Merchant Of Venice Love And Marriage

[Venice Sassone]

InThe Merchant of Venice, love and marriage are depicted as complexand intertwined with Renaissance customs. Marriages were often arranged forsocial and economic benefits rather than love. Portia's marriage to Bassanio,for example, is influenced by her father's will, reflecting the era's customswhere parental control and financial considerations played significant roles inmarital arrangements.

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In The Merchant of Venice, Portia is not allowed to marry freely.She is in love with Bassanio, who borrows money from Antonio to woo her.However, he cannot simply propose to her and be accepted. This arises from theconditions in Portia's father's will. Because Portia has inherited greatwealth, her father wanted to protect her from fortune hunters. Therefore,whoever hopes to marry has to choose correctly between three caskets. One isgold, one is silver, and one is lead. The suitor who picks the right one getsto marry Portia whether she likes it or not.

Fortunately for her, the more self-centered suitors are dazzled and deceivedby the gold and silver caskets. Bassanio does pick the correct one, the leadcasket, indicating his willingness to sacrifice for Portia.

In the second part of the play, Shakespeare implicitly critiques suchpatriarchal control over a woman by showing how wise and intelligent Portia iswhen disguises herself as a (male) lawyer to defend and save Antonio.

An alternate version of love and marriage arises from the story of Shylock'sdaughter Jessica, who elopes with Lorenzo. Unlike Portia, Jessica puts loveahead of her father's wishes. She defies Shylock by marrying a Christian and bystealing a turquoise ring that has sentimental value to Shylock to help financeher marriage.

1. Among the aristocracy, marriages were arranged by the young woman'sfather. Even though Portia's father is dead and she is an extremelyindependent young woman, she still wishes and must follow his stipulations.

2. Renaissance marriages were based on what those involved could get fromthe match. The man who chooses the correct casket first wins not only Portia,but also power over Belmont and great wealth. So, suitors such as theArragon from Spain care nothing about the marriage itself or Portia--theysimply want the tangible benefits that marrying her will get them. This is alsotrue of Portia's way of thinking. While she does desire a husband withwit, looks, and manners, she also wants someone who is equal to her inclass. This is why Bassanio must borrow money from Antonio to put on theappearance of being wealthy and worthy of Portia's hand.

One more aspect of marriages from Shakepeare's time is connected to thesituation between Shylock and his daughter Jessica. Even though Jessicadisobeyed her father and eloped with a non-Jew, many in the "Christian"community believe that she and Lorenzo are entitled to Shylock's money andpossessions. This demonstrates once again the double standard thatexisted among the Elizabethan British in regards to the Jews and their owncustoms.

These days we tend to associate marriage with romantic love (and delicious cake) but in Shakespeare's day that wasn't necessarily the case. Marriage is portrayed in several different ways in The Merchant of Venice: as a risky business venture, a mythological quest, a chance for an unhappy daughter to escape her father's home, a way for a father to transmit his wealth to the man of his choosing, and even an opportunity for two men to become more secure in their friendship. What's even more striking about marriage is that, even though it becomes the most important relationship by the end of the play, it's pitted against the bonds of male friendship throughout.

Marriage is not a romantic affair in the play, and neither men nor women are under the impression that it is. All of the marriages in the play exist for convenience or necessity. Romance can follow, but it isn't a requirement, which may be why partners seem willing to forgive each other and compromise.

The Merchant of Venice is ambivalent in its presentation of merchants in love. Bassanio's love for Portia is at least in part motivated by financial need. She is an attractive woman but she also has enough money to pay Bassanio's debts. Marriage is presented not only as a union of two people in love, but also as a union of their wealth and property. Compare too the love of Jessica and Lorenzo, where the young lovers rapidly spend the money that Jessica, in effect, steals from her father.

The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare is a fascinating tale conveyed with exquisite poetry and set in the Venice of Renaissance Italy. It tells two stories: one is of love and marriage; the other of usury, prejudice and revenge. The stories feature two remarkable characters: Portia an educated, strong heroine and Shylock, a moneylender who is a Jew. How their stories and those of her suitors and his daughter converge in a Venetian court of law mesmerize us with its ingenious solution to an astonishing dilemma and pose moral and social questions with which we struggle today.

The Merchant of Venice delights us with its tale of friendship, love, marriage and commerce, while troubling us with its casual display of religious and racial prejudice, particularly hatred of the Jew. Anti-Semitism was integral to most Christian homogeneous societies during the Renaissance. Though there probably were no Jews in England at this time, Shakespeare drew upon the archetypes of literature and mythology and Jews were often portrayed as comic figures with hook noses and red wigs.

Wortman has also directed Grapes of Wrath, Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Angels in America, Diary of Anne Frank, and An Ideal Husband. Set design is by Cheryl deWardener, costume design by David T. Howard, lighting design by Christian Wittwer and sound design by Michael Hyde.

Antonio, a prosperous Venetian merchant, is unable to explain his sadness to his friends, who suggest he must have business or love worries. When Bassanio arrives with Lorenzo and Gratiano, he asks his close friend Antonio to lend him some more money. Bassanio explains that he needs the money to woo a wealthy heiress, Portia, in Belmont. Antonio is unable to advance Bassanio cash because all his money is invested in ships at sea but he gladly offers to guarantee a credit loan.

Although in this particular case the enforcement of contract seems unreasonable, the great benefit to a city like Venice that is founded and governed by commerce and contract is that motives of self-interest, utility, and profit override the natural tendency to exclude, persecute, or kill strangers.[4] Christian and Jews are able to co-exist, albeit acrimoniously, in Venice to exchange goods and services. Instead of excluding or killing Jews, Christians seek to make a profit with or out of them and vice versa. Prejudice still exists in Venice but persecution and murder do not.

However, these studies have neglected the effect that contractual relations in a commercial republic have on non-contractual ones like friendship, love, and marriage.[10] Whereas previous studies have focused either on the contractual relationships or the non-contractual ones, this article will explore the interaction between these two types of relationships. Critics who see the play as a pattern of exchanges and purchases or revolving around the question of bonds fail to address the question about the incommensurability of non-contractual relations with contractual ones. And for those scholars who either historically contextualize or draw interesting parallels between the play and contemporary economics, they overlook how the play charts the moral, social, and political implications of a politics where its public sphere is the domain of calculation, commerce, and contract. This article will remedy this inattention, although it is indebted to these previous studies that have tangentially touched upon this topic: the effect of contract and commerce on friendship, love, and marriage and their social and political ramifications.

Shakespeare suggests that marriage is superior to friendship because of its procreative aspect. Traditionally marriage was the way to create and socialize children into society: friendship, for all its virtues and value, cannot do this. Furthermore, the sexual and procreative act of marriage not only produces children but unifies the body and soul of both partners. This spiritual and physical unity is symbolized in the wedding ring which should be accorded the highest honor.

Except Shylock, those character who conceive and act in contractual terms are successful, while those who do not, such as Antonio and Jessica, fare less well. Because both Venice and Belmont are cities founded upon contract, the regimes make those who act non-contractually, whether agreeing to unreasonable loans or breaking paternal bonds, melancholic without knowing the motive behind it.[26] They sense the corrosive effects that contract and commerce have upon non-contractual relations like friendship, love, and marriage but are unable to operate successfully outside the contractual foundations of Venice and Belmont. Only those who are able to calculate correctly like Bassanio and Portia will be content in such a regime. Values incommensurate with contract must either be re-conceptualized in contractual terms to be successful or face failure in a world governed by self-interest, utility, and profit.

Among early modern writers, Venice had enjoyed mythical status because of its political institutions and ideals of republicanism.[29] As a successful model of a mixed constitution, Venice had developed an elaborate system of governance to reduce the influence of fraction and enjoyed an economic prosperity that appeared to follow from its political organization. How the Venetians were able to accomplish this feat was of interest to the English and perhaps even to us today.[30]

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