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dngoldman 's review for:
The Merchant of Venice
by William Shakespeare
I had not read the MOV since high school - a very long time ago. They play’s depiction of Shylock was controversial then and threatens to make the play unreadable today. Yet the questions about whether the Shylock characterization is anti-jewish or just an even character who is a jew and, if the former, can the play’s other merits overcome that shortcoming were irrelevant to the original viewers who had never seen any Jew. (Jews had long been expelled from England). So I will start with the other aspects of the play
1. It’s a comedy. MOV is classified as a Shakespearian comedy for good reason. It has the classic wacky set ups (Portia’s hand can only be won by picking the right coffin?) love interests being misdirected, over preening villain who gets his come upends, and cutting dialogue (e.g. Portia’s dismissal of her suiters.). While not as funny as Sharespeare’s funnest romances, I laughed out loud several times.
2. Nothing is as it seems. The play toys with our perceptions - our expectations shape what we see as real but are often not. “Thy eyes shall see” (Act II S IV) but they will be wrong. The lead casket is the most valuable, Portia’s husband can’t recognize her in mail garb, Jessica dresses as a boy. Lancelot is both “your boy, your son, your child yet to be”(Act II, Sc II). The Moore’s skin color masks his light disposition.
3. Portia, gender roles. Shakespeare often wrote strong female roles and Portia maybe the strongest. She is the funniest character, the smartest, and the only one that feels fully developed. One is at a loss to understand why the two male roles are so highly praised by others. Yet is Portia - confined to her role as wife by law, redeems Antonia from the strict dictates of the law only by disguising herself as a man.
4. The quality of mercy (Act IV, Scene I). The difference between mercy and strict justice is at the heart of the legal dispute. Strict abidance to the law vs mercy is often characterized as a difference between the jewish and Christian religions and a subject much discussed within both. Shylock demands the law with no mercy, and in the end is denied both. Yet, there is something ironic in this as the christian character revel and benefit from Shylock’s complete defeat in a way that struck as cruel when I first read the play and now.
5. Melancholy.
6. Shylock. He is a classic “comedic” villain. And there is no getting away from the fact that his is an accumulation of Jewish stereotypes of the day. When the characters call him Jew - it’s never neutral they way they would call other character’s a Moore. Yet Shakespeare is too fine a writer to have just a stock character. Shylock’s diatribes against christian have some merit and his age is justified, even if it consumes him. The famous “does a Jew not bleed” speech is often taken as cry for equality. But is equality in all that his human - the jew should have the same right as christian for anger and yes for revenge. The right to be “angry” is often reserved for majority.
1. It’s a comedy. MOV is classified as a Shakespearian comedy for good reason. It has the classic wacky set ups (Portia’s hand can only be won by picking the right coffin?) love interests being misdirected, over preening villain who gets his come upends, and cutting dialogue (e.g. Portia’s dismissal of her suiters.). While not as funny as Sharespeare’s funnest romances, I laughed out loud several times.
2. Nothing is as it seems. The play toys with our perceptions - our expectations shape what we see as real but are often not. “Thy eyes shall see” (Act II S IV) but they will be wrong. The lead casket is the most valuable, Portia’s husband can’t recognize her in mail garb, Jessica dresses as a boy. Lancelot is both “your boy, your son, your child yet to be”(Act II, Sc II). The Moore’s skin color masks his light disposition.
3. Portia, gender roles. Shakespeare often wrote strong female roles and Portia maybe the strongest. She is the funniest character, the smartest, and the only one that feels fully developed. One is at a loss to understand why the two male roles are so highly praised by others. Yet is Portia - confined to her role as wife by law, redeems Antonia from the strict dictates of the law only by disguising herself as a man.
4. The quality of mercy (Act IV, Scene I). The difference between mercy and strict justice is at the heart of the legal dispute. Strict abidance to the law vs mercy is often characterized as a difference between the jewish and Christian religions and a subject much discussed within both. Shylock demands the law with no mercy, and in the end is denied both. Yet, there is something ironic in this as the christian character revel and benefit from Shylock’s complete defeat in a way that struck as cruel when I first read the play and now.
5. Melancholy.
6. Shylock. He is a classic “comedic” villain. And there is no getting away from the fact that his is an accumulation of Jewish stereotypes of the day. When the characters call him Jew - it’s never neutral they way they would call other character’s a Moore. Yet Shakespeare is too fine a writer to have just a stock character. Shylock’s diatribes against christian have some merit and his age is justified, even if it consumes him. The famous “does a Jew not bleed” speech is often taken as cry for equality. But is equality in all that his human - the jew should have the same right as christian for anger and yes for revenge. The right to be “angry” is often reserved for majority.