学界对于《雅典的泰门》中泰门悲剧的解读大都无法脱离两种思路:一种将泰门的倾家荡产和愤世嫉俗归结于对虚伪朋友的一味信任;另一种则认为全剧表现了"金钱对人性的腐蚀"这一命题,而这也正反映了莎士比亚创作晚期对人性的悲观主义认识。本文以为,这两种解读并没有阐释泰门从"慷慨"到"恨世"这一变化过程的伦理本质,也就无法真正彻底解释这部戏剧的悲剧性。本文拟将《雅典的泰门》与文艺复兴伊丽莎白和詹姆士一世时期的伦理、法律、经济状况互为参照,通过文本细读和对文本历史语境的考察,以"伦理身份"切入分析泰门的伦理悲剧,以期阐明该剧所隐含的早期现代英国社会中普遍存在的伦理焦虑及其背后的政治经济原因。
This article reads Timon's tragedy against the social background of Renaissance ethics, economics and politics. While examining the connections between Timon's "generosity" together with the subsequent "fall" and the cultural forms that constituted patronage and usury in the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, the article suggests that in Timon of Athens Shakespeare explores the conflicts between feudal ethics and the ethics of contract which is closely associated with the rise of the bourgeois in city and voices ethical anxiety experienced unconsciously among the general public.