanted to win back his dignity. Sherlock is like a microcosm of the Jewish people at that time, showing the tragedy that the Jews wanted to win back their dignity and could not get it. This tragedy is a Christian comedy.
As for Antonio, he does have good qualities, but he only gives his kindness to his own kind. And he never regarded non-Christians as his own kind, let alone a Jew who he hated. When the execution of Sherlock was announced at the end of the play, Antonio deprived Sherlock of his right to believe, which was more uncomfortable for Sherlock than killing him! Is this also a form of revenge?
The relationship between Sherlock and Antonio is like a microcosm of European society in the 16th century. Jews and non-Jews retaliate against each other, and in the end, Jews always suffer.
As the so-called "when will the grievances be repaid", this is really a sad grievance!
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