不調和の調和 : The Merchant of Venice試論

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Though we find some kinds of opposite groups in Venice, they can be broadly rearranged into two groups from the neoplatonic point of view. One group represents <virtue> (intelligence, power), while the other does <pleasure>, and they are opposed to each other. But this opposition is to be reconciled in Belmont, especially in Portia. Portia is endowed with virtue and pleasure which are thought to be united in the neoplatonic "perfect man", and she symbolises "the heavenly Venus", whom Bassanio wins, given wisdom by "Fancy" song. Their performed love is what we call divine love which also satisfies a cognitive element (virtue) and an appetitive one (pleasure). Portia's sacredness and sexuality reflect this as dual symbolism in a ring does. In contrast to this, love between Lorenzo and Jessica lays great emphasis on the secularity. In iconography, Mars symbolises virtue and Venus pleasure, and we see the union of them in a hybrid figure Venus armata. It is a figure of Venus who wears Mars's weapon. This type of figure may as well be called "the androgyne" in Jan Kott' style. As Portia disguises herself as a man with a dagger when she goes to Venice, we can call her Venus armata literally. This time she shows the union of justice (as virtue) and mercy (as pleasure) which are opposed severly between Shylock and the Venetians. This image is overlapped in Portia by that of Astraea who is the goddess of justice in the golden age of humanity. Astraea was regarded as the goddess of justice and mercy in the Elizabethan age. From these points, it may be inferred that Portia, after all, stands for "the transcendent unity", for the neoplatonists say that in it the opposites coincide and are harmonised as Medal of Savonarola suggests. The idea doesn't contradict Astraea, because she is also the goddess who unites some opposites. Portia's hybrid images and transcendency lead us to assume that Belmont is a kind of Arcadia, or the heavenly world whose main feature is discordia concors. Arcadia is, according to Kott, an image of a lost paradise in which "all contradictions coexist, to be ultimately reconciled". The heavenly music in Act 5 echoes this mood well, into which all earthly disharmonies merge.
中京大学の論文
1983-01-20

不調和の調和 : The Merchant of Venice試論

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