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The Merchant of Venice

William Shakespeare,

Robert Jackson (Editor),

Barbara A. Mowat (Editor),

Paul Werstine (Editor)

3.80 · Rating details · 161,619 ratings · 3,887 reviews

In this lively comedy of love and money in sixteenth-century Venice, Bassanio wants to impress the wealthy heiress Portia but lacks the necessary funds. He turns to his merchant friend, Antonio, who is forced to borrow from Shylock, a Jewish moneylender. When Antonio's business falters, repayment becomes impossible--and by the terms of the loan agreement, Shylock is able t ...more

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Paperback, Folger Shakespeare Library, 337 pages

Published 1992 by Washington Square Press, Inc. (first published 1596)

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May 12, 2007 Bill Kerwin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 16th-17th-c-brit, tudor-drama

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 embodies f0r us the fallen world of Venice tra ...more

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Oct 18, 2012 Henry Avila rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The pretty islands of Venice, in the shallow lagoon, atop the blue, Adriatic Sea, as the blazing rays of the Sun, shine down, on the brilliant colors of the homes, the calm canals full of boats , with cargo, from faraway lands, a glorious past, but an uncertain future, the rise of Portugal, worries the people. The city once powerful, a short distance from the Italian mainland, vastly wealthy, is in decline...Antonio, the most successful merchant in Venice, and a gambler in commerce, his ships fl The pretty islands of Venice, in the shallow lagoon, atop the blue, Adriatic Sea, as the blazing rays of the Sun, shine down, on the brilliant colors of the homes, the calm canals full of boats , with cargo, from faraway lands, a glorious past, but an uncertain future, the rise of Portugal, worries the people. The city once powerful, a short distance from the Italian mainland, vastly wealthy, is in decline...Antonio, the most successful merchant in Venice, and a gambler in commerce, his ships float in the unpredictable oceans waves, always bringing him back riches , to the lucky man. His cousin, and best friend , Bassanio, not so much, he has a bad habit of spending not only all his money, but quite a lot not in his pockets ( a concept still popular in modern times ). As they say, a friend in need, is a friend indeed, Bassanio asks Antonio for a loan, but unfortunately his kinsman has everything tied up, but wait a short while, soon his ships will come in, and Antonio will be richer than ever. Bassanio can't, there is a woman involved, he needs plenty of ducats, to impress the lady Portia, who lives on shore, Belmont, that he is well off, not a penniless seeker of gold , through marriage to her. Only the moneylender Shylock, can do this, Christians in the middle ages, considered it unchristian, getting interest from loaning money... so intelligent Jews, dominates this trade and did very well. The wise Shylock ( who despises Antonio, a rival, and the merchant does not love him either), will not have anything to do with the reckless Bassanio, but Antonio, that's different, an excellent reputation in business. 3,000 ducats agreed to, a contract signed by Antonio, with a funny line about a pound of flesh taken from The Merchant of Venice, if he can't repay back the loan, with interest, in three months. Simple, his ships have always brought back precious merchandise, making huge profits, much over the cost of his investments, but the mammoth seas, are exceedingly treacherous, and unfeeling, news arrives, a shipwreck off Tripoli, another in the English Channel, others, fall under the stormy waves, never to be seen again, sink in the cold waters, to the unknown bottom of the abyss. Antonio, is ruined, like his ships, Shylock demands not his money, but the pound of flesh from his hide, even the Duke, of the city, is helpless, a contract is a contract, bad for business if not enforced ...His cousin has been better served by the gods, married to the wealthy , smart, independently-minded, beautiful, Portia, but Antonio, still needs a good lawyer, now, the hesitant Bassanio returns to Venice, with his wife's support, on their wedding day. Nerissa, Portia's maid, married Gratiano, her husband's friend, the two secretly follow them to the city, dressed as men. Their new, unperceptive, maybe even vacuous husbands, know not these gentlemen...Portia, a pretend attorney, with whatever legal knowledge, she acquires ( but an intellectual giant), must save Antonio from an undoubted death...The Jewish Shylock, makes the best statement ever, against racism... "If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die?" ...more

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Nov 16, 2017 Dolors rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommended to Dolors by: Contradictions in me

Shelves: read-in-2017, getting-to-know-shakespeare

Maybe because I read this play with the famous controversy of its antisemitism on my mind, or because I expected a true hearted villain, “Iago fashion”, in the Jewish usurer Skylock, but I reached the last scene of the play with the extraordinary sensation that the Jew’s failure to execute the bloodthirsty bond was more of an anecdote than a climatic victory over evil.

Shakespeare’s precise wordplay presents a flesh and bone figure in Shylock, a flawed human being, a man who has been mocked and p Maybe because I read this play with the famous controversy of its antisemitism on my mind, or because I expected a true hearted villain, “Iago fashion”, in the Jewish usurer Skylock, but I reached the last scene of the play with the extraordinary sensation that the Jew’s failure to execute the bloodthirsty bond was more of an anecdote than a climatic victory over evil.

Shakespeare’s precise wordplay presents a flesh and bone figure in Shylock, a flawed human being, a man who has been mocked and persecuted by his Christian antagonists and who seeks disproportionate revenge out of hurt pride and blind rage. He is not wicked by nature; the Jew has a motive to retaliate, either with or without the weight of morality on his side, and that is precisely what makes him such a believable character.

And then, there is Portia. Portia, Oh Portia. To me, Portia is the great revelation of the play. A beautiful orphan, wealthy but not spoiled, ready to follow his deceased father’s will and marry the man who sees beyond appearances. A woman with passion and brains that outshines her dull peers by daring to break the rules and suspend her role as a subservient female in order to save the day.
Her transfiguration and disarming display of acumen in the court scene, followed by the allegorical teasing of the ring played on her dumfounded new husband Bassanio is enough to place Portia among sassy heroines the caliber of Beatrice, Kate or Hermione.

There is nothing to miss in this first-rate comedy, the best I have read so far.
Fast-paced bantering, misused words over-brimming with jocular double meaning, a fool who is wise enough to choose the winning side, three romances that culminate in a great party and metaphoric sagacity in the form of playful riddles.
Beyond the literal plotline, there is a universe of challenged beliefs where apparently righteous characters are not essentially good, scheming misers are not outright scoundrels and damsels in distress, mere objects of male protection.
Shakespeare flips the coin fast enough to confuse the casual reader, but if one reads between the lines, he’ll meet defiant nonconformity in its most elegant disguise.
More like this, please! ...more

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Jun 16, 2009 Kelly rated it liked it

Shelves: theatre, shakespeare, owned, 1500-1700, brit-lit

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

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Aug 01, 2016 Brina rated it it was amazing

Shelves: plays, classics, shakespearean

The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare is the old classics selection for catching up on classics for September 2016. This comedy, first printed in 1609 five years prior to Shakespeare's death, offers many pressing issues of its day that are unfortunately still relevant today. It is still widely studied in schools yet is banned in many places as well due to its anti-Semitic portrayal of Jews and some lewdness. It is in this light that I discuss the Bard's work.

Jews had been banned from England in The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare is the old classics selection for catching up on classics for September 2016. This comedy, first printed in 1609 five years prior to Shakespeare's death, offers many pressing issues of its day that are unfortunately still relevant today. It is still widely studied in schools yet is banned in many places as well due to its anti-Semitic portrayal of Jews and some lewdness. It is in this light that I discuss the Bard's work.

Jews had been banned from England in 1290, so it is highly unlikely that Shakespeare came across many Jews during his lifetime. His portrayal of Shylock as a greedy moneylender is considered stereotypical by many. Other scholars, however, have created rumors that perhaps Shakespeare himself was Jewish and that his creation of Shylock was to bring awareness the poor treatment of Jews throughout Europe. The fact that this play was published in the First Folio after the Bard's death makes one question if perhaps Shakespeare himself did not write this particular play, but maybe a ghost writer, specifically a Jewish born ghost writer, did. Regardless, Shylock's character, including his "Hath not a Jew eyes..." speech remains memorable these 420 years later.

Additionally, Shakespeare has created strong female characters in this play, both Portia of Belmont and Jessica, Shylock's daughter. I recently read Macbeth where Lady Macbeth is more ruthless and calculating than her husband. In The Merchant of Venice, Portia uses a mind game to find a worthy suitor and later on disguises herself as a lawyer in order to free her husband's dear friend Antonio from Shylock's bond. I remember all these years later being naturally drawn toward Portia's strong character when I read this play in school, which is why I feel that schools select this work so that girls have a protagonist that they are captivated by while reading.

While the Merchant of Venice is officially deemed a comedy because three sets of characters marry, the play also contains dramatic elements. I am more drawn toward the intrigue in tragedies, so, naturally, the plot involving Antonio's bond to Shylock in order to assist Bassanio in wooing Portia, held my attention more than the actual romance involving Portia and Bassanio as well as Nerissa and Gratiano. Additionally, the role of Jews' in society which lead Jessica to renounce her Judaism in order to marry Lorenzo, was heart rending to me, as opposed to romantic. Interestingly enough, the last play of Shakespeare's that I read discussed little of the world at large but chose to focus on the characters themselves. This leads me to question if the rumor to whether or not the Bard penned all of his plays actually contains a kernel of truth.

I enjoyed reading The Merchant of Venice for the first time in nearly twenty years. It is eye opening through adult eyes the roles of both Jews and women in Shakespearean works. Was the bard an anti-Semitic Englishman renouncing Jews or a Jewish ghost writer warning Europeans of Jews' plight. The fact that scholars are still debating this question over 400 years later is a testament to the Bard's place in written history. It was a treat to revisit this work, which I rate 5 huge stars for its societal awareness and timelessness. ...more

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Jul 08, 2020 Amalia Gkavea rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, 16th-century, shakespeare, british-culture, theatre, european-culture, european-heritage, european-theatre, british-theatre, classics

‘’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 weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wro ...more

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Jan 20, 2012 Lyn rated it really liked it

If this had a secondary title, delivered in "the parlance of our times" it would be THE POUND OF FLESH.

I liked this for many reasons but the element that stands out most is Shakespeare's focus. Many of his plays have various, complex, and intertwined sub-plots, some being more interesting than the theme itself, TMOV is focused and almost relentless, we have one simple course of action that the story leads inevitably towards and which keeps the reader and the audience entranced, will Shylock rea ...more

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Jan 14, 2014 Riku Sayuj rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, plays, r-r-rs, classics, sociology-institutions, shakespeare

“One had best state this matter very plainly: To recover the comic splendor of The Merchant of Venice now, you need to be either a scholar or an anti-Semite, or best of all an anti-Semitic scholar.”
~ Harold Bloom

***

See how yond justice rails upon yond simple thief.
Hark in thine ear: change places, and handy-dandy,
which is the justice, which is the thief?
~ King Lear (IV.vi.151–4)

***

“Which is the merchant here? and which the Jew?”
~ The Merchant of Venice

THE BLACK SWAN OF VENICE

The traditio ...more

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Sep 05, 2016 James rated it liked it

Shelves: 4-written-pre-20th-century, 1-fiction

Book Review
3 of 5 stars to The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. My review is an excerpt from a paper I wrote on appearance versus reality in Shakespeare's plays. In many of William Shakespeare’s famous plays, reality was not quite what it appeared to be. Instead, it was a rather warped appearance that someone molded in a specific way for a particular reason. Reality has been altered in Shakespeare’s plays often by characters who have been known to lie, scheme, and create fa Book Review
3 of 5 stars to The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. My review is an excerpt from a paper I wrote on appearance versus reality in Shakespeare's plays. In many of William Shakespeare’s famous plays, reality was not quite what it appeared to be. Instead, it was a rather warped appearance that someone molded in a specific way for a particular reason. Reality has been altered in Shakespeare’s plays often by characters who have been known to lie, scheme, and create facades, just so that they could be with the ones they love. When fate intervened in this type of a situation and created an obstacle between the true loves, Portia, the main character in Merchant of Venice, disguised herself as a lawyer to free her love, Bassanio, from the evil Shylock’s clutches. She also altered reality by disguising herself to her husband so that she could see what their wedding rings meant to him. However, this deception, although intended for good purposes, usually ended in disaster. It just goes to show that honesty is always the best policy. Never deceive fate by changing reality, and interpreting [from it] a new appearance that you want other to see.

Portia had already been through an appearance vs. reality problem when it came to her potential suitor’s choosing of the caskets. They could choose from gold, silver, and lead. The first two appeared to be wonderful gifts from God, but in reality, the most worthless one, the lead, turned out to be the best coffin to pick. If you did, like one person did, you would win Portia’s hand in marriage. Luckily, the first two gentleman chose the wrong casket, and then when it came time for Bassanio to choose a casket, he chose the correct one. Thus, it lead to the marriage between Portia and Bassanio. Bassanio’s best friend Antonio, however, was in need of dire help. Portia decided to help her husband’s friend Antonio. Antonio had borrowed money from a man named Shylock to back Bassanio’s ships in the waters nearby. However, the ships never came back to port, and so Shylock wanted his money back from Antonio. The agreement that was made was that Shylock was due one pound’s flesh if he didn’t receive any money. Bassanio didn’t want to let his friend Antonio die from his debt, either. Eventually, Portia and her lady-in-waiting came up with a plan to disguise themselves and become a doctor and his clerk. This plan again alters reality to suit her own purpose. She needed to help her friend Antonio, so she put on a new appearance. She played the doctor who told Shylock he had permission to take his flesh from Antonio, but he best be careful not to shed any of Antonio’s blood during it, because that is illegal. Also, they revealed the Venetian law that states if any foreigner kills a Venetian, all of his money is to be taken from him. Shylock gives in and decides not to take his flesh from Antonio. In the end, Portia’s trickery and deceit works, but still, she had to disfigure the state of reality that Venice was in because she wanted to help her husband Bassanio.

Similarly, Portia decides to put on another disguise to test her husband’s loyalty. She again plays with the appearance of things and creates a false appearance like Juliet did in Romeo and Juliet. Portia, as the doctor talks to Bassanio about being paid for having saved Antonio’s life. Bassanio tires to give her money, but she refuses saying that all she wants is the ring on his hand. Bassanio thinks back to when it was given to him. Portia had said “I gave them with his ring, which when you part from, lose, or give away, let it presage the ruin of your love, and be my vantage to exclaim on you” (3.2.171-174). Bassanio had given her his word that he would never take it off. Well, after Portia, as the disguised man, chides Bassanio for keeping it because his woman told him to, Bassanio hands over the ring. When he later returns to Portia, she notices that his ring is gone and yells at him for it. She thinks he doesn’t love her and is reckless. All the while, Portia has set this whole game up to test her husband. Portia’s plays with reality for the fun of it really. She wants to be sure of her husband’s love for her, but she has no right to alter her appearance and trick him. He is a man of equal measure to her and everyone else.

Portia and Bassanio end up fighting about the loss, but Bassanio ends up vowing never to get rid of the ring again after she tells him what she did. She is constantly switching back and forth from reality, to her perception of it, to the perception she gives to others of reality that she eventually almost messes up the entire situation. Portia wasn’t altogether truthful with her husband with what she did. If she had been though, he would not have given the ring away. Therefore, by playing with the views others see of reality, particularly her husband’s, she tempts fate. If she had never done anything, her husband Bassanio and her wouldn’t have fought and they would have lived happily ever after. However, she doesn’t. They end up talking about it and forgiving each other, but surely there will always be doubt in the back of their minds about what the other is up to. Bassanio may wonder if she is just playing games with him, and Portia may wonder if he will really hold onto the ring for next time. Leave well enough alone and let fate and reality take their course rather than warp the appearance of things for your own purpose.

About Me
For those new to me or my reviews... here's the scoop: I read A LOT. I write A LOT. And now I blog A LOT. First the book review goes on Goodreads, and then I send it on over to my WordPress blog at https://thisismytruthnow.com, where you'll also find TV & Film reviews, the revealing and introspective 365 Daily Challenge and lots of blogging about places I've visited all over the world. And you can find all my social media profiles to get the details on the who/what/when/where and my pictures. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Vote in the poll and ratings. Thanks for stopping by. Note: All written content is my original creation and copyrighted to me, but the graphics and images were linked from other sites and belong to them. Many thanks to their original creators. ...more

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Oct 02, 2016 Michael Finocchiaro rated it really liked it

Shelves: theatre, shakespeare, classics, comedic-plays, english-16th-c

Besides being a great Shakespeare play, this is an entertaining read. However, what sticks in my mind was the interruption at the Comédie Française when I saw this performed (in French!) by some Zionist activists in the middle of the play decrying the anti-Semitism of the work. So, yes, there is a stereotypical character in the book that is Jewish and it is not a complimentary positive portrait. But to label the entire work as anti-Semitic seems a little much for me. Shakespeare was, of course, Besides being a great Shakespeare play, this is an entertaining read. However, what sticks in my mind was the interruption at the Comédie Française when I saw this performed (in French!) by some Zionist activists in the middle of the play decrying the anti-Semitism of the work. So, yes, there is a stereotypical character in the book that is Jewish and it is not a complimentary positive portrait. But to label the entire work as anti-Semitic seems a little much for me. Shakespeare was, of course, a creature of his time and his times - Elizabethan England - were not particularly fantastic for those of the Jewish fate, but they were not the programs of 19c and 20c Eastern Europe and Russia either.

In her excellent book that reviews all of Shakespeare's plays, Shakespeare After All, Marjorie Garber points out that the interpretation of Shylock has evolved from a comic, clownish figure in Elizabethan times to a more post-modern tragic role. I felt that despite Shylock being a relatively mono-dimensional character obsessed with money (and thus conforming to a certain stereotype towards Jewish people that unfortunately continues today in some circles), Jessica, his daughter, is independent, beautiful and marries Lorenzo while securing her future by taking her inheritance from Shylock when she elopes dressed as a man. In other words, she was a relatively strong, forceful character and more three-dimensional which sort of serves as a counterbalance to Shylock. Of course, both convert (Shylock by necessity and Jessica by marriage) to Christianity, but this is where we are obliged to place the play into the context of Elizabethan England from which Jews had been expelled three centuries before and which was overwhelmingly Christian and liberated from Roman Catholicism due to her father, Henry VIII.

As Ms. Garber points out, what makes for powerful and enduring literature, besides strong character development and plot, is the ambiguities that the work creates as it does not answer all our questions. It is neither half-full nor half-empty, but more like Schrodinger's cat in some kind of nebulous vaccuum. It is up to the reader to supply his/her own narrative and decide whether they are challenged in their "idées reçus" or not.

I found that it was an interesting play where we follow two melancholy protagonists who are both in love to some degree or another with Bassanio: Antonio is willing to risk his life for him and Portia marries him. Shakespeare is nearly without equal in creating parallel situations and weaving a story around their trajectories. In Merchant, we have a tale with wonderful, cross-dressing female protagonists like in Midsummer's Night Dream and others, and each of these female characters is strong and intelligent. In fact, I am finding as I read all of the plays more or less in order, that the women in his plays are more intelligent and often deeper than the male characters. And what is even more interesting about that, is that they were played by young men or boys in Shakespeare's time (not until under the Restoration of Charles II in about 1660 were women allowed to act on stage in England, so nearly 45 years after the Bard's death) which adds a whole other dimension to the shape-shifting aspect of the play.

Read Merchant and be transported to Venice, try to hear the gondoliers singing on the canals and the water lapping on the side of the quai and turn a deaf ear to Solanio and Solario's anti-semitic rants, and instead enjoy the parallel situations and the wonderful speeches. ...more

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Jan 01, 2018 Luffy rated it liked it

Maybe I'm being slightly harsh with my rating. I read this play and immediately thought I'll rate it 5 stars. But I rescinded this idea. Hear me out. I realized that it was an outdated model of storytelling.

I also realized that there's not many adaptations of this story of Shakespeare. We get lots of Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing, even the ambitious Othello or Midsummer Night's Dream.

The Merchant of Venice is at heart a simplistic story with people in love but it's not a love story. I ...more

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Mar 08, 2011 Darwin8u rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: shakespeare, 2017, drama

"The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose."
- William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act 1, Scene 3

description

There is something about Shylock that I absolutely love. He is huge. His hatred and his disdain for Venice's Christians throbs like a heart ready to burst. There is no rest nor slumber to his antipathy. Somehow, this wicked caricature of both man and race I still, however, adore more than the self-righteous charm of the aggrieved Christians and the obviously biased "Doctor of Laws".

I want ...more

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Jun 08, 2015 Hailey (Hailey in Bookland) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, owned

*reread nov 2015*

Definitely one of my favourites.

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Sep 21, 2016 Duane rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2016-book-challenge, plays-theater, reviewed-books, rated-books, english-calssics

It has been debated whether Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice is anti-semitic or whether he is trying to call attention to their plight in his time. Many modern readers lean toward the latter pointing to Shylock's profound speech in the trial scene (do I not bleed when you cut me?). It's up to the reader to form their own opinion because it's hard to know what Shakespeare was thinking 400 years after the fact.

From a pure readability standpoint, I thought the play was very good, one of Shakespeare ...more

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Sep 19, 2007 Anne Blocker rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: everyone

Shelves: strong-influence

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 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 person is valued in a storm, I was unable to understand the tone of anti-Semitism. I wrote about that when I next studied the play in college.

In my Forties, our laboratory was conducting research at St. Stephen's School in Austin when the Headmaster called to say I had to come immediately to see the results of a new learning device. The door to the classroom was locked until the bell rang. Seventh grade students streamed into the class and seized the lesson of the day to learn -- Elizabethan vocabulary for The Merchant of Venice. I expected groans and instead, it was like a race. In 15 minutes, they had all learned the lesson to 100% and the teacher turned on a video in process, an exchange of Portia, Antonio and Shylock about the pound of flesh.

When the word forsooth came on, the class, in unison, raised fists into the air and shouted the word. I was startled. Could this be learning?

When the video was turned off, the hands went up enthusiastically. The first question, what are the words we say today that will seem odd three hundred years from now? Cool, tight, talk to the hand seemed to qualify. The next question, what is a pound of flesh and where could you cut it off the body where it would do the most and the least damage? That led to a discussion of emergency medicine, vulnerability of biological systems and triage.

Then, the inevitable, what does it mean to be Jewish and why do they charge interest? If I lent you lunch money today, I wouldn't ask for more than I lent you tomorrow. That would not seem fair. The kids of bankers and Realtors were quick to discuss economic systems, countries where interest was illegal, the first rumors of the success of the Grameen Bank. They were guided in a discussion of the common origin of religions, the children of Abraham who had become Jews, Christians and Muslims.

I asked the teacher, noticing the time, when they were going to discuss the play and Shakespeare. She turned and smiled. This is what we study Shakespeare FOR, she said, to teach students to think and feel and deal with what is important -- poetry, ideas, the human condition. This is just the beginning. These kids will be talking about The Merchant of Venice all their lives. I realized she was right. ...more

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Nov 02, 2011 Trevor rated it it was amazing

Shelves: literature

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 pers 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 person in the world to do that if given the chance. Still, his near total destruction on the basis of legal entrapment is anything but edifying.

This is a play about how the law is unlikely to be just unless it is tempered with mercy – although, this ‘lesson’ is one that is variously demonstrated through some of the major story-lines of the play. This is also, of course, a play about identity – who we are, who we would like to appear to be and who we find ourselves to be. It is hardly surprising that the night that Shylock’s daughter leaves her father’s house is a night when the local Christians roam the streets wearing masks and Shylock warns her to stay indoors. Many of the masks in this play are both metaphorical and literal.

During the trial Shylock asks, “What judgement shall I dread, doing no wrong?” And here is the key point of the play. Portia answers this in her rightly famous ‘Quality of mercy’ speech. “Therefore, Jew, though justice be thy plea, consider this, that in the course of justice none of us should see salvation: we do pray for mercy, and that same prayer doth teach us all to render to deeds of mercy.” That is, not even the best person that ever lived is good enough to deserve salvation – we are all, according to God’s law, ultimately sinners and deserving of damnation. Our being saved by God is not due to our deserving salvation, but rather it is an act of mercy gifted to us by God. The law is harsh, but it is made just by the application of mercy.

Now, the most obvious example of this law and mercy relationship is Shylock and his demanding the literal execution of the terms of his deed with Antonio. It is clear that the extraction of a pound of flesh from the body of Antonio is going to cause his death. But it is also clear that Shylock is within his legal right to demand the execution of their deed. It is also clear that he has real grievances against Antonio. The problem is that Shylock’s application of the law is anything but disinterested. As he says to Antonio, “Thou call’dst me a dog before thou had cause, but since I am a dog beware my fangs”. Few of us, Jewish or not, would be able to resist extracting a pound of flesh from our enemies if we thought we could do so with impunity. And Antonio is clearly an enemy of Shylock’s – a long-standing enemy who has mocked and ridiculed him (and worse) for being Jewish.

Venice is shocked that Shylock should seek to enact the terms of the deed – but what is interesting here is that Antonio entered into this deed with both eyes open. Sure, he thought he would be safe with money coming in ahead of time, but there is no question he entered the deed willingly. This puts the State in an interesting position in relation to the deed. They are forced to enact it, that is, until Portia comes along and, with what is supposed to be clever legal footwork (but is actually a terrible kind of entrapment – worse than we can accuse Shylock of – the outcome being certain in this case), she turns the tables on Shylock. He can have his pound of flesh, no more and no less, and must not spill a drop of blood in extracting it. Clearly, an impossible condition to comply with. Furthermore, because he has sought to kill a citizen of Venice he forfeits his life, with half of his property to the state and the other half to his victim. These terms are overturned (as a display of Christian mercy on behalf of the state and Antonio) but on condition he leaves his fortune to his run-away daughter’s new husband and also becomes a Christian. It is hardly a scene to cheer at. And I struggle to believe Shakespeare intended it as such. It is a bitter and pointless act by a state anything but disinterested and one that is devoid of anything approaching ‘justice’. And this is interesting, as Portia earlier explained that the arbitrary cancelling of the deed was impossible – it would be used as a precedent by others to excuse their own debts. But the sleight of hand she performs to entrap Shylock could hardly bring comfort to anyone from outside Venice entering into a contract with a citizen of Venice and their likely treatment of things go belly up. From the perspective of an outsider the story runs like this: two men freely enter into a contract, the terms of the contract were clearly known to both parties before their agreement, one party is unable to meet the terms of their contract, the other party demands the contract be enforced, for doing so he loses control of his own property and is forced to convert to the local religion. Is this a place where you would consider investing? It sounds like the kind of loan and contract you might receive from the IMF or the World Bank…

The relationship between the law and mercy (and thereby producing justice) isn’t very clear in the other stories in the play either. Firstly, there is Portia’s little predicament at the start of the play. Her father is dead, but to make sure she marries someone worthy of her he has set up a kind of parlour trick. There are three caskets and if her suitor picks the right one he will get the girl. How confident would you need to be of your ‘law’ – your belief that the person that picks the right casket will do so for all the right reasons – that you would stake your daughter’s life, fortune and happiness on it? This is made all the more ironic as Portia is clearly the most clever person in the play, but she is not trusted with any leeway in her choice of a husband – something I assume she would have at least as much interest in as her dead father. This is mandatory sentencing gone mad.

The other example is to do with the ring. When Portia becomes engaged to Bassanio she gives him a ring – the law in this situation being that he is not to take the ring off or to give it to anyone else, as it is a symbol of their love and to do such a thing would mean the end of their love. But Portia attends the court and frees Bassanio’s best friend, Anthony. They don’t realise who she is, (that game with identity that is played with throughout – husbands not recognising wives, fathers not recognising sons) she is dressed as a young man, and so they offer her lots of money – which she refuses. But she asks for Bassanio’s ring. This puts Bassanio in a tailspin, but finally he agrees to hand over the ring. Later, when again dressed as herself, she asks where the ring is and causes all sorts of trouble over his giving it away. Again, just as with Shylock earlier, she is involved in entrapment. The point here, I think, is that creating absolute rules, creating unquestionable laws, is generally a bad idea. And this brings us back to the question of mercy. Laws need to be strict and to admit of no exceptions – but life and justice requires that people should be able to plead mitigation. And when universal laws are applied blindly to specific circumstances all too often they can lead to injustice.

If, ultimately, this is an anti-Semitic play, it isn’t one that I think really could leave anti-Semites feeling terribly comfortable with their beliefs or proud of their racism. Shylock’s motives are anything but worthy, but how he is treated is hardly an example of the best of Christian morality. His enforced conversion is repulsive in the extreme, his entrapment is also repulsive – in fact, there ought to be laws against such behaviour.
...more

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Aug 02, 2020 Lisa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: shakespeare

AAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!

Whoever thinks Shakespeare's TRAGEDIES are hard to stomach should try his COMEDIES! They are not as funny as his tragedies, but definitely more brutal, at least if you look at The Taming of the Shrew or The Merchant of Venice.

No Sir, it is not funny anymore to watch a madman bet that he can beat his wife to pulp and torture her psychologically until she is tamed. That marriage is not made in heaven unless heaven is a place to avoid at any cost.

And similarly, it is not fun AAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!

Whoever thinks Shakespeare's TRAGEDIES are hard to stomach should try his COMEDIES! They are not as funny as his tragedies, but definitely more brutal, at least if you look at The Taming of the Shrew or The Merchant of Venice.

No Sir, it is not funny anymore to watch a madman bet that he can beat his wife to pulp and torture her psychologically until she is tamed. That marriage is not made in heaven unless heaven is a place to avoid at any cost.

And similarly, it is not funny to watch a bunch of careless idiots throwing out money left, right and centre while racially abusing the Jewish lender who solves their money issues until he cracks and breaks. And it is certainly not the best way to start a marriage to disavow one's parent while taking his money like Jessica does in an act of unbelievable Anti-Cordelianism, which strangely becomes a virtue simply because her father is Jewish. So if King Lear was Jewish, it would be a comedy of two laudable "Christianised" daughters turning their back on him and of the funny ending of devilish Cordelia, who stubbornly sticks to her tribe no matter what?

Don't get me wrong. This is a highly interesting and very, very intense play, so incredibly well adapted to the follies of human allegiances and passionate hatreds that it has no rival. It is just so hard to accept the fact that one has to live in a world where evil and hypocrisy pay off so beautifully.

Jessica! Seriously, if your Scylla and Charybdis are a choice between a single mother or a Jewish father, move to the 21st century and you will find you can live comfortably with a single mother AND a Jewish father. Things are better now!

Portia! My last words are for you! You are a way too clever lady to spend your wit on accommodating your dead father and your weak husband. And I wish you had had more heart when you had the power during that moment of sublime disguise. That would have made you a proper heroine. If you had let Shylock off the hook you would have been a great lady and a clever one. As it is, well... I guess I blame it on the time and place and not on your quick personality deformation in the limelight of power.

I am off crying a bit over the world of comedy... ...more

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Apr 01, 2017 Piyangie rated it really liked it

Shelves: plays, my-library, brittish-lit

This is yet another wonderful Shakespearean play that I read. I have watched the play but this is the first time I read it. The play consists of a great story on justice, love, loyalty and mercy. It is full of drama and intrigue and the read was absolutely wonderful.

There is however much criticism on this play for its antisemitic portrayal. It must have been the general view and treatment of the society towards the Jews. But it is doubtful whether Shakespeare used antisemitic portrayal to discr ...more

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Dec 09, 2010 Emily May rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics, plays

So strange that this was ever considered a comedy. I've yet to see a performance of it that has seemed anything but tragic. Such an odd play all around and is - along with the Taming of the Shrew - one that makes you want to ask the old boy what his intentions were. It's criticised by many for being anti-Semitic and yet it offers Shylock the spotlight to make an infamous speech about the unfair treatment of Jews. Strange. ...more

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Jun 11, 2018 mayy rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-read-2018, shakespeare-own, books-already-own, classics-read

“All that glisters is not gold;
Often have you heard that told:
Many a man his life hath sold
But my outside to behold:
Gilded tombs do worms enfold.”

Wow, this is something else I’ll tell you that much.

My friend and was the one who told to read this as my next Shakespeare and when I asked her why she responded with : " There is this guy who bargains with another guy and if the first guy doesn’t pay the second guy the money back on time he get’s to take a pound of his flesh, from anywhere he wants.". ...more

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Sep 07, 2018 Saadia B. || CritiConscience rated it liked it

If you are helpful, you will always succeed is the lesson from this story. Bassanio gets to marry Portia, a wealthy heiress. Antonio, who takes loan from Shylock to help Bassanio is the winner of all.

Whereas Shylock lost everything - his money, daughter and even religion because of his evil intentions to punish Christianity through Antonio as he keeps a condition while giving loan that if Antonio failed to return his money in three months then Shylock will exact a pound of flesh from his body.

B ...more

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Jan 24, 2013 Huda Aweys rated it liked it

Shelves: comedy, classics, love, literature, fiction, watched-its-movie, beauty, adventurer, romance, teen

I love this play .. I love those writings which exalting women :) .... and explain what she can be ! .. or what is estimated to be and how it can outweigh the balance ! :)
كمان المسرحية مهمة جدا لكونها أشارت للقوة الإقتصادية اللي كان بيمثلها اليهود في اوروبا ، في ذلك الوقت ..

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Oct 02, 2016 Wanda rated it liked it

Shelves: shakespeare, read-in-2016, the-plays-the-thing

I attended a filmed version of this play, performed in the reconstructed Globe Theatre in London. The costuming was wonderful, plus the music was excellent! Jonathan Price was a convincing Shylock and his real-life daughter Phoebe played the role of Shylock’s daughter Jessica. Between the two of them, they managed to make Antonio & the other Christians look like the monsters of the piece.

Of course I knew about the whole “pound of flesh” issue, but I didn’t know many other details of this play, w ...more

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Feb 07, 2015 Manny added it · review of another edition

Shelves: celebrity-death-match, life-is-shakespeare, well-i-think-its-funny, why-not-call-it-poetry

Now playing at the Almeida Theater in London, an amazing CELEBRITY DEATH MATCH PERFORMANCE...

 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE
 VERSUS 

 ELVIS PRESLEY'S GREATEST HITS

Really! I kid you not.

Now playing at the Almeida Theater in London, an amazing CELEBRITY DEATH MATCH PERFORMANCE...

 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE
 VERSUS 

 ELVIS PRESLEY'S GREATEST HITS

Really! I kid you not.

...more

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Jan 01, 2019 Zachary F. rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: drama, make-em-laugh, 1500s, what-is-love, bardolatry

The villainy you teach me I
Will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.
-Shylock (act 3, scene 1)

Let's not beat around the bush: The Merchant of Venice is an antisemitic play. This isn't even an arguable contention as far as I'm concerned; I don't believe any modern reader who wasn't already determined to vindicate Shakespeare could read the play and conclude differently.

It's true that Shylock, as a character, is more t The villainy you teach me I
Will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.
-Shylock (act 3, scene 1)

Let's not beat around the bush: The Merchant of Venice is an antisemitic play. This isn't even an arguable contention as far as I'm concerned; I don't believe any modern reader who wasn't already determined to vindicate Shakespeare could read the play and conclude differently.

It's true that Shylock, as a character, is more than just a flat Jewish stereotype. Shakespeare's villains are frequently more interesting, even more nuanced, than his heroes, and there's enough pathos in Shylock's portrayal throughout the play that it's clear Will had some sympathy for his creation and some understanding of the injustices which would have shaped him. For all Shylock's villainous huffing and puffing in the final courtroom scene, it's hard not to feel pity for him (and contempt for his Christian opponents) when he's stripped of his property and his religion through what amounts to little more than lies and legal trickery. If the Shylock scenes were all we had to go by, I'd be willing to entertain a more subversive reading of the play.

But they're not all we have to go by. Whatever subverting Shakespeare does with the character of Shylock himself, the context in which he does it is thoroughly and pervasively antisemitic. Antisemitism acts as a sort of filter over the whole play, shading almost everything else that takes place within it. Our entire cast of "heroes" constantly refer to Shylock and other Jews as devils and schemers, irredeemable evildoers who would be better off dead, and we're expected to be impressed by the virtue of a man (Antonio, the titular merchant) who admits to spitting on Jewish people he passes in the street. These prejudices are one of the main sources of the play's humor, and they go entirely unchallenged over the course of the drama; whatever sympathy Shylock receives from the author, he never gets so much as a kind gesture from the protagonists, and once his life has been thoroughly and deliberately ruined they return to their other business and pleasure without an ounce of remorse. You might point out that Shylock's daughter Jessica is actually admired (and desired) by the Christians, but whatever praise she receives is predicated specifically on her "un-Jewish" qualities and her eagerness to abandon her father and his religion forever. (And anyway, it's not as if male oppressors have ever hesitated to make conditional exceptions for the oppressed women they lust after.)

"That's just the time period talking!" you say. "He was playing to his audience!" And yeah, that may very well be true; I'm not really interested in discussions about whether Shakespeare the man was or wasn't "a racist" (or a misogynist or a xenophobe or whatever else), because in general I believe that sort of prejudice is better understood and confronted as a system and a resultant course of thought and action than as a personality trait. Whether Shakespeare was "actually" antisemitic or not, he wrote an antisemitic play, and no work should be above scrutiny or criticism just because it comes from a cherished author. Generally speaking I love Shakespeare, and I recognize the enduring value and beauty of his writing. I'm not calling for Merchant of Venice to be banned or censored, and there are passages here which genuinely moved me. All the same, I see no reason to continue uplifting—not to mention making tortuous excuses for—such a profoundly problematic and potentially hurtful work when there are so many more compassionate and informed alternatives available to us today. We're not bound by the same cultural limitations as Shakespeare, and there's no shame in setting aside works that no longer meet us where we need them to.

In the interest of a well-rounded review, I should mention that the dialogue in Merchant marks a clear improvement on most of the Bard's earlier comedies, while the love scenes still fall mostly flat. Characters express their attraction in the most effusive terms and pledge eternal commitment to their partners, but the relationships seem to have no foundation or even history beyond these speeches. As in most of the comedies I've read so far, whatever real insight into love and relationships the play contains seems to come not from the lovers themselves, but the fools and background characters who observe them. Add to that some weird pacing issues, an overabundance of characters, and the fact that no one but Shylock (and I suppose maybe Portia) is developed in any significant depth, and all you're really left with is some undeniably beautiful poetry and a compelling but deeply troubling antagonist who in a fairer play wouldn't be the antagonist at all.

Suffice it to say that Merchant wouldn't be one of the Bard's best even if it were possible to extract the antisemitic bits; and, like Shylock's pound of flesh, I don't believe you could remove such an intrinsic element and still have a play to speak of. ...more

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Feb 19, 2009 Manny rated it liked it

Shelves: why-not-call-it-poetry

I stumbled across some interesting background to The Merchant of Venice last month when I was reading Andrew Dickson White's comprehensive History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom . From earliest times, the Christian Church had probihited usury. This was defined as "lending out money at interest"; it was regarded as one of the vilest of sins, and one that would invariably lead to eternal damnation. In cases where people had been convicted of usury after their deaths, the ...more

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Apr 22, 2013 Hirdesh rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics, fiction

Exceptional play by Shakespeare, Godfather of plays.
I loved it more because, I had acted in my schooling.
Even remember some of dialogues of mine, I was Sherlock.
Straight kind of writing and direct influencing subject.
Great.

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Oct 25, 2011 Jonathan Terrington rated it it was amazing

Shelves: want, classic-literature, plays, personal-favourites

Review the First

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 ...more

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Feb 18, 2019 WhatIReallyRead rated it really liked it

Shelves: play, poetry, fiction, translated, classics, read-in-russian, physical-book

Another great read! Shakespearean plays are making my reading year so far.
I was familiar with the plot and twists, since years ago I've watched and loved the 2004 movie. The play was lovely as well.
Although, the ending made me cringe in a way I don't remember the movie having done. (view spoiler)

I'll re-watch the movie promptly, to see how t ...more

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Jun 18, 2015 Evelyn (devours and digests words) rated it liked it

Shelves: characters-i-would-like-to-kick, classics

Mercy be damned. Antonio deserves to get his pound of flesh knifed out. Let all that bad blood flow. The racist arse.

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Goodreads Librari...: Incomplete name on book	1	13	Oct 19, 2020 08:24AM
what do you think "How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world." means?	15	803	May 09, 2020 11:43AM
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About William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

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William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been tr William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. Scholars believe that he died on his fifty-second birthday, coinciding with St George’s Day.

At the age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway, who bore him three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592 he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of the playing company the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1590 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the sixteenth century. Next he wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest examples in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime, and in 1623, two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's.

Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the nineteenth century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians hero-worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry". In the twentieth century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are consistently performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.

According to historians, Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets throughout the span of his life. Shakespeare's writing average was 1.5 plays a year since he first started writing in 1589. There have been plays and sonnets attributed to Shakespeare that were not authentically written by the great master of language and literature.
...more