story
the merchant of venice is the most controversial shakespeare's play. the story is set
in venice and it talks about a dispute between a cristian venetian man named antonio
and a jewish money lander named shylock. the play is divided in 5 acts and it's
considered controvertial because it highlights the cristian view of the jews so people
that are more intrested in money and trades then the religious and social life. the
story starts with a dialoge in which antonio is telling bassanio how he invested all of
is money in a trade. besides that, bassanio is trying to win the approval of portia's
father who decided to do a bet between 3 suitors, one of which is bassanio.
bassanio needs to choose among 3 baskets, only in one of the 3 there is a portia's
potraite. bassanio, somehow, chooses the right basket and wins the bet but now
bassanio encounters a new problem, he needs money for is courtship but antonio
can't help him. in venice, shylock is furious because his daughter jessica ran away
because of the love for lorenzo, bringing with her many of his dad's ducats and
jewelry. unfortunately, antonio's ships have been destroid so antonio fails to repay
shylock who lent money to him so antonio is put in prison. the trial takes place ad the
court of the duke of venice. portia was antonio's lawyer. she offered shylock a huge
sum of money in order to drop the charge against antonio. shylock stupidly declined
that offer and for that reason, shylock is accused of theatening a venetian citizen life
therefore he is subject of the death penalty. despite this the duke "only" took half of
shylock havings and he let him live like before the trial.
setting
in the play we can see two differents settings: the merchant town of venice; the
idyllic place of belmont. the first is governed by money and power and the ones who
detain money are the jews and the ones who detain power are the cristians. for
those reasons alone, the jews live in ghettos and they are requred by law to wear a
red hat. the second, belmont, is a nicer place to live in because there rules love not
money and power like venice.
antisemitic play
some critics say that this play is strongly antisemitic others say the opposite.
shakespeare aim is not to describe the jew shylock as a monster because,
shakespeare real aim is to describe the common cristian view of the jews and the
treatment reserved to them.
characters
the cristian characters present an ambiguous picture. antonio lends money free of
intrests and he risks all for his friend bassanio. bassanio wants to marry portia
because she has the capabilities to pay off his debt. we can see a clear unreasond
hate in the towards jews only because of their religion. this is a behaviour opposed
from the qualities of mercy, love and charity that are the base of being a good
cristian. portria is presented as an beautiful heroic figure who is willing to take the
risk of fake her identity from hers to a man only to do a favor for bassanio and
antonio. lastly, shylock is presented in a mix way because he is victim of his wife's
death and his daughter theft. his life so is only composed by his job, lending money
with unfair intrest rates. he also didn't have mercy with antonio so this leads to
shylock downfall. this last two things make us unable to view him in a positive way.
themes
one of if not the most present theme is love. the love between friend, the love
between lovers, the parental love and, most importantly, the love that brings
togheter very different people. unfortunately there is no light without darkness so
there is no love without hate infact the second most important theme is that, hate.
specifically between cristians and jews. the mercy is also very important in this play
but is seen more as a value then something else because it takes up the biblical idea
of giving the other cheek then looking for revenge. also the dualism between
apperance and reality is showed in this play with the famous quote that says that not
everything that shines is gold.