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underthesea 's review for:
The Merchant of Venice
by William Shakespeare
Shakespeare! So multifaceted you can read him however you want! So discreet he lets his reader chose whether his character is a friend or a villain!
And this is how I choose to read this comedy: this is an unpleasant play about unpleasant people. It's structured around money transactions staked againts the character's feelings: Antonio lends money to Bassanio out of love and expects the same depth of feeling in return, Shylock lends money to Antonio out of hate and wants his life in exchange, Jessica steals her father's money for Lorenzo's promises of husbandly devotion/social climing, Portia gives money to Bassanio out of passion and wants his loyalty, and none of them gets what he bargained for, because there's no fucking way none of this is ending well.
Antonio will lose Bassanio because we are talking about a guy who left for three months and had to be called back. Such a friend! Give me enemies instead. Portia will also lose him because he already gave her up once when he used her ring to pay for legal services. Trust him the first time he tell you who he is, Portia, and that's not in the ring affair, it's when he says:
But life it selfe, my wife, and all the world,
Are not with me esteem'd aboue thy life.
I would loose all, I sacrifice them all
Heere to this deuill, to deliuer you
The ring thing constitutes Portia twice warned. Huge flag, Portia: he's a bargainer. But well, she loves him, and very convincingly tells us so, so she'll be a fool for him again. But not without power playing him as much as she possibly can. I mean I'm meant to like her by vertue of sex and wit, but she's so mean: she talks of mercy but all her actiones wrestle somone into the ground. She could have spared her suitors the "never marry anyone" clause. She could have let Shylock go with his bitterness and his money. She could have avoided proving that yes, she is indeed not the first thing in Bassanio's mind. But she had to go all in all the time.
Portia is mean, Antonio is depressed, Bassanio is an opportunist, Shylock is so warped he can't see straight, Jessica doesn't know how to love. In fact, she's a whole different kind of bitch. She abandons her father with no qualms- she spares not a tear for poor Shylock- she loves him not at all. Love is not love which bends with the remover to remove, ands she's bending with the remover a hell of a lot. The remover is a husband with whom she's already bickering half an act afterwards. They're flirting, some would say. But those flirts have teeth if I ever saw toothed flirts. Anyway! Those who didn't love their almost-murdering-but-mostly-ok-if-a-tad-ridiculous father will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
But truly, we were warned:
There is no voice so simple, but assumes
Some marke of vertue on his outward parts;
How manie cowards, whose hearts are all as false
As stayers of sand, weare yet vpon their chins
The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars
Need I say I loved the play? Poor Shylock. He's the only sympathetic character. And he's criminally full of hate.
And this is how I choose to read this comedy: this is an unpleasant play about unpleasant people. It's structured around money transactions staked againts the character's feelings: Antonio lends money to Bassanio out of love and expects the same depth of feeling in return, Shylock lends money to Antonio out of hate and wants his life in exchange, Jessica steals her father's money for Lorenzo's promises of husbandly devotion/social climing, Portia gives money to Bassanio out of passion and wants his loyalty, and none of them gets what he bargained for, because there's no fucking way none of this is ending well.
Antonio will lose Bassanio because we are talking about a guy who left for three months and had to be called back. Such a friend! Give me enemies instead. Portia will also lose him because he already gave her up once when he used her ring to pay for legal services. Trust him the first time he tell you who he is, Portia, and that's not in the ring affair, it's when he says:
But life it selfe, my wife, and all the world,
Are not with me esteem'd aboue thy life.
I would loose all, I sacrifice them all
Heere to this deuill, to deliuer you
The ring thing constitutes Portia twice warned. Huge flag, Portia: he's a bargainer. But well, she loves him, and very convincingly tells us so, so she'll be a fool for him again. But not without power playing him as much as she possibly can. I mean I'm meant to like her by vertue of sex and wit, but she's so mean: she talks of mercy but all her actiones wrestle somone into the ground. She could have spared her suitors the "never marry anyone" clause. She could have let Shylock go with his bitterness and his money. She could have avoided proving that yes, she is indeed not the first thing in Bassanio's mind. But she had to go all in all the time.
Portia is mean, Antonio is depressed, Bassanio is an opportunist, Shylock is so warped he can't see straight, Jessica doesn't know how to love. In fact, she's a whole different kind of bitch. She abandons her father with no qualms- she spares not a tear for poor Shylock- she loves him not at all. Love is not love which bends with the remover to remove, ands she's bending with the remover a hell of a lot. The remover is a husband with whom she's already bickering half an act afterwards. They're flirting, some would say. But those flirts have teeth if I ever saw toothed flirts. Anyway! Those who didn't love their almost-murdering-but-mostly-ok-if-a-tad-ridiculous father will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
But truly, we were warned:
There is no voice so simple, but assumes
Some marke of vertue on his outward parts;
How manie cowards, whose hearts are all as false
As stayers of sand, weare yet vpon their chins
The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars
Need I say I loved the play? Poor Shylock. He's the only sympathetic character. And he's criminally full of hate.