The Merchant of Venice

Anti-semitic is defined as having hostility or prejudice against Jews. The Merchant of Venice exhibits both of these themes. The Merchant of Venice, a play written by William Shakespeare in 1596 follows Antonio, a Christian merchant, and Shylock a Jewish banker. Their journey starts when Shylock and Antonio make a deal. Shylock loans Antonio three thousand ducats, in return, Antonio needs to pay Shylock back in three months or Shylock gets to cut off a pound of flesh from Antonio's body. Throughout

of many humans that can lead them into doing such “unforgivable” acts. In both the plays, William Shakespeare and Arthur Miller with their famous novels, The Merchant of Venice and The Crucible, have shown how Grudges and Rivalries can cause such destruction in the lives of the people and the society in this play. In The Merchant of Venice, Grudges and Personal Rivalries in the trial scene has clearly been expressed with Shylock and Antonio. The central part and the twist of this novel are primarily

What’s in a Word Paper 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

giving is a long thread that proves to weave the characters of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice together. French anthropologist, Marcel Mauss, proposes that gift giving, although seen as a generous offer, is actually guised as formal and social deception (pg 1). The formal and social deception that Mauss speaks about is what we colloquially express as “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” In the Merchant of Venice, there is a consistent back and forth of gifts given under the pretense of the

enemy, light-heartedness, and a happy ending for the lovers are all elements in a comedic play. William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice shows that love conquers all and that you can always defeat the enemy. Even if a pound of flesh is the difference between life and death, or if one wrong person chooses the casket that decides your fate. For example, The Merchant of Venice, Antonio, not only survives the fate of having a pound of his flesh taken from his body on account of his friend that could

In the comedy, The Merchant of Venice, the roles and responsibilities of women is a significant social issue proposed by Shakespeare. This theme is communicated by the only three female characters in the play: Nerissa, Portia and Jessica. For example, in Act 4 during the trial between Antonio and Shylock, Portia and Nerissa disguise themselves as Balthasar and Bellario to free their friend. However, Jessica also plays a minor role in portraying the independence of Jewish women in a Christian and

Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice has a rich and lengthy stage history, most notable for its portrayal of the controversial Jewish character, Shylock. While the depiction of Shylock is often memorable and center of attention in analyses, he is not the only character important to the play whose representation has changed throughout the centuries. Portia is an independent, clever, and resourceful heroine who is able to save Antonio from Shylock. Bound by a stipulation in her late father’s will,

The Merchant of Venice In The Merchant of Venice, written by William Shakespeare is a play that only has three female characters. They are Portia, Nerissa, and Jessica. Portia is a woman who was in search of a husband, who her father had to agree with. Unfortunately, Portia 's father had passed, so he left a test for Portia 's suitors to pass in order for one of them to marry his daughter. These women are not bad women, they are rebellious and brave but they are not bad people. I also found

tragedies, while others are more ambiguous. The Merchant of Venice is a play that falls under the latter type, and it has been hotly contested whether this literary work should be classified a comedy or a tragedy. However, since the majority of the characters received a happy ending, the abundance of comic relief scenes and characters, and lightheartedness of the plot relative to other Shakespearean works leads me to conclude that The Merchant of Venice is indeed a comedy. One of the characteristics

and ‘The Merchant of Venice’. Shakespeare and Jane Austen both present strong feeling of love, revenge, hatred and friendship. They are two different types of stories, ‘Pride and Prejudice’ is a novel and ‘The Merchant of Venice’ is a play so therefore they both have different ways of presenting strong feelings but they do have some similarities. In ‘Pride and Prejudice’ strong feelings are presented by: 1. The Narrator 2. Letters 3. Dialogue Whereas in ‘The Merchant of Venice’ strong feelings