Although the most famous speech from this piece is, deservedly and understandably, Shylock's 'prick us' monologue, I think that the more useful speech to talk about what I felt about the play is Portia's only slightly less famous 'quality of mercy' speech in the court room scene:

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throne More...

SHYLOCK: Signior Antonio, many a time and oft In the Rialto you have rated me About my moneys and my usances; Still have I borne it with a patient shrug, For suff’rance is the badge of all our tribe; You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, And spet upon my Jewish gaberdine, And all for use of that which is mine own. Well then, it now appears you need my help; Go to, then; you come to me, and you say ‘Shylock, we would have moneys.’ You say so: You that did void your rheum upon my beard, And foo More...

This only gets 3 stars because of Portia. Sassy, brilliant Portia.



Butchering Shakespeare....

Ant: In sooth, I know not why I am so sad,
It wearies me, you say it wearies you;
But how I caught i-
Salar: Be happy *singing*
Salan: Haaaaappy *harmonizing*
Selan and Salar: It's a brave new world. *singing together*
*Enter Bas, Lor, and Gra*
Selan and Salar: *whispering* Quick, let's fob him off on them.
Selan and Salar: Later, boys! *They exit by skipping off stage together*
Gra and Lor: Yeah, we've got...dinn More...

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The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare was thought provoking. I was floored when I finished the play and couldn't wait to watch some of the movies I had gotten from the library. Out of all the plays of Shakespeare's that I've read so far, this one, by far, has got the most potential for impact to a reader. I really enjoyed it and am still digesting in my head, and will probably be doing that for some time. I can't wait to hear what my book clu More...

A brilliant play that I must now make a priority to go and see along with a live production of Hamlet and The Crucible. I particularly loved the way Shakespeare provided his characters with greater depth than in other plays and this will become one of my favorites along with Hamlet.

The Merchant of Venice clearly reveals Shakespeare's vast wit, a fact that he has become noted for amongst scholars. Not to mention the manner to which he vastly added to the English language which was at the time of More...

Shakespeare è uno di quegli autori che tutti hanno letto in teoria, ma che pochi hanno letto in pratica. Devo ammetterlo, prima della lettura di questo testo, facevo parte della prima schiera di ipocriti. Con 'Il mercante di Venezia' ho smesso di leggiucchiare qualche brano qua e là per dedicarmi, invece, alla lettura approfondita di un intero testo. Ferma restando la grandezza del genio di William Shakespeare, devo ammettere di preferire assai il teatrante in vesti tragiche, che non nei panni d More...

My grandmother knew Shakespeare by heart. Not one play or a few sonnets, but all of it, the body of work. She believed the highest calling was to contribute to the body of human knowledge. She was one of the early professors at The University of Texas.

I knew Shylock and Portia as if they were members of our family when I went with my grandmother at 15 to the open stage at Stratford-on-Avon to see The Merchant of Venice. Growing up on an island in the Gulf of Mexico where every able-bodied perso More...

قرأت الرواية و أنا في الصف الثاني متوسط، و أذكر أن أول شيء خطر ببالي بعد أن انهيتها هو: لماذا اختار شكسبير أن تكون الشخصية المحتالة المرابية المتلاعبة الشريرة شخصية يهودية؟

تعلمت وقتها أن اليهود هكذا في نظر العالم أجمع قديما و حديثا، و أن الربا - الذي كان أيضا من صفات التاجر اليهودي - كان فعلاً منبوذاً كما نؤمن نحن تماماً


أعتقد أنني سأعيد قراءتها !

Now that we are no longer to see the word nigger in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and I soon expect Moby Dick to turn into Moby D., I wonder how long it will take the literary gurus to change Shylock's nationality from Jewish to Italian - how about Silocchio, for instance? :)) - or never mention it at all throughout the play, though, of course, we won't have a play any longer, but Shakespeare wrote so many anyway, it wouldn't matter.

Now seriously, I can see why people would get offended, I More...

رائعة جداً..أنهيت قراءتها في أقل من 24 ساعة


المقاطع التي أعجبتني :
-لقد خلقت الطبيعة في مسارها أناساً غريبي الأطوار,بعضهم يظل دوماً يتطلع إلى الزمار وقد ضيق من أعينهم الضحك,فيقهقه قهقهة الببغاء وبعضهم ذو سحنة كئيبة لايفتر وجهه عن ابتاسمة ترينا أسنانه ولو أقسم لنه نستور أن النكتة ظريفة.

-آه يأنطونيو!إني لعرف أناساً لم يشتهروا بالحكمة إلا لامتناعهم عن الحديث وإني لجد واثق من أنهم لو تكلموا لنعتهم مستمعوهم بالغباء .

-حديث جراشيانو يحوي دائماَ قدراً لا نهاية له من الهراء لايداينه فيه أي رجل في البندقية More...

The Merchant of Venice was a fantastic story of a fair merchant named Antonio who is faced with hard times (financially) and is in need of a loan. He visits another merchant, a greedy man named Shylock who dislikes Antonio. Shylock agrees to lend Antonio some money on the grounds that it is to be returned within three month exactly and no later, the punishment of returning it late is one pound of Antonios own flesh as payment for the delay. Antonio agrees to this (knowing very well the More...

About time for a comedy in my stay-at-home Shakespeare Festival.

This is rather more serious than Shakespeare's other comedies, but you know it's not a tragedy because nobody dies.
I've seen this play on stage two or three times and never caught how uncharitable Shakespeare really was toward Shylock. But the Modern Perspective piece at the end of this version does explain that Shakespeare probably never actually even saw a Jew in person in his lifetime. He was going along with the general sentim More...

When I came across the name 'Shylock', it occurred to me that C.S. Lewis mentioned something about Shylock in passing. I didn't understand what he meant, but I think I would now. Great play - MUCH better than Taming of the Screw. It has restored my faith in Shakespeare. There were some problems, however. I think that finding a loophole in Shylock's contract to save Antonio is not a virtuous way to bring about forced mercy. I would rather Shylock be caught in the same demand for justice. I think More...

In Shakespeare’s, “The Merchant of Venice,” the life of a Jew was not an easy life to live, from a history of anti-Semitism came with it a period of expulsion and even downright genocide. The Jews have been discriminated against for many years and it is for this very reason you can start to understand why Shylock was portrayed as a monstrous individual who was inhumane in his techniques. Because of his Jewish history and anti-Semitic biases, Shylock is a product of his time and represents the Je More...

Many years ago I believed this play to be an early experiment in tragi-comedy featuring Shylock, a nemesis of almost tragic proportions, who--both because of the sympathies he evokes and the evil determination he represents--unbalances the play, making the last act in Belmont seem like a hollow exercise in formal completeness. More recently, I believed that Shylock was essentially a comic villain, one dark splash on a predominately sunny canvas that revealed to us the fallen world of Venice tran More...

well, it was pretty good, just not my favorite-est Shakespearean play. i read it for Shakespeare conquest (a home-school class) we discussed it a bit learned a bit more about it than the average reader of TMOV. this review is for extra credit. well i honestly thought that it was a pretty decent play, i actually felt a bit sorry for Shylock at the end, and the hypocrisy of Portia was a bit like our current president, except not quite as bad, i think that Bassanio and Gratiano could really benefit More...

"I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano, A stage where every man must play a part, And mine a sad one.”

Hmm, this was actually pretty good. Perfect balance of humor and seriousness, plus a dash of craftiness, a sprinkle of hating, and a hint of pervertness. :P

That sounded like a recipe. Oh well. The point was, it was pretty good. The story was better than "a girl who falls in love with a guy within 12 hours and get married within a day and then fakes her death causing her love to die and wh More...

The Merchant of Venice is one of Shakespeare's comedies. The Venetian Bassanio asks to borrow money from his merchant friend Antonio, in order to court a rich woman named Portia at her faraway estate in Belmont. Antonio agrees, but he has to borrow the money from the Jewish usurer (moneylender) Shylock, although the two hate each other. Antonio expects to repay the loan when some of his trade ships return. Because of this, he agrees to Shylock's strange insistence that unless Antonio is able to More...

Porzia: E allora si vada! Io sono rinserrata in uno d'essi. Se mi amate davvero finirete col trovarmi. [...] Che la musica suoni mentr'egli fa la sua scelta, così che s'egli perde, faccia una fine simile a quella del cigno, che si spegne nella musica. E affinché il paragone coincida anche meglio, il mio occhio sarà il ruscello e il suo acqueo letto di morte. <br />[...]<br />Va' Eracle! Se tu vivi, io vivo!E maggiore d'assai è l'ansia di me che assisto alla tenzone di te che quella d More...

This a beautiful play by Shakespeare with powerful cultural themes about racism, pride and acceptance. Portia's wit and cleverness prove to be genuinely captivating - she was definitely my favorite character in the play!

The significance of this text lies in the cultural understanding of the anti-Semitism that was widespread in Europe at the time. The Jews were greatly looked down upon, which naturally impacted their success in business, thereby making some Jews rather indignant and eager for ven More...

In The Merchant of Venice, my favorite character is a clever woman named Portia. She seemed tricky but it was her father’s idea to have her suitors choose a casket for her hand in marriage. Of the many, three men did this in the story, the Prince of Arragon, the Prince of Morroco and Bassanio. I don’t want to give it away but I can tell you it was either a gold, silver, or lead casket. Portia’s picture was in one of them. All had clues or notes on them. Other characters turn the story in other d More...

The merchant of Venice was a book that I recommend for any mature reader that can handle the realistic events that have taken place in europe during this time period. The books main focus, and antihero, is Shylock. shylock is a jewish money lender living in venice. The book is argued over by historians on if it is a comedy or tragedy. Reading this book i can experience what acceptance for other religions was like in the renaissance era in Europe.
The book introduces Bassanio, who is a an upper More...

"Il mondo io lo tengo in conto solo per quel che è: un palcoscenico..."

Il mercante di Venezia è una tragicommedia dolce, commovente, intelligente, divertente. Lo stile con cui è scritto è frizzante e vivace, elastico tanto da adattarsi ai cambiamenti d'atmosfera e senza mai perdere l'eleganza che lo caratterizza. E' questo che amo più di Shakespeare: parla di valori importanti, onestà, onore, amore, vita, morte, e lo fa con una naturalezza incredibile, con parole che per le orecchie suonano come More...

An incredible commentary on hypocrisy, religion, selfishness, selflessness, and mercy. Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice is, if nothing else, convicting, powerful, and absolutely beautiful. Many will recognize the infamous Shylock monologue which, for all intents and purposes, is just as applicable today as it was in Shakespeare's. It is a speech on the evils of stereotyping and religious hypocrisy. How can a people label a portion of society as evil-doers when they themselves consistently perfor More...

"[I]t is my humour" (IV,1, 43)

Thus answers Shylock, the Jewish money-lender, when pressed upon as to why he still insists on the pound of flesh being cut out of Antonio’s body instead of accepting a payment of the merchant’s debts from Antonio’s friends. Many a member of the play’s audience must think this hard to understand and will put Shylock’s stubborn insistence down to mere spite, and it is little wonder that the figure of Shylock, along with that of Dickens’s Fagin, has entered the pandem More...

Concerning Shakespeare, I probably am biased - though I did not really like some of his plays.
Before I tackled 'The Merchant of Venice', I have read a manga adaptation that a friend lent me. I liked it but that's it. (Of course, you can't compare a mange to the actual play but in retrospect, they did a good job adapting it - same as the movie, which made me adore it even more.)

So, yes, biased reviewer ahoy. I read it in a course where it was combined to Marlowe's 'Jew of Malta' - though really, More...

SALERIO: All things that are, Are with more spirit chasèd than enjoyed.

SHYLOCK: To bait fish withal. If it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million, laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies, what’s the reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same More...

The is deemed to be a 'problem' play, an antisemitic work. Many historians hold that the play is not historically correct, (from the introduction "Venetian Jews were confined to a ghetto and subjected to many humiliating restrictions. Numerous occupations were denied them, as they were prevented from infringing the Christian guild's monopoly of manufacture." "Behind these regulations... there probably lay the desire to deny the Jews the satisfaction of creative work, and to thrust them into a po More...

Although I am a Muslim and as everyone knows we have a long bad history with Jews, but I still feel that this is not the right way of treating them, who makes a mistake should be punished and not his whole group or race. I'm not saying that I love Jews or they love me, but no one has the right to treat a person badly. It's not a choice, it's a must to give respect for every human being because they are humans just like you, you must keep your personal feelings and thoughts for yourself! Never le More...

Beautiful and wealthy Portia is looking for a husband, and Bassanio wants to try for her hand but he is too poor to present himself as a viable suitor. He turns to his best friend Antonio, who has several ships expected with cargo that will bring him more wealth. The two friends go to Shylock the moneylender for a loan, but Shylock uses their need to set up his revenge. Antonio has always taunted and demeaned the Jewish moneylender, so rather than contracting for property if Antonio defaults on More...