摘要
The Merchant of Venice is one of the four classic comedies of Shakespeare.In this work,the author skillfully depicts the characters in the novel with a sharp irony,making the drama plot interlocking.Based on the Austin-Searle’s Speech Act Theory,this paper makes a macro and micro analysis of the ironic speech act in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice,mainly from the literal irony,situational irony,dramatic irony three aspects of the macro-analysis of speech acts as well as the elaboration,directive,commitment,expressive irony for the micro-analysis.
