论《威尼斯商人》中的“爱情”与“背叛”

On the Theme of Love and Betrayal in The Merchant of Venice

《威尼斯商人》是莎士比亚最优秀的喜剧之一。作为一部浪漫喜剧,剧本却自始至终充满关于爱的种种不和谐之音。巴萨尼奥与鲍西娅虽然消除误解、重归于好,但圆满的结局仍难以隐藏巴萨尼奥不良的爱情动机以及对鲍西娅爱情的背叛。巴萨尼奥是16世纪的威尼斯青年,深受当时盛行于威尼斯的商业伦理精神的影响,将自己对鲍西娅的爱情看作是一种商业投资,所以他的爱情观中不乏一种策略和利用的心态。从鲍西娅的角度,她能够理解巴萨尼奥体现在商业伦理精神中的新型个体精神及其缺陷,并将巴萨尼奥对爱情的背叛看作是可以尝试克服的现实困难,这显示了作者一定的理想追求。《威尼斯商人》的爱情悲剧性在于鲍西娅能够洞察爱情中的欺骗与背叛,但最终却认同了这种爱情。

The Merchant of Venice is one of the best Shakespeare s comedies. As a romantic comedy, it is full of disharmony voice about love. Although Bassanio and Portia eliminated misunderstanding and reconciled with each other, the happy ending could hardly conceal the unhealthy love motive and his betrayal to Portia. Bassanio, who was a youth of 16th century in Venice, was deeply influenced by the commercial ethic spirit prevailing at that time. He regarded his love for Portis as a business investment and a kind of strategy. Portia could understand the new individual spirit and its defect embodied in Bassanio s love and regarded it as realistic difficult which she could overcome. This showed the author s idealistic pursuit. The tragic love themes of The Merchant of Venice lied in the fact that Portia was able to discern the deception and betrayal in the love affair but accepted them.