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The Merchant of Venice

William Shakespeare

Why we're reading this: Pretty much everything William Shakespeare did is a classic. Same with Charles Dickens and Jane Austen.
[close] Pretty much everything William Shakespeare did is a classic. Same with Charles Dickens and Jane Austen.

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Mar 18, 2014 David added it

Review of The Merchant of Venice – Comedy or Tragedy
To get the most out of Shakespeare, or any work of literature for that matter, you have to make yourself familiar with the author’s life and times. It also helps to know the writer’s aims in creating the work and where he wants to take the reader. The Merchant of Venice is one of the more popular of Shakespeare’s plays, judging from the frequency with which it is performed and the number of film adaptations of it, the latest of which was releas Review of The Merchant of Venice – Comedy or Tragedy
To get the most out of Shakespeare, or any work of literature for that matter, you have to make yourself familiar with the author’s life and times. It also helps to know the writer’s aims in creating the work and where he wants to take the reader. The Merchant of Venice is one of the more popular of Shakespeare’s plays, judging from the frequency with which it is performed and the number of film adaptations of it, the latest of which was released in 2004 starring such great actors as Al Pacino and Joseph Fiennes. But is it a comedy or a tragedy? In the First Folio, it was originally placed among the tragedies, but the later tendency was for it to be considered a comedy. By the current definition, it more closely fits the criteria for a comedy because the lovers get together and stay together, and no one gets killed.

But the subject it treats is often linked to tragedy – racism; specifically anti-Semitism in the Venice of Shakespeare’s day. But if you only look for the racism, you will miss the more universal themes of the drive for revenge and the power of love.

The principal characters are:
Antonio – A merchant of Venice.
Shylock – A Jew of Venice (at one time this was the title of the play.)
Bassanio – A nobleman of Venice and friend of Antonio.
Portia – A noblewoman of Venice, heiress and love interest of Bassanio.

The basic plot is thus. Antonio, a rich merchant, has loaned his friend Bassanio a lot of money. Bassanio lives beyond his means, and even though he is nobleman, he is having cash flow problems. His solution is to marry a rich heiress, Portia, however his lack of funds hampers his efforts. Bassanio convinces Antonio that if he loaned him the money to woo and marry Portia, he could then pay Antonio back. But Antonio’s assets are currently all tied up in investments. Antonio has borrowed from Shylock in the past, but has always charged him high interest (called usury at the time.) But Antonio realizes that he must turn to Shylock once again to help Bassanio. Shylock has suffered persecution from Antonio and the other Christian merchants of Venice.
And so, even though Antonio and Shylock despise each other, they make a contract. But instead of interest, Shylock demands a pound of flesh from Antonio if the terms of the contract are not met. Meanwhile, Shylock’s daughter, Jessica, is secretly in love with a Christian names Lorenzo. Without spoiling the plot, Portia figures prominently in bringing about a happy ending for everyone except Shylock. But that is mostly due to his own insistence on justice and failure to show mercy
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