The Merchant of Venice

Comic Harmony... Fairy Tale Qualities Simple oppositions with stock characters (the clown, the “blocking figure”) Happy ending with multiple marriages Triumph of mercy over law

...or Tragic Dissonance? Imposing, grand central figure of Shylock Considered Anti- Semitic by some Shades of sexism, racism and implied homosexuality Ends with humiliation and mockery

About this most controversial of plays: Written by Shakespeare ca Source: Il Pecorone (meaning “The Simpleton”) No play other than Hamlet has been staged more frequently

Setting: Venice A politically independent state Relaxed sexual morals & love of pleasure Tolerance of different nationalities & religions A place of great wealth where trade and exploration was center

Historical Context: Shylock, who is Jewish, highlights historical contradictions of the time The Jewish race seen as “a necessary evil” Necessary for trade, capital ventures, and loans to the state and to kings for exploration & wars

They practiced usury, which was forbidden They were wrongly blamed for the crucifixion of Christ They were seen as foreign, exotic, threatening: The Prioress’s Tale...but also considered evil

From Latin usus, uti, meaning use: a sum paid for the USE of money (Interest!!) Could we live without it? Against the law of nature for money to beget money Biblical injunctions against it (Luke 6:30-31) Likened to prostitution, another “necessary evil” W hat about usury?

It was a time of great exploration and expanding trade The growing nation- states and kings were always in need of money It was absolutely essential for the growth of a capitalistic economy There was a debate raging over usury at the time Shakespeare wrote the play Nonetheless, 16 th Century Europe desperately needed this practice of usury

The question remains: Was Shakespeare anti-Semitic? His audience probably was, even though they could not have known any Jews: Jews were expelled from England in 1290 and did not return until after Shakespeare’s day Critics cite the character of Shylock as evidence both for and against the proposition Look closely at this portrait by Chandos We will revisit this question!

In 1864, the critic J. Hain Friswell wrote in his Life Portraits of William Shakespeare: “One cannot too readily imagine our essentially English Shakespeare to have been a dark, heavy man, with a foreign expression, of a decidedly Jewish physiognomy, thin curly hair, a somewhat lubricious mouth, red-edged eyes, wanton lips, with a coarse expression, and his ears tricked out with ear-rings.”