ABSTRACT
Shylock, a tragic image, is a money lender, Jew, and also a father of a daughter in the play. He intends to fight against Christians for his race. However, he fails with nothing left. It is the social factors that play an important part in his tragedy, such as religious factor, racial factor, and so on and so forth. Besides, the personal factors of the author, William Shakespeare, have a great influence on the result of Shylock’s fate. That is to say, Shakespeare makes Shylock a tragic character to release his own religious, humanistic and political thoughts.
Keywords:study; shylock; tragedy; social factors; factors of the author
Contents
1. Introduction 1
2. Researches on Shylock and His Fate 2
2.1 The Variety of Shylock’ Image 2
2.2 The Tragedy of Shylock 3
3. Social Factors of Shylock’s Tragedy 4
3.1 Religious Factors of Shylock’s Tragedy 4
3.1.1 The Origin of Judaism 4
3.1.2 The Relationship between Judaism and Christianity 5
3.2 Racial Factors of Shylock’s Tragedy 6
3.2.1 The Trait of Jew 6
3.2.2 The Jews on The Edge 7
4. Influence of Shakespeare’s Personal Reasons on Shylock’s Tragedy 10
4.1 Influence of Shakespeare’s Thought of Humanism on Shylock’s Tragedy 10
4.2 Influence of Shakespeare’s Religious Thought on Shylock’s Tragedy 11
4.3 Influence of Shakespeare’s Political Thought on Shylock’s Tragedy 12
5. Conclusion 14
Acknowledgements 15
References 16