When Shall We Laugh? : THE MERCHANT OF VENICE AS A FESTIVE COMEDY, PART 1

摘要

The Merchant of Venice has been interpreted differently by the trends of ages and the tastes of audiences. In fact, there are contradicting interpretations of the play ; sometimes Shylock is virtuous and the Venetians are the villains, sometimes Shylock is the villain and the Venetians are virtuous. I'd like to suggest analyzing The Merchant of Venice using Bakhtin's idea of carnival because The Merchant of Venice is full of carnivalistic elements. Shakespeare seems to give carnivalistic elements to both characters and acts he thinks valuable consciously or unconsciously. From such symbolic information, the contemporaries of Shakespeare understood which people or what acts were celebrated or mocked. Moreover, the carnivalistic elements play an important role in giving the feeling of unity in the play. From the point of view of carnival, the characters are divided into two groups : Carnival and Lent. Elizabethans must have enjoyed The Merchant of Venice as a consistent story because they noticed the popular story of Battle between Carnival and Lent in the play.