1. The Merchant of Venice 2
The quality of mercy

2. Merchant as a play of ideas
Reinserting Shylock into the larger play.
Shylock as part of the Venetian system.
His opposition to Antonio structural.
But he undergirds the Venetian economy.
Bassanio in Belmont depends on Shylock’s money.
Isn’t Shylock absolutely right about the contradictions in Venetian/Christian economy?
Venetian law must underwrite Shylock’s bond – otherwise?

3. The bond 3,000 ducats for 3 months, no interest.
But default means 1 pound of flesh.
Flesh, that is, death, becomes equal to the interest?
Pay or you die: Antonio takes this risk. See I.3,
“Merry bond” turns unmerry.
What’s missing on both sides?

4. Shylock and Portia/Balthasar
“Which is the merchant here and which the Jew.” IV,
“Then the Jew must be merciful.”
Why?
“The quality of mercy is not strained . . .”
Film clip of portion of IV.1.
Self-annihilation of absolute justice – this necessitates mercy.
Absolute denial of mercy – no physician standing by.

5. Justice and Mercy Denial of mercy leads to Shylock’s undoing.
Is he shown mercy?
His “conversion”.
Does Elizabethan unfamiliarity with Judaism allow this as mercy?
Idea consuming character at this point?
No more heard of Shylock until Nerissa’s letter at end of play.

6. But this leads to the “ring plot”.
Similar compulsion in the giving of the rings.
The rings accepted with vow never to part from them (III.2, 171ff; III.2.183ff).
But given away nevertheless – in response to saving of Antonio’s life.
Can he do otherwise?
See V.1, 192ff, 199ff.
Bassanio caught in something of the same dilemma as Antonio

7. Antonio goes “surety” for Bassanio: V.1, 249ff. 254.
Surety implies legal relationship, bond.
Again, Portia stands for a justice that encompasses mercy.
And becomes the fairy-tale dispenser of the happy ending: “certain” of Antonio’s ships are safe.
“Belmont” stands in corrective relationship to Venice?
Justice and mercy seem to coincide in Belmont.

8. But at the cost of excluding Shylock, who cannot reach Belmont.
He becomes the “alazon” of the comedy, the figure who is possessed by a rigid singleness of purpose.
Who must be excluded, driven out for the comedy to be completed, like Malvolio of Twelfth Night.
So can we speak of Shylock’s tragedy, that stands against the comedy of Belmont?

9. Antonio v. Shylock
Strangely, Antonio is the title character, even though not obviously central.
And the unremitting opponent of Shylock.
The mystery of his melancholy: “In truth I know not why I am so sad . . .”
Calls himself “the tainted wether of the flock” (IV.1.114).
What can be seen as causing his melancholy?
He denies it’s the risk of his ventures.
Modern performance usually finds an answer in an unrequited love for Bassanio.

10. Antonio and Bassanio Social distinctions between them.
Bassanio a gentleman, but without funds.
Antonio a man of funds, but without social gentility.
Merchants and aristocrats frequently on opposite sides in Elizabethan political world.
1590s a decade of heroic merchant activity, very like what’s described for Antonio.