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roles of women in the merchant of venice
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critical analysis of the merchant of venice
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The Rings of Power:
Symbolic Exchange in The Merchant of Venice
Rings are significant to the narrative of The Merchant of Venice for several reasons. Firstly, as symbols of love, wealth and power. Secondly, as a means through which Portia gives and then regains control of herself, her weath and power and finally, the theft and sale of Leah's turquoise ring acts as a source of sympathy towards Shylock and allows him to parallel the Christian husbands, Bassanio and Graziano.
A ring is, in and of itself, a frivolous object; it serves no practical purpose and its only functions are symbolic and aesthetic. They are thus also a symbol of the wealth and power of the owner; a demonstration that they have so much money they can afford to fritter it away on useless trinkets. Further, a signet ring bestowed power on the wearer, as they were used to authenticate and seal official documents, much like a signature. Thus, the ring bestowed the ability to issue orders in the name its owner and thus symbolised that power.
Rings also often indicate a promise, vow or bond (for example, a purity ring standing for the vow of abstinence and chasteness). Bonds and promises are a centre point in The Merchant of Venice, and so too the breaking of them. This will be explored in more detail later in the essay.
Traditionally, and to this day, rings also indicate love and affection. The most common and widespread form of this is, of course, the wedding or engagement ring. This is not a tradition divorced from the symbolism of wealth or power, however, especially in the context of the text — in Shakespeare's time, wedding rings were a tradition mostly confined to the upper merchant and noble classes, since the poor simply could not afford them.
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...s Portia to end up in a position she otherwise would not have been able to achieve and maintain her own wealth and power despite her marriage to Bassanio. Rings and bonds are the hinges on which the play turns, and they are both interlinked and integral to the play.
Works Cited
Blanchard, Jane. "Contesting Constancy in The Merchant of Venice", Renascence 61, vol 4 (2009), pp 209-220
Kunz, George Frederick. Rings for the Finger. North Chemsford: Courier Dover Publications, 2012.
Newman, Karen. "Portia's Ring: Unruly Women and Structures of Exchange in The Merchant of Venice", Shakespeare Quarterly 38, no 1 (1987), pp 19-33.
Scott, William O. "Conditional Bonds, Forfeitures, and Vows in The Merchant of Venice", English Literary Renaissance 34, vol 3, 2004, pp 286-305
Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. London: Arden Shakespeare, 2010.
...n every shape and size, good and bad, encompass the journey of a diamond. But, the final destination of a diamond is in the form of a ring- promising a lifelong commitment in the first world tainted with the blood of third world grief.
...rs in the play) to function as the spokesperson for the law suggests that rather than an attack on the female sex, The Merchant of Venice subtly questions patriarchal assumptions about women.
Marriages everywhere have their troubles, yet everyone is able to relate to other couples problems. By looking at A Delicate Balance and The Merchant of Venice we will see their perspective on how marriages have changed over time of the martial relationship. After getting an overview of these books we will then apply it to present day and see if anything really has changed. The marriages I’ll be analyzing is Bessanio and Portia from The Merchant of Venice and Tobia ad Agnes from A Delicate Balance. By examining Bessanio’s behavior towards Portia and Tobia’s toward Agnes, we can see how the role of the husband has changed from emotional support and conversations to the development of the wives having bigger roles.
The pervasive notion of woman as property, prized indeed but more as object than as person, indicates one aspect of a deep-seated sexual pathology in Venice. [. . .] Fear of women’s sexuality is omnipresent in Othello. Iago fans to flames the coals of socially induced unease in Othello, fantasizes on his own about being cuckolded by Othello and Cassio. In an ideology that can value only cloistered, desireless women, any woman who departs from this passivity will cause intense anxiety. (295)
While engendering the bond in the inciting force of the play, Antonio says to Shylock – the antagonist – “Content in faith. I’ll seal to such a bond, / And say there is much kindness in the Jew” (1.3.149-150) which reveals how Antonio sees such positive terms in the deal. Although the terms may seem simples to follow, Antonio will still face the consequences of putting his life on the line for his dear friend, Bassanio. This bond portion of the play establishes relationships through the rivals and also gives background information about characters, which show the elements of dramatic significance. Subsequently, Shylock’s possessions are at stake during their trial after Antonio fails to pay him back because his argosies were abolished. Shylock’s punishment for attempting to
Symbolism- “You’re supposed to ask yourself what the ring means. Obviously it has something to do with love, rings always do, and since she’s taken it off, obviously something has gone wrong in the love relationship.” (Arnason, page 228)
And at times like these, self-esteem is even more vital than food’" (Walls 186). Rose Walls is indicating that she is a self-centered and selfish person who despises the idea of nurturing her children. The Walls children are the ones who found the diamond ring and they give it to their mother thinking they could use the ring to pay off the house and buy food. Instead Rose wears it as a replacement for her old wedding ring. Her decision to keep the diamond ring instead of helping her family, shows that her first priority is not the children, but herself. It affects the children because they cannot use the diamond ring to buy anything needed for themselves. On the first day of her job, the kids tried to get her out of
An example of Shakespeare’s view of women is that they were perceived as over-fastidious and pompous individuals in Elizabethan society. This is conveyed by Portia’s remarks “Let all of his complexion choose me so” (2.7) when the Prince of Morocco choses the golden casket. In this statement there is no remorse for her racist accusation, not even by the idea that she has criticised a Prince, who is as equally powerful as she is. From this, it can be argued that she is cruel, even though this is fuelled by her anxiousness to find the perfect husband, as well as using this as a metaphorical warning for other potential suitors. Shakespeare uses Portia’s arrogant and arduous personality to represent Elizabethan society’s attitudes to foreign ethnicities. This is an idea which links to the religious conflict between Christianity and Judaism, therefore showing that in Elizabethan times, the Christian population were thought to have had the responsibil...
Firstly, the literary technique symbolism has been used to represent power. The ruby choker, given to the Bride by the Marquis, is a symbol of power. The Bride describes the choker as a ‘choker of rubies, two inches wide, like an extraordinarily precious slit throat...bright as arterial blood’. This depiction is a useful method of representing the Marquis power because the necklace acts like a collar. This signifies how the Marquis behaves like his Bride’s master. (why master?) An example of the Marquis expressing this power is when the Marquis takes the Bride’s virginity. The Marquis tells the Heroine to wear the choker before consummating their marriage; in relation to power, this shows how the Marquis has the right to her body. Moreover, the overwhelming presence of lilies in the bridal chamber represents the loss of virginity. The quote ‘[mirrors] on the wall...reflected more white lilies that I’d ever seen in my life’ (pg10-11). This exhibits the overpowering image of lilies for the reason that lilies in reality connote death or loss, in the context of the story; this is the loss of the Brides virginity. In addition to this, the resemblance of th...
In the 16th century, women and men were defined as having specific and contrasting roles within society. Men were defined as being powerful and dominant while women were defined as being submissive and meek. These ideals can be seen across cultures and throughout time. With these definitions of gender roles in place, the text suggests that gender is a social construct therefore qualities of femininity and masculinity are subjective. This is shown when Portia cross dresses as the lawyer Balthazar (IV) and when the truths of the rings are discovered by the two women (V). The strong female characters in the play exemplify that women are not confined to their social construct as they manipulate the male characters. During the 16th century only
Point #2. Portia creates a way of controlling the future of the relationship between herself and Bassanio. Portia gives Bassanio a ring with the words, "I give you this ring, which when you part from, lose, or give away, / Let it presage the ruin of your love".
Both Shakespeare in ‘The Merchant of Venice’ and Marlowe in ‘Dr Faustus’ use the numerous outcomes from the events of trade in their plays to metaphorically depict a variety of different circumstances. The very concept of trade is used in all its forms to stretch the controversial and political themes and morals of each play as far out as possible. From this, we learn that trade isn't just a physical form of business, but a symbolic form of both human and spiritual communication, too.
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.
The Necklace also displays distinctive realism in the use of socioeconomic influences which are essential to the plot. The major conflict in the story would be absent and the theme would not be obtainable without Mathilde Loisel’s insecurity about her own socioeconomic reputation. An example of Loisel’s self-deprivation nature is presented when she realizes she does not have a necklace, she says “I shall look absolutely no one. I would almost rather not go to the party” (Maupassant, sec. 3). Another example of the self-conflict caused by social pressure is Loisel’s immediate attempt to replace the necklace and her reluctance to speak to her friend Madame Forestier about the necklace for ten whole years. If she were not conflicted by societal pressures she might have avoided the whole situation altogether. The Necklace establishes a realistic difference in value between the necklaces and proposed clothing. Her husband proposes flowers which were valued 10 franks so in any case if she had chosen the flowers there would have been an insignificant economic loss. Her decision not to tell her friend about the necklace ends up costing her seven times the worth of the original. The roses symbolize the simpler things in life to the theme of the story. Mathilde Loisel’s withered appearance at the end
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.