The Importance of the Law in The Merchant of Venice
The link between Shakespeare and the law is not new; scholars have long realized that the legal discourse can lead to a better understanding of Shakespeare's works. Yet, that the converse is also true: the study of Shakespeare can lead to a deeper understanding of the fundamental nature of law. A play like The Merchant of Venice has a great deal to offer in the course of such a reading. The action of the play is concerned with contract law, but issues of standing, moiety, precedent, and conveyance are also raised. At the most fundamental level, though, the trial scene in Act IV illustrates the conflict between equity and the strict construction of the law.
Equity, in the legal sense, is "justice according to principles of fairness and not strictly according to formulated law" (Gilbert 103). This definition, while easily understandable, presents us with a problematic - even dangerous - structure of opposition. Law and fairness are set at extreme ends of some continuum of justice, and are exclusive. The definition implies that one can have justice according to "fairness," or justice according to "formulated law." Yet if law is not inherently fair, if there is need for a concept of equity, how can the law be said to be fulfilling its purpose? And if "fairness" is not to be found within the confines of "formulated law," from whence does it come? This is not a new argument, of course; the conflict between law and equity was recognized even in medieval England.
From earliest childhood, we are indoctrinated with a sense of justice, of fairness, of right and wrong. Every schoolyard echoes with cries of "No fair cheating!" We seem to know inst...
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Blaming the Supernatural for the Downfall of Macbeth This play is called Macbeth, Macbeth is written by William Shakespeare in 1606, but the play is set in Scotlandin 1050. The main characters in Macbeth are: Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Banquo, the three witches, Lady Macduff and Duncan. This essay would have flattered james1. James1 paid Shakespeare to write plays for him. This essay will discuss how much the supernatural is to blame for the downfall of Macbeth.
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Plato, one of the great philosophers of the ancient world, approached the subject of justice by believing that an ideal form of it exists. He might say that it is something outside of ourselves that we strive to attain. He shows how Socrates (his teacher) would choose not to bow to popular opinion just because it was the majority view. “In questions of justice and injustice, and of the base and the honorable, and of good and evil…ought we to follow the opinion of the many?” (Plato: Crito) He mentions how others feel that they do not hold to a higher ideal but that “political decisions [are] supreme.” And he shows the Athenian view of the inequality of different groups of people. “Can you deny that you are our child and our slave…? And if this be so do you think that your rights are on a level with ours?”
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There are many similarities shared between Shakespeare's plays, "Measure for Measure", and "The Merchant of Venice". The underlying theme of each work is well defined by the phrase "Justice without the temperance of mercy, is power misused". I will support this claim by drawing upon some of the characters and situations that are consistent in each story.
Complete Works of Shakespeare. Ed. David Bevington. 4th ed. of the book.
When most people think of justice, it commonly brings forward the words positivity, fairness, law, order, and other familiar words. However, in the Merchant of Venice, this is not the case. Justice is used negatively in a court case that reverses from putting Antonio, the convicted Christian merchant, on trial to Shylock, the Jewish money loaner asking for justice, to be put on trial. In the play, both mercy and justice are rejected because of the obvious influential bias that the character’s actions portray.
Hunter, G.K. "Shakespeare and the Traditions of Tragedy." Wells, Stanley, ed., pp. 113-117. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare Studies. Cambridge:
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.
Justice in The Tempest and Merchant of Venice & nbsp; In both Merchant of Venice and The Tempest, Shakespeare proposes ideas of justice and mercy that hold true in both plays. In order to see if the actions taken were just and/or merciful, definitions of these words must be set up. If we were to assume that Shakespeare's definition of mercy was what Portia espoused in Act Four, Scene One, specifically lines 205 - 206, the definition of mercy must be viewed in a biblical sense. Thus, in order to judge if something is merciful, one must look to see if it fulfills the qualifications of mercy in the New Testament. However, the idea of justice is quite different, for my definition of justice, I will turn to Charles Mill's definition, for, in the plays it applies the most.