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Classifying William Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice”
William Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” is a drama that most scholars find difficult classifying. The play loosely focuses upon Antonio who becomes the subject of a loan that almost costs him his life due to his belittling and poor treatment of Shylock, who as a Jew has received many forms of prejudice from Christians. Despite this fact Antonio is relieved from the loan. Bassino is freed from his prior debts and gets to marry Portia, Portia weds the man that she desires, and four other characters get married. While these moments surely made the play happy and enjoyable, the looming threat of Antonio losing everything because he ended up defaulting on the loan causes the audience to worry and fear the outcome of what may happen. If not for Shakespeare’s usage of comic relief to support the happy ending it would be even more difficult to classify this play. Although there is plenty of happy moments and comic relief the treatment of Jews and Shylock in particular also causes some people to view “The Merchant of Venice” as a tragedy. While others yet view the drama as a problem play, “where moral dilemmas or social problems were explored through one central player”. William Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” is best classified as a comedy due to comedies definition, the rise of sympathetic characters, the use of comic relief to decrease the dark tense moments, and the inability to properly classify the play as a tragedy.
It has been over 500 years since “The Merchant of Venice” was written and in that time the definition of comedy has changed. In the 16th century comedy was “defined as light-hearted play with a happy ending, sometimes full of humorous pass...
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...g sight to play a joke on him, and the other revolves around Jessica and Launcelot’s discussion after Portia and Nerissa come up with a plan to rescue Shylock. In this part of the scene Jessica and Launcelot discuss the Jews refusal to eat pork and the rise of bacon prices. This conversation is so random and has nothing to do with how the story proceeds that it is hilarious to the audience. It should be remembered that the play is not overly dark. The comic relief helps to subdue the overly dark parts. If you remember Launcelot and old Gobbo’s scene takes place after the pound of Antonio’s flesh is agreed too, and Launcelot and Jessica’s conversation takes place after Portia and Nerissa devise a plan to save Antonio. The humor is strategically placed so that tension is relieved at opportune moments and helps keep the play from being classified as a tragedy.
‘Othello’ was written between 1601 and 1603. It was first performed in the Elizabethan courts during the Christmas season. The idea of a ‘perfect’ tragedy is the idea that the tragedy is faultless; it does what is expected; so makes the audience feel empathy and sympathy for the characters who suffer. There are two different types of tragedy: classical tragedy and Shakespearean tragedy. The tragic hero in this play is the main character, Othello. Othello's misfortune comes about because of his jealousy, trust, and his pride. This essay aims to look at, and compare, how Shakespeare wrote his tragedy, and how other tragedies are written. I will mainly compare ‘Othello’, for Shakespearean tragedy, and ‘Oedipus Rex’, by Sophocles, for classical tragedy.
The Manipulation of Gender Roles in Shakespeare’s Othello. Of Shakespeare’s great tragedies, the story of the rise and fall of the Moor of Venice arguably elicits the most intensely personal and emotional responses from its English-speaking audiences over the centuries. Treating the subject of personal human relationships, the tragedy, which should have been a love story, speaks to both reading and viewing audiences by exploring the archetypal dramatic values of love and betrayal. The final source of the tragic action in Shakespeare’s
Othello has been described as one of William Shakespeare’s most popular plays because the play focuses on its themes of good and evil, military, politics, love and marriage, religion, racial prejudice, gender conflict, and sexuality; but the controversy and debate surrounding Othello is “Why is Othello a qualification for a tragedy?”
Shakespearean works are well known for their depth, symbolism and philosophical view upon different aspects of life. Mirroring is one of Shakespeare’s favorite tools. Mirroring is used to emphasize the contrast and show differences between the sides of the society and ways of living of the characters. The Merchant of Venice is no exception. Just like all other plays of Shakespeare it has many of antagonisms and it portrays the most important and hot conflicts that used to be popular at that time just as much as they are now. Exploring this multi dimensional play is exciting, because the more you think about it, the more hints and tints you discover. The play takes place in two main locations – Venice and Belmont. These two places portray two different lifestyles. One of the most important and essential themes of the Merchant of Venice is wealth. Shakespeare has a special view of this subject; he sees love as a form of wealth (Milton 34). Venice represents earning of money, accumulating it, protecting it, fighting for it; and at the same time Belmont demonstrates having money an all other life’s pleasures, this is why life in Belmont is so happy, slow and peaceful, and the whole location is so dreamlike. Being rich and having nothing to worry about is a dream of most people. To my mind, Belmont and Venice present two different sides of wealth.
The rest of this first conversation between Kate and Petruccio is riddled with sexual innuendos, clever word choices and it is this feature of the dialogue that can easily lead readers (or viewers in the case of a stage performance) to see this play as a farce. To further exemplify the wit and absurdity of the Petruccio/Kate dynamic, one could look at a scene later in the play where
During the falling action of the play, Gratiano took the chance to jeopardize his relationship with Nerissa when he gives away the ring he sworn he would never lose. As said by Gratiano to Nerissa in the falling action of the play, “Now by this hand, I gave it to a youth.”(4.2.161) when he explains that he gives his ring to the judge’s clerk to his wife Nerissa. Although Nerissa was just joking about taking the ring which disguised as the clerk, it comes to her surprise that her husband has the audacity to break a commitment. This ring plot brings suspense and tension to the scene as the two elements anticipate Nerissa’s reaction and it also gives background information as this scene is one of the major plots in the play. Correspondingly, the role of taking chances is shown in the link between Jessica and Lorenzo. Amid the rising action, Jessica (Shylock’s daughter) escapes her father’s house to abandon him and marry Lorenzo – who her father hates since Lorenzo is a Christian. Before Jessica leaves Shylock, she tells Launcelot – the fool – during the rising action, “I am sorry thou wilt leave my father so; / Our house is hell, and thou a merry devil ... / Lorenzo, who is thy new master’s guest. / Give him this letter, do it secretly” (2.3.1-7). Jessica tells Launcelot that she is also going to leave Shylock and
In Shakespeare’s play, The Merchant of Venice, a modernistic class-conscious theme develops around how several of the play’s characters manipulate sources of wealth in order to achieve social equality. The rise of international markets, readily available sources of credit, and the overall "commodification of English society" (Lecture, 9/3/03) had created a new commercial dynamic in Shakespeare’s era that gave form to a financial meritocracy never before possible in English history. Consequently, in Shakespeare’s play, the tension that results from the challenges presented to the status quo by the commercialization of society manifests itself through the exchange of gifts and debts between three principle relationships. In the characters of Antonio, Portia, and Shylock, Shakespeare illustrates that as a result of the commodification of society even the motivations for expressing generosity are now subject to a cost/benefit analysis. Variously stifled by the traditional limitations placed upon on them by their social positions, Shakespeare’s central characters in The Merchant of Venice seek to address their frustrations through an economic advantage, which in the end analysis, works to emphasize a connection between Shakespeare and the basis of modern class antagonisms.
William Shakespeare attained literary immortality through his exposition of the many qualities of human nature in his works. One such work, The Merchant of Venice, revolves around the very human trait of deception. Fakes and frauds have been persistent throughout history, even to this day. Evidence of deception is all around us, whether it is in the products we purchase or the sales clerks' false smile as one debates the purchase of the illusory merchandise. We are engulfed by phonies, pretenders, and cheaters. Although most often associated with a heart of malice, imposture varies in its motives as much as it's practitioners, demonstrated in The Merchant of Venice by the obdurate characters of Shylock and Portia.
Characters in comedy and tragedy are generally quite different. Comic characters are (or used to be) lower class individuals (Aristotle, Goldsmith). Indeed this is the case with t...
The clown contributes towards the humourous entertainment of this play through his numerous puns and jokes. He is a source of laughter, not because we are humoured by his "foolery"; for he proves to be no fool at all; but rather because he amuses us with his brilliant wit. Having mastered the art of jesting, Feste is sensitive of his profession, always aware of the circumstances he is in and the appropriateness of this folly.
To fully appreciate Hamlet as a tragedy it must be understood as a comedy. Throughout this paper I will demonstrate the comedic moments of Hamlet, provide a brief analysis of the humor, and finally comment on the purpose of the comedic elements.
In the play The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare, there is a concept of otherness throughout the play. Many characters had roles in which they were examples of the outsiders, that occurred during the time the play was written. If not all but in most plays by William Shakespeare, there is always a character who is categorized as the outsider. However, The Merchant of Venice took the concept into a deeper level, instead of depicting differences in social class as otherness, the play included race and religion, instead of social class. These beliefs shaped not only the way the play was written, but how the characters treated certain individuals in the play and how the personality of each character
William Shakespeare shows how two tradesmen can have completely different lives when others view them differently in the play The Merchant of Venice. In the play, Bassanio, Antonio’s friend, needs money to pursue his love. They seek a loan from Shylock, a Jewish moneylender in Antonio’s name. The contract is for three times the value of the bond in three months or else Shylock cuts off a pound of flesh from Antonio. While all this is happening, there are love plots going on. One of which is for Shylock’s daughter to elope with Lorenzo, a Christian. Later on, Antonio’s source of money, his ship, is reported sunken in the English Channel, dooming him to the loss of one pound of his flesh. There is a trial on the bond, and when it seems sure that Antonio will die, Portia, disguised as a doctor of laws legally gets Antonio out of the situation and Shylock recieves harsh penalties. Antonio and Shylock, two similar businessmen of Venice, are viewed differently and are treated oppositely to heighten the drama of the play and mold a more interesting plot.
William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice presents a battle between love and hate, influenced by money. Written during the 16th Century, Shakespeare depicts an anti-Semitic era through the eyes of both Jews and Christians. Each perspective has it’s struggles, but what stays consistent between them is what makes this play so historical. Throughout this play, it becomes clear that culture affected by love and hatred, under the influence of money, can deliver a powerful message that still speaks to readers today.
Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice contains many themes and elements that are considered timeless or universal. Samuel Taylor Coleridge defines a timeless or universal element as a “representation of men in all ages and all times.” A universal element is relevant to the life of every human being – it is universal. The first major theme that plays an important role in the play is the Christians’ prejudice against the Jews. A second important theme is the attitude toward money. Perhaps the most important theme of the play is the love between people. This love can occur between the same sex, or the opposite sex, platonic or romantic. In Merchant of Venice, the three timeless elements are prejudice, money, and love.