The Merchant of Venice is the story of Christian friends Antonio the Merchant, and Bassanio, his dear friend. Bassanio wants to win the hand of the lovely and wealthy Portia but he has little money and borrows the sum from his wealthy merchant friend, Antonio. Antonio has ships at sea and lacks cash so he approaches the Jewish money lender, Shylock, who agrees to lend him the money but insists that if Antonio is unable to pay him back by a certain date he will be required to give Shylock a pound of his flesh, which is to say, his life. Antonio has no doubt that he will be able to pay Shylock in due time and agrees to the macabre terms of the loan. The Christians in Venice are hard on Shylock. They call him names, spit at him and humiliate him every chance they get. He and Antonio have an especially toxic relationship and Shylock hopes this is finally his chance for revenge. We soon learn that several of Antonio’s ships have been lost and that he cannot pay Shylock by the date the loan comes due. Shylock is sharpening his knife for Antonio’s pound of flesh.
The case goes to court and Portia disguises herself as a lawyer so she can ensure that her lover’s best friend is made safe from Shylock’s knife. In court Shylock demands his pound of flesh and continues to insist upon it even after Portia articulately appeals to him for mercy. She finds a way to dissuade him by insisting that he take the pound of flesh but only the pound of flesh, as was agreed upon in the terms of the deal. Not an ounce more and not an ounce less of flesh, and without blood, upon pain of death. Since this is impossible the court insists that he pay much of his fortune to Antonio, who gives it to Shylock’s daughter and her new Christian husband. Shylock is also made to convert to Christianity. He has lost everything. In the final scene the Christians are all happy in Belmont. Therefore, it is a comedy because Antonio, Bassanio, Portia and the other Christians are all content indeed in the end. If the protagonist was Shylock this would be a tragedy.
The Merchant of Venice is easy to relate to in our 21st Century, as Black Lives Matter protests envelope North American. A penetrating exploration of Medieval and Renaissance bigotry, Merchant never fails to arouse our curiosity about this Jewish Shylock and his Christian detractors. The play ends well for the Christians, hence it is a comedy. It does not end well for Shylock, hence it may be considered by some a tragic-comedy.
There is no question that Merchant is a comedy, if a difficult one. There is a romantic courtship, a fairy tale type plot, and the happy ending in escapist Belmont. But Bassanio is a curious character, Antonio and his buddies are raging anti-Semites, Portia is a calculating and deceiving heroine and Shylock is a heavy hitter and a raging fury of a victim made half-crazed by the racism he must endure. The Duke will try to bridge the gap between revenge and mercy, but the hatred is so deeply lodged on both sides that it is an irrational hatred, deeply rooted in the institutions of Venice. So, this is one of those ‘difficult comedies’, of which there are several in Shakespeare’s latter days, including All’s Well That Ends Well, Troilus and Cressida, and Measure for Measure. The Jewish Shylock is alienated by his religion, his gritty, calculating voice and his money lending profession. This play is not Shylock’s tragedy but a comedy for the Venetians, even though Shylock is virtually destroyed in a multitude of manners and robbed of human decency, while his opponents hardly notice while celebrating their outcome in beautiful Belmont. Throughout the play we might have wondered whether it would be Christian Antonio and his pound of flesh or Jewish Shylock who would pay the price. It is clearly Shylock. Venice does not change one bit.
The Merchant of Venice has done a considerable amount to reinforce negative stereotypes about Jews. But can we blame Shakespeare? Or those who misinterpret the play? The ‘Hath a Jew not eyes’ speech empathizes deeply with Shylock. There is prejudice on all sides here. Gratiano is brutally anti-semitic. But Shylock is also anti-Christian. Where does it all begin? Is Shakespeare himself anti-semitic or is he exposing the racism of the times in Venice? I sincerely believe the latter.
There is a grandiose shadow of doom hanging over the play. Consider Antonio and Portia’s opening lines about being sad and weary of this world. The source of the doom may well be Venice itself, the commercial capital of Europe. The play focuses on a merchant and a money-lender. For Shylock there is no life without money: “You take my life when you take the means whereby I live.” In order to achieve a happy ending the Christians must remove themselves from Venice and go to Belmont. They are all happy in the end but only at the cost of Shylock’s humiliation and crushing defeat. Shakespeare manages to portray Shylock’s fall as a very human event. We are made to wince at his humiliation.
In Shakespeare’s day he might not have ever encountered a Jewish person in England, as they were forbidden to practice their faith since 1290 AD. Jews would be permitted back by Oliver Cromwell only in 1655. We have no clue what Shakespeare’s thoughts were about Jewish people. What we do know is that this play is more about money vs love than it is Jews vs Christians. Shylock is more than simply Jewish. He is as sharp as the knife he wields and ornery, rigid and miserly. It is altogether possible that the Christians in the play hate him for who he is personally, aside from his faith. When his daughter, also Jewish, runs off to marry Christian Lorenzo, everyone is happy for them. She herself hates her own father. It matters not to anyone in the play that she is Jewish.
This is clearly Shylock’s play more so than Portia’s, Bassanio’s or the Merchant’s. Only after he is destroyed does the comedy really begin. This could well be considered Shakespeare’s first tragic-comedy. Belmont is the setting for the comedy. Venice for the tragedy.
Nazi Germany and the Holocaust has made The Merchant of Venice almost unplayable. The play was put on in Nazi Germany in the 1930s to justify what the Nazis were doing to the Jews. Since the holocaust the play has faced the danger of portraying Shylock the Jew as a villain rather than a victim of racial and religious prejudice.
Portia is as bored as Antonio as the play begins. The first lines of the entire play are Anthony’s: “In sooth, I know not why I am so sad.” Likewise, are Portia’s first words: “By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of this great world.” She is also very rich and very smart. She plays little games throughout the play. She entertains suitors by way of having them choose between three caskets. By this way does she capture Bassanio. She also plays a very effective lawyer in a real court and plays a decent trick with a ring on Bassanio. She constantly battles the fates in these endeavors. However, in the trial scene her ‘quality of mercy’ speech is a sincere masterpiece, even though she does not exactly dispense mercy to Shylock and the double standard is glaring. Portia is the quintessential renaissance woman: strong, witty, articulate and resolute.
By contrast, Shylock comes across, from his opening lines, as a force of nature and a figure of diabolical intensity. His own daughter describes their home as a ‘house of hell’. He is treated with cold contempt by Bassanio, Antonio and their Venetian friends. At times we seem to learn much about Shylock, but we also may simply see him through the deeply entrenched eyes of anti-Semitic hatred. Shylock is a solitary figure with a seemingly joyless life. All that really matters to Shylock are his religion, his money and his daughter. When he is forced to renounce all three there is nothing left but madness and despair. We finally see the pitiful old Jewish victim and it is tragic. Shylock is portrayed as the negative stereotype well known to Renaissance England. There are countless ways to interpret and portray Shylock. He may even be the model for Dicken’s Fagin. Shylock has grown so big that he is nearly beyond interpretation. He has entered into the mythological imagination of the world and simply a magnificently extravagant stage presence. Nevertheless, The Merchant of Venice can basically be played two different ways. Shylock can be portrayed as a nasty old Jewish miser or as the innocent victim of persecution and discrimination in a cruel world of Christian materialism. I have seen several productions of each interpretation.
Shylock’s daughter, Jessica, feels deeply oppressed by her stern father and escapes his clutches by running off with the Christian, Lorenzo. She also takes much of Shylock’s possessions and money and converts to Christianity. So, Shylock loses all that is dear to him in one fell swoop. And that is all before the trial crushes him utterly. The Venice world is entirely materialistic and Jews have been cruelly discriminated against. Venice is where the term ‘Ghetto’ originated. There was a time when all Jews were forced onto one of Venice’s many little islands and not allowed off at night. The island is still there today and contains a synagogue and a Jewish Museum.
Antonio is melancholy personified and a true friend to Bassanio. He may very well be gay, which could help explain why his life in Renaissance Venice is so difficult. Ian McKellin loved playing Antonio because he said he is the only obviously gay Shakespearean character. He will do anything for Bassanio, even die for him. He will also stand aloof from any happiness that occurs around him. He and Shylock share an intense hatred for one another that is more than merely religious. They despise each other personally.
Bassanio is an innocent, pure hearted and honest. He is terribly affected by Antonio’s predicament on his behalf. He wins Portia in her casket game and it turns out they are very well matched.
Shakespeare brought two different sources together in order to create The Merchant of Venice. Giovanni Fiorentino’s Simpleton tells the story of Portia, Bassanio, Antonio and Shylock and the idea for the three caskets come from an anonymous collection called Gesta Romanorum. Both stories were popular and widely circulated in Shakespeare’s day. He was also familiar with Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta. Marlowe’s Barbabas also had a daughter, was wealthy, hated Christians, and was even more villainous and far greater a monster than Shylock. Shakespeare transforms Shylock into a human being with recognizable motives. As well, there was the famous incident at the time involving the Queen’s Jewish doctor, who was accused of treason for supposedly plotting against the life of the Queen. He was hanged, drawn and quartered to an enormous crowd in 1594. There is a good chance that Shakespeare was in the crowd that day. Shakespeare had lots of incentive to write a play about a villainous Jew.
Merchant was at first popular in Shakespeare’s day but then disappeared in 1605 with no record whatsoever of a performance until 1741. Since then it has become one of the Bard’s most popular plays. Many famous actors have played the role of Shylock, including George Scott, Sir Lawrence Olivier and Al Pacino. Likewise, the role of Portia has been well played by the likes of Katherine Hepburn and Geraldine James. The Merchant of Venice is a powerful play and an uncomfortable one for many, as it realistically depicts the anti-Semitism of Venice in Shakespeare’s time. Shylock may be a difficult individual, but he was made so by well entrenched societal dynamics beyond his control. The same may be said of Antonio and his Christian friends. It is a play forever relevant and affects audiences today as much as it would have at Shakespeare’s Globe. What you bring to a performance of Merchant may well determine what you see. The light shines as much on the audience as it does the characters under study. In this sense does William Shakespeare remind me of Bob Dylan. They create their art without offering commentary or interpretations. They suggest no easy answers. They expect you to find what is meaningful for you. They refuse to be pidgeon-holed. Neither is fond of reflecting on their work. They leave that to posterity and to us. Thank God!
Act I
Scene i
A Venice street
Antonio: “In sooth, I know not why I am so sad. It wearies me; you say it wearies you, but how I caught it, found it or came by it, what stuff ‘tis made of, wherefore it is born, I am to learn.”
Salerio: “I know Antonio is sad to think upon his merchandise at sea.”
Antonio: “Believe me, no; my ventures are not in one bottom trusted, nor to one place. Therefore, my merchandise makes me not sad.
Solanio: “Why then you are in love.”
Antonio: “Fie, Fie!”
Solanio: “Then let us say that you are sad because you are not merry. Here comes Bassanio, your most noble kinsman, with Gratiano and Lorenzo.”
Gratiano: “You look not well, Signior Antonio; You have too much respect upon the world. They lose it who do buy it with so much care.”
Antonio: “I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano – a stage, where every man must play a part, and mine a sad one.”
Gratiano: “Let me play the fool. With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come; and let my liver rather heat with wine than my heart cool with mortifying groans. Fish not with this melancholy bait.”
Bassanio: “ ‘Tis not unknown to you, Antonio, how much I have disabled mine estate. My chief care is to come fairly off from the great debts wherein my time, something too prodigal, hath left me gagged. To you, Antonio, I owe the most, in money and in love; I have a warranty to unburden all my plots and purposes how to get clear of all the debts I owe.”
Antonio: “Pray you, good Bassanio, let me know it; and if it stand, as you yourself still do, within the eye of honour, be assured my purse, my person, my extremist means lie all unlocked to your occasions.”
Bassanio: “In my school-days, when I had lost one shaft, I shot his fellow of the self-same flight, the self-same way, with more advised watch, to find the other forth; and by adventuring both I oft found both. I owe you much; and, like a wilful youth, that which I owe is lost; but if you please to shoot another arrow, I do not doubt to find both.”
Antonio: “Do but say to me what I should do and I am pressed unto it; therefore speak.”
Bassanio: “In Belmont is a lady richly left, of wondrous virtue. Her name is Portia and the four winds blow in from every coast renowned suitors, and many Jasons come in quest of her. Oh, my Antonio, had I but the means to hold a rival place with one of them, I should questionless be fortunate.”
Antonio: “All my fortunes are at sea. Therefore, go forth, try what my credit can in Venice do to furnish thee to Belmont to fair Portia.”
Analysis
We are initially introduced to several wealthy Venetian merchants. One of them, Antonio, is sad, and his friends are wanting to understand why so they can cheer him up. But he will remain aloof and melancholy throughout the entire play, concerned more with those around him than for himself. His sadness may be because he is in love with Bassanio, who is declaring that he needs to borrow money from Antonio in order to court Portia. Antonio will seemingly do anything for Bassanio, as we shall see. The idea that he might be in love with Bassanio might just explain this. In fact, he loves him so much that he is willing to risk his very life to help him woo somebody else. ‘Fish not with this melancholy bait’, is Gratiano’s advice to Antonio.
Act I
Scene ii
Belmont. Portia’s house
Portia: “By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of this great world.”
Nerissa: “For ought I see, they are as sick as surfeit with too much as they that starve with nothing.”
Portia: “I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done than to be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching. The brain may devise laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps over a cold decree. I may neither choose who I would nor refuse who I dislike; so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father.”
Nerissa: “What warmth is there in your affection towards any of these princely suitors that are already come”.
Portia: “As thou namest them, I will describe them.”
Nerissa: “The Neopolitan Prince?”
Portia: “He doth nothing but talk of his horse. I am afeared his mother played false with a smith.”
Nerissa: “The County Palatine?”
Portia: “He doth nothing but frown. I fear he will prove the weeping philosopher when he grows old.”
Nerissa: “The French Lord?”
Portia: “ God made him, and therefore let him pass for a man.”
Nerissa: “Falconbridge, the young Baron of England?”
Portia: “Who can converse with a dumb-show?”
Nerissa: “The young German?”
Portia: “Very vilely in the morning when he is sober and most vilely in the afternoon when he is drunk. When he is best he is little worse than a man, and when he is worst he is little better than a beast.”
Nerissa: “You need not fear, lady, the having any of these lords. They have returned to their homes to trouble you no more. Do you not remember, lady, a Venetian, a scholar and a soldier?”
Portia: “Yes, yes, it was Bassanio.”
Nerissa: “He, of all the men, was the best deserving of a fair lady.”
Portia: “I remember him well, and I remember him worthy of thy praise. If I could bid the fifth welcome with so good heart as I can bid the other four farewell, I should be glad of his approach.”
The Prince of Morocco arrives as a suitor at the very end of the scene
Analysis
Our attention now turns to Portia and her attempt to secure a husband by a random lottery with a casket, which was her father’s directive upon his death. Portia is very wealthy and her suitors come from around all over Europe and even Africa. Shakespeare has her making fun of the various suitors she is not the least bit interested in. However, both women recall with great fondness, Bassanio. Clearly, they are each other’s preferred match.
Act I
Scene iii
Venice
Shylock: “Three thousand ducats – well.”
Bassanio: “Ah, sir, for three months.”
Shylock: “For three months – well.”
Bassanio: “For the which, as I told you, Antonio shall be bound. Shall I know your answer?”
Shylock: “Antonio is a good man. Yet his means are in supposition. He hath an argosy bound to Tripolis, another to the Indies, a third at Mexico, a fourth for England. But ships are but boards, sailors but men; there be land-rats, water-thieves and land-thieves – I mean pirates; and then there is the peril of water, wind and rocks. I think I may take his bond. May I speak to Antonio?”
Bassanio: “If it please you to dine with us.”
Shylock: “Yes, to smell pork. I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you.”
Antonio approaches
Shylock: (an aside) “I hate him for he is a Christian; he lends out money gratis, and brings down the rate of usance here with us in Venice. If I can catch him once upon the hip, I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him. He hates our sacred nation, and he rails on me, my bargains, and my well-won thrift, which he calls interest. Cursed be my tribe if I forgive him.”
Shylock relates an Old Testament story about Jacob and how he made money from the selling of lambs.
Antonio: “Mark you, Bassanio, the devil can quote scripture for his purpose. Oh, what a goodly outside falsehood hath.”
Shylock: “Signior Antonio, many a times and often in the Rialto you have rated me about my money and my usances. Still have I born it with a patient shrug, for sufferance is the badge of all our tribe; you call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, and spit upon my Jewish gaberdine, and all for use of that which is mine own. Well then, it now appears that you need my help; you come to me, and you say ‘Shylock, we would have money’. You say so – you that did void your rheum upon my beard and foot me as you spurn a stranger cur. What shall I say to you? Should I not say ‘hath a dog money? Is it possible a cur could lend three thousand ducats? Or shall I say this: ‘Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last, you spurned me such a day; another time you called me dog; and for these courtesies I’ll lend you thus such money?”
Antonio: “I am as like to call thee so again, to spit on thee again, to spurn thee too. If thou wilt lend this money, lend it not as to thy friend – but lend it rather to thine enemy, who if he break thou mayest with better face exact the penalty.”
Shylock: “Why, look you, how you storm! I would be friends with you, and have your love, forget the shames that you have stained me with. This kindness will I show. Go with me to a notary, seal me there your single bond, and, in a merry sport, if you repay me not on such a day, let the forfeit be an equal pound of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken in what pat of your body pleaseth me.”
Antonio: “I’ll seal to such a bond and say there is much kindness in the Jew.”
Bassanio: “You shall not seal to such a bond for me.”
Antonio: “Fear not, man, I will not forfeit it. I do expect return of thrice three times the value of this bond. Yes, Shylock, I will seal unto this bond. Hie thee, gentle Jew.”
Shylock departs
Antonio: “The Hebrew will turn Christian: he grows kind.”
Bassanio: “I like not fair terms and a villain’s mind.”
Antonio: “Come on; in this there can be no dismay; my ships come home a month before the day.”
Analysis
In scene iii we get to the meat of the matter at hand. Here, Shylock agrees to lend Antonio three thousand ducets for his friend, Bassanio. We learn much about the merchant and Shylock in this scene. Shylock knows that Antonio has ships spread out all over the world and contemplates all that could go wrong with them at sea and on land. When Bassanio invites Shylock to dinner with him and Antonio, Shylock snaps back at Bassanio, saying that while he may buy and sell and walk and talk with them he will never eat or pray with them.
Then in an aside Shylock tells us how much he hates Antonio because he lends money without interest, thus driving down the rate of usance. According to Shylock Antonio hates his tribe. Antonio shows up and in a famous passage Shylock recounts the various indignities he has had to endure from Antonio, including name calling, spitting into his beard and kicking. And now Antonio wants to borrow money from Shylock, who considers what his response should be. “Can a dog lend three thousand ducats?”
Antonio assures Shylock that all the abuses he heaps upon Shylock he will continue to do so and that Shylock should lend Antonio the money as an enemy and not as a friend. Shylock claims he would be Antonio’s friend and forget all of the humiliation if only Antonio will agree, in sport, to a condition that if the loan is not repaid by a certain date that Shylock will extract a pound of flesh from Antonio. There is no mention of interest. Shylock simply wants his bond of Antonio’s flesh… and life.
They are really stuck in each other’s head. Antonio really just wants the money for the sake of his friend but Shylock sees his chance at revenge in the event Antonio’s ships encounter problems and do not return. It is the pound of flesh that Shylock wants now, not the money repaid. Bassanio is horrified but Antonio assures him his money is extremely secure. Antonio is very happy that his pound of flesh is the only term in the deal and reflects that Shylock ‘grows kind.’ He does not seem to understand Shylock’s motivation for providing Antonio the money for Bassanio.
Shylock dominates this play with his seething intensity even though he has fewer lines than many. The play may be named after Antonio, the merchant, but it is Shylock’s play. The great question seems to be whether Shylock is a villain consumed by hate or if he is merely at that same breaking point as anyone would face in consideration of the abuse he endures at the hands of the wealthy Christians around the Rialto. Certainly, Shakespeare gives us every reason to feel some sympathy for him, from this first scene where we learn how he has always been treated by Antonio and the others as well as from the scenes to come involving his daughter and especially in the famous courtroom scene in Act IV. He hates them with reason. Can we say the same of the Christians?
The plot has been established. Bassanio will pursue his Portia with money provided by Shylock’s loan to Antonio. In Act II we shall witness Portia manage her suitors to her advantage, as Shylock begins to face his numerous and treacherous losses. Act III will see Antonio’s ships lost and an obsessed Shylock licking his chops for his long-sought revenge. Act IV will be the big resolution scene in court and, in this play, Act V is something of an afterthought of reconciliation in idyllic Belmont, for all but Shylock. Buckle up!
Act II
Scene i
Belmont
Morocco: “Mislike me not for my complexion.”
Portia: “The lottery of my destiny bars me the right of voluntary choosing.”
Morocco: “Lead me to the caskets to try my fortune.”
Portia: “You must take your chances.”
Analysis:
This is the first scene where we see Portia and her suitors. It’s just a setup. Morocco will choose his casket later in the act. What’s important here is that she cannot choose and they must ‘take their chances’.
Act II
Scene ii
Venice
Launcelot: “Certainly my conscience will serve me to run from this Jew, my master. The fiend is at mine elbow and tempts me, saying to me: ‘Launcelot Gobbo, use your legs, take the start, run away.’ My conscience says: ‘No, take heed, honest Launcelot, do not run.’ To be ruled by my conscience, I should stay with the Jew, my master, who is a kind of devil, and, to run away from the Jew, I should be ruled by the fiend, who is the devil himself. Certainly, the Jew is the very devil incarnate. The fiend gives the more friendly counsel. I will run, fiend.”
Launcelot’s father, Old Gobbo, shows up. He is sand blind and does not recognise his son. Lancelot tells Old Gobbo that his son is deceased and then asks him if he recognizes him. He finally tells him that he is, indeed, his son and that he is running away from the employment of the Jew, ‘for I am a Jew if I serve the Jew any longer.’ Bassanio arrives and Launcelot offers his services to Bassanio and is accepted. Gratiano arrives and tells Bassanio that he must accompany him to Belmont. Bassanio accepts but also chides Gratiano: “Thou art too wild, too rude and bold of voice… take pain to allay with some cold drops of modesty thy skipping spirit.”
Analysis:
Launcelot is the first to abandon his relationship with Shylock. His conscience tells him to stay, as though that were the right thing to do, but ‘the fiend’ tells him to run from Shylock. He chooses the ‘more friendly’ advice from ‘the fiend’ and leaves his Jewish employer.
The lines with Launcelot and his father may seem curious but it is typical of Shakespeare to bring a simply humorous scene between working class members to an otherwise difficult and painful play such as Merchant. And a little laugh goes a long way in this play. This is essentially the one comedic break.
Act II
Scene iii
Venice – Shylock’s home
Jessica: “I am sorry thou wilt leave my father. Our house is hell; and thou a merry devil. But fare thee well.”
Launcelot: “Adieu! Most beautiful pagan, most sweet Jew!”
Jessica: “Farewell, good Launcelot. Alack, what heinous sin is it in me to be ashamed to be my father’s child! O Lorenzo, If thou keep promise, I shall end this strife, become a Christian and thy loving wife.”
Analysis
We have already met Shylock but now our opinion of him is derived further by those closest to him, Launcelot and Jessica, who are deserting him. This is the second time we have felt sympathy for Shylock. The first was when we learned that Antonio routinely spits at him, kicks him and calls him dog and will do so again and again. Now both Launcelot, against the advice of his conscience, and Jessica, who feels she is committing a sin, are leaving him for the Christians Bassanio and Lorenzo. Shylock’s descent has begun.
Act II
Scene iv
Venice
Gratiano: “Was not that letter from fair Jessica?”
Lorenzo: “She hath directed how I shall take her from her father’s house and what gold and jewels she is furnished with. If ever the Jew, her father, come to heaven, it will be for his gentle daughter’s sake.”
Analysis
Now we see that when Jessica leaves her father’s house for the Christian Lorenzo, she is also taking his money, gold and jewels as well and abandoning her Jewish faith. We can only imagine, given what he routinely faces at the hands of the Christians, how he will handle all of this. Once again, Shakespeare sets us up to feel pity for Shylock and to justify his raging fury to come.
Act II
Scene v
Before Shylock’s house
Shylock (to Launcelot): “Well, thou shalt see the difference of Old Shylock and Bassanio.”
Shylock: “I am bid forth to supper, Jessica. But wherefore shall I go? I am not bid for love; they flatter me; but yet I’ll go in hate, to feed upon the prodigal Christian. Jessica, my girl, look to my house. I am right loathe to go; There is some ill a brewing… for I did dream of money bags tonight. Lock up my doors.”
Analysis
Shylock is portrayed as a serious miser but he is not cruel to Launcelot when told he is leaving. He even speaks tenderly to his daughter: “Jessica, my girl, look to my house.” He is clearly not the monster the Christians have made him out to be: at least not before the shocks he is about to endure. Shylock has a prophetic sense about this particular night, from a dream he had with money bags. Nonetheless, he does leave Jessica and his house and the world he used to know.
Act II
Scene vi
Near Shylock’s house
Gratiano is waiting for Lorenzo to show up at Shylock’s house.
Gratiano: “Lovers ever run before the clocks. Who riseth from a feast with that keen appetite that he sits down? All things that are are with more spirit chased than enjoyed.”
Lorenzo approaches.
Jessica: “Who are you?”
Lorenzo: “Lorenzo, and thy love.”
Jessica: “Lorenzo, certain, and my love indeed. Here, catch this casket; it is worth the pains… I am much ashamed at my exchange. But love is blind, and lovers cannot see the pretty follies that themselves commit. I will make fast the doors and gild myself with more ducets.”
Gratiano: “By my hood, a gentle, and no Jew.”
Lorenzo: “I love her heartily, for she is wise, fair and true.”
Antonio arrives and tells Gratiano that the wind is good and Bassanio prepares for Belmont. Gratiano departs for the ship.
Analysis
Why is Jessica piling up Shylock’s ducats, gold and jewels for Lorenzo? Does she have to pay a price to be saved by the Christians? Would Lorenzo not take her otherwise? Does she hate her father this much? Many questions of this nature exist in this play, ultimately asking: How much of all of this is Shylock’s fault? How deserving is he of his spiraling fate? How much responsibility lies with Antonio and the Christians who hate Shylock? How much do they hate him because he is a Jew and how much is because they genuinely do not like him personally? This play has always been produced in one of two ways, as either a scathing indictment of Shlock or of his Christian counterparts. I believe Shakespeare left it right there for us to determine which is more true for us, in every new time and place it is staged.
Act II
Scene vii
Belmont. Portia’s house
Morocco: “The first, of gold, who this inscription bears: ‘Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire’. The second, silver, which this promise carries: ‘Who chooses me shall get as much as he deserves’. The third, dull lead, with warning all as blunt: ‘Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath’. How shall I know if I choose the right?”
Portia: “One of them contains my picture, Prince. If you choose that, then I am yours, withal.”
Morocco: “Some god direct my judgement. The silver: ‘as much as he deserves’… Pause there, Morocco, and weigh thy value with an even hand. I do in birth deserve her, and in fortunes, in graces, and in qualities of breeding, in love I do deserve. In gold: ‘what many men desire’… Why, that’s the lady! All the world desires her. Is it likely that lead contains her? Twere a damnation to think so base a thought. Or shall I think in silver she is immured? O sinful thought. Never so rich a gem was set in worse than gold. Deliver me the key. Here do I choose and thrive as I may.”
Portia: “There, take it, Prince, and if my form lie there, then I am yours.”
Morocco unlocks and opens the golden casket.
Morocco: “Oh hell! What have we here? A carrion death, within whose empty eye there is a written scroll. I’ll read the writing: ‘All that glitters is not gold… fare you well, your suit is cold.’
Portia: “A gentle riddance. Let all of his complexion choose me so.”
Analysis
Portia is very rich and considerably self centered. Morocco thinks hard about which casket to choose. He is wrong and she is heartily relieved. Apparently, she is not enamoured of Africans…
Act II
Scene viii
Venice
Solanio: “The villain Jew, with outcries raised the Duke, who went with him to search Bassanio’s ship.”
Salerio: “He came too late, the ship was under sail.”
Solanio: “I never heard a passion so confused, so strange, outrageous, and so variable, as the dog Jew did utter in the streets: ‘My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter! Fled with a Christian! O my Christian ducats! Justice! The law! My ducats and my daughter! Two sealed bags of ducats, of double ducats, stolen from me by my own daughter! Find the girl.’”
Salerio: “Why all the boys in Venice follow him, crying, ‘his stones, his daughter, his ducats.’”
Solanio: “Let good Antonio look he keep his day, or he shall pay for this.”
Salerio: “In the narrow seas that part the French and the English, there miscarried a vessel of our country richly fraught. I thought upon Antonio and wished in silence that it were not his.”
Analysis
Solanio and Solerio are having fun with Shylock’s misery. The younger men follow Shylock and taunt him further. Meanwhile, a rumour is out there that a certain ship, richly fraught, has miscarried at sea. They are wishful that it is not Antonio’s ship, since Shylock is now enraged at his losses at the hands of these Christians and will want his bond, his pound of Antonio’s flesh.
Act II
Scene ix
Belmont
Once more does Portia have to entertain a suitor, this time from Arragon.
Arragon: “What says the golden chest? Ha! Let me see: ‘Who chooses me shall gain what many men desire’. What many men desire – that ‘many’ may be meant by the fool’s multitude, that chose by show. I will not choose what many men desire because I will not jump with common spirits. Why then, to thee, thou silver treasure house! ‘Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.’ I will assume desert. Give me a key for this and instantly unlock my fortune.”
Arragon opens the silver casket
Arragon: “What’s here? The portrait of a blinking idiot. How much unlike my hopes and my deservings! Did I deserve no more than a fool’s head? Is that my prize? Are my deserts no better? With one fool’s head I came to woo, but I go away with two.”
Portia: “O these deliberate fools! When they do choose, they have the wisdom by their wit to lose.”
Servant: “Madam, there is alighted at your gate a young Venetian. Yet I have not seen so likely an ambassador of love.”
Portia: “Come, come, Nerissa, for I long to see quick Cupid’s post that comes so mannerly.”
Nerissa: “Bassanio, Lord Love, if thy will it be.”
Analysis
Arragon suffers a similar fate to that of Morocco, paving the way for ‘Lord Love, Bassanio’. The plot is inching forward. Shylock is incensed to get his pound of flesh, Antonio’s ships may be in danger and Bassanio is next in line for the casket game. The set up is over. Act III will plunge headlong toward a crisis requiring the Act IV resolution scene to straighten it all out.
Act III
Scene i
The Realto in Venice
We learn from Solanio and Salerio that Antonio has lost a ship. Shylock arrives and asks the two Venitians if they were aware of his daughter’s flight.
Salerio: “That’s certain. I, for my part, knew the tailor that made the wings she flew withal.”
Shylock: “She is damned for it.”
Salerio: “That’s certain, if the devil may be her judge. But tell us, do you hear whether Antonio has had any loss at sea or not?”
Shylock: “Let him look to his bond.”
Salerio: “I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take his flesh. What’s that good for?”
Shylock: “To bait fish withal. If it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me a half a million, laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies. And what’s his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions, fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh, if you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, do we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me I will execute; and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.”
Shylock speaks with his Jewish friend Tubal:
Shylock: “Tubal, hast thou found my daughter?”
Tubal: “I cannot find her.”
Shylock: “The curse never fell upon our nation until now; I never felt it till now. Two-thousand ducats and other precious, precious jewels. I would my daughter were dead at my foot and the jewels in her ears and the ducats in her coffin. Loss upon loss! The thief gone with so much and so much to find the thief and no satisfaction, no revenge.”
Tubal: “Other men have ill luck too: Antonio, as I heard in Genoa….”
Shylock: “What, what, what? Ill luck, ill luck?”
Tubal: “Hath an argosy cast away, coming from Tripolis.”
Shylock: “I thank God. I thank God. Is it true? Is it true?”
Tubal: “I spoke with sailors who survived the wreck.”
Shylock: “I thank thee, good Tubal, Good news, good news! Ha Ha!”
Tubal: “Your daughter spent, in Genoa, as I heard, in one night, fourscore ducats.”
Shylock: “Thou stick’st a dagger in me – I shall never see my gold again. Fourscore ducats at a sitting! Fourscore ducats!”
Tubal: “Antonio’s creditors swear he cannot choose but break.”
Shylock: “I’ll plague him, I’ll torture him; I am glad for it.”
Tubal: “One of them showed me a ring that he had of your daughter for a monkey.”
Shylock: “Out upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal. It was my turquoise; I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor; I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys.”
Tubal: “But Antonio is certainly undone.”
Shylock: “I will have the heart of him, if he forfeit.”
Analysis
After Solanio and Salerio torment Shylock, as usual, on the Rialto, he breaks into the most famous passage of the play. He wants his revenge due to the abuse he has suffered at Christian hands. He finally appeals to their humanity, asking ‘Hath not a Jew eyes…” and “If you prick us do we not bleed.” And “If you wrong us, shall we not revenge.” And “if we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in this, by Christian example…” Only “I will better the instruction.”
It is hard not to relate to Shylock here, as a matter of pure anti-Semitism. He has been goaded and galled, and principally at the hands of Antonio, whose bond and pound of flesh is finally within his reach. This is only the main example of Shakespeare exposing the Christians for what they have done to this man. The endless mockeries and physical assaults, their complicity in the loss of his servant, his daughter and his fortune. And what is the reason for all of this cruelty? “(because) I am a Jew.”
To be sure, Shylock is not a likable character in this story. But were we able to witness the prequal to this drama we might well understand his rancor. Yes, this villainous character is absolutely willing to carve out a pound of flesh from Antonio’s chest. However, we see clearly that his motivation is not without justification in this smug Venice of anti-Semitic Christian Merchants.
Immediately following this famous passage is the conversation between Shylock and Tubal, in which Tubal bounces back and forth with bad and good news for Shylock. Tubal could not find Shylock’s daughter but knows that she spends his fortune at a furious pace, including a precious ring that his wife had given him before they were married. Shylock is devastated. However, Antonio is losing ships now and it is reported that he will financially break. Tubal’s bad news makes his good news all the better. Shylock is determined he will have his bond – his pound of Antonio’s flesh.
Act III
Scene ii
Portia’s house in Belmont
Portia: “I pray you, tarry; pause a day or two before you hazard; for, in choosing wrong, I lose your company; therefore, forebear awhile. I would detain you here some month or two before you venture for me. I could teach you how to choose right.”
Bassanio: “Let me choose. Let me to my fortune and the caskets.”
Portia: “Away, then: I am locked in one of them. If you do love me, you will find me out.”
While Bassanio ponders the three caskets Portia proceeds to sing a song with lines that end with bred, head and fed, all rhyming with lead. Hmmmm.
Bassanio: “So may the outward shows be least themselves; the world is still deceived with ornament… Ornament is but the guiled shore to a most dangerous sea. Therefore thou gaudy gold, I will none of thee. But thou, thou meager lead, thy plainness moves me more than eloquence, and here choose I. Joy be the consequence.” (opening the casket) “What find I here? Fair Portia’s counterfeit! What demi-god hath come so near creation?”
Portia: “You see me, Lord Bassanio, where I stand, such as I am. Though for myself alone, I would not be ambitious in my wish to wish myself much better, yet for you I would be trebled twenty times myself, a thousand times more fair, ten thousand times more rich, that only to stand high in your account I might in virtues, beauties, livings, friends, exceed account. But the full sum of me is sum of something which, to term in gross, is an unlessoned girl, unschooled, unpracticed; happy in this, she is not yet so old but she my learn; happier than this, she is not bred so dull but she can learn; happiest of all is that her gentle spirit commits itself to yours to be directed, as from her Lord, her governor, her king. Myself and what is mine to you and yours is now converted. But now I was the lord of this fair mansion, master of my servants, queen over myself, and even now, but now, this house, these servants, and this same myself, are yours, my Lord’s. I give them with this ring, which when you part from, lose or give away, let it presage the ruin of your love.”
Bassanio; “When this ring parts from this finger, then parts life from hence.”
Gratiano arrives.
Gratiano: “My Lord Bassanio, and my gentle lady, I wish you all the joy that you can wish. And… I do beseech you that I may be married too. You saw the mistress, I beheld the maid, you loved, I loved.”
Portia: “Is this true, Nerissa?”
Nerissa: “Madam, it is.”
Lorenzo, Jessica and Salerio arrive.
Salerio: “Lord Bassanio, Signior Antonio commends him to you.” (gives Bassanio a letter, which he reads)
Portia: ”There are some shrewd contents in yonder paper, that steals the colour from Bassanio’s cheek. What, worse and worse! With leave, Bassanio; I am half yourself, and I must freely have half of anything that this same paper brings to you.”
Bassanio: “O, sweet Portia, here are a few of the unpleasent’st words that ever blotted paper… I have engaged myself to a dear friend, engaged my friend to his mere enemy, to feed my means. Is it true Salerio? Hath all his ventures failed and not one vessel ‘scaped?”
Salerio: “Not one, my Lord. Besides, if he had the present money to discharge to the Jew, he would not take it. No one can drive him from the envious plea of justice and his bond.”
Jessica: “When I was with him, I have heard him swear that he would rather have Antonio’s flesh than twenty times the value that he did owe him.”
Portia: “What sum owes he the Jew?”
Bassanio: “For me, three-thousand ducats.”
Portia: “What! No more? Pay him six-thousand, and then treble that, before a friend of this description shall lose a hair through Bassanio’s fault. Never shall you lie by Portia’s side with an unquiet soul. You shall have gold to pay the petty debt twenty times over. But let me hear the letter of your friend.”
Bassanio: (reads) “Sweet Bassanio, my ships have all miscarried., my creditors grow cruel, my estate is very low, and my bond to the Jew is forfeit. All debts are cleared between you and I, if I might see you at my death.”
Analysis
Here is a scene that really shakes things up nicely. Portia at first does not even want Bassanio to choose caskets for fear he will choose incorrectly and then have to depart. She even suggests he just hang around for a few months before choosing. She goes as far as to say she could help him to choose correctly. After he insists on choosing she sings him a little song where three times words that rhyme with lead are emphasized: bred, head and fed. Then, lo and behold, he chooses correctly. Perhaps Portia always manages to get what she wants. We will see further evidence of this in the forthcoming trial scene. Once he wins her she delivers a beautiful speech about how only for Bassanio’s sake does Portia desire that she were better than she is in terms of being fair, wealthy and having many friends. She goes as far as to claim to be no more than an unlessoned girl, unschooled and unpracticed, only happy that she is not yet old, is able to learn and is willing to be Bassanio’s to direct as her lord, her governor and her king. Everything considerable that she possesses is now conferred to him. She seals the deal with a ring she presents to him and states that when he either loses it, parts from it or gives it away, that will indicate the ruin of his love. He acknowledges, in a foreshadowing of act 5, that when the ring parts from his finger, then parts his life.
Act III
Scene iii
A street in Venice
Shylock: “Gaoler, look to him and tell me not of mercy.”
Antonio: “Hear me yet, good Shylock.”
Shylock: “I’ll have my bond; speak not against my bond. Thou call’dst me a dog. Since I am a dog, beware my fangs. The Duke shall grant me justice.”
Antonio: “I pray thee hear me speak.”
Shylock: “I’ll have my bond; therefore speak no more.”
Solanio: “It is the most impenetrable cur that ever kept with men.”
Antonio: “Let him alone. He seeks my life; his reasons well I know… pray good Bassanio come, to see me pay his debt, and then I care not.”
Analysis
Scene iii is only 36 lines long yet the word bond is uttered by Shylock 6 different times. He is singularly obsessed with the revenge which finally seems within his reach. He will not listen to reason. It is as if he were seeking justice for every wrong ever committed against him by the Christians. Solanio hopes the Duke might save Antonio from his fate but Antonio reminds Solanio that the Duke must uphold the laws of Venice in order to preserve the integrity of the state.
Act III
Scene iv
Belmont. Portia’s house
Portia: “Come on, Nerissa, I have work in hand that you yet know not of. When we are both accoutred like young men, I have within my mind a thousand raw tricks of these bragging jacks, which I will practice.”
Analysis
Portia has a plan alright. She plans on pretending on her and Nerissa being in contemplation at a nearby monastery, when disguised as men, they actually appear in the Venetian court as judge and clerk in Antonio’s trial.
Act III
Scene v
Belmont. The gardens.
Launcelot: “The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children; for truly I think you are damned. You may partly hope that your father got you not – that you are not the Jew’s daughter.
Jessica: “The sins of my mother should be visited upon me.”
Launcelot: “Truly, I fear you are damned both by father and mother. You are gone both ways.”
Jessica: “I shall be saved by my husband; he hath made me a Christian.”
Launcelot: “This making of Christians will raise the price of hogs, if we grow all to be pork eaters.”
Analysis
This is purely a scene of comic relief between Launcelot and Jessica, who are quite close, having both lived in the house with Shylock. A light scene before the trial begins.
Act IV
Scene i
Venice. The Court of Justice.
Duke: “Shylock, the world thinks, and I think so too, that thou but leadest this fashion of thy malice to the last hour of act, and then, tis thought, thou’lt show thy mercy and remorse, and where thou now exacts the penalty, which is a pound of this poor merchant’s flesh, thou wilt, touched with human gentleness and love, forgive of the principle, glancing an eye of pity on his losses. We all expect a gentle answer, Jew.”
Shylock: “By our holy Sabbath have I sworn to have the due and forfeit of my bond. You’ll ask me why I rather choose to have a weight of carrion flesh than to receive three-thousand ducats… it is my humour. I give no reason, more than a lodged hate and a certain loathing I bear Antonio.”
Bassanio: “This is no answer, thou unfeeling man.”
Shylock: “I am not bound to please thee with my answers.”
Bassanio: “For thy three-thousand ducats here is six-thousand.”
Shylock: “If every ducat in six-thousand ducats were in six parts, and every part a ducat, I would not draw them; I would have my bond. The pound of flesh which I demand of him tis mine and I will have it.”
Bassanio: “Why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly?”
Shylock: “To cut the forfeiture from that bankrupt there.”
Gratiano: “O, be thou damn’d, inexecrable dog.”
Duke: “This letter doth commend a young and learned doctor to our court.”
The Duke had called upon a judge to try the case but he is ill and cannot make it and Portia and Nerissa, dressed as Bathazar the judge and a clerk, have arrived to hear the case.
Portia: “Is your name Shylock?”
Shylock: “Shylock is my name.”
Portia: “Of a strange nature is the suit you follow. Then must the Jew be merciful.”
Shylock: “On what compulsion must I?”
Portia: “The quality of mercy is not strained, it droppeth as a gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath. It is twice blest: it blesses he that gives and he that takes. Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes the throned monarch better than his crown. Mercy is enthroned in the hearts of kings, it is an attribute to God himself; therefore, Jew, though justice be thy plea, consider this – that in the course of justice none of us should see salvation; we do pray for mercy.”
Shylock: “I crave the law.”
Portia: “Is he not able to discharge the money?”
Bassanio: “Yea, twice the sum; if that will not suffice, then ten times over. To do a great right, do a little wrong, and curb this cruel devil of his will.”
Portia: “It must not be; there is no power in Venice can alter a decree established.”
Shylock: “A Daniel come to judgement. O wise young judge, how I do honour thee.”
Portia: “I pray you, let me look at the bond.”
Shylock: “Here tis, most reverend doctor.”
Portia: “Lawfully the Jew may claim a pound of flesh, to be by him cut off nearest the merchant’s heart. Be merciful. Take thrice thy money.”
Shylock: “Proceed to judgement. I stay here on my bond.”
Portia: “Why then, thus it is. You must prepare your bosom for his knife.”
Shylock: “O noble judge! O excellent young man!”
Portia: “Are there balances here to weigh the flesh?”
Shylock: “I have them ready.”
Portia: “Have by some surgeon, lest he do bleed to death.”
Shylock: “Is it so nominated in the bond? I cannot find it. Tis not in the bond.”
Portia: “Merchant, have you anything to say?”
Antonio: “But little: give me your hand, Bassanio; fair thee well. Speak me fair in death.”
Bassanio: “Antonio, I am married to a wife who is as dear to me as life itself; but life itself, my wife, and all the world, are not with me esteemed above thy life.”
Portia: “Your wife would give you little thanks for that. A pound of that same merchant’s flesh is thine. The court awards it and the law doth give it.”
Shylock: “Most rightful judge! Most learned judge!”
Portia: “Tarry a little; there is something else. This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood; the words expressly are ‘a pound of flesh’. Take thou thy pound of flesh; but, in the cutting it, if thou dost shed one drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods are by the laws of Venice confiscated.”
Gratiano: “O upright judge! Mark, Jew. O learned judge!”
Shylock: “Is that the law? I take this offer then; pay the bond thrice, and let the Christian go.”
Bassanio: “Here is the money.”
Portia: “Soft! No haste. He shall have nothing but the penalty. Therefore, prepare thee to cut off the flesh. But just a pound of flesh.; if thou takest more or less than a just pound thou diest and all thy goods are confiscated.”
Shylock: “Give me my principle and let me go.”
Portia: “He shall have merely justice, and his bond.”
Shylock: “I’ll stay no longer.”
Portia: “Tarry, jew. The law hath yet another hold on you. It is enacted in the laws of Venice, if it be proved that he seek the life of any citizen, the party against the which he doth contrive shall seize one half his goods; the other half comes to the privy coffer of the state; and the offender’s life lies in the mercy of the Duke.”
Gratiano: “Beg that thou mayst have leave to hang thyself; and yet, thy wealth being forfeit to the state, thou hast not left the value of a cord; therefore thou must be hanged at the state’s charge.”
Duke: “I pardon thee thy life before thou ask it, for half thy wealth, it is Antonio’s; the other half comes to the general state.”
Shylock: “Nay, take my life and all, for you take my life when you do take the means whereby I live.”
Portia: “What mercy can you render him, Antonio?”
Gratiano: “A halter gratis; nothing else, for God’s sake.”
Antonio: “To quit the fine for one-half of his goods. I am content. Two things provided more: that he presently become a Christian; the other, that he do record gifts, here in the court, of all he dies possessed unto his son Lorenzo and his daughter.”
Duke: “He shall do this.”
Portia: “Are thou contented, Jew?”
Shylock: “I am content. I pray you, give me leave to go from hence; I am not well.”
Duke: “Get thee gone. Antonio, gratify this gentleman, for in my mind you are much bound to him.”
Portia: “He is well paid that is well satisfied, and I, delivering you, am satisfied, and therein do account myself well paid.”
Bassanio: “Dear sir, take some remembrance of us, as a tribute.”
Portia: (to Bassanio) “For your love, I’ll take this ring from you.”
Bassanio: “Good sir, this ring was given me by my wife; and, when she put it on, she made me vow that I should neither sell, nor give, nor lose it.”
Antonio: “My lord Bassanio, let him have the ring.”
Bassanio: “Go, Gratiano, run and overtake him. Give him the ring.”
Analysis
This trial scene is one of the most famous scenes in all of Shakespeare, although it is hardly played out on the up and up. You just know that Shylock will pay for his rage against Antonio and for simply being Jewish. Portia has already stated that Bassanio will never lie beside her with an unquiet soul. She will appear as an unbiased legal authority, but we know that she is Bassanio’s wife, in disguise. This does not bode well for Shylock. At first he is delirious about being granted his bond. He will hear of nothing else. And it actually looks good for him for a while. Portia appeals to Shylock for mercy, in one of Shakespeare’s most famous passages, which Shylock dismisses out of hand. Bassanio offers to pay ten times the bond but Shylock refuses to consider anything less than his pound of flesh. He is a landlocked Ahab and Antonio is clearly his leviathan. Portia declares that the bond is valid and that Antonio must prepare himself for the knife. In a twist of irony Bassanio declares that his love for Antonio exceeds his love of his wife or of life itself. Portia, his disguised wife, states that his wife is not likely to appreciate such a sentiment. Just as Shylock approaches Antonio with his knife Portia stops the proceedings to remind Shylock that the bond specifies only the pound of flesh and that if a single drop of blood is spilt he will forfeit all of his possessions and his life. Naturally, she has found a way to save Antonio. At this point he quickly states that he will take the original three-thousand ducats but Portia explains that, having threatened the life of a Venetian citizen, Shylock must surrender half of his possessions to the state and half to Antonio. Now Portia pounces on poor Shylock, to the excitement of the assemblage. His life may only be saved by the mercy of the Duke, who does, in fact, spare Shylock’s life. Antonio offers to return his share of Shylock’s money but also insists that Shylock convert to Christianity and surrender all of his possessions to Lorenzo and his daughter upon his death.
Is this a racist play by Shakespeare? I do not believe it is. Shylock has been twisted into what he is seen to be by these racist Christians. If Shakespeare exposes anything it is this: Renaissance Venice was anti-Semitic in the extreme. Shylock has been badly abused, spat upon, called vile names, has had his beard pulled, etc, etc, etc…. because he is a Jew. Shylock’s ‘Hath not a Jew Eyes’ speech is at the very heart of this question. ‘Hath not a Jew eyes… fed with the same food… hurt with the same weapons… as a Christian is? If you prick us do we not bleed? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?’ There it is. He has learned from the Christians. ‘If we are like you in the rest, will we not resemble you in this? If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me I will execute… and I will better the instruction.’ Hardly a racist play, rather it exposes the racism of the Christians toward this one Jew. Interestingly, Lorenzo marries Shylock’s daughter and she does not seem at all subjected to the anti-Semitism reserved for Shylock. They may tease her but they also embrace her. The great irony to me is Portia’s mercy speech because no mercy will be accorded Shylock. “Mercy is twice blessed: it blesses him that gives and him that takes… it is an attribute to God himself. Therefore, Jew, since justice be your plea, we do pray for mercy.’ Mercy from the Jew, yes, but never mercy for the Jew. She asks his name and thereafter merely refers to him as ‘The Jew’, as in ‘The Jew must be merciful’, and ‘Therefore Jew, we pray for mercy’, and ‘lawfully, the Jew may claim a pound of flesh’, and ‘Thou shall have nothing but the forfeiture, Jew’, and ‘Tarry, Jew, the law hath yet another hold on you’, and finally, once she has rendered him utterly destroyed, humiliated and stripped bare of all possessions, Portia has the audacity to ask of Shylock ‘art thou contented, Jew?’ The Duke’s final words to Shylock are ‘get thee gone!’ And meanwhile, the most racist of all the Christians, Gratiano, constantly and brutally insults Shylock. If anything this a play exposing the Christians for their hatred and anti-Semitism. In no way is this a racist and anti-Semitic play by William Shakespeare, any more than To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper lee is a racist novel or Bury My Heart at Wound Knee by Dee Brown is a racist work of non-fiction merely because it exposes the prejudice of white America.
Act V
Scene I
Portia’s house in Belmont
Lorenzo and Jessica are chilling together in beautiful Belmont. Musicians enter and Lorenzo reflects on the power of music:
“The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils; The motions of his spirit are as dull as night, and his affections as dark as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.”
Portia and Nerissa return home as themselves. No longer are they clothed as the lawyer and his clerk. Soon thereafter Bassanio, Antonio and Gratiano arrive. The ring scene begins as the two wives, disguised in court, managed to get the rings from their husbands. Gratiano and Nerissa are quarrelling over the ring which Gratiano promised never to remove from his finger until his hour of death. He claims to have given it to the court clerk (who we know to be Nerissa) as a fee for his services. Portia pipes in:
“You are to blame to part so slightly with your wife’s first gift, a thing stuck on with oaths upon your finger. I gave my love a ring, and made him swear never to part with it, and here he stands; I dare be sworn for him he would not leave it nor pluck it from his finger for the wealth that the world masters.
Gratiano: My Lord Bassanio gave his ring away unto the judge that begged it, and then the boy, his clerk, begged mine.”
Portia pounces: “What ring gave you, my Lord?”
Bassanio: “You see my finger hath not the ring upon it; it is gone.”
Portia: “By heaven, I will never come into your bed until I see the ring.”
Nerissa to Gratiano: “Nor I to yours till I again see mine.”
Bassanio: “Sweet Portia, If you did know to whom I gave the ring, if you did know for whom I gave the ring, and would conceive for what I gave the ring, and how unwillingly I left the ring, when nought would be accepted but the ring, you would abate the strength of your displeasure.”
Portia: “If you had known the virtue of the ring, or half her worthiness that gave the ring, or your honour to contain the ring, you would not then have parted with the ring.”
Bassanio: “No woman had it, but a civil doctor and begged the ring; the which I did deny him. I was enforced to send it after him. Pardon me, good lady.”
Portia: “I will become as liberal as you; I’ll not deny him anything I have, no, not my body, nor my husband’s bed. Know him I shall! I’ll have that doctor for my bedfellow.”
Nerissa: “And I his clerk.”
Portia to Antonio: “Give him this.”
Antonio: “Here, Lord Bassanio, swear to keep this ring.”
Bassanio: “By heaven, it is the same I gave the doctor!”
Portia: “Pardon me, Bassanio, for, by this ring, the doctor lay with me.”
Nerissa: “And pardon me, Gratiano, the doctor’s clerk, last night did lie with me.”
Portia: “You are all amazed. Here is a letter. You shall find that Portia was the doctor, Nerissa there her clerk.”
Bassanio: “Were you the doctor and I knew you not? Sweet doctor, you shall be my bedfellow.”
Analysis
As stated earlier, this is the odd Act 5 which is mere reconciliation and gaiety. The real resolution took place in Act 4. A cute ending for a difficult play.
Final Thoughts:
Merchant of Venice is a troubling play in which the audience must necessarily squirm as the Christians lay waste to Jewish Shylock. He may be a difficult character but we certainly learn throughout the play just why this is the case He is the constant target of derision for the merchant, Antonio, and all of his Christian companions. He is brutalized for being a Jew until he stumbles upon a situation wherein he might finally exact his revenge on at least one of his tormentors: Antonio, the merchant. What we do know is that historical Venice was a hotbed of anti-Semitism. The word Ghetto was created here, as the island in Venice where Jews were forced to abide every night, complete with guards on the bridges. It remains today as Ille d’ Ghetto, a sordid reminder of the darker times we encounter in the play. In the Germany of the Nazis and across Eastern Europe there were Jewish ‘Ghettoes’ in nearly every town and city. In Shakespeare’s England all Jews were expelled from the country in 1215. Anti-Semitism was a perverse reality throughout most of European history, as it continues to thrive today, especially in the East.
William Shakespeare: Journey Through Genius 