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Venice Partly To Condemn The Moral and Ethical Values of Errant Christians, Not The Jewish

The document discusses several key themes in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice including friendship requiring sacrifice, appearances being deceiving, revenge ultimately destroying the perpetrator, Jews suffering bigotry, women being as competent as men, wealth breeding apathy, and not counting ships before they arrive. It also notes scholars are divided on whether Shakespeare intended to condemn or approve of anti-Semitism in the play.

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36 views1 page

Venice Partly To Condemn The Moral and Ethical Values of Errant Christians, Not The Jewish

The document discusses several key themes in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice including friendship requiring sacrifice, appearances being deceiving, revenge ultimately destroying the perpetrator, Jews suffering bigotry, women being as competent as men, wealth breeding apathy, and not counting ships before they arrive. It also notes scholars are divided on whether Shakespeare intended to condemn or approve of anti-Semitism in the play.

Uploaded by

James Right
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Friendship requires sacrifice.

Antonio risks his fortune–and later his life–to help Bassanio win
Portia. Tubal lends Shylock the 3,000 ducats requested by Antonio.
Appearances are deceiving. Neither the gold nor the silver casket contains the key to winning
Portia. Instead, it is the plain lead casket. Shakespeare expresses this theme–appearances
are deceiving–in a message inside the golden casket. It says, “All that glisters [glitters] is not
gold" (2. 7. 67). The latter quotation can also apply to characters who tie their happiness,
destiny, or status to money, including Antonio,
Bassanio, and Shylock.
Revenge ultimately destroys its perpetrator. Shylock
seeks revenge against his enemies, but it is he who
suffers the downfall after Christians unite to trick
him. Perhaps he would have had more success if he
had pursued justice instead of revenge.
Jews suffer bigotry and other forms of mistreatment
because of their religion and race. Christians
alienate Shylock simply because he is a Jew. In
ancient, medieval, and Renaissance times, Jews
almost always encountered prejudice from non-Jews
around them. Scholars are divided on whether
Shakespeare, in The Merchant of Venice, was
attempting condemn anti-Semitism by sympathizing
with Shylock or approve of anti-Semitism by ridiculing Shylock. It may well be that
Shakespeare was simply holding a mirror to civilization to allow audiences to draw their own
conclusions. An essay on this page contends that Shakespeare wrote The Merchant of
Venice partly to condemn the moral and ethical values of errant Christians, not the Jewish
moneylender Shylock.
Women can be just as competent as men, maybe even more so. Portia, disguised as a man,
speaks eloquently in defense of Antonio and persuades the Duke of Venice to rule in
Antonio's favor.
Women can be just as ruthless as men, maybe even more so. Portia, who lectures Shylock
and the court on the importance of mercy, exhibits racism after she rejects the Prince of
Morocco because he is black. Moreover, she cleverly tricks and ruins Shylock without
showing a hint of remorse.
Don't count your ships until they're in port. Antonio confidently pledges the merchandise on
his ships at sea to repay Shylock's loan to Bassanio. But all the ships are wrecked before
they reach Venice.
Great wealth and privilege breed apathy and disquietude. In the opening line of the play,
Antonio says, "In sooth, I know not why I am so sad." Then, in the first line of Act I, Scene II,
Portia expresses a similar sentiment: "By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of this
great world." Nerissa, Portia's servant, understands what the privileged classes cannot
understand: "They are as sick that surfeit with too much as they that starve with nothing."

http://blogs.sch.gr/dimiph/tag/the-merchant-of-venice/

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