贺兰山车神

【关于一些莎翁喜剧】Love，Marriage and Power of Men

Putting Act 1 Scene 1 of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Act 3 Scene 2 of Merchant of Venice together for comparison seem to be a little bit of ridiculous but honestly they definitely share something in common. Firstly the two scenes both come from comedies, which means all the conflicts presented would be solved later. Then it’s clear to see that both Bassanio and Lysander are facing the obstacle set by their love’s father, which made their proposal challenging. One can tell that these two scenes are crowed with actors and at least two couples are going to settle their marriage. In A Midsummer Nights Dream there are Theseus and Hippolyta, Lysander and Hermia. In Merchant of Venice there are Bassanio and Portia, Gratiano and Nerissa. Finally the similiarity lies in the focus of these two scenes. Although both scense focused on the characters’ marriage, yet beside the good news some other issue popped out. In conclusion, the theme of both scenes is love, marriage and power of men. Breaking down the scenes to pieces and put the seemingly similiar couples together for comparison may give a clearer view of the theme while finding out the differences. 

To begin with, let’s see how Bassanio passed the test of Portia’s father and how Lysander failed in Egeus’ eyes. Both young men needed to get the permission of the father of his love, the difference is that Portia’s father had deceased while Egeus stood in front of Lysander’s eyes to accuse him for seducing Hermia. Portia could only marry the man who can choose the right chest with her portrait in it. This was the rule set by her father, even if he had passed away for some time and she had already fell in love with Bassanio, the border line was still there and she could do nothing about it. They were lucky because Bassanio passed the test without any hints and the lovebirds were able to share the rest of their lives together. But Lysander and Hermia didn’t have such good luck in their scene. Egeus’ rule for his daughter was that she had to marry the one he chose, if she ever dares to disobey, he could even take her life by law. The irrigated father found Theseus to persuade his child to marry Demetruis, leaving little room for Lysander to defend or prove himself. When Lysander fought back that if Egeus likes Demetruis then why don’t he keep Demetruis to himself, Egeus said that he would pass all his rights on his daughter to Demetruis. It sounds like Hermia was nothing more than a trophy that could easily be given to another man as long as her father pleases. Before a female gets married, her father owns her everything, then this possession would be passed on to her husband once she gets married. Bassanio got Portia and all her wealth, Lysander couldn’t get Hermia and the rights her father had. In both scenes the female characters expressed how they wanted to choose, but in the face of the power of their father, they were too weak to make any difference. If Bassanio didn’t choose the lead casket, Portia had to give up her love and keep waiting; if Hermia wants to marry Lysander without her father’s permission, her fate would be death or lifelong loneliness. How vulnerable love is to patriarchy!

Another proof is how Theseus got to marry Hippolyta and how Gratiano got his wife. On his appearance Theseus showed his eagerness since he couldn’t even bear to wait four days to marry Hippolyta, saying that “how slow this old moon”, while Hippolyta calmly answered that four days is just a short time to pass. Here the man was thrilled but the woman was chill, indicating quite different attitude towards their marriage. Maybe that’s because, as Theseus stated to Hippolyta, “ I woo’d thee with my sword； And won thy love doing thee injuries.” He defeated her so she had to be his wife, even if Hippolyta was the queen of Amazon, Theseus was superior to her. The way for their marriage to go smoothly was that Hippolyta stays submissive to her man. In Merchant of Venice, however, there was no clue for readers to trance how Gratiano won the love of Nerissa, but when they decided to announce their love after settling the marriage of Bassanio and Portia, obviously one of the reasons they could be a couple was that their masters had fallen in love. Gratiano and Nerissa were submissive to Bassanio and Portia, no matter how close they may get to their masters, they were still in the status of servants. Their marriage was based on the attachment to Bassanio and Portia, which was basically Bassanio’s power after Portia became Bassanio’s wife. Once again, put love aside, the power of men makes marriages work.

Finally the unsettled problem, in A Midsummer Nights’ Dream the trouble was Hermia’s father disapproved her marriage with her love and wanted her to marry Demetruis, yet Demetruis had some unsettled problem with Hermia’s friend Helena. Helena loved Demetruis but he was just fooling around, Demetruis loved Hermia but failed to win Hermia’s love. The typical triangle impasse of love. In Merchant of Venice, as soon as Bassanio wins the heart of Portia, the bad news that his friend Antonio would be tortured by Shylock arrived. Shylock’s daughter Jessica had just fled with her love Lorenzo but in this case her father was about to do harm to her Christian husband’s friend. As comedies always end with laugthers, these problems would all be solved later. Demetruis would love Helena and Hermia would marry Lysander, Antonio would be saved by his Christian friends and Shylock would finally agree Jessica and Lorenzo’s marriage, so the happy ending would be achieved. 

All in all both scenes are all about loved ones, promised or unsettled marriage problems and how men keep and use their power, as usual. This is what comedy serves us, and this is what the audience came for, as we like it.