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    Reaction To Merchant of Venice

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    MMC SICT SHS
    The document provides a reaction and analysis of William Shakespeare's play "The Merchant of Venice". It summarizes the plot, in which Antonio borrows money from Shylock to help his friend Bassanio woo Portia. When Antonio's ships are wrecked and he cannot repay the loan, Shylock demands to cut a pound of flesh from Antonio as was agreed. The essay then analyzes how Shylock is portrayed as isolated, greedy, and unreasonable, reflecting anti-Semitic stereotypes of Jews during the Renaissance. It argues that the play is not unbiased, as it portrays Christianity in a more favorable light compared to Judaism. In conclusion, the essay states that neither Christianity nor J

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    Reaction To Merchant of Venice

    Uploaded by

    MMC SICT SHS
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    The document provides a reaction and analysis of William Shakespeare's play "The Merchant of Venice". It summarizes the plot, in which Antonio borrows money from Shylock to help his friend Bassanio woo Portia. When Antonio's ships are wrecked and he cannot repay the loan, Shylock demands to cut a pound of flesh from Antonio as was agreed. The essay then analyzes how Shylock is portrayed as isolated, greedy, and unreasonable, reflecting anti-Semitic stereotypes of Jews during the Renaissance. It argues that the play is not unbiased, as it portrays Christianity in a more favorable light compared to Judaism. In conclusion, the essay states that neither Christianity nor J

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    REACTION_TO_MERCHANT_OF_VENICE

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    The document provides a reaction and analysis of William Shakespeare's play "The Merchant of Venice". It summarizes the plot, in which Antonio borrows money from Shylock to help his friend Bassanio woo Portia. When Antonio's ships are wrecked and he cannot repay the loan, Shylock demands to cut a pound of flesh from Antonio as was agreed. The essay then analyzes how Shylock is portrayed as isolated, greedy, and unreasonable, reflecting anti-Semitic stereotypes of Jews during the Renaissance. It argues that the play is not unbiased, as it portrays Christianity in a more favorable light compared to Judaism. In conclusion, the essay states that neither Christianity nor J

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    37 views3 pages

    Reaction To Merchant of Venice

    Uploaded by

    MMC SICT SHS
    The document provides a reaction and analysis of William Shakespeare's play "The Merchant of Venice". It summarizes the plot, in which Antonio borrows money from Shylock to help his friend Bassanio woo Portia. When Antonio's ships are wrecked and he cannot repay the loan, Shylock demands to cut a pound of flesh from Antonio as was agreed. The essay then analyzes how Shylock is portrayed as isolated, greedy, and unreasonable, reflecting anti-Semitic stereotypes of Jews during the Renaissance. It argues that the play is not unbiased, as it portrays Christianity in a more favorable light compared to Judaism. In conclusion, the essay states that neither Christianity nor J

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    of 3

    Muhammed Furkan SOYDABAŞ

    Prof. Dr. Seyfi KENAN

    REACTION TO MERCHANT OF VENİCE

    The Merchant of Venice is a play by William Shakespeare which


    set in sixteenth century, Venice. This is a play about a Merchant Antonio
    who borrows money from a Jewish money lender, Shylock. Antonio is
    borrowing the money for his friend, Bassanio. Antonio wishes to give the
    money to Bassanio so he can attempt to win the hand of Portia who is a
    beautiful and wealthy lady. Antonio does not have ready cash to lend to his
    friend but he gives him a permission or guarantee to borrow the money he
    needs on his credit. Antonio is expecting his ships to arrive at the harbor
    with a lot of merchandise that will enable him to settle the loan. Bassanio
    got the loan of 3000 ducats by the Jewish moneylender Shylock that is not
    in good terms with Antonio. Their dispute is a racial and religious one and
    Shylock seizes the opportunity to offer a bizarre alternative to Antonio if he
    defaults and for sure Antonio got the news that his ships had been
    wrecked. Shylock then takes the case to court demanding that he have the
    permission which to cut one pound of flesh from the defaulter's chest as
    agreed upon earlier. The case is solved in an interesting way by the judge
    and the play ends in a good way when the main characters Bassanio and
    Portia marry each other and the ships of the Antonio are found and arrives
    at the harbor. When Antonio finds himself unable to repay his debt, his life
    is at stake and the drama unfolds. Sixteenth Century Venice was not like
    the world we live in today. Although it was a very successful city, life for
    most people was hard. It was a judgemental Christian city where slavery
    were commonplace. Shakespeare used this environment to for his
    characters. We see greed, prejudice and revenge as each character fights
    for what they believe to be correct. I do believe Christianity and Judaism
    which are two against religions for each other in Shakespeare’s play do not
    give permission for being greed and prejudice for those people who believe
    these religions.

    In the play Shylock has been portrayed an isolated, greedy,


    unreasonable and self-thinking individual who doesn't think of the needs of
    other people. He even loves money more than his daughter and doesn't
    want to eat, drink or even pray with anyone who are not jewish. During
    the time of Renaissance, Jews had portrayed like they were villains and
    people never expected anyone of them to show any compassion for his
    enemy because Christians were the ones for sure expected to show
    compassion towards others especially the Jews. So the construction of
    Shylock’s character give Christians like Portia the chance to show their
    mercy when she was using the law which was her only weapon. In that
    way Shylock’s property had taken and even they wanted from him to
    change his religion and convert to Christianity. Therefore the play is not
    unbiased because it is clear to say that Christianity have shown like a fair,
    right and reliable religion in the play opposite to Judaism.

    In conclusion, the discussion and argument which made in this


    essay goes beyond any reasonable doubt that the character of the Shylock
    who is one of the main characters in the play Merchant of Venice by
    Shakespeare undergoes a lot of transformations in his character
    throughout the play. Shylock becomes greedy, villain and even a murderer
    which all are linked with his intentions while he is trying to take revenge
    for himself and the rest of the Jews. He beliefs that by taking a revenge by
    killing Antonio, he will have succeeded in making the Christians pay for
    the past unacceptable behaviors against Jews. However neither
    Chiristianity nor Judaism give permission for being greed and prejudice to
    any people who live in this world. This is not depending on religion,
    language, race, colour of the skin or any other conditions. It depends only
    we are all human and we have to respect one another what his or her
    beliefs and thoughts.

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