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Jun 16, 2009

Kelly rated it:

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 More...

12 comments like (14 people liked it)

Jul 04, 2011

Luana rated it:

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...

5 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 19, 2007

Anne rated it:

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- More...

0 comments like (10 people liked it)

Feb 03, 2012

Asma rated it:

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 ! More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 07, 2011

Lavinia rated it:

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 o More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Feb 03, 2012

Ahmed rated it:

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 نها More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 03, 2012

Maha rated it:

قصتي مع الكتب تبدا مع هذه.. قبلها كنت مدمنه ماجد :) والمكتبة الخضراء وليدي بيرد
في الصف السادس توفى جدي الله يرحمه.. وكان لازم نروح العزاء كل يوم لفتره طويلة..
امي ما كانت تبيني اقعد كثير مع الناس الكبار :))
المهم جنب بيت جدي كان في مكتبه صغيرة اشترت لي منهم تاجر البندقية وتاراس بولبا وبعد روايتين ما اذكرهم
وكان يومها هو نقطه التحول.. من انسانه طبيعيه .. الى دوده كتب مثل ما كانت تسميني ابلة الشريعه :))
طبعا هذا كله راح مع اللعمر.. واليأس.. وبدايه التجاعيد.. والكتب الي ت More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 27, 2011

Jeanette rated it:

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 t More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 27, 2008

Travis rated it:

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...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 24, 2007

Terrill rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 22, 2012

Artemisia rated it:

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 di te che vi More...

0 comments like

Dec 10, 2008

Dolly rated it:

I was given a decent introduction to Shakespeare during my high school years. And this was one of my favorites - I remember being so excited to be picked to read the parts for Portia. I think I even wanted to name my daughter that at some point, but changed my mind.

We all had to memorize the following passage and it has always stuck with me (at least parts of it!):

"The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon t More...

0 comments like

Feb 11, 2012

David rated it:

To call this play unique would be a misnomer since Shakespeare was hardly original in the subject matter of his plays. I believe that the only play that came entirely from Shakespeare's imagination would have been The Tempest. Most of the other plays he had either borrowed from historical events, or literature that had existed beforehand. There is even some suggestion that a number of plays (particularly Hamlet) were based on older plays, and Shakespeare basically compiled and rewrit them into More...

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Feb 07, 2012

Wayne rated it:

This is more like a romantic-drama that ends "happily ever after."

It could also been seen as a tragedy where Shylock is concerned.
But despite his famous plea for recognition as a fellow human being,
("...hath not a Jew eyes?...If you prick us, do we not bleed?")
he still gets his "just desserts" as the Outsider. And Antonio, almost saintly in demeanour, is revealed by Shylock to have a very nasty side.
But then Everyone hates More...

0 comments like

Jan 19, 2012

Sheridan rated it:

This is a peppery little comedy that I read on one of my regular sojourns in Italy. I glanced at the critical reviews that took up more than four times the space of the play in the tome I brought with me. While some reviews had interesting little snippets it was clear that each reviewer had spent a narrow little academic life in his specialist area- Shakespeare. Each review betrayed breathtaking ignorance of all outside. For example, a supposed legal review was wrong in the law as quoted and eve More...

0 comments like

Jan 04, 2012

Annabanana rated it:

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 r More...

0 comments like

Nov 02, 2011

Trevor rated it:

My daughter has to write an essay on this play and so we have been talking about it. It would be easy to say the play is anti-Semitic – there is no question that many of the characters we are expected to have the most sympathy with are certainly anti-Semitic. My problem is that I can’t watch this play and not end up feeling sorry for Shylock. Sure, he was going to kill someone who had spat on him in the street and despised him for his religion – but then, he would hardly have been the first p More...

12 comments like (8 people liked it)

Oct 30, 2011

Brittany rated it:

It's been a while since I have read Shakespeare - luckily, I read the version that had the modern English on the adjacent page. However, the more I read, the more the old language made sense. I am always surprised at how modern a Shakespeare tale can feel, even in the old English. The story is timeless and entertaining, though the discord between Jews and Christians was very outdated. It's been a while since one was forced into Christianity. I enjoyed many of the characters - especially Portia a More...

0 comments like

Oct 13, 2011

Chelsea rated it:

The Merchant. The Merchant of Venice follows the story of Bassanio, a young man in Venice who is in love with Portia. But Portia is really wealthy and hot, and so he needs money in order to woo her. He goes to his friend Antonio, a local merchant, and together the two go to Shylock, a Jewish moneylender who gives Bassanio the money he needs to woo Portia after demanding that Antonio (who essentially cosigned the loan for Bassanio) give him a pound of flesh if the loan isn’t repayed. Antonio agr More...

0 comments like

Oct 04, 2011

Lady Jane rated it:

This is one of my favorite plays by William Shakespeare, and for me, one of the most quotable. My favorite character is, naturally, Shylock because he represents the so-called eccentric individual who must face society and the majority. Shakespeare had to no choice but to use this character as the antagonist because he had to cater to the anti-Semitic public of the time (how else is one to make a living but to cater to the majority!?) It is precisely against the tyrannical majority that Shylock More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Aug 03, 2011

Nicola rated it:

Reason for Reading: Mostly due to the fact that the publisher sent me a review copy, however, I am familiar with this Shakespeare play and am always interested in graphic or picturebook retellings of Shakespeare.

Written in modern day English, thankfully! I am one of those who (gasp) appreciate Shakespeare in our own language and can't stand trying to fumble through Elizabethan English. The book starts off with a one page intro to Shakespeare and then a Characters page which is very More...

0 comments like

Jul 28, 2011

Glenda rated it:

I thought I should reacquaint myself w/ "The Merchant of Venice" before seeing a production of the play. My favorite lines are Portia's "Quality of Mercy" speech in IV.i

"The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven,
Upon the place beneath.
It is twice blessed.
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
It is mightiest in the mightiest,
It becomes the throned monarch better than his crown.
His More...

0 comments like

Jul 22, 2011

Kettie rated it:

The Merchant of Venice takes you through the life of a Jew in a "Chirstians" world.
With the beauitful, perfect, Elizabethan woman Portia, but when you look into it, you realize she is more devilish than she appears. And Shylock our villian? Or victim?
Anotnio - gay? maybe? He sure does throw his hands on the blade for Bassanio a lot. And Bassanio our romantic, so in love with Portia, or Portia's beauty and wealth? Who knows?
Gratiano is hilarious and obvious, everything More...

0 comments like

Jun 19, 2011

Edward rated it:

“All things that are,
Are with more spirit chased than enjoyed...”
I think this quote from Act II, Scene 6 applies to much of the play, certainly to Portia being obtained only by the correct guessing of the meaning of the three sealed chests of gold, silver, and lead. The two wrong guesses, and the reasoning behind them are more fun than seeing Bassanio leadenly guess the right one and end up with his prize, Portia.
In the same way, what is a reader to make of the me More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 10, 2011

Manugw rated it:

A CLASSIC WITH REFERENCES TO RELIGIOUS ANTI-SEMITISM
For those who study the historical events related to the history of religious anti-semitism, this Shakespeare play provides a character, Shylock the Jewish moneylender, and is portrayed as Christian folks of that era would relate and treat him through the lens of that prejudice, for them "it is not Shylock (his name), is the Jew," a devilish usurer in opposition with the antagonist character merchant Antonio who lends money to fr More...

0 comments like

May 15, 2011

Janel rated it:

Shakespeare is pure genius that is all to say. His themes touch all and his complex characters are so interesting. I really liked this play and hope to see it on stage soon. I did like the comment that maybe if there were not so many minor characters that got involved I wouldn't have to refer back so much to the character sketches in the front of the book and I would keep better track of what is going on. I did read the No Fear Shakespeare edition and it made it much more enjoyable to read. I ke More...

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Mar 30, 2011

Rosiris rated it:

I really liked the Merchant of Venice because the purity of love, 'comedy', and money are all intertwined with three stories that cross, as all Shakespearean plays do, in Act III. This book was fabulous because the theme of religion feeds into the Shylock-Bassanio and Antonio story, making money, as in life, the main centre of attention. This factor (money) is good and also bad because it brings out the natural evil in love. It also stops people like Bassanio from meeting rich people like Portia More...

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Feb 04, 2011

Tiger Holland (All-Consuming Books) rated it:

This particular play is one of the times where Shakespeare's re-use of stock plots has some undesirable affects. He's combining two old plays and writing them into a unified piece that has some logic gaps between the "love plot" and the "hate plot". The love plot involves a young noble called Bassanio who wants to court a the far-off lady Portia, but lacks the funds to do so. Bassanio asks his older friend Antonio for a loan, but Antonio, the "merchant of Venice" is More...

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Sep 27, 2010

Brad rated it:

This play is about a Merchant who lives in Venice. I really enjoyed this, though I read it far too quickly. The characters and interchanges are great, as one would expect. I was surprised at so much blatant antisemitism I know, I shouldn't be, but it was a bit of a shock. That being said, Shylock was a great character. So fun, so bitter, so evil. I love that Willy is always willing to make a truly evil villain.

One question that many of the comedies bring to mind: Did people More...

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Jun 04, 2010

Rowland rated it:

The Merchant of Venice was probably written in either 1596 or 1597, after Shakespeare had written such plays as Romeo and Juliet and Richard III,but before he penned the great tragedies of his later years. Its basic plot outline, with the characters of the merchant, the poor suitor, the fair lady, and the villainous Jew, is found in a number of contemporary Italian story collections, and Shakespeare borrowed several details, such the choice of caskets that Portia inflicts on all her suitors, fro More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)