The Merchant of Venice

William Shakespeare’s comedic play, The Merchant of Venice, contains racial undertones that identify the popular medieval English attitudes towards Moors. Many racial critiques of the play analyzes Shylock, a major character, and the anti-semitic mistreatment of him that we witness throughout the play’s entirety. However, looking at the Prince of Morocco and Launcelot’s pregnant Moor lover, uncovers the play’s subtle racism towards the Moor race. There is a presence of passive bigotry that readers

The late sixteenth century play "˜The Merchant of Venice', one of Shakespeare's more popular comedies, is one that is portraying various peoples lives throughout Venice and Belmont. During the course of the play there is a concentration of thoughts and emotions towards the character Shylock, a Jewish usurer, this is the very character that we shall be concentrating the question in the title on. In most scenes the character Shylock has to deal with a lot of racial discrimination, which has at modern

manor and shows the duality of his character. In “The Merchant of Venice”, Shylock shows a very cold and unloving quality but also a soft and merciful trait that is not as prominent. Shylock is cold and harsh to others who are unlike him and those who go against his beliefs but when in situations where he is left vulnerable, he shows his soft and merciful side. He is violent and cold to those who belittle him and make him feel different. In Venice, there are not many Jews and Shylock feels unprotected

Jessica in The Merchant of Venice In The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare introduces his audience to the multi dimensional character of Jessica. Jessica is identified as the daughter of a Jewish Merchant but the audience learns she is much more than that. As the play moves along and Jessica marries a Christian man, Jessica’s identity as a Jewish woman is challenged. Although a minor character in the play, she is important because she makes the audience question what it means to be Jewish and therefore

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

of racism in every Shakespeare given to us to read. In the play of the merchant of Venice it seems to be verified racism in the play, which has been displaced a lot of time during the play. I feel like Shakespeare has a lot of racism because he feels like been racist or been so stereotypical could be entertaining to people that read it. Shakespeare has shown many times that his characters are racist in the merchant of Venice. I know that in his own definition of why he is racist in his book is probably

The character of Portia from William Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice has moved thousands of people throughout the centuries. Her beauty, grace, virtue, but most of all her mercy has captivated those who read or see her. The rich Lady of Belmont shows the gentlemen surrounding her what it means to truly be merciful. She radiates Christian mercy in a way no other character is able to in the play. What is mercy? According to the Oxford Dictionary, mercy is “clemency and compassion shown

Throughout all the material that we have read one common theme that i have noticed is Prejudice this theme is shown in all of our books To Kill A MockingBird , True Diary of a Part Time Indian. And The Merchant of Venice. Prejudice is a preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. “When you get to high school Cecil you’ll learn that the jews have been persecuted since the beginning of history, even driven out of their country. It’s one of the most terrible stories in history”

William Shakespeare egalitarian actions broke free from the social norm. Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice promotes the equality of both sexes through the powerful female role of Portia Belmont. Despite the sexism in Venice, Portia prevails and presenting herself as an independent, intelligent, and powerful woman. 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

Throughout William Shakespeare’s works he has demonstrated a variety of characters that are ostracized for being different. In particular, Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice showcases Shylock, a Jewish merchant, as being the outsider to a group of Christians. Religion is obviously a very significant aspect of this play as it references many biblical figures and stories. As well as the titles of Christian and Jew that are repeated constantly throughout the play. For example, Shylock is constantly