“중용”의 시각에서 본 『베니스의 상인』

Abstract

This paper is designed to make an East Asian approach to The Merchant of Venice in terms of Zhong Yong (The Doctrine of the Mean), one of the Four Books of the Confucian Classics. The Aristotelian “moderate” outlook on life underlies Portia’s Belmont on various levels of life, but she is seen to have internalized the cardinal virtues of a Confucian gentleman, who seeks to embody the “three universal virtues” of Zhong Yong: wisdom, benevolence, and courage. Her virtues of “Zhong Yong” are well manifested in the three significant scenes of the play: box selection scene (3.2), court scene (4.1), and ring episode scene (5.1). The box selection scene demonstrates the paradoxical truth that the mystery and truth of life is inherent in the ordinary daily affairs. In the court scene Portia puts her late father’s good will into social practice: her social effort comes quite close to the Confucian filial duty, “hsiao” of Zhong Yong. Ring episode scene is concerned with Portia’s sincerity to herself: her sincerity is laden with the cosmological significance of being true not only to herself but also to the universe. Eventually, Belmont in the last scene is described as the place of “Zhong Yong,” the place of “sweet harmony” where people worship God yet keep distance from him, and where man interacts with nature and lives with the joy of heaven on earth.