Shakespeare's creation of the play "The Merchant of Venice" has successfully shaped the image of Charlotte as a greedy, insidious and murderous miser in the general world view. I used to take it for granted that this is the case, of course, most people do. feel. After watching the movie "The Merchant of Venice" at this time, I feel more sympathy for Sherlock, sympathizing with his injustice, sympathizing with him for being different, being hurt because of his specialness, and sympathy for his untimely birth. First of all, Sherlock was a Jew, living in an era full of intolerance towards Jews. As introduced at the beginning of the film, according to the laws of Venice at the time, Jews were forced to live in ancient factory buildings or civilian areas separated by walls; after sunset, the gates were locked and Christians guarded; Everyone had to wear a red hat to identify themselves as Jews. Sherlock lives in a society that hates Jews. When he walks on the street, there will be sudden saliva flying to his face. Why was he insulted like this? Just because he is a Jew. Maybe we all hated this Sherlock who was all about loan sharks, but we must first know that the laws of Venice at the time prohibited Jews from owning property. So the Jews could only lend usury, lend money, and charge interest. Sherlock was a loan shark, and what he did was against the laws of Christianity. When a person's birth itself is a disaster, he still lives by his own efforts, and makes himself and his family live well, even in the face of the hostility of the whole world and the strange eyes of everyone, He still lives tenaciously, how much pressure it has to endure. Don't forget, he was also an ordinary child, and he has lost more since he was a child. However, when it comes to borrowing, it is ridiculous. It is that borrowing is enough for the entire capitalist world. The origin of the entire capitalism is borrowing. I have to praise Charlotte for her intelligence and vision.
When he was studying the texts as a child, he felt outraged at his behavior of wanting a piece of useless human flesh rather than repaying more than several times the loan and insisting on killing Antonio. Is Sherlock's nature really ruthless, cruel and vicious, insisting on his perverted preferences?
Let's listen to his poignant words:
"Mr. Antonio, you rebuke my money and my interest again and again in the market. I always shrug my shoulders and endure it, because our people It's called patience. You call me a cult, a wicked dog, and you spurn my Jewish clothing, all because I used my property."
"He (Antonio) insulted me and cost me five thousand. 10,000. He mocked my losses, mocked my earnings, rebuked my nation, thwarted my business, alienated my friends, angered my enemies, for what? Because I am a Jew. A Jew is No eyes? Do Jews have no hands? No organs? No height? No senses, feelings, or passions? How to heal? Not like the Christians, feeling the change of heat and cold? You stab us, won't we bleed? You scratch us, won't we laugh? You poison us, won't we die? And if you offend us , will we not retaliate? If we are all like you, we will be like you in this regard.”
At the beginning of the movie, Sherlock was spit out thick phlegm by Antonio for no reason, but Sherlock silently endured this discriminatory insult. I guess it's just a microcosm of his life, no one will be spit in the face for the first time and silently suffer Reaction. Yes, he has endured it for many years, and has been so silently enduring it. Finally, one day, when Sherlock got a chance to take revenge on Antonio, how could he let it go, instead of breaking out in silence, he would perish in silence. This is him. The crater of this volcano, this is a rare opportunity for him, this is a chance to make his voice resound in Venice, a cry that makes life meaningful. In the courtroom, in the face of so many angry faces, Sherlock opened his mouth to dozens of mouths, plausibly and never fell down, which made me admire his eloquence and courage even more. When asked, "You have no compassion at all, how can you hope that people will be compassionate to you in the future?" Let's see how he answered:
"I don't do anything wrong, so why should I be punished? You bought a lot of slaves, Treat them like donkeys, dogs, mules and horses, and make them do all kinds of menial jobs because you paid for them. Can I say to you, set them free and let them marry your children? Why do they To sweat and sweat under a burden? Let their beds be as soft as yours, and let their tongues taste what you eat, and you will answer: 'These slaves are ours.' So I I can also answer you: I bought the pound of meat I asked for at a great price; it belongs to me, and I must take it in my hands. If you refuse me, then you Go to hell with the law! Venice's decree is a dead letter. I'm waiting for the judgment now, please answer me quickly, can I get this pound of meat?"
Sherlock's hatred of Antonio is just like the hatred of all Jews for Christians. It doesn't matter who Charlotte and Antonio are at this time. They represent their respective religious labels, but Antonio is perfect in Shakespeare's writings. The image is decent, affectionate, and gentle, while Sherlock is narrow-minded, stubborn, and ruthless. So in our opinion, Antonio's hatred of Sherlock is just, and Sherlock's revenge against Antonio is despicable and shameful. We all stand on the opposite side of Sherlock for granted, but everyone recalls what Charlotte did. Did he really do something wrong? He doesn't rob or steal, he simply fulfills the contract and the law, that's all.
His daughter stole his gold coins and eloped with her lover, looking at her old father's back and leaving only one sentence: "Goodbye, if I am lucky enough, I will lose a father and you will lose a daughter." The ruthlessness of this woman is the deepest irony of this world. A daughter who spent 80 gold coins for a night outside and exchanged his wife's emerald for a monkey was named as a free love and ran away. Head, don't forget, she took away the heart of a father who loved her deeply and his hard-earned money! ! ! I can't forget Charlotte's lost soul in the rain the night her daughter fled, the desperation of a father who has lost the world. Charlotte loves his daughter so much that even though he forbids her from interacting with Christians, it is also because he knows that Jews are not respected and fair in the Christian world, he just protects his own in his own way. daughter. After he lent money to Antonio, Bassanio invited him to a banquet. He was reluctant because he couldn't stand their lavish life, but he went anyway. Charlotte seemed out of place at that party, but to me he was shining like gold.
Finally, I want to talk about the character of Bassanio. First of all, I don't like the character, even a little contempt. Bassanio idled all day, owed a huge debt to his debauchery as a young man. According to him, he owes Antonio the most debt (it can be seen that there are more than one or two creditors), but he once again has the cheek to borrow money from Antonio for a woman who has never been in a relationship, but only knows that she has an indescribable beauty. In order to satisfy his own selfish desires, he finally used a pound of meat from his friend as a guarantee and borrowed a huge loan for himself to squander.
When his friend Antonio couldn't repay his loan on time and was yelled at by Sherlock to cut off a pound of flesh, Bassanio was a character swept away by anger. Except for the abuse and weak defense of Sherlock, he would never think about it again. Find a better way to save the friend who is going to take his life for himself, and in the end can only watch the friend almost become Sherlock's soul under the knife. In my opinion, Bassanio is just an incompetent playboy, and I can't see a positive image of taking risks for love.
Sherlock is destined to be a tragic character in this comedy, how did he end up winning? Perhaps what Shakespeare wants to tell in this play is to awaken the people of the society at that time with the tragedy of a character. If this is the case, then I have to admit that Shakespeare is really a great author like Lu Xun, and this work has also become a great writer. Made me love Shakespeare's entry.
Charlotte is not wrong at all, what is wrong is the society he lives in, a society full of discrimination and injustice, a world that is black and white. In an era when the strong make rules with their own worldview, everything that is different from the mainstream is wrong. The sad thing is not the erasure of individual personality, but the fact that everyone is drawn by the same values, and it is they who have created this black and white world . I once fantasized that the earth could be unified, so that there would be no wars in the world. Now, I think the earth is very good now. This different feeling is touching.
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