Merchant Of Venice Analysis

This essay looks into the lives of Shylock and Antonio. These are two of Shakespearean antagonists of all time. They are alike in more ways than one. Shylock in Merchant of Venice is a Jewish moneylender based in Venice. He has been tormented and repressed mainly by the Christian population. One finds it easy to sympathize with him mainly because he has his own reasons to be loathing, greedy, and miserly. This ends up making the entire ‘Merchant of Venice’ bittersweet. This was when Shylock was forced to give up all that he owned and further converted it to Christianity. This meant that that Jewish community would no longer accept him. It also meant that he would be shunned by

Gender stereotypes are not a modern notion and as such expectations and limitations have always existed for both men and women. Fortunately women, who have formerly beared great burdens of discrimination, now have very liberated roles in society as a result of slowly shifting attitudes and values. Shakespeare was integral in challenging the subservient role expected of women in the 16th century. Throughout the play, ‘The Merchant of Venice’, women are expressed as powerful characters who behave, speak and live in a way that breaks away from the conformist role of females during the 16th century. Therefore, the submissive stereotype expected of women in Shakespearean time is confronted and defied through

Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice is so alike to our financially afflicted world. The rules of law and commerce are subject to deceptive manipulation, fear of "the other" overwhelms respect for a common humanity, duplicity is the norm, sexuality is a vehicle for ambition, and money drives and wraps almost every action. It is a classic tale that includes important details of the financial crisis in the United States during 2007-2009. Shakespeare’s Venice, like the New York of his time - and the financial capitals of ours - is a city based on borrowing, on market speculation and greed masquerading as wealth and sophistication. Behind the curtains of the practice of lending and borrowing money in Shakespeare’s play lay the transition to capitalism: the rise of banking system; the scarcity for credit in developing industrial enterprises; and the growing dispute of default facing both aristocratic landlords and, above all, small, independent early entrepreneurs on trading ventures. Even though almost 600 years apart from each other, both Shakespeare’s tale and the financial crisis in the United States during 2007-2009 have a similar financial dilemma, each has its unique Shylock, Bassanio and Antonio- people who were responsible for causing the meltdown of their days.

From 1589 to 1613 William Shakespeare produced some of the most original, thought-provoking and emotionally compelling plays, sonnets, and poetry. Two of his finest pieces of work, Othello and The Merchant of Venice feature dynamic characters, and insights into the chivalry and the xenophobic disposition of the English people at the time. Throughout these two stories, three primary female characters emerge, Desdemona from Othello, and Portia and Jessica from The Merchant of Venice. The female leads in each of these stories share many things in common such as their devotion to their mate and gracefulness, but the fate each woman ends up

The Merchant of Venus, is a play written by William Shakespeare and is a majority of the time remembered for its scene with Shylock and Antonio. As intricate as the play wove itself, the word that seemed to occur a majority of the time “bonds”, had multiple meanings occurring throughout the play. Oxford English Dictionary (OED) tells us that Bonds can mean the bondage of a marriage, the ways of which a thing is bound or tied down, agreement or engagement binding to him of which who makes it, and a deed, by which binds himself, his heirs, executors, or assigns to pay a certain sum of money. In this play, we see a strong connection between bonds and goods reoccurring from start to finish. The term “bond”, is

When I'm looking for someone to blame because my head hurts from trying to think, Carolyn (a library associate in the C. Burr Artz Public Library's Maryland Room) comes to mind if I'm struggling with something art related. The Emmitsburg Branch's Librarian Sue (a once-upon-a-time teacher of art history) and the Mad One (an artist who claims she ain't) follow close on Carolyn's heels for making my head hurt. (Carolyn tops the list only because she ordered me out of the local library for being disruptive, twice. Coincidentally matching the number of times and reason I've been ordered out of drinking establishments.) Sadly, their combined attempts to enlighten and educate me (beyond my intelligence) occasionally seems to

In The Merchant of Venice William Shakespeare drastically opposes the stereotypical female during the Italian Renaissance. Shakespeare's strongest example of this is exemplified in Portia. She is introduced as a submissive women in prison like circumstances, feeling obligated to grant her departed fathers wishes for her marriage. However her cunningness is exposed through the casket contest, her crossdressing during Antonio’s trial, and the ring trick she pulls on her husband Bassanio. In the article “Passing Upon Portia” author Trisha Olson believes that Portia’s actions of “...humility, self-sacrifice, and assent to risk that Portia exemplifies ground our bonds in love and law” (Olson 299).

Throughout a patriarchal history, some bright women have been able to push through and make groundbreaking changes for the future. Although many people believe that Venice is a male dominated society in William Shakespeare’s play, The Merchant of Venice, if one reads closely he/she will discover that most of the major decisions, that affected the route of the play, were originally made by women. In her essay, Christine Hoff Kraemer writes, with a feminist approach, about women in this play and their role in power. Two main female characters, Portia: a wealthy and witty daughter bound to her deceased father’s demand of marriage, and Jessica: the Jewish daughter of the main character/ antagonist Shylock, although are originally controlled by

For much of the play, The Merchant of Venice appears to be vintage Shakespearean farce. A group of buffoons vie to marry the beautiful and wealthy Portia; women dress up as men and fool their betrothed; servants are willing accomplices in playful deceits. Where Merchant of Venice departs from the pattern of a typical Shakespearean farce is with the appearance of Shylock, the Jew. Shylock transforms this play from a simple comedy to a work of enormous complexity. In The Merchant of Venice, the contrast between the tragedy of Shylock and the comedy of the other characters raises many issues that are left unresolved for the thoughtful reader.

Portia’s independent personality promotes the idea of feminism in The Merchant of Venice because her unique perspective and voice convey the message that women are equally as independent as men. On multiple occasions, Portia displays her masculinity. By doing this, she shocks the audience—especially the men. For instance, when Bassanio sparks a positive connotation in the feminist’s mind, she delivers a powerful statement: Portia:

Critique Of The Constancy Upon Women At The Time in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice

William Shakespeare has regularly throughout time been referred to and could be viewed as anti-Semitic because of the cultural implications within many of his plays. A particularly strong example of this could be The Merchant of Venice. This essay will explore arguments of post-colonialism within The Merchant of Venice, discussing the pertinent issues of anti-semitism, racial isolation and prejudice. It will also comment on how this contemporary adaptation of The Merchant of Venice performed by the National Youth Theatre directed by Anna Niland leans on colonialism and entertains the racial discrimination within the production, rather than making the audience feel like this production is commenting on the racial aspects to provoke or inform.

The merchant of Venice was believed to wrote between 1596 and 1598, and it is Shakespeare’s most controversial play. The theme of this play is praises kindheartedness, friendship and love, but also reflects the contradiction between the bourgeoisie and the usurer in the early commercial capitalism period. “Although Shylock is the most prominent character in The Merchant of Venice, he takes part in neither the beginning nor the ending of the play” (Bevington:21). His vengeful struggle to acquire a pound

By analyzing one of the sources, the quote from Merchant of Venice, the detectives piece together the correlation between the pound of flesh on the scale next to the victim and the reference to flesh in the quote. Unfortunately, no fingerprints were found at the scene either implying that the murderer was meticulous and careful or that he somehow removed his fingerprints, which makes it difficult for the detectives to easily identify him. After reviewing the evidence and sources, Mills recalls that the picture of Eli Gould’s wife had her eyes circled in Mr. Gould’s blood. From this evidence, they deducted that the wife, although not physically at the crime scene, has knowledge that could somehow help the case. After taking a second glance at the crime scene photos, she declares that a specific piece of artwork has been rehung upside down, indicating to the detectives that it was at the behest of the murderer. Behind the artwork, Somerset finds fingerprints, which is odd given that this is the first crime scene where fingerprints have been found. The crime scene investigator, after using a black light on the wall, discovers the words “help me” in the form of multiple fingerprints. These fingerprints are in the national fingerprint database and match a man named Theodore Allen, who goes by Victor, has an extended criminal history and had previously employed the second victim, Eli Gould, as his attorney. Somerset, being the world-weary cynic, is not convinced that Victor is

Shylock, a character in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice has been abhorred upon by Christians and it reflects on his actions and his personality in a negative way. This victimization causes Shylock to appear as a self-obsessed fool, when really he is a heartbroken Jewish father. We can assume that since he was young, he had always been treated cruelly because of his religion and time period which in the future causes him to be all alone and gather this great lust for revenge. People understand that Jews are treated atrociously in the 1500’s like Shylock because many of the characters express it or admit it. For example, Shylock and Antonio are creating a bond in which Antonio asks Shylock to loan him some money knowing that the way he treats Shylock is wrong. The bond specifies that if the money is not payed back, then Shylock has the authority to take a pound of Antonio’s flesh. This happens in the city plaza of Venice. Shylock states all the wrongs that Antonio approached on him, including when Antonio calls him a “dog”(1.3.121). Unfortunately, Antonio retorts, “I am as like to call thee so again,/ to spet on thee again, to spurn thee, too.” (1.3.140-141). Antonio doesn’t even blink before he says that he would verbally and physically bully Shylock over and over again, as long as he stayed a Jew. If someone puts themselves in Shylock shoes, how would he feel? He definitely wouldn’t feel happy or content with what