Merchant Of Venice Tragedy Analysis

The merchant of Venice is a drama and romantic play, by William Shakespeare. Regarding the test for the suitors and the final part of the book, the author is inspired by a fourteenth-century Italian novel of Giovanni Fiorentino, called “Il Giannetto”, (Bullough, 1957). The merchant of Venice is believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. It is contained on the First Folio, in the contents of Comedies, sharing certain aspects with others plays. That one traditionally ends with the positive return to order expected from the genre, it also has some characteristics of a tragedy, in particular with regard to the punishment and the oppression that are suffered to Shylock Jew. The peculiarity is the title of this book, “The Merchant of Venice”, in fact, it refers to the character Antonio, and not Shylock, a moneylender, which has a pivotal role in this play. One possible reason is that by calling “The Merchant of Venice”, Shakespeare wanted to focus the attention of the readers, on the

    In the beginning of the play Shylock is a money lender, a profession that is highly frowned upon in the Christian faith, even though he is very successful in his craft he’s hated by society because of his faith and profession. Due to both of these, Shylock faces persecution from the community. One person who Shylock seems to really hate is Bassanio, a Venetian Noble who constantly belittles him and in one instance spat on Shylock. In the play Bassanio along with his companion Antonio come to Shylock in a request for a loan. As Shylock thinks on whether or not to accept their request  we begin to see his hatred root for Antonio and Bassanio as he says to Antonio:

One of the strengths of good theater is its ability to mirror the problems and conditions shaping its time. In The Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare reflects two important aspects of Elizabethan society: the corrupting influence of prosperity and the increasingly vengeful nature of Venetian justice. To address the former issue, Shakespeare downplays the importance of wealth by associating its involvement in romance with superficial and insubstantial advantages. He characterizes prosperity as a deceiving agent, citing its ability to introduce shallowness into a relationship. Shakespeare reasons that genuine romance depends on sacrifice and emotion, not wealth. The problem with justice is equally striking. In the play, justice is

There is no denying that Shakespeare is a definitive playwright. He has presented us with classic works that have set the precedent for drama and the theatre. Among Shakespeare’s more notable plays are his tragedies. In the tragedy his protagonists are often given flaws in their character and hence, are suitably named tragic heroes. The downfall of these protagonists is often a result of their own character flaws and unfortunately, they suffer a doomed and unhappy ending. While the tragic hero is flawed they must also be honorable and worthy of the audience’s understanding and sympathy. On a quest for righteousness the tragic hero often goes through immense suffering which is why the audience can feel bad for him. For the most

In a book or play, it is usually very easy to distinguish who the victim is and who the villain is. The villain usually causes all the problems in the story line and the victim is the one who suffers in result of the villain’s actions. In the play The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare, we examine the life of Shylock as a victim. It is seen through three main events in the play. Shylock is ridiculed by his community and his family, he is betrayed by his daughter and the community he lives in, and he is forced to lose all his wealth.

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.

To understand the motivation behind Shylock’s obsession with money, the beginning of the play has to be referenced. In Shylock’s negotiations with Bassanio and Antonio, Shylock recalls, “Signior Antonio, many a time and oft in the Rialto you have rated me about my moneys and my usances… You call me misbeliever, cutthroat dog and spet upon my Jewish gabardine… You called me dog; and for these courtesies I’ll lend you thus much moneys?” (1.3.104-126). From this passage, Shylock’s motivations are presented clearly. He loathes Antonio for how poorly he has treated him in the past, insulting both his character and his religion. Therefore, the motivating factor in lending money to Bassanio is so Shylock has the ability to hold some form of power over Antonio. Therein lies the key to Shylock’s obsession with wealth. In the referenced Venetian culture, Jewish people were persecuted for their religion and were branded unsavory by the predominantly Christian community. Shylock, being ridiculed and domineered his whole life by his Christian counterparts, saw an opportunity to finally even the odds and jumped at it. Shylock clings onto his wealth because it is the only thing that gives him power in Venetian

The story revolts mainly between three characters; Antonio, Bassanio, and Shylock. Antonio a Christian merchant and his friend Bassanio went to Shylock a rich and powerful jew, and they request a loan. Shylock agreed to make them the loan, but

In Shakespeare’s play the merchant of Venice the audience learns about love in many forms. Through the characters, of Portia and Bassanio, Shylock and his love for money over his daughter and Antonio and Bassanio. The audience learns through Portia that true love always triumphs. From shylock we learn that money isn’t everything it seems to be and that you should treasure your family more than money. Through the friendship of Antonio and Bassanio we learn about the love of one friend for another and how they would sacrifice anything for one another. Shakespeare uses many techniques including: tests, plot incident, passionate dialogue, characterisation and emotive language to express his idea of love and friendship to the

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

In “Merchant of Venice”, Antonio is the main character as he is the “merchant” in the story in Venice. As Antonio is a Christian, he is quite anti-Semitic and rude to Shylock, making some people believe that he is spiteful and bigoted. However, most of the play centers on him being the victim of the “villain” of the play, Shylock due to their bond they made. As Antonio is willing to give everything for Bassanio without any payment and he strikes at any chance to help Bassanio, I believe Shakespearian and modern audiences would believe him to be more of a well-intentioned and loyal friend.

William Shakespeare’s comedy The Merchant of Venice tells the story of Antonio, a merchant, who borrows money from Shylock a Jewish moneylender to help his friend, Bassanio, marry a woman. The play highlights the tension between Jews and Christians in society through the interactions between Shylock and the Christians. In contrast, the play also highlights the positive aspects of both religions. The main point of The Merchant of Venice is to critique society’s treatment of religion.

Shylock is introduced as a greedy villain who craves nothing but revenge. The play begins with Antonio in need of three thousand ducats, he then turns to

The Merchant Of Venice is structured partly on the contrast between idealistic and realistic opinions about society and relationships. The play tells us mercy is preferable to revenge. Shylock chose revenge over mercy against Antonio and how his choices affected him. The Court of Venice begging mercy of Shylock. Finally, Portia forgiving Bassanio for giving away his wedding band.

Can time and historical events affect the categorization of a literary piece? William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice is a play that is difficult to classify in a specific genre. It is often referred to as one of his problem plays. This means that it does not easily fall into a single category. Most literary sources categorize The Merchant of Venice as a comedy because it fits the description by having a happy ending. There are those, however, that discuss the dark side of the play and insist that the play could also be classified as a tragedy. Due to the plays’ complexity and the events of history, it can be argued that