Shakespeare's Sacrificial Victims: The Merchant of Venice and King Lear

2013 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 128-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Dean
Keyword(s):  
King Lear ◽  
Merchant Of Venice ◽  
The Merchant Of Venice

scholarly journals Identity in Shakespeare

2012 ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
Jay L. Halio
Keyword(s):  
King Lear ◽  
Merchant Of Venice ◽  
Romeo And Juliet ◽  
Twelfth Night ◽  
Her Family ◽  
The Merchant Of Venice ◽  
As You Like It ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
Self Knowledge ◽  
Antic Disposition

This paper surveys the problems of identity in a number of Shakespeare’s plays, such as The Taming of the Shrew, The Comedy of Errors, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Othello. In these plays as in many others, Shakespeare explores the complexity of identity, not only through the use of disguise, as in the major comedies, but also through the problems of self-knowledge. The latter issue is prominent and explicit in King Lear when, for example, Lear asks “Who is it that can tell me who I am?” The opening words of Hamlet, “Who’s there?” introduce the problem from the outset, and much of the play is given over to characters trying to discover who the others in the play really are. Is the Ghost an honest ghost, or “a goblin damned?” Is Hamlet really mad or just putting on an “antic disposition” as he struggles to discover his proper course of action as his father’s avenger? Is Kate really a shrew, or just made to act like one by her family and others?

Triangulation as a Problem in the Plays and Sonnets

2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-66
Author(s):  
Richard H. Weisberg
Keyword(s):  
King Lear ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Merchant Of Venice ◽  
Public Power ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Merchant Of Venice ◽  
The Tempest ◽  
Measure For Measure

Abstract As to the risks of what I call the ‘triangulation’ of both public power and private emotion, I extend my earlier treatment of ‘mediation’ in The Merchant of Venice to Measure for Measure, King Lear, Hamlet, and The Tempest, linking to them Shakespeare’s Sonnet 134. For Shakespeare, whether poet or playwright, a private triangulation of direct romantic obligation is as nettlesome as the public official’s similar behaviour – as when the Duke ‘outsources’ Viennese power to Angelo – and the results are quite as disastrous. The complex and highly legalistic sonnet concerns the triangulation of passion from the speaker to a friend. The beloved winds up ensnaring both through ‘the statute of [her] beauty’. The word ‘surety’ – used centrally in the poem and twice in Merchant – pinpoints, through the delegation to a third party of obligations otherwise charged directly to two committed parties, the underlying Shakespearean problematic

Triangulation as a Problem in the Plays and Sonnets

2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-66
Author(s):  
Richard H. Weisberg
Keyword(s):  
King Lear ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Merchant Of Venice ◽  
Public Power ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Merchant Of Venice ◽  
The Tempest ◽  
Measure For Measure

As to the risks of what I call the ‘triangulation’ of both public power and private emotion, I extend my earlier treatment of ‘mediation’ in The Merchant of Venice to Measure for Measure, King Lear, Hamlet, and The Tempest, linking to them Shakespeare’s Sonnet 134. For Shakespeare, whether poet or playwright, a private triangulation of direct romantic obligation is as nettlesome as the public official’s similar behaviour – as when the Duke ‘outsources’ Viennese power to Angelo – and the results are quite as disastrous. The complex and highly legalistic sonnet concerns the triangulation of passion from the speaker to a friend. The beloved winds up ensnaring both through ‘the statute of [her] beauty’. The word ‘surety’ – used centrally in the poem and twice in Merchant – pinpoints, through the delegation to a third party of obligations otherwise charged directly to two committed parties, the underlying Shakespearean problematic.

scholarly journals Problemy przekładu terminologii z zakresu prawa na podstawie wybranych polskich tłumaczeń sztuk Williama Szekspira

2020 ◽  
pp. 260-284
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Jaworska-Biskup
Keyword(s):  
King Lear ◽  
Legal Language ◽  
Merchant Of Venice ◽  
Source Text ◽  
The Merchant Of Venice ◽  
Mock Trial ◽  
Measure For Measure ◽  
The Common ◽  
Basic Concepts ◽  
English Law

Problems of Translating Legal Language Based on William Shakespeare’s Selected Plays The paper discusses major problems and issues of translating law and legal language into Polish as illustrated by selected examples from William Shakespeare’s three plays: King Lear, The Merchant of Venice and Measure for Measure. The common feature of the plays is the context of the court and the trial. In King Lear, Shakespeare depicts a mock-trial of the main character’s two daughters, Regan and Goneril. The crux of The Merchant of Venice is the proceedings instigated by Shylock against his debtor, Antonio. Measure for Measure features a summary trial of two local rogues, Froth and Pompey, who are brought to justice by the constable Elbow. A comparison of the English original law-embedded scenes with their Polish counterparts shows that Polish translators approached Shakespeare’s legal lexicon differently. They frequently neutralised legal language or offered the equivalents that do not overlap with the source text. The different treatment of legal language by the translators results in various readings and interpretations of the original. The paper also provides a commentary on the basic concepts and institutions of English law in Shakespeare’s analysed plays.

scholarly journals Shakespeare Comes to Indonesia

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (25) ◽  
pp. 99-119
Author(s):  
Michael Skupin
Keyword(s):  
King Lear ◽  
Merchant Of Venice ◽  
Midsummer Night's Dream ◽  
Indirect Influence ◽  
The Merchant Of Venice ◽  
As You Like It ◽  
Dutch Translation ◽  
A Midsummer Night's Dream ◽  
Lengthy Discussion

This paper discusses the circumstances of Shakespeare’s arrival in Indonesia via the translations of Trisno Sumardjo, published in the early 1950’s. Biographical material about the translator will be presented, and there will be a discussion of the characteristics the Indonesian language and of Indonesian verse which would determine the expectations of his readers, such as rhyme, meter and style, that would influence his renderings of the poetic passages in the Bard’s plays. These are illustrated in a sampling of passages from As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth and The Merchant of Venice. The Dutch translation of L. A. J. Burgersdijk was an indirect influence on the translations, and not always for the good. The paper concludes with a lengthy discussion of the extremely difficult problems that Sumardjo encountered in his translation of King Lear. This Lear was not published during the translator’s lifetime, Sumardjo’s prestige notwithstanding because he was not satisfied with the solutions he proposed.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document