Dublin Core
Title
CULTURE OF DOMINATION AND DISCRIMINATION IN SHAKESPEARE’S PLAY THE MERCHANT OF VENICE
Abstract
Mainly, the paper will show how a Christian virtue of mercy is perverted. The play The Merchant of Venice is a criticism of the hypocritical betrayal of Christianity’s original concepts. The original ideas have been betrayed. What used to be a promise of universal love became a kind of gang love. It all comes down to ‘us’ against ‘them’. Christians tend to hate those who are not Christians, just because they do not believe in their Christian god. In the beginning of the paper, a short general text on human psyche will be given making it clear why human beings behave aggressively and choose to serve Thanatos instead of Eros. Is aggressiveness situated in our innate nature or something else makes us cruel according to Edward Bond? More importantly, why do we tend to discriminate other human beings just because they happen to be different from us in any way? The paper also deals with the question of whether there is such a concept as ‘universal religion’ according to Carl Gustav Jung, who claims that man is a spiritual human being who can stand the most incredible hardships when he is convinced that they make sense; otherwise, he is just taking part in a “tale told by an idiot”. Furthermore, one of the main protagonists of the play, Shylock, is portrayed as a common villain, and the paper will explain the causes of his aggressive beahaviour, whether he was born aggressive or his behaviour is just a natural reaction to what has already happened to him. Finally, the paper will give answers to all the question mentioned above, and will also make some general conclusions. Keywords: culture, domination, discrimination, a Christian virtue of mercy, religion
Keywords
Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
PeerReviewed
Date
2014
Extent
3558