Merchant Of Venice Read

[Kena Sugrue]

GeneralNote: In January 2009 I decided that Id like to go back and read all the plays of William Shakespeare, perhaps one a month if that works out. I hadnt read a Shakespeare play since 1959, 50 years ago! But I had read nearly all of them in college. I wanted to go back, start with something not too serious or challenging, and work my way through the whole corpus. Thus I began with The Two Gentlemen of Verona. At this time I have no idea how the project will go, nor if it will actually lead me through the entire corpus of Shakespeares plays. However, I will keep a separate page listing each play Ive read with links to any comments I would make of that particular play. See: List of Shakespeares plays Ive read and commented on

This is the fifth play Ive read in my return to Shakespeare after so many years, and it my favorite so far. I found its several interwoven plots to be fascinating and well done. Shakespeares psychological insight into the human character is impressive and the passion involved grabbed me right away. I didnt find as many quotable lines in this play as some others, but I did have my favorites, a couple I cite below.Ironically the main character is not Antonio, the merchant of Venice. Rather, it is Shylock, the Jewish money lender. While I think there is no way one would consider Shylock a nice fellow. I came away believing that he was more wronged than anyone in the play whom he harmed. He is presented as a nasty and greedy money lender. No doubt that portrait played well in a time of rampant anti-Semitism, but I came away with great sympathy for him. Even Antonio, the merchant, is just horrible in his judgment of Shylock, much more based on his race and religion than his money-lending practices. The plot of the play is a set of complex and interwoven actions. I enjoyed that. Where does it actually begin, is it in Bassanios desire to win the hand of Portia, the rich and beautiful young heiress, or in Antonios hatred of Jews and money-lenders? I guess both are the setting that makes it all work. In any case Bassiano, Antonios friend, needs to borrow 3,000 ducats in order to have the money he needs to seek Portias hand. Antonio is perfectly willing to lend the money to him, but has all his capital tied up in his business. Since Bassanio has no collateral, Antonio goes to Shylock to borrow money. Shylock hates Antonio because of the latters treatment of him and his attitude toward him, so, he extracts a contract in which were Antonio not to repay the debt on the designated day, then Shylock gets a pound of Antonios flesh. Obviously an odd, even perverse demand, but Shylock is deeply smarting from the verbal abuse he has received from Antonio for years.The Bassanio / Portia story is wonderful. Her father had died but left a very strange will. He has three caskets one of gold, one of silver and the last of lead. One of them has a portrait of Portia in it. Any appropriate suitor may come forward and pick one of the caskets. Her father has left strange clues for the suitors. If the suitor doesnt guess correctly and opens an empty casket, then he must leave without a single word and must never marry for the rest of his life. If he opens the casket with the portrait, then he marries Portia. She has nothing to say about it.A third plot line is a love affair between Lorenzo, a friend of Bassanio, and Jessica, Shylocks daughter. These two have no problem with the Christian/Jewish union, and Jessica even steals a great deal of her fathers wealth to elope with Lorenzo.In the end, of course, Bassanio wins Portia, Lorenzo and Jessica escape, but Antonio cant pay his debt on time and Shylock demands his pound of flesh in the court of law. In the courtroom Portia gives her famous quality of mercy speech, one of the well-known Shakespeare speeches which is often excerpted. However, I was much more moved by Shylocks defense of himself against the prejudices of Antonio and others:"I am a Jew/ Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs/ dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with/ the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject/ to the same diseases, heal'd by the same means/ warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summer/ as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?/ If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you/ poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?" While I dont like Shylocks bitterness and sense of revenge, I can understand it for exactly the reasons he gives and I have more sympathy for Shylock than for the difficulty that Antonio got into.My other favorite lines in the play are in no way special poetry and have virtually nothing that advances the plot. I love the lines for their own sake and how much they relate to my own life. My partner, Sally, and I eat our main meal about 2 PM in the afternoon. We generally do the meal in two or three courses, served serially and we visit. Our meal often takes two hours, the luxury of being retired. This is some of the best time we have each day to talk. To talk of everything; world events weve been hearing on National Public Radio all day, the latest soccer news out of England, interesting e-mails weve gotten, and often pleasant discussion of the joys of our lives. I think those long conversations over our meals are among the greatest joys in our lives.This is so for Lorenzo, but Jessica is a bit more eager. He has given her some indication of the depth of his love for her and she wants to tell him her view of their love. She wants to tell him NOW. He says, no. It should be done over dinner and I just loved the sentiment. This is the exchange I so enjoyed:[Lorenzo has told Jessica of how loving and caring Bassanio is of Portia and then begins]Even such a husband

Hast thou of me as she is for a wife.

[Jessica] Nay, but ask my opinion too of that.

[Lorenzo] I will anon. First let us go to dinner.

[Jessica] Nay, let me praise you while I have stomach.

[Lorenzo] No, pray thee, let it serve for table talk;

Then howsomeer thou speakst, mong other things

I shall digest it.

[Jessica] Well, Ill set you forth.

Ah yes, I have been there Lorenzo, and is so true!

The Merchant of Venice is a wonderful read. Touching, challenging, insightful and fascinating; just a delightful read.

The Merchant of Venice is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. A merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan taken out on behalf of his dear friend, Bassanio, and provided by a Jewish moneylender, Shylock, with seemingly inevitable fatal consequences.

Although classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is most remembered for its dramatic scenes, and it is best known for the character Shylock and his famous demand for a "pound of flesh".

The play contains two famous speeches, that of Shylock, "Hath not a Jew eyes?" on the subject of humanity, and that of Portia on "the quality of mercy". Debate exists on whether the play is anti-Semitic, with Shylock's insistence on his legal right to the pound of flesh being in opposition to his seemingly universal plea for the rights of all people suffering discrimination.

Meanwhile, in Belmont, Portia is awash with suitors. Her father left a will stipulating that each of her suitors must choose correctly from one of three caskets, made of gold, silver and lead respectively. Whoever picks the right casket wins Portia's hand. The first suitor, the Prince of Morocco, chooses the gold casket, interpreting its slogan, "Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire"[1], as referring to Portia. The second suitor, the conceited Prince of Aragon, chooses the silver casket, which proclaims, "Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves"[2], as he believes he is full of merit. Both suitors leave empty-handed, having rejected the lead casket because of the baseness of its material and the uninviting nature of its slogan, "Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath"[3]. The last suitor is Bassanio, whom Portia wishes to succeed, having met him before. As Bassanio ponders his choice, members of Portia's household sing a song that says that "fancy" (not true love) is "It is engendered in the eye, / With gazing fed";[4] Bassanio chooses the lead casket and wins Portia's hand.

At Venice, Antonio's ships are reported lost at sea, so the merchant cannot repay the bond. Shylock has become more determined to exact revenge from Christians because his daughter Jessica eloped with the Christian Lorenzo and converted. She took a substantial amount of Shylock's wealth with her, as well as a turquoise ring which Shylock had been given by his late wife, Leah. Shylock has Antonio brought before court.

At Belmont, Bassanio receives a letter telling him that Antonio has been unable to repay the loan from Shylock. Portia and Bassanio marry, as do Gratiano and Portia's handmaid Nerissa. Bassanio and Gratiano leave for Venice, with money from Portia, to save Antonio's life by offering the money to Shylock. Unknown to Bassanio and Gratiano, Portia sent her servant, Balthazar, to seek the counsel of Portia's cousin, Bellario, a lawyer, at Padua.

The climax of the play is set in the court of the Duke of Venice. Shylock refuses Bassanio's offer of 6,000 ducats, twice the amount of the loan. He demands his pound of flesh from Antonio. The Duke, wishing to save Antonio but unable to nullify a contract, refers the case to a visitor. He identifies himself as Balthazar, a young male "doctor of the law", bearing a letter of recommendation to the Duke from the learned lawyer Bellario. The doctor is Portia in disguise, and the law clerk who accompanies her is Nerissa, also disguised as a man. As Balthazar, Portia in a famous speech repeatedly asks Shylock to show mercy, advising him that mercy "is twice blest: / It blesseth him that gives and him that takes."[5]. However, Shylock adamantly refuses any compensations and insists on the pound of flesh.

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