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jonfaith 's review for:
The Merchant of Venice
by William Shakespeare
I encountered a resistance to reading this. The idea that matters could pivot because of a man being Jewish, that somehow it was his just deserts that he be stripped of family and fortune was repulsive to me. I am naïve. I live in Indiana but to behold such wonderful language and to see it crafted around caricatures and offer slurs, that was challenging to read.
I much prefer Marlowe's Jew of Malta, that has a high body count and a rhetorical flourish whereas aside from Portia the cast of Merchant appears sober. I was in fact enamored with Portia, honoring her bondage to her dead father, aware of her own caprice towards her servants and looking at matrimony as yet another tether--though one lithe and in good favor. Apparently the source material had Portia drugging her suitors after sex and stealing their loot.
There were a few shortcomings. Antonio is a rather wooden prop to advance the plot. Yet again we find major characters dupe everyone with false mustaches.
I much prefer Marlowe's Jew of Malta, that has a high body count and a rhetorical flourish whereas aside from Portia the cast of Merchant appears sober. I was in fact enamored with Portia, honoring her bondage to her dead father, aware of her own caprice towards her servants and looking at matrimony as yet another tether--though one lithe and in good favor. Apparently the source material had Portia drugging her suitors after sex and stealing their loot.
There were a few shortcomings. Antonio is a rather wooden prop to advance the plot. Yet again we find major characters dupe everyone with false mustaches.