明處與暗處：「威尼斯商人」與「仲夏夜之夢」之場景的事實與想像面面觀

Loci of Light and Darkness: A Reality-Imagination Dyad in the Settings of The Merchant of Venice and A Midsummer Night's Dream

The Merchant of Venice (1600) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (1600) have been regarded as problem comedies. Both plays' problems might originate from parental interference in marriage, female oppression in mainstream patriarchal culture, and released female desires in darkness. This paper aims to explore the binary opposites of settings of these two plays. The exploration of the law of Tudor and early Stuart monarchy could be worthwhile to carry out an analysis of the loci of light; and a Freudian reading of dark loci might contribute to the unveiling of dreams and fairy tales that survive in dark loci. The settings in both plays provide contrastive locations in which imagination and reality, disorder and order, and the infinite and the finite congregate. In Merchant, Belmont symbolizes imagination, disorder, and the infinite, whereas Venice denotes reality, order, and the finite. In Dream, the wood and midsummer night's dream signify imagination, disorder, and the infinite; Theseus's court in Athens, on the other hand, represents reality, order, and the finite. The imaginary loci in both Merchant and Dream may be labeled as female sphere, and contradictorily, the realistic loci may be part of male sphere. It is possible that the female sphere is ruled by fertility, creation, imagination, or the unconscious, while the male sphere is dominated by the law. The fact of men's control over women by law in patriarchal culture could be exemplified through the analysis of realistic and daytime settings of both comedies. It is ironical that female desires are fulfilled in nighttime and imaginary scenes. What is Shakespeare's position? Did he advocate patriarchalism or surreptitiously support the rise of women's liberation and emancipation? This paper claims that the fulfillment of female desires in imaginary and night scenes is Shakespeare's metaphor, implying that female desires are denied in the reality, but they can be fulfilled in imagination.《威尼斯商人》和《仲夏夜之夢》曾經被視為問題喜劇。兩劇的問題主要源於父母對女兒婚姻的干預、主流父系文化中之女性壓抑、以及黑暗中之女性慾望的解放。本篇論文的主旨是要探討這兩部喜劇的對比場景。都鐸王朝和斯圖亞特王朝的律法研究或許可以分析這兩部喜劇的明處（日景）。同時，本文也以佛洛依德的角度來理解暗處（夜景），藉此揭露劇中夢與神話故事的暗示。這兩部喜劇的場景提供了對比性的場所，在其中，想像與現實、混亂和秩序、無限和受限之對比聚集此處。《威尼斯商人》有兩個重要場景：貝爾蒙象徵著想像力、混亂、無限，而威尼斯則代表現實、秩序、受限。同樣地，《仲夏夜之夢》也有兩個值得研究的場景：樹林和仲夏夜之夢象徵著想像力、混亂、無限，而忒修斯位於雅典的法庭則代表現實、秩序、受限。在這兩部喜劇裡的想像場景屬於女性領域，然而，現實場景則是屬於男性領域。女性的領域由繁衍力、創造力、想像力、或無意識所控制，而男性的領域則是由法律所支配。透過本文針對這兩部喜劇的現實場景及日景分析，在父權文化之中，男性運用法律來控制女性之事實已昭然若揭，諷刺的是，在夜景及想像場景當中，女性慾望獲得成全。莎士比亞的立場為何？崇尚父權主義，或是暗中支持女權興起，這實在令人玩味。本文的場景分析主張，在這兩部喜劇裡，女性慾望只能在夜景及想像場景成真，這是莎士比亞的隱喻，暗示女性慾望不可存在於現實，只能存在於想像之中。