前辈的英语毕业论文样文参考

Introduction

The Merchant of Venice is one of the Shakespeare’s famous comedies in his early time. It’s theme is to extol kindness, friendship and love. It is the mirror of the contradiction between business bourgeois and usurer at the beginning of the Capitalist society. It’s also expressed the author’s humanism ideas on money, law and religion in this society. There, we mention Humanism--the main distinguishing feature of that period, also the brightness characteristic which is shown from the important role in this play.

In this thesis, the author introduces the background of the play firstly. Reading the play, we can know that the social background in the play is according with the real society. We know at that time, the society was under the leadership of Elizabeth who was the symbol of power in England. Next the thesis gives an introduction of the main figures in the play. Antonio is rich and kindhearted. From him we can see the spirit of humanism. Portia plays the most important part in the play. The thesis talks about her character, her hobbies, and her attitude of love and the inner meaning-humanism of this figure. She is the center of all these figures the play refers to. Humanism is an ideological weapon for capitalism to fight the feudalism combat, and also it is the core idea of capitalism advanced-literature in Renaissance, and its combat refers to the ideal of Feudalism in Middle Age, especially the religion belief of Catholics. After that, the thesis gives more details about the information mentioned above. Then the thesis compares the figures to give a highlight of the humanism spirit.

Ⅰ. Social Background of the Play the Merchant of Venice

As is known, England is a developed country. Today, it also obtains very important status in the world. It is very necessary to talk about the history of the growth of capitalism in England, especially in 16^th century.

A. The Social Information in Elizabeth Throne

Henry VIII died in 1547 and his nine-year-old son succeeded him. The son was known in history, Edward Ⅵ. The boy-king’s reign was a time of extreme Protestantism, for the Regency Council for him consisted almost entirely of the protestant faction. Edward Ⅵ died in 1553. only 15years old. Then his half-sister, Mary, a Catholic, became Queen. The new Queen came to the throne at the age of twenty-five. After the coronation, her parliament passed the necessary legislation to abolish the papal supremacy over the church, and gave Elizabeth all the powers over the church which her father had held, though with the more modest title of “Supreme Government” of the Church of England instead of “Supreme Head” Elizabeth died on 24 March, 1603 at the age of sixty-nine. Her forty-four-year reign had not only ensured the triumph of Protestantism in Britain and in Northern Europe, but had greatly increased the wealth, power and prestige of England. Her navy triumphed over the great Armada of the king of Spain; her sailors’ circum navigated the world, and established a colony on the North American continent which they named Virginia after their virgin queen. At home, the merchants were prosperous; the common people enjoyed a higher standard of living than in most other European countries, and her reign was also full of achievements in literature and other arts. After all, Elizabeth Ⅰwas one of the most successful despots to govern England in English history. ^①(李超, 邓兴义:34-37)

B. Special Social Background Reflecting in the Merchant of Venice

The Merchant of Venice is one of the famous comedy plays written by Shakespeare in his early time. The theme of this play is to extol kindness, friendship and love. It is the mirror of the contradiction between business bourgeois and usurer at the beginning of capitalist society. It’s also expressed the author’s humanism ideas on money, law and religion in this society. There, we mention Humanism--the main distinguishing feature of that period, also the brightness characteristic which is shown from the important roles in this play. But, what is “humanism”? Humanism is the ideological weapon of bourgeois to fight feudalism at Renaissance, is also the core idea of the bourgeois’ advanced-literature in this time. Be directed against the world outlook of Medieval feudalism is the spearhead of struggle, especially the religion belief of Catholicism. Church refers to God as the centre of cosmos. At the heart of the Renaissance philosophy is the assertion of the greatness of man. And the elements of Humanism are to establish the central status of human, their dignity and value, to advocate the spirit of rationalism and science and to protest the supreme role of God admired in Middle Ages.

Shakespeare was a man of the late Renaissance who gave the fullest expression to humanist ideas. The Merchant of Venice is one of the important works which finished in the First Flowering period of English Literature. In this play, heroes and heroines fight for their own ideas and mould their own life according to their own free will and bring us into happy and ideal world with singing, dancing, harmony with nature and freedom from the vices of the world.

Ⅱ. Analyzing the Heroes in the Play

In this play, Shakespeare portrays many roles. The proportion that male figures taking is much more notable than female’s. So, it's necessary to narrate and display their nature character and symbol.

A.       Antonio

Although the play’s title refers to him, Antonio is a rather lackluster character. He emerges in ActⅠ, sceneⅠas a hopeless depressive, someone who cannot name the source of his melancholy and who, throughout the course of the play, devolves into a self-pitying lump, unable to muster the energy required to defend himself against execution. Antonio never names the cause of his melancholy, but the evidence seems to point to his being in love, and the most likely object of his affection is Bassanio.

Antonio has risked the entirety of his fortune on oversea trading ventures, yet he agrees to guarantee the potentially lethal loan Bassanio secures from Shylock. He is willing to offer up a pound of flesh, signifying a union that grotesquely alludes to the rite of marriage, where two partners become “one flesh”. Further evidence of the nature of Antonio’s feelings for Bassanio appears later in the play, when Antonio’s proclamations resonate with the hyperbole and self-satisfaction of a doomed lover’s declaration: “pray God Bassanio come/ To see me pay his debt, and then I care not”^② (Act Ⅲ, Scene III, 35-36) without a mate, he is indeed the “tainted wether”—or castrated ram—of the flock, and he will likely return to his favorite pastime of moping about the streets of Venice^② (Act Ⅳ, Scene I, 113). After all, he has effectively disabled himself from pursuing hid hobby—abusing Shylock—by insisting that the Jew convert to Christianity. Although a 16^th century audience might have seen this demand as merciful, as Shylock is saving himself from eternal damnation by converting, we are less likely to be convinced. Not only does Antonio’s reputation as an anti-Semite precede him, but the only instance in the play when he breaks out of his doldrums in his “storm” against Shylock^②(ActⅠ, Scene III, 132). In this play, Antonio proves his character is melancholy, cruelty and some seldom saying—homosexual.

B. Bassanio

It is said Middle Ages is the most deathly stillness period in Europe. It also can be seemed it’s the time that west Europe’s culture and literature go to grave. As to the pillar of spirit, there is nothing except a total series of religious doctrine. In this environment, people used compliment and boast words to exchange their minds and thoughts. In that society, everyone remain under artificial mask wandered in different kinds of occasion. An absolutely undisguised money relationship makes the true human nature into ash during the masks scraped each other. Bassanio, a noble who is neatly dressed, whose speech and deportment is natural and graceful, gradually becomes a declining aristocrat by spending without restraint. He is a handsome and intelligent young man. But living in such a society, what his every day’s schedule is to squander money on different meeting and use blandishment speech to talk with other aristocrat. His property is limitation. Once he runs behind his expenses, he will ask his best friend—the wealth merchant in Venice—Antonio for money. From the context, it seems he never returned what he borrowed. To be such a man who wants of lofty aspiration. Maybe the best method frees himself from poverty is to get a profitable marriage. And we mostly can make sure; to obtain money is more important than to marry Portia. This can be improved in later—he gives his bride’s ring to the clerk. Although his lover has declared that if he loses her ring, she will never pardon him.

C. Shylock

Shylock in this play is the antagonist. He is the model of usurer. Most people read him as a bogeyman, a clownish Jewish stereotype. He is selfish, curtly, avaricious and niggard. Once he has the chance to revenge his foe. He will try his best to make the other into deathtrap. In the court, he is clam and wisdom, even fights for several Christian’s joint attack. But most of his speech is coarse, and sometimes “mean”. All of this makes people take unkindly to him. But with the several aspects sagacious with Antonio, it makes him be a mult-personality figure. Being a pagan who lives in Christian society he has strong emotion on racial constriction and the enthusiasm of raising Jewish people’s status. Living in this society, he suffers too much public humiliation and oppression as he says in the following:

“He hath disgraced me, and hinder’d me half a million; laught at my loss, mockt at my gains, scorn’d my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what’s his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, heal’d by the same means, warm’d and cool’d by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laught? If you porion us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?” ^②(Act Ⅲ SceneⅠ50-63)

His frequently mentions of the cruelty he has endured at Christian hands make it hard for us to label him a natural born monster. Shylock argues that Jews are humans and calls his quest for vengeance the product of lessons taught to him by the cruelty of Venice citizens. In such condition, his “malicious” is much more reasonable.

Besides the facial of Shylock’s malignance, actually, he is a person whose sense of decency has been fractured by the persecution he endures. Comparatively, those kindness and wisdom Christian, in fact, have another hideous feature. So, in my mind, Shylock is a man who is worth sympathizing. 本文出自www.lunwendashi.com，在代写英语毕业论文与留学生论文方面具有丰富的经验！如果需要原创英语论文，英文论文请联系QQ 898498550