Central idea: praising kindness, friendship and love also reflects the contradiction between the commercial bourgeoisie and usurers in the early stage of capitalism, and shows the author's humanistic thoughts on money, law and religion in bourgeois society. An important literary achievement of the play is to create a typical image of Shylock, a mercenary and ruthless usurer.

The Merchant of Venice praised Portia's cleverness and wit, Antonio's kindness and generosity, Shylock's love for money and his coldness and selfishness through tortuous plots and vivid dialogues between characters. It expresses the basic idea that pure and selfless friendship and love will overcome ruthless and selfish greed, and promotes humanistic outlook on life and morality.

In The Merchant of Venice, Antonio and Shylock's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression are the confrontation between commercial capital and usury capital, and also the confrontation between the emerging bourgeois humanistic moral principles and the extreme egoism creed of usurers.

Just as another plot line in the play-Portia's suitor's choice in the gold, silver and lead box is actually a choice of values, the confrontation between Antonio and Shylock is also a moral conflict from another angle, that is, it shows different understandings of good and evil, and explains how to be a man and how to treat others.

Antonio is regarded by his friends as "the closest friend, the kindest person, warm-hearted and affectionate, and there are more ancient Roman chivalrous conjectures in him than any Italian", while Shylock is called "a heart of stone", "an inhuman villain who has no mercy and no compassion" and "bent on hurting his own kind".

In the play, these two Venetian businessmen, who have completely different outlook on life and morality, have a thrilling contest because of the contradiction of "borrowing".

There are so many merchant ships that Antonio does business with, it must be for profit, but why "never talk about interest when exchanging needed goods with people" and "lend money without interest"? This is obviously not a business strategy, but his philosophy of life. His career and life are separated.

This is different from summer. Shylock shows a strong shrewd calculation and a desire for profit everywhere in his business and life. Shylock not only pays interest in the "transaction", but also deducts servants from his daily life and even treats his daughter coldly and selflessly.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Merchant of Venice