A Study Of The Jewish Economic Characters In Ivanhoe

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) was a significant historical novelist and poet, whose novel was the consummation and development of the18th century Gothic novel and romantic poetry in English literature, as well as the beginning of the19th century realistic novel. Scott weaved interesting stories about historical characters, thus creating historical novels, among which Ivanhoe enjoyed a high reputation. In Ivanhoe, Scott created an image of a Jewish merchant Issac and displayed the economic causes of Jews-Christians conflicts. The thesis attempts to search into the economic characters of the Jews in Ivanhoe based on substantial textual analysis and the history of the Jews and anti-Semitism.Since Ivanhoe was published in1819, it has been studied from different perspectives in both foreign and domestic academic arena. There are already critics who noticed the Jewish characters in Ivanhoe, yet a comprehensive study of Jewish character in the novel is still necessary. The thesis firstly tries to introduce the Jewish people and the historical development of anti-Semitism, based on which it studies the Jewish economic characters in Ivanhoe such as the Jewish money value, economic status, covenant value and occupation. Next it digs into the economic conflicts between the Jews and Christians implied in the Jewish economic characters. The following part tries to reveal the progress in Scott’s ideas on the Jews and its reasons by comparing Ivanhoe with previous literary works related to the Jews, especially with Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.The economic characters of Isaac the Jew represented in Ivanhoe reflect Scott’s view of the Jews and his understanding of the Middle-Age history in England. Scott’s interest in the Middle Ages leads him to set his novel in England at the end of the12th century and the description of the historical background and the fate of the Jews in that period bring certain difficulties to the readers. Furthermore, Jewish economic character is one of the most important causes which promoted the anti-Semitistic activities in European history. Therefore it is meaningful to carry on a study of the Jewish economic characters in the novel.