Merchant of Venice - William Shakespeare
Summary- in the Merchant of Venice the main character of this play, Antonio, has a problem when the story first starts off. He is complaining to a friend about another friend needing to barrow money from him. That other friends name is Bassanio who needs the money to court this girl named Portia and he is going to use the money to show up to her house in style. Well Antonio wants to loan the money, but he has already invested it all in a few merchant ships that are still at sea. Well these two friends decide to go to Venice and go talk to a shylock, a Jewish moneylender, and ask for the money. If this loan isn’t paid than it is able to take a pound of Antonio’s flesh. While this goes on the shylocks servant leaves him to go with Bassanio, and the daughter plans on hooking up with Antonio’s friend Lorenzo. After a big Celebration in Venice the daughter slips away with Lorenzo and Bassanio and his friend Gratiano leave for Belmont to go win the heart of Portia. In Belmont the prince of Morocco tries to pick the right casket but chooses wrong. And the shylock is mad that his daughter ran away, but happy to hear that Antonio’s ships sunk which means he will get his flesh. The prince of Aragon also visits the princess and tries to pick the right casket, but also fails to do so like the prince of Morocco. After that Bassanio and Portia declare their love for each other, and he goes and picks the correct casket, and his friend that came along with him admits his love for Nerissa. And the two couples decided to have a double wedding and Portia gives Bassanio a ring as a token of her love. Out of no were Lorenzo and Jessica show up, than the party is ruined because Bassanio and Gratiano have to go back to Venice and save Antonio. Portia and Nerissa decide to go to Venice disguised as men. Now after everybody trying to tell shylock to not take Antonio’s life he still wants to do it. There is a trial held by the duke of Venice and a legal expert who is Portia disguised. She basically takes the contract and manipulates it to making it almost impossible on the shylock to collect the flesh, so he tries to go for the money, but then Portia pushes him back to the flesh. Antonio makes shylock to become Christian and when he dies give everything to Lorenzo and Jessica. After all of this the two married men give there rings away and when they get back to Belmont the wives question them, but then everything is solved and they all live happy ever after.
Character analysis on Shylock- many people like to think that this character is the most noteworthy character of the Merchant of Venice. He is a very dynamic character in that there is no real way to tell if he was a bloodthirsty business man, or a judged Jew stereotype. He is the main antagonist of the plot in that he wanted to take a pound of flesh from one of the main characters, but when this is going on he talks about all the prosecution he gets from the Christians all the time making it hard to label him as a born monster. But at the end of the day he did plot a plan to get revenge on his accuser by trying to take Antonio’s life keeping us from ever getting to look positive at this character in the play. Shakespeare does a really good job at trying to make us feel bad for him, but at the end of the day getting us to hate him.
Setting- this play takes place at a time when Venice is an economic power house of trade. Also at this point in time there is a big battle between the Christian and the Jews shown by Shylocks constant struggle of him having to fight the Christians. At this time Venice was accepting of all people, but the Christians did make up the majority of the city. This causes the conflict of the Jews and Christians to spill over into the city.
Conflict- in this play the conflicts are man v. man and man v. society. There is man v. man when Antonio has to face Shylock about the flesh he owed him. There is also man v. society when Shylock talks about how the Christians are always judging him.
Major themes- the first major theme is self- interest versus love, because all the Christian characters in the play care more about human relationships when the Jewish Shylock only cared about money.
The second one is the theme of the divine Quality of Mercy. This is shown when all the Christian characters know shylock is within law to take the flesh, and admit that, but still asks him to show Antonio mercy.
The third theme is the hatred as a cyclical phenomenon. This is shown when shylock says that he is only applying the same lessons that the Christians have taught him. He uses this argument even in court.
Symbols- the three caskets represent the legal system of Venice at the time. This matters to the play because it mostly takes place there.
The pound of flesh represents the reminder of the way shylock interprets the law and how ridged he deal was.
Leah’s Ring represents the uncharacteristically vulnerable state shylock is in in the play.
http://gnesiolutheran.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/merchantofvenice.jpg
Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_5adzpdkdw
The Merchant Of Venice Shylock's Monologue from the 2004 film.
SparkNotes “The Merchant of Venice” April 1, 2013 web. “http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/merchant/context.html”
Summary- in the Merchant of Venice the main character of this play, Antonio, has a problem when the story first starts off. He is complaining to a friend about another friend needing to barrow money from him. That other friends name is Bassanio who needs the money to court this girl named Portia and he is going to use the money to show up to her house in style. Well Antonio wants to loan the money, but he has already invested it all in a few merchant ships that are still at sea. Well these two friends decide to go to Venice and go talk to a shylock, a Jewish moneylender, and ask for the money. If this loan isn’t paid than it is able to take a pound of Antonio’s flesh. While this goes on the shylocks servant leaves him to go with Bassanio, and the daughter plans on hooking up with Antonio’s friend Lorenzo. After a big Celebration in Venice the daughter slips away with Lorenzo and Bassanio and his friend Gratiano leave for Belmont to go win the heart of Portia. In Belmont the prince of Morocco tries to pick the right casket but chooses wrong. And the shylock is mad that his daughter ran away, but happy to hear that Antonio’s ships sunk which means he will get his flesh. The prince of Aragon also visits the princess and tries to pick the right casket, but also fails to do so like the prince of Morocco. After that Bassanio and Portia declare their love for each other, and he goes and picks the correct casket, and his friend that came along with him admits his love for Nerissa. And the two couples decided to have a double wedding and Portia gives Bassanio a ring as a token of her love. Out of no were Lorenzo and Jessica show up, than the party is ruined because Bassanio and Gratiano have to go back to Venice and save Antonio. Portia and Nerissa decide to go to Venice disguised as men. Now after everybody trying to tell shylock to not take Antonio’s life he still wants to do it. There is a trial held by the duke of Venice and a legal expert who is Portia disguised. She basically takes the contract and manipulates it to making it almost impossible on the shylock to collect the flesh, so he tries to go for the money, but then Portia pushes him back to the flesh. Antonio makes shylock to become Christian and when he dies give everything to Lorenzo and Jessica. After all of this the two married men give there rings away and when they get back to Belmont the wives question them, but then everything is solved and they all live happy ever after.
Character analysis on Shylock- many people like to think that this character is the most noteworthy character of the Merchant of Venice. He is a very dynamic character in that there is no real way to tell if he was a bloodthirsty business man, or a judged Jew stereotype. He is the main antagonist of the plot in that he wanted to take a pound of flesh from one of the main characters, but when this is going on he talks about all the prosecution he gets from the Christians all the time making it hard to label him as a born monster. But at the end of the day he did plot a plan to get revenge on his accuser by trying to take Antonio’s life keeping us from ever getting to look positive at this character in the play. Shakespeare does a really good job at trying to make us feel bad for him, but at the end of the day getting us to hate him.
Setting- this play takes place at a time when Venice is an economic power house of trade. Also at this point in time there is a big battle between the Christian and the Jews shown by Shylocks constant struggle of him having to fight the Christians. At this time Venice was accepting of all people, but the Christians did make up the majority of the city. This causes the conflict of the Jews and Christians to spill over into the city.
Conflict- in this play the conflicts are man v. man and man v. society. There is man v. man when Antonio has to face Shylock about the flesh he owed him. There is also man v. society when Shylock talks about how the Christians are always judging him.
Major themes- the first major theme is self- interest versus love, because all the Christian characters in the play care more about human relationships when the Jewish Shylock only cared about money.
The second one is the theme of the divine Quality of Mercy. This is shown when all the Christian characters know shylock is within law to take the flesh, and admit that, but still asks him to show Antonio mercy.
The third theme is the hatred as a cyclical phenomenon. This is shown when shylock says that he is only applying the same lessons that the Christians have taught him. He uses this argument even in court.
Symbols- the three caskets represent the legal system of Venice at the time. This matters to the play because it mostly takes place there.
The pound of flesh represents the reminder of the way shylock interprets the law and how ridged he deal was.
Leah’s Ring represents the uncharacteristically vulnerable state shylock is in in the play.
http://gnesiolutheran.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/merchantofvenice.jpg
Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_5adzpdkdw
The Merchant Of Venice Shylock's Monologue from the 2004 film.
SparkNotes “The Merchant of Venice” April 1, 2013 web. “http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/merchant/context.html”