『베니스의 상인』: 앤토니오의 우울함
The Merchant of Venice: Antonio's Melancholy
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This paper explores the function of Antonio in The Merchant of Venice, especially focusing on his melancholy. Antonio takes quite a small part even though he is the titular character. This fact arouses considerable contradictory opinions on Antonio’s value as a title role. According to an Royal Shakespeare Company edition of William Shakespeare: Complete Works (2007), the percentage of Antonio’s lines is only 7%, whereas that of Portia’s is 22%. In addition, Shylock and Bassanio (13%) have more parts than Antonio. This leads us to pay more attention to the reason why Shakespeare assigns Antonio the title role. In the first place, this paper discusses Antonio’s function as the vehicle of an atmosphere. He provides a melancholic background to the whole drama by deploring his sadness in the exposition. As a result, the audience can notice the dark conflicts between the characters hidden under the comedy. The effect Antonio’s melancholic aspect makes in the play is subsequently explored. It is to set the forces of division and disharmony in motion. In other words, Antonio’s sadness drives his friends to leave him because of the differences of temperament between them. In Ruth Nevo’s account, “when [Antonio’s friends] cannot penetrate his mask, they, in a sense, disown him.”This paper also claims that the division between Antonio and his friends adumbrates the antipathy between Antonio and Shylock in the sense that in both cases the cause of the conflict is the absence of homogeneity. To put it another way, just as Antonio’s idiosyncrasy of melancholy sets himself isolated from his friends, so Antonio divides Shylock due to his race of a Jew. In this sense, Antonio’s behavior against Shylock can be looked upon as human beings’ tendency of disowning a man when they do not understand him rather than as a matter of religious ideology. In the last place, this paper argues Portia has the same problem as Antonio’s because she also judges people or things only depending on their appearances. In conclusion, this paper mentions Antonio deserves the titular role in that his melancholy serves to deliver the atmosphere of the whole play and imply the theme of appearance and reality.
Abstract
This paper explores the function of Antonio in The Merchant of Venice, especially focusing on his melancholy. Antonio takes quite a small part even though he is the titular character. This fact arouses considerable contradictory opinions on Antonio’s value as a title role. According to an Royal Shakespeare Company edition of William Shakespeare: Complete Works (2007), the percentage of Antonio’s lines is only 7%, whereas that of Portia’s is 22%. In addition, Shylock and Bassanio (13%) have more parts than Antonio. This leads us to pay more attention to the reason why Shakespeare assigns Antonio the title role. In the first place, this paper discusses Antonio’s function as the vehicle of an atmosphere. He provides a melancholic background to the whole drama by deploring his sadness in the exposition. As a result, the audience can notice the dark conflicts between the characters hidden under the comedy. The effect Antonio’s melancholic aspect makes in the play is subsequently explored. It is to set the forces of division and disharmony in motion. In other words, Antonio’s sadness drives his friends to leave him because of the differences of temperament between them. In Ruth Nevo’s account, “when [Antonio’s friends] cannot penetrate his mask, they, in a sense, disown him.”This paper also claims that the division between Antonio and his friends adumbrates the antipathy between Antonio and Shylock in the sense that in both cases the cause of the conflict is the absence of homogeneity. To put it another way, just as Antonio’s idiosyncrasy of melancholy sets himself isolated from his friends, so Antonio divides Shylock due to his race of a Jew. In this sense, Antonio’s behavior against Shylock can be looked upon as human beings’ tendency of disowning a man when they do not understand him rather than as a matter of religious ideology. In the last place, this paper argues Portia has the same problem as Antonio’s because she also judges people or things only depending on their appearances. In conclusion, this paper mentions Antonio deserves the titular role in that his melancholy serves to deliver the atmosphere of the whole play and imply the theme of appearance and reality.
참고문헌 (15)
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