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莎士比亞期中報告

教育四甲張詠惠498001280

Viewing The Merchant of Venice in the aspect of intercultural Society

In the play of the Merchant of Venice, we can see people from different backgrounds, including race and nationality, dealing with each other.  And we may conclude that the difference actually lead to the consequence.  In other word, the “culture,” which can be identified as the shared symbols or perception of a group of people, play a very important role in deciding the characters’ fate.  As a result, I would like to analyze the play in the aspect of the “society with the variety of culture.”

The concepts of culture

Culture is a learned set of shared perceptions about beliefs, values, and norms, which affect the behaviors of a relatively large group of people[1].  So culture is shared by a group of people, while the people are generally grouped in terms of nationality, race, and ethnicity.  When they grow up, they learn from their group what is true about the world (belief), what is the desired characteristic or goal (value), and the expected “appropriate” behavior (norm).  One example is that the Jews are taught to value justice and scrupulous compliance with the law; while the Christians are raised up in the atmosphere of emphasizing charity, mercy, and a willingness to give.  And this may lead to the unforgiving of Shylock’s persistence to the bringing of justice because Christians thinks mercy is more important than justice.

And culture not only governs our behavior but also determine the way we interpret others. As a result, when interacting with people from other culture background, called “intercultural communication,” obstacles may rise.  It may be due to misunderstanding and also the result of sustaining the purity of one’s own group.  The obstacles include ethnocentrism, stereotype, prejudice and discrimination.

For the first one, Ethnocentrism means regarding one’s own group as the center of everything.  For instance, Christian group may believe that the values of their culture are natural and correct; in other words, what is familiar and comfortable inevitably become regarded as the right way of doing things.  Therefore, the “alien” are wrong and awkward, and are disliked before interaction really occurred.   And another example is the including of many xenophobic ‘nationality jokes’ and stigmatized images.

The later three concepts are connected.  First of all, stereotype is to categorize people into different groups and assuming people in the same group the same.  The reason for beseeching a Rome scholar to the court is an example.  Rome is considered better at Law—Rome provide confidence in justice.  So the people believed that all scholars at Rome will be better in meditating issues like this.  Next, prejudice is the negative stereotype. For example, Shylock and Jessica are at once generalized into the “Jewish” group.  So, in order to be accepted, Jessica needs to do “something” special to prove she is different from her stigmatized origin.  Discrimination is the act of prejudice.  And if the discrimination is based on race, it becomes racism.  Antonio’s spat on Shylock at the beginning scene is one of the example.

Shylock

Shylock may be the most significant character in the play.  He is a Jew.  He follows all the Jewish tradition, such as wearing special clothes and eating no pork.  He also identifies himself strongly as a Jew. For example, he mentioned the Jew community as ‘our sacred nation’ (1.3.46), ‘my nation’ (3.1.52), and ‘our nation’ (3.1.80).  However, some article argues that though he is very loyal to his racial group, he seems to be very isolated from the whole community[2].  His seemed to fit into others’ stereotyped of the Jew in terms of appearance (red beard and big nose), greedy (high usury loan payment), and religion; so he become the representation of the Jew.  His terrible fate also lead to the long debated of the anti-Semitic quality and whether is appropriate to play, especially after the Holocaust.

Jessica

Jessica is, we may proclaim, the only “alien” accepted in the Christian community.  In one sense, she provides a successful example of integrating into the majority group.   For example, some critics argued that if Shakespeare hates Jews so much, he wouldn’t have put another Jew, who is Jessica, in the play as the comparison[3].  However, in another sense, the smoothness isn’t based on respect and equality.  It is based on “assimilation” instead.  Some proclaim that Jessica’s “baptism” include more than racial issue but also gender role.

Portia

Before the visit of Bassanio, Narissa’s question gives us the glimpse of Portia’s attitude toward her foreign pursuer. Each name was addressed with the term of nationality, no matter is from German, England, or French, it’s all come from exotic places and all being badly criticized.  Moreover, Floyd-Wilson think that in the case of Prince of Morocco, he emphasizes that his ‘blood’ is as red as that of ‘the fairest creature northward born’ (2.1.4–7) is because that Portia’s concern lest Morocco succeed as her suitor might in part be based on a fear that because of his African origin he ‘lacks sexual heat’.

Conclusion

We can see many inequality caused due to race and nationality.  Though court and the selection of cask seemed to be fair at once, it is still favoring the people in the “same group”.  The cask test is actually testing whether the person is accustomed to Christian values in favoring giving up everything to pursue the best[4].  And the law that seems to give the alien protection still turns out to protect the city’s own “citizen” against the “outsiders”.  And this acceptance of” injustice” may traced back to the bad influence of the betrayal of Lopez[5] and the development of nationality.  However, in today’s setting, we focus on muti-cultural competence.  We want to view people not as the member of certain groups but as a human being.  Like Shylock said, “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, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is?” (3.1.49-54). All of us, regardless of the culture we come from, shared the same experience as a member of this global village and as a human being.  So we should put all the obstacles aside and respect one another.  And this is the revelation from this play.

Reference:

Lustig, M., Koester, J.. Intercultural Competence: Interpersonal Communication Across Cultures. California: Pearson, 2006.

Greenblatt, Stephen, Walter Cohen, Jean E. Howard, Katharine Eisman Maus, eds. The Norton Shakespeare: Based On The Oxford Edition. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997.

Sokol, B. Shakespeare and Tolerance. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ Pr, 2009.

Metzger, Mary. “’Now by My Hood, a Gentile and No Jew’: Jessica, The Merchant of Venice, and the Discourse of Early Modern English Identity.”  PMLA 113.1 (1998): 52-63.