Earticle

초록

영어

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.

목차

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 Works Cited
 Abstract

키워드

저자

• 한광석 [ Han, Kwang-Sok | 강원대학교 ]

참고문헌

발행기관

간행물

표지보기 관심저널 등록

• 간행물명

  영어영문학연구 [The Jungang Journal of English Language and Literature]

• 간기

  계간

• pISSN

  1598-3293

• 수록기간

  1968~2026

• 등재여부

  KCI 등재

• 십진분류

  KDC 840 DDC 810