Merchant of Venice Sample essays - Squarespace · PDF file“The Merchant of Venice”...
Transcript of Merchant of Venice Sample essays - Squarespace · PDF file“The Merchant of Venice”...
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The Merchant Of VeniceC i a n H o g a n E n g l i s h N o t e s
Shylock’s Character! 3
Points to consider about Shylock! 5
“The Merchant of Venice” - A Dramatic Scene! 8
Two Characters in Conflict! 9
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Shylock’s Character
Shakespeare 's "Merchant of Ven ice" i s a fasc inat ing p lay that conta ins many
interest ing and compel l ing char acter s . A l though he on ly appear s in f i ve scenes of
the p lay, i t has to be sa id that Shy lock holds the interest of the aud ience f rom
beg inn ing to end .
The most impor tant aspect of Shy lock 's char acter i s the fact that he i s a
Jew l iv ing in a c i ty contro l led by Chr i s t ians . Ever yth ing that Shy lock va lues and
holds dear i s desp ised by these Chr i s t ians . They hate the fact that he 's a
money lender, and are deeply mis t r ust fu l o f h i s re l ig ion . Probably the most famous
monologue of the p lay i s where Shy lock defends h imse l f . He i s t reated bad ly by
ever y Chr i s t ian char acter in the p lay. They ca l l h im a ‘non-be l iever, [a] cut throat
dog and sp i t upon [h i s ] Jewish gabard ine ’ . However, Shakespeare does not present
Shy lock as mere ly be ing a v ic t im. In fact Shy lock ’s defence of h i s p l ight i s one of
the most moving and thought provok ing speeches in l i ter ature :
I am a Jew.
Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands , organs ,
d imens ions , senses , a f fec t ions , pass ions ; fed wi th
the same food , hur t w i th the same weapons , sub jec t
to the same d i seases , hea l 'd by the same means ,
warm'd and coo l 'd by the same winter and summer,
as a Chr i s t ian i s ? I f you pr i c k us , do we not b leed?
Yet , for a l l h i s pass ionate humanism, he can be a deeply unpleasant char acter. His
own daughter resents h im, he explo i t s the economic d i f f i cu l t ies of other s , and he
mistreats h i s ser vant , Lance lot . When h is daughter r uns away, tak ing money and
jewels wi th her, he concerns h imse l f wi th the lost money wish ing that she were
“were dead at [h i s ] foot , and the jewe ls in her ear . "
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What makes Shy lock so fasc inat ing i s that i t i s ver y d i f f i cu l t to know how to
react to h im. When one examines the p lay care fu l ly, one f inds that Shy lock has
many s t rong mot ives for behav ing as he does . A l though he treats Anton io
desp icably, he i s not as we have seen without cause . The la t ter has by h i s own
admiss ion "spat on " h im, "spurned " h im, and "ca l led [h im] dog . " Fur thermore ,
Anton io i s ent i re ly d i smiss ive of Shy lock 's compla ints . In fact , he even goes do far
as to promise to do the same aga in :
I am as l ike to ca l l thee so aga in , to
sp i t on thee aga in , to spurn thee too .
What makes Shy lock 's char acter so interest ing i s the fact that he embraces an a l l -
consuming hatred fue l led by a des i re to ach ieve vengeance at any cost :
I f I can catch h im once upon the
h ip , I w i l l feed fat the anc ient
grudge I bear h im.
As a resu l t , he dev ises a reprehens ible p lot to destroy Antonio. However,
Shakespeare once more unsett les the reader when Shy lock 's p lans are uncovered
and he i s brought to just ice . Much of the p lay centres on the not ion of jus t ice
and " the qua l i t y o f merc y . " Yet , when Shy lock throws h imse l f a t the mercy of the
cour t , Chr i s t ian just ice i s exposed for what i t i s :
Be assured , thou sha l l have jus t i ce
more than thou des i r i s t .
In the hear tbreak ing t r ia l scene we witness a profound abuse of jud ic ia l power.
Here , Shy lock i s forced to renounce h i s re l ig ion and sur render ha l f h i s money to
Antonio, whi le the other ha l f i s promised to the daughter who betr ayed h im.
Desp i te h i s cr imes , the s ight of a broken and v i r tua l ly dest i tute Shy lock i s d i f f i cu l t
to bear.
I found Shy lock to be a fasc inat ing char acter because he insp i res so many
mixed emot ions in me . I fe l t revu ls ion at h i s a t tempted murder of Antonio, and
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anger and p i ty over the t r ia l scene . Al though th i s p lay i s ca l led "The Merchant of
Ven ice" i t i s in fact , more than anyth ing e l se a p lay about Shy lock , the Jewish
money lender.
Points to consider about Shylock
Shy lock i s the negat ive and s tereotype p ic ture of the usurer that most
of the E l i zabethans had-one that was seen as a ‘greedy dog ’ , ‘ a leech ’ .
The interpretat ion of Shy lock ’s char acter i s d i f f i cu l t and a l so to some
extent ambiguous . He has been por t r ayed var ious ly as a comic
char acter a malevolent v i l l a in and a v ic t im.
Whi le he can be p layed as be ing comic , when he i s the t r ag ic
protagonis t he ‘usurps the centre of the s tage .’ Shy lock “represents the
k i l l joy aga inst whom the p leasure- lov ing char acter s un i te .”
Shy lock ex is ts as a v i s ible compl icat ion to the smooth r unn ing of
Bassan io ’s f r iendsh ip wi th Antonio and h i s cour tsh ip of Por t ia . One can
a lmost say that i s the char acter that makes the p lot poss ible .
As John Pa lmer has sa id , Shy lock i s “An imag inat ive rea l i zat ion of what i t
means to wear the Star of Dav id .”
Shy lock i s a Jew in a Gent i le Soc iety, an a l ien who i s never accepted . He
i s proud of h i s r ace , h i s re l ig ion but he i s up aga inst a Venet ian soc iety
that i s insu f fer able to the outs ider.
Even h i s daughter at tacks a l l that he holds dear. She mar r ies a Chr i s t ian
and takes away h i s money- h i s fami ly pr ide , the on ly “props” in h i s l i fe .
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He is humi l ia ted and scorned at by the Chr i s t ians . One fee ls sympathy
for such a man , who i s more s inned aga inst than s inn ing .
Dur ing the t r ia l scene i t i s even less easy to make a mora l dec i s ion , a
comfor table d i scr iminat ion between the gent le Chr i s t ian and r apac ious
Jew.
The reader ’s and the aud ience ’s sympath ies are d i rected towards
Shy lock who ear l ier had p leaded h i s humani ty : “Hath not a Jew eyes?
Hath not a Jew hands , or gans , d imens ions , senses , a f fect ions , pass ions?”
Our compass ion i s due to Shy lock ’s p l ight but a l so because of the
unease that we exper ience at the behav iour of the Chr i s t ians : “A
Danie l…! Mar k Jew!”
Here the Chr i s t ian cr ue l ty i s on par wi th that of the Jew. However in
the 20th C we are more sens i t ive and consc ious about pol i t i ca l
cor rectness .
The i s sue o f r ac i sm has fur ther compl i ca ted Shy lock ’s char acter.
Shy lock ’s ro le at t r acts greater sympathy.
One fee ls that the Venet ian Chr i s t ians have den ied Shy lock ’s humani ty
and we are a l l the t ime reminded of the Ant i -Semit i sm of the Naz i ’s and
of the Genoc ide that took p lace dur ing the holocaust .
These modern at t i tudes then in the words of Edwin Booth , tend “to l i f t
(Shy lock) out of the dar kness of h i s nat ive e lement of revengefu l
se l f i shness into the l i ght of the vener able Hebrew, the Mar tyr, the
Avenger.”
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Shy lock can be seen as a product of centur ies of r ac ia l per secut ion .
Thus Shy lock ‘ s char acter osc i l l a tes between the mal ignant car icature
and the d ign i f ied t r ag ic hero.
I s Shy lock a representat ion of the Jewish hatred for Chr i s t ians or i s he
mot ivated due to h i s per sona l hatred for Anton io? When Shy lock says , “ I
hate h im for he i s a Chr i s t ian : But more for…He lends out money
gr at i s…” one rea l i ses that h i s hatred i s based on money and he i s not
the re l ig ious mar tyr that he por tr ays h imse l f to be .
He takes a gamble when he lends the money and makes Antonio s ign
the “mer r y” bond. He has no way of knowing that a l l o f Anton io ’s
for tune wi l l s ink and that he wi l l be able to take the for fe i t . His hatred
for Anton io and the rest i s apparent throughout .
I t cou ld be that he i s a v i l l a in who i s a l lowed to express the sor t of
t reatment that has made h im what he i s and he just i f ies h i s route to
v i l l a iny.
However the humani ty of Shy lock as seen here i s an unconsc ious by
product of the Shakespeare ’s dr amat ic gen ius . I t i s an example of the
interp lay between techn ica l cr a f t and creat ive imag inat ion . I t i s an
example of a char acter so dynamic that i t takes over f rom the wr i ter
and assumes d imens ions of an independent ent i ty. He evokes an interest
that i s beyond the scope of the p lay. Shy lock for us i s not jus t a Jew; he
s tands for a l l the people that are d i scr iminated aga inst , people who
suf fer in just ice due to the i r co lour, re l i g ion and even caste .
And th i s i s the un iver sa l i ty o f Shakespeare ; he created a char acter not
for h i s t ime but for a l l t imes . But Shakespeare a l so set a dr amat ic
problem when he establ i shed ‘ the v i l l a in as hero ’ as Shy lock does ‘ s tea l
the show’ and over shadows the formal hero. And i t i s t r ue that , as E .W.
Godwin sa id , “at Shy lock ’s ex i t the p lay i s v i r tua l ly over.”
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Shy lock evokes mul t ip le react ions in the reader and the aud ience . When
we v iew the Chr i s t ian smugness and hypocr i sy we see a modern par a l le l
to the t reatment of the any underc lass . But one i s a l so repu lsed by h i s
t reatment of h i s daughter and h i s mercenar y at t i tude .
“The Merchant of Venice” - A Dramatic Scene
The p lay that I have s tud ied i s the merchant of Ven ice by Wi l l i am
Shakespeare . In the p lay, a noble but impover i shed Venet ian asks h i s f r iend
Antonio for a loan to impress an he i ress . His f r iend agrees but i s forced to
bor row a sum of money f rom a cyn ica l , Jewish money lender. In order to obta in
the loan , shy lock forces Antonio to s ign a ch i l l ing contr act to honour the debt
wi th a pound of h i s own f lesh . In my opin ion the most dr amat ic scene in th i s
complex and controver s ia l comedy i s the t r ia l scene which takes p lace in Act IV,
scene i .
In th i s scene , Antonio has been brought before the Venet ian cour t as a
resu l t o f h i s fa i lure to honour the terms of h i s agreement wi th Shy lock . In my
opin ion , th i s scene i s h igh ly dr amat ic for a number of reasons . Shy lock enter s the
scene wel l past the point of reconc i l i a t ion . He wants Anton io dead and i s deaf to
the p leas of mercy f rom a l l those present . The ar r iva l o f Be l lar io of Padoa (Por t ia
in d i sgu i se) does much to he ighten both the tens ion and dr amat ic i rony of the
scene . Por t ia agrees wi th shy lock that the law must be upheld . By ins i s t ing on the
s t r ic t obser vat ion of the law, Por t ia forces the scene to i t s inev i table and
dr amat ic conc lus ion . At th i s po int the aud ience i s res igned to Antonio 's death . As
shy lock prepares to take h i s pound of f lesh Por t ia s tops h im. In a moment of
great dr ama, she te l l s h im that he may not sp i l l one drop of the merchant ' s
blood. Fur thermore , she reminds h im that should he do so ‘ ’h is lands and goods
[w i l l ] by the laws of Ven ice be confi scated” .8
The ef fect on shy lock i s devastat ing and the aud ience re l i shes in h i s
undoing . The he ightened tens ion of the prev ious moments i s rep laced by an
overwhelming sense of re l ie f as we come to rea l i se that Anton io ’s l i fe wi l l be
spared . Shy lock at tempts to leave wi th the or ig ina l 3000 ducats . However, Por t ia
reminds h im that he has a l ready re fused such a sum ‘ ’ i n open cour t ’ ’ a t the same
t ime she makes one fur ther dr amat ic proc lamat ion . She reminds the cour t and of
cour se shy lock that i f any fore igner should ‘ ’by d i rec t or ind i rec t a t tempts seek the
l i fe o f a c i t izen ’ ’ , then he must for fe i t ha l f h i s goods to the c i t i zen and the other
ha l f to the s tate . In a dr amat ic twis t o f fa i th ,Shy lock i s forced to turn to the duke
for mercy.
Two Characters in Conflict
The p lay I have s tud ied i s the “Merchant of Ven ice” by Wi l l i am Shakespeare . The
two char acter s in conf l i c t are Antonio, the Chr i s t ian merchant of Venice , and
Shy lock , a Jewish money lender. The b i t ter conf l i c t i s f ina l ly reso lved in the t r ia l
scene , in act IV scene 1 .
There are a number of reasons for the conf l i c t between shy lock and Antonio. The
f i r s t o f these reasons i s s imply Shy lock ’s hatred of Chr i s t ians . Th is i s obv ious in
the way he ta lks about Antonio ; ‘ ’how l ike a fawning pub l i can he looks , I hate h im
for he i s Chr i s t ian ’ ’ . The second reason i s Shy lock ’s deep resentment of Anton io ’s
ant i -Semit i sm. Shy lock r a i l s aga inst the in just ice of how he has been treated and
reminds us that he i s ever y b i t wor thy of respect as h i s fe l low Chr i s t ians :
‘ hath not a Jew eyes? ’ ’
Fur thermore , Shy lock v iews Antonio as be ing bad for bus iness because he ‘ ’ lends
out money grat i s and br ings down the rate o f usance/ in Ven ice ’ ’ . I f a l l th i s were not
enough , Antonio has publ ic ly r id icu led and demeaned h im in the past and
consequent ly, he wants to “catch h im once upon the h ip ,” in order to “ feed fat the
anc ient grudge I bear h im ’ ’ . The conf l i c t between the two i s fur ther accentuated
by fundamenta l d i f ferences in the i r per sona l i t ies . They are at the oppos i te end of 9
the mora l spectr um. Shy lock i s ego-centred , acqu is i t i ve and mercenar y. Th is i s
shown when h is daughter Jess ica e lopes wi th a Chr i s t ian , s tea l ing a sum of h i s
money in the process . Shy lock i s more concerned about the loss of h i s money
than the loss of h i s own ch i ld profess ing that he ‘ ’would [h i s ] daughter were dead
at [h i s ] foot and the jewe ls in her ear ’ ’ . On the other hand , Antonio i s se l f less ,
car ing and good-natured :
‘ ‘A k inder man threads not the ear th ’ ’ .
The longstand ing conf l i c t between Antonio and Shy lock i s u l t imate ly reso lved in
the denouement of the p lay, the t r ia l scene . When Bassan io asks Anton io for
f inanc ia l he lp to impress an he i ress , Anton io agrees but i s forced to bor row a sum
of money f rom Shy lock . In order to obta in the loan , Shy lock forces Antonio to
s ign a ch i l l ing contr act to honour the debt wi th a pound of h i s own f lesh . In the
t r ia l scene Antonio has been brought before the Venet ian cour t as a resu l t o f h i s
fa i lure to honour the terms of h i s bond. Shy lock enter s the cour t wel l past the
point of reconc i l i a t ion , he wants Anton io dead and i s deaf to the p leas of mercy
f rom a l l those present . He sharpens h i s kn i fe ready to r ip out Antonio 's hear t . A
d isgu i sed Por t ia takes char ge of proceedings , but shy lock i s unmoved by her p leas
for mercy. He ins i s ts that the terms of the bond must be met :
‘ ‘ Le t h im look to h i s bond , he was wont to ca l l me usurer. Let
h im look to h i s bond , he was wont to lend money for a
Chr i s t ian cour tesy. Let h im look to h i s bond .’ ’
Although a l l the cards seem in h i s favour, Shy lock su f fer s a cr ush ing rever sa l . The
conf l i c t i s u l t imate ly reso lved in Antonio ’s favour when the v i l l a in i s undone by
h i s own treacher y. Por t ia po ints out that i f he takes a s ing le drop of Anton io ’s
blood he wi l l loose ever yth ing ; because , th i s i s not par t o f the bond. Shy lock i s
‘ ’ho is t by h i s own petard ’ ’ . As a resu l t o f h i s conf l i c t wi th Antonio, he loses ha l f h i s
wea l th and i s forced to become Chr i s t ian . He leaves the cour t a broken man.
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For a var iety of reasons Shy lock and Antonio engage in a b i t ter and long
r unn ing Conf l i c t . In the end , Shy lock i s destroyed by th i s conf l i c t and the aud ience
i s le f t wonder ing about the just ice of what happens to h im.
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