William Shakespeare 's The Merchant Of Venice

Friendship and love is separated by a very fine margin. Choosing between the two is like choosing between being in Mr.Vidulin’s English class and his photography class (it is nearly impossible). However, when the choice between friendship and love is mentioned in the play, it seems as though the answer is obvious. When Bassanio was in the courtroom talking to Antonio, Bassanio makes a statement that shows that he is choosing the side of friendship when it comes to friendship vs love. Antonio says, ”But life itself, my wife, and all the world are not with me esteem’d above thy life; I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all here to this devil, to deliver you.” (IV, i, 291 - 294) Antonio states that he will give up himself, his wife and the world to Shylock if it means that Antonio survives. This shows that he cares more about his relationship with Antonio in comparison to his relationship with Portia. The message which is associated with the topic of friendship vs love is that a healthy balance of both friendship and love is needed to fulfill a person. In the example with Bassanio and Antonio, Bassanio indirectly shows Antonio that there would be no point to his life and hence the reason as to why he says he will sacrifice his own self. Another major topic touched on in this play is mercy. Mercy can be explained as the power found to show compassion in a state of power. Many of us lack the ability to show mercy, which is a key component of our society. Mercy is shown

Without a doubt, Shylock of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice has been a subject of much controversy and debate for scholars and critics worldwide. Specifically, an element of his character that has been thoroughly reviewed is the harshness with which he proposes his bond with Antonio. As contemporary readers of the pound of flesh story we are naturally mortified by the fact that Shylock would call for such barbarous terms. What many of us do not realize is that while we might feel horror about the idea of the bond, the same is not necessarily true for an Elizabethan audience. This story has been a major source of misunderstanding for many of its readers, as

Risk is a situation that involves the possibility of exposure to dangers. Risks exist everywhere, even the most minute of actions can place someone in jeopardy. It is an inescapable labyrinth that plagues the lives of all ever since humanity’s first existence. Yet it,s double-edged sword like characteristics of also providing opportunities and gains keeps many enthralled in it. In William Shakespeare 's’ The Merchant of Venice, Antonio, a protagonist, gives himself over to a life-threatening contract with the villain, Shylock the Jew, in order to provide the means for one of Antonio’s friend the opportunity to woo a lady. Over the course of the play, various risky opportunities and events also expose other relationships as means of satisfying their wants, although not all their outcomes are favourable. Risk is the root cause of rewards and punishments in The Merchant of Venice. This is seen between the play’s rivals, such as Antonio and Shylock. Also is seen between lovers, such as Bassanio and Portia. It is seen again between fathers and children, such as Shylock and Jessica.

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.

In the text of Act IV scene 1 before we meet Shylock he is described

Modern critique rank’s Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ as one of the most preeminent and descriptive plays addressing the role of colonial power and conquest in literature. One of Shakespeare’s last plays, ‘The Tempest’ explores the direct parallel between the working proletariats and wealthy bourgeois. Therefore the focuses of this paper are the implications of hegemony and class alienation, the commoditization of human subclasses, and the commonalities with “The Tempest” and Shakespeare’s life. The analysis addresses the role of social class, the social context of work, the beneficiaries of work, and the implementation and championing of social value systems. This has relevance because Shakespeare’s focus until ‘The Tempest’ primarily was through the lens of the Elizabethan Renaissance. And in correlation to his personal life, the experience of class dichotomy is a recent occasion for Shakespeare. Like Prospero, Shakespeare was an ingenious performer who created to amuse and enlighten. And characters like Ariel and Caliban align with his brilliance and literary captivity respectively.

William Shakespeare’s tragic play: “Othello: the Moor of Venice” starts out in the place of love and water, the beautiful Venice, Italy. In this play Shakespeare brings to life the true definitions of love, betrayal, jealousy, and revenge. Iago and Roderigo, two characters in the play, that are plotting against the general of the Venetian Army because Iago was not chosen to be the lieutenant. Instead Othello chose Cassio. In the quest for vengeance the two tell the very influential Senator Brabanoti, the father of Desdemona, about the secret marriage between her and Othello. The father becomes enraged when he finds the two meddlers’ story to be true. He raced to her room only to find that Desdemona had run away with her soon to be tragic

William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice is a perplexing story of dark humor, race, religion, identity, love, and justice. Generally, most people understand The Merchant of Venice as a comedy about a bitter and outcasted Jewish moneylender named Shylock who seeks revenge against a Christian merchant who has failed to pay his loan back. However, there are many different perspectives on whether The Merchant of Venice is a comedy or a tragedy depending on one’s views on the difference between race and religion. If one views the story as a comedy, it is a dark comedy full of many problems, especially the controversial subject matter of anti-Semitic attitudes of its Christian characters. If one views it as a tragedy, it is a tragedy that concludes with majority of its characters in a “happy ending”—that is if one agrees that Jessica’s decision of love over betraying her father and giving up her Jewish identity is indeed a happy ending.

The Merchant of Venice has never been Hollywood’s favorite Shakespeare play. With deep homoerotic and anti-Semitic undertones, the closest thing we’ve had to a mainstream version of the movie was a parody on The Critic called The Merchant of Venice Beach starring Keanu Reeves. Other than that, the story of the Jew moneylender Shylock and the comic relief relationship between Bassanio and the cross-dressing Portia hasn’t hit the silver screen since the silent-film days. Films are hard to make when it comes to adapting from a play that was written nearly four hundred years ago. Over the past four centuries, there have been many different interpretations of The Merchant of Venice, hence the film version by Michael Radford. Radford’s version of the play catches the tone of the play but not every scene was transferred to script form, then into the film. It is not all great, but it does successfully create a friendly of a very daunting play to adapt.

The Merchant of Venice, written by Shakespeare, is a complicated play that has controversy themes. There are some analysts that argue this play is a comedy. On the other hand, other analysts will argue the opposite, and see the play as a tragedy. Both of these themes have strong arguments and can be supported with many examples throughout the play.

Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, contains highlighting of inequalities for two characters in particular: Shylock and Portia. In the Venetian society of the play, which is essentially Elizabethan England, gender restrictions and religious intolerance seem to mirror one another, and in doing so create a parallel between these two not so different characters. Shylock, who is a jew, and Portia, a woman, may not be similar on the surface, but are both unequal in similar respects. Shylock and Portia are similar in that they both remain unaltered in their convictions and both identify themselves as outcasts of society. Furthermore, Shylock is only considered to be the villain of the play, and Portia the prize to be won, because of the way Shakespeare constructs this society within the play. In this controlled setting, Shakespeare displays religious intolerance in Venice by having the Christians of the play insult him, his race, and his religion. Shakespeare’s dialogue between the characters accentuates the way Jews were treated in his time, which gives Shylock reason to seek revenge on Antonio. He also highlights the absurdity of Venice’s patriarchal system by placing Portia adjacent to the men she must be subservient to, who are far less intelligent or able as she is. In their own ways, these characters understand how different they are from the rest of society and rebel against it by going against the roles it assigned them.

Jews have been discriminated against for as long as man can remember. They have been called names, forced to wear red caps or yellow stars to differentiate themselves, and even put into ghettos to protect the general population from being too influenced by their “Jewish ways”. Antisemitism during the Middle Ages peaked with the expulsion of Jews from Spain. They were forced out of their homes and alienated, living on the edges of society in another country. These circumstances carried on as commonplace during the Renaissance. Shylock in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice clearly illustrates the conditions that Jews had to suffer through and the views that Christians had on Jews. These anti-semitic views continued to have a strong presence

In conclusions, it is understandable that the Shakespearean play The Merchant of Venice is a play about love and hate. He has accomplishment to apply the love and hate theme, through the various actions and behaviours of the characters that make up the play. As a result the incidents and the characters make the theme of love and hate the backbone of the main plot which they collectively hold the story together. The love is shown through Portia and Bassanio, and another different way of love is shown through Shylock to himself. Hatred is greatly shown through the characters Shylock and Antonio and Jessica and her father Shylock. All these big incidents demonstrate the back bone theme of The Merchant of

1 scene 3 in a building in a street in Venice. The building in which

Jean Racine, a French dramatist of the 17th century France, states, “Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel” (Goodreads). In the early days of its staging, the play The Merchant of Venice written by William Shakespeare is considered to be a comedy, but as the world develops there is controversy as whether to believe that the play is actually a tragedy. The play is centered on two main plots: the bond plot and the casket plot. The bond plot is about two best friends, Bassanio and Antonio, forming a high risk agreement with a Jew, Shylock. The casket plot is about Bassanio, a young Christian, trying to court a rich heiress, Portia. The Merchant of Venice can be ruled as a tragedy