The Merchant Of Venice

What They Cannot See

In this world, there are many aspects of blindness whether it is mentally or physically. Either way, each blindness brings out the disability in each person. Such portrayal was shown throughout the play The Merchant of Venice. Shakespeare presents more than one form of blindness, which complicates the social order of the society, and I feel that the blindness, being their imperfection, creates tension between characters, which is weakened by blindness. When the characters are being blind, they are corrupted by their actions and somehow they do not care who they are hurting as long as they know they are getting the best out of something. Whether it being valuables, love, power, or respect.

Physical and mental blindness are seen throughout this play. They play a part in each character's daily lives and are the obstacle that prevents happiness. Old Gobbo, who is Launcelot's blind and feeble father, expresses physical and mental blindness when he approaches Launcelot and surprisingly asks him, 'Master young man, you, I pray you, which is the way to Master Jew's?'; (Pg. 21, lines 29-30) for he was looking for his son, Launcelot. Surprisingly Old Gobbo did not know that he was speaking to his son. Old Gobbo is nearly blind, which is the physical part of the blindness, which was one of the reasons why he unable to recognize Launcelot's features. He is also mentally blind because a father should recognize his own son's voice. Launcelot briefly jokes with his father before confessing '[he is] Launcelot – [his] boy that was, [his] son that is, [his] child that shall be,'; (Pg. 22, lines 78-79) but Old Gobbo still 'cannot think [he is his] son'; (Pg. 22, line 80). Launcelot convinces himself that 'if [his father] had [his] eyes, [he] might fail of knowing [him]'; because 'it is a wise father that knows his own child'; (Pg. 22, lines 70-71). It is a shame that a father cannot recognize his own flesh and blood. This blindness concerns the relationship of a father and their child.

Another blindness that concerns the relationship between a father and the child would have been between Portia and her dead father. Portia, the heroine of The Merchant of Venice, is forced to marry the suitor who chooses the correct casket left by her deceased father. When the Prince of Morocco, one of Portia's suitors, comes to Belmont to woo Portia, he daringly takes the test of choosing the correct casket.