Merchant Of Venice Act 1 Scene 1 Pdf

[Mariela Laflam]

Insacrificing himself for Bassanio's bond, Antonio metaphorically carves himself into Antonio's heart forever. Antonio sets himself up to be a martyr: someone who dies for a cause of their beliefs. Antonio becomes a Christ-like figure. However, unlike Christ who died in order to redeem man-kind, Antonio will die because he and Bassanio recklessly gambled away their money and took a dangerous bond. Antonio's rhetoric attempts to recast the reality of the situation so that he appears to be an innocent victim of an evil man.

Even though Portia has redirected Bassanio's bond to Antonio onto herself, Antonio is still able to assert his "love" against Bassanio's wife. Bassanio still follows Antonio's instructions more than he follows Portia's instructions.

Shakespeare uses dramatic irony here for comedic effect. The audience knows that this doctor is actually the person as this "mad wife." While the doctor claims that only a mad woman would be upset about giving a ring to the man who saved Bassanio's best friend, Portia is actually testing Bassanio's fidelity. She will be angry if he gives away the ring.

Remember that this is the ring that Portia gave Bassanio as a symbol of her love and herself. She told him to never part with it as long as he still loved her. However, rather than telling the doctor that this is his wedding ring and that he cannot part with it, Bassanio attempts to devalue the ring. He tells the doctor that it is an unimportant piece of jewelry that the man cannot want.

By this Gratiano means that had he been in charge, Shylock would have faced a jury of twelve men and been sentenced to hang. Notice that even though Shylock has been defeated and forced to convert to Christianity, the Christians still see him as a hated other.

Antonio's condition gets at a major theme of the play: appearances versus reality. On the surface, this might seem like a positive request from a Christian perspective; in forcing him to convert, Antonio "saves" Shylock's soul. However, a conversion without conviction means nothing, a fact that would not go unnoticed by a Shakespearian audience that was alive during England's break with the Catholic Church. Antonio's requirement thus undermines not only the sanctity of his religion but the religious values he professes to have. Therefore, while this appears to be a form of "Christian mercy," it actually reveals how vacuous the Christian's faith is.

Antonio offers Shylock a semblance of mercy by allowing him to keep half his fortune and admitting in open court that a Christian stole Jessica. However, his condition is forcing Shylock to recognize Lorenzo as his proper heir, undermining the idea that Jessica was wrongfully taken and essentially condoning the marriage.

While an unsympathetic audience may hear Shylock's words as a reflection of an obsession with money, Shylock highlights the lack of mercy within this sentence. As a man hated for his religion and denied all other avenues of work, he cannot survive in Venice without his money and his trade.

The Duke offers Shylock to reduce the amount of money he owes the state to a fine by acting "humble." In other words, the Duke asks Shylock to beg for his money. This is neither humility nor mercy on the part of the Christians. The Christians seek to take Shylock's money, the only thing that gave him any power within Venetian society, and force him to grovel to the privileged class. This is a form of humiliation meant to put Shylock back in his place. In pardoning Shylock, the Duke does not offer him mercy but rather makes him an example to all other marginalized peoples that attempt to upset the status quo.

Gratiano's overly exuberant and insulting statements make him, and the Christian opinion that he represents, petty. It is unclear whether or not Shakespeare's audience would have jeered with Gratiano, but modern audiences lose sympathy for these characters who need to degrade and punish Shylock on top of defeating him. The Christian characters lose their credibility in this moment because this invocation of mob justice completely contradicts the idea of "mercy" that they claimed to value at the beginning of this scene.

Notice how the concept of "mercy" has changed here. While at the beginning, Portia triumphed the concept of mercy for mercy's sake, assuming Shylock would simply grant it to Antonio, she expects Shylock to "beg," meaning that he must prove he is worthy of mercy in a way that Antonio did not have to.

Under Venetian law, any foreigner who conspires against the life of a Venetian must give half their assets to their victim and the other half to the state. The fate of their life is then left up to the Duke to decide. Notice that Portia, who earlier triumphed mercy, demonstrates extreme prejudice here. She uses Shylock as an example to all other 'aliens' that try to use Venetian laws for their own benefit. She proves that the law is for rich merchants, not marginalized peoples.

Portia converts Shylock, a Venetian citizen, into an alien, or foreigner, in order to enact this bit of the law. Portia stretches the law in order to save Antonio and punish Shylock, proving that the law protects Venice's privileged citizens and neglects its marginalized citizens.

This is a colloquial term taken from wrestling that means to have the upper hand or the advantage. Notice that Gratiano uses Shylock's exact words against him to show that Shylock has lost; he robs Shylock's words of their intended meaning in order to use them against him.

Notice that now that she has the upper hand, Portia abandons all notions of mercy. She asked Shylock to show Antonio mercy, and when time comes for her to offer Shylock mercy, she instead decides to punish him. This action demonstrates the double standard under which Shylock lives: he is expected to be better than the Christians, to turn his cheek even though they do not show him the same kindness.

Gratiano uses Shylock's words against him in order to mock him now that the tables have turned. Shylock has repeatedly said that this judge is right and honorable, and now that the judge has used his logic against Shylock, Gratiano wants to remind the court that the judge is right and honorable.

Shylock says this incredulously: much like Nerissa and Portia, he cannot believe that these husbands would so flippantly offer their wives's lives for this man. Even while Shylock is insistent on the fulfillment of a gruesome bond, this reaction shows him to be principled, and suggests that his marriage was honorable and loving.

Barabbas and Jesus were imprisoned and sentenced to death at the same time. Barabbas was released when a crowd demanded his salvation over Jesus. Historically, Barabbas and the Jews who protested for his release instead of Jesus's have been blamed for the crucifixion. With this reference Shylock declares that he would rather have his daughter married to a descendant of the man responsible for anti-Semitic hatred than one of these Christian husbands who do not value their wives.

Portia invokes dramatic irony with this statement, because Bassanio's wife is in fact "by to hear him make the offer." Bassanio's confession of love makes it all the more urgent that Portia save Antonio and rid Bassanio of his bond to his friend. She must redirect this love towards herself.

This is a rather blatant confession of romantic love for Bassanio. Antonio asks Bassanio to let his wife judge whether or not he had ever been loved, which is a type of claim on Bassanio's heart. This would be problematic for Portia as Antonio is essentially using his death and martyrdom to claim Bassanio's heart for his own.

In the Book of Daniel from the Old Testament, Daniel rescues virtuous Susanna from slander and execution. In the story, two lecherous voyagers threaten to accuse Susanna of promiscuity unless she sleeps with both of them. Because she refuses, she is accused, arrested, and sentenced to death for lechery. Daniel asks the elders to independently question the voyagers about the events they claim to have witnessed, and when their testimonies are vastly inconsistent, Susanna is released. Virtue triumphs over falsehood, and the two men are put to death.

Portia defies Bassanio's request to simply subvert the law on Antonio's behalf. She rightly asserts that relieving Antonio of his bond will pave the way for other spend thrifts to get out of their bonds and undermine Venice's entire economic system.

Bassanio asks this doctor of the law to do a great right, save Antonio's life, while doing a little wrong, defying the law. Bassanio asks for special treatment that will allow his friend out of the constraints of the law. Notice that Bassanio imports religious language, such as devil, in order to subvert the law. Since Bassanio and Antonio are members of the privileged class they see any law that works against them as unfair and therefore inapplicable or mutable.

Bassanio pledges his whole self to Antonio before the court. This ironically occurs in front of his wife, to whom he should have already pledged his soul and body. Portia must relieve Antonio of his bond so that her husband is not indebted and bound to his friend but rather indebted and bound to her.

Notice that within her speech about divine mercy and forgiveness, Portia still refers to Shylock as "Jew" rather than by name. This is a sign of disrespect. Portia sees Shylock as a label rather than as a person. There is no understanding, forgiveness, or mercy towards Shylock within this speech; ironically, it is a speech about empathy that is devoid of actual empathy.

Portia's understanding of mercy comes from a Christian context in which mercy takes the form of forgiveness from the divine. In Judaism, mercy comes from personal atonement rather than divine mercy. On Yom Kuppur, one fasts, prays, and undertakes apology and restitution for their sins in order to seek atonement, rather than forgiveness, from God. Portia's speech about mercy demonstrates that she does not understand her audience or his faith. She preaches Christian forgiveness to a man who's faith values atonement, restitution, and payment of debt.

3a8082e126