English Literature III- THE MERCHANT OF VENICE
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Copy and paste the questions you are about to answer, write your answer and sign off with your name.
DEADLINE: WED 9th, MAY - 12.30 PM
2.Goddard, Harold. The Meaning of Shakespeare. Chapter XII: The Merchant of Venice.
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1951. Pp. 81-116. Print.
Questionnaire:
1.What seem to be the controversies surrounding The Merchant of Venice?
2.What’s the difference between a playwright and a poet? How does it explain the kind of plays Shakespeare wrote?
3.How is the play structured? Explain each story.
4.What are Venice and Belmont like? What role do gold, money, and trade play here?
5.What seems to affect most of the characters in the play? Why?
6.The Other in the play: Shylock. Why is he an outsider, a pariah even?
7.Bassanio is a good example of someone who appears to be one thing on the outside and another thing underneath. Explain this idea.
8.What are Antonio and Shylock like? What connects them? (You’ll need to read pages 86-92).
9.Gratiano says of his beloved, “Now, by my hood, a Gentile, and no Jew.” What does this line imply about Jessica?
10.Why does Shylock offer Antonio a loan of 3,000 ducats without interest?
11.Shakespeare uses all his art to show us the noble potentialities of Shylock. Explain this idea.
12.What do Shakespeare and the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky have in common? How does this comparison help us understand Shylock’s character better?
13.What changes Shylock’s mind about having his bond? Why does Shakespeare make him say “I will not hear thee speak” when he next sees Antonio?
14.What traits of Portia’s personality are revealed in the trial scene? How does she affect Shylock’s fate and why? (the answer is on pages 105-112)
15.”The metaphor that underlies and unifies The Merchant of Venice is that of alchemy, the art of transforming the base into the precious, lead into gold.” (Goddard 115) Explain this quote.
16.What makes The Merchant of Venice relevant today?
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3.McEvoy, Sean. Shakespeare The Basics. Chapter 6: Understanding Comedy- The Merchant of Venice. London, U.K.:2000. Pp. 125-129; 142-149. Print.
Questionnaire:
1.Which are the conventions found in comedies?
2.”Contemporary critics, feminist and otherwise, seem very concerned about the question of prerogative when it comes to comedy.” (McEvoy 127) Explain this quote, what alternatives are considered by the critic and the schools of thought they belong to.
3. The society depicted in The Merchant of Venice is patriarchal. What does this mean for the women in the play?
4. How does Cross-dressing empower women? What does it add to the sexual ambiguity of any play? How does Shakespeare seem to imply that a more equal kind of relationship between men and women is possible?
1.Which are the conventions found in comedies?
ReplyDeleteLiterary and cultural critics regard a play as a comedy because they follow a certain set of conventions, and not necessarily because they make the audience laugh.
* They break with these conventions -it is a sign that they remain in place. The Merchant of Venice is a comedy because of the conventions it deploys, but the subject matter of its main plot is not particularly a laughing matter.
* They adhere to a particular set of expectation
* They are preoccupied with the journey of young women –or men- from the state of virginity to that of marriage: the passage of young people out of their parent’s control and into marriage. Thus, in The Merchant of Venice, Portia has to endure the ritual of the caskets prescribed by her father and simply hope that it will produce a msn she can love.
* In a comedy marriage is the beginning of a totally new story. It is the point where sexual desire becomes legitimised (approved), socialised (accepted by society) and channelled in a particular direction.
* A comedy is about one or more young persons whose love meets an obstacle of some sort: parental disapproval, the apparent refusal of the loved one to return that love, etc.
* The central plot requires the young people to disguise themselves –for example women cross-dressing as men (Portia). After this experience, something happens that make their love a social reality and the play ends with an apparently happy union.
2.”Contemporary critics, feminist and otherwise, seem very concerned about the question of prerogative when it comes to comedy.” (McEvoy 127) Explain this quote, what alternatives are considered by the critic and the schools of thought they belong to.
Back then, it was the male’s prerogative to choose their daughters a suitor or spouse; women were not supposed to have this right to choose for themselves. Comedies in fact, challenge this “authority” or prerogative of fathers or husbands-to-be over women’s right to choose who to marry with or not.
The critic considered two alternatives:
The “New Historicist Critics” question if comedies are to be seen as acting out a fantasy of female independence through some kind of symbolic revolt against the power and authority of fathers; and if this revolt is shown to demonstrate - in the end- the rightness of the inevitable progression from youthful desire to the socially approved institution of marriage.
The “Cultural Materialists” question on the other hand, if comedies show that the world need not to be as it is; if they show women escaping from which society imposes on them and by the end of the play they do not become fully reabsorbed into society; and if the ending suggest that after the wedding ceremony takes place, there is another story of even distributed power in the male-female relationship.
The liberation of women in these plays is a matter of concern to feminists. The position of women in English society in SK’s times had different points of view and there was disagreement among historians and critics.
Some feminists stress the oppression of women in all domains of life: economic, domestic, sexual, familial and personal.
Others consider that although women were no equals of men in official aspects of life, their Protestant beliefs -Puritan doctrine of “companionate marriage”- encouraged them to consider themselves the spiritual equals of their husbands; this meant a feminist flowering among the middle-class women.
Finally other contemporary feminists see this period as one of male backlash against the freedoms which women had enjoyed in the last medieval period.
Carolina Paduán.
Well done, Caro!
DeleteI'd like to add another point to your answer to question 1:
* Comedy can be seen as a challenge to the authority of fathers / husbands-to-be (women didn't have the right to choose their spouse /suitor), which is played out in some imaginary world - magic wood, or place where women in male disguise are never recognised as women until they wish to be (e.g. Portia as a Doctor in Law, defending Antonio; Nerissa as her clerk). So the whole play shows a sort of make-believe world.
1.What seem to be the controversies surrounding The Merchant of Venice?
ReplyDelete4.What are Venice and Belmont like? What role do gold, money, and trade play here?
1- What seem to be the controversies surrounding The Merchant of Venice?
DeleteThe controversy surrounding The Merchant of Venice is that it presents the topic of Anti-Semitism and it seems, according to many, to approve it. How the progressive Shakespeare could write a play with such a polemic idea is debated by several critics.
One of the experts argues that the play-writer was no different from any other English in what refers to their feeling of hatred towards the Jews in those times. A second one claims that The Merchant of Venice contains a racist outline, and that it was very reasonable to eliminate it from the program of several collages.
On the other hand, there are other critics who believe that the character of Shylock is not a horrible beast, but has features that make him human and is someone who you feel sympathy for. Nonetheless, there is almost certainty that the spectators of the play should have ridicules Shylock or despise him.
4- What are Venice and Belmont like? What role do gold, money, and trade play here?
Venetians and Belmontese live inside a shining world of gold, built up around the ideals of luxury and satisfaction, love affairs and melodies. Standard productions of The Merchant of Venice are performed with scenes full of dresses and clothes with vivid colours, amusing and clever dialogues, brilliant and romantic tune, and sentimental affection.
Moreover, along the course of the play we find evidence of the immense unhappiness suffered by the inhabitants of Venice and Belmont. This is clearly seen in the first speeches of several characters. “In sooth, I know not why am so sad”
Gold is the emblem of this universe of pure satisfaction, and this because of its relation to money, or to the economical exchanges undertake by the inhabitants of this region, which main purpose is acquire money. One of the major problems of this world is, despite all the efforts invested in trade and commerce, that reality does not match with the ideal and shiny existence that people desperately tries to buy.
Guillermo Zerbatto.
I want to correct the last paragraph of the answer of question one. It should be:
Delete"Nonetheless, there is almost certainty that the spectators of the play should have ridiculed Shylock or despised him."
Guillermo Zerbatto
Yes, indeed, Guillermo. Good job!
Delete3. The society depicted in The Merchant of Venice is patriarchal. What does this mean for the women in the play?
ReplyDeleteThe fact that the society is patriarchal, means that women in the play are treated as if they were men’s property. They are powerless; therefore, they do not have the freedom to choose who they want to marry, and they must obey their fathers. For instance, Portia cannot go against her father’s will and marry any man she wants. She is obliged to become the wife of the suitor who solves the mystery of the three caskets, no matter if she likes him or not. In other words, she can’t make important decisions about her own life, and even after marriage, her husband would become his “owner”, and only he would have the right to administrate her fortune.
4. How does Cross-dressing empower women? What does it add to the sexual ambiguity of any play? How does Shakespeare seem to imply that a more equal kind of relationship between men and women is possible?
Cross-dressing empowered women in the sense that it was a way to escape from the woman “condition”, because by looking like a man a girl could be treated well and respected as any other man was. Moreover, it was a way of rebellion, of breaking the rules to have a taste of what freedom was like. It was subversive and sexually liberating at the same time. For instance, Portia could do nothing to help Antonio while looking like a girl, she was somewhat useless for Bassanio. However, as soon as she disguises herself into a man, and pretends to be a lawyer (a profession founded on the qualities of reason and skills at public speaking that women were supposed to lack) she might have felt powerful, in the sense that she had a real chance to help and no bounds at all. In this way, she could run away from her nature and from all the definitions and restrictions that the patriarchal society imposed her.
This kind of sexual ambiguity has a great impact on women, since the symbol of male possession is transformed into a symbol of a woman slipping out of male power. They are much more than simple commodities to be exchanged, they are smart as any other man is, and even more sometimes.
Shakespeare implies that equality in a relationship of a man and a woman is possible if men accept that women are very different from them but identical at the same time. Therefore, a marriage could be successful and more desirable if they treated each other as equals.
Betiana Gutierrez
Well done, Betiana.
DeleteI'd like to add something to your answer No 3:
It is the critic Karen Newman (1987)who has argued that the exchange of goods ( including women) between men characterises the play’s action. In patriarchal/peɪtrɪˈɑːk(ə)l/ society, men have rights over women but not vice versa/ˌvʌɪsˈvəːsə/. Newman says that anthropologists have noted that men establish their relationships and their pecking order (A hierarchy of status seen among members of a group of people or animals, originally as observed among hens.) by the granting of gifts. Newman claims that Portia’s rhetoric shows that she is making a gift of herself to Bassanio – one which she can withdraw. When Bassanio chooses the right casket, she talks of herself impersonally, in the passive voice, acknowledging herself as a property, converted to another’s legal possession: ‘Happiest of all,…her gentle spirit/ Commits itself to your to be directed, /As from her lord, her governor, her king. / Myself, and what is mine, to you and yours / Is now converted.’ (III,ii) This material transaction is not binding – it may be undone again. It’s arbitrary nature is symbolised by a token ( a ring): if Bassanio gives away the ring, she can denounce him and it’d ruin their love (‘I give them with this ring, / which when you part from lose, or give away/ Let it presage (foretell) the ruin of your love, / and be my vantage (opportunity) to exclaim on (denounce) you.’
5. What seems to affect most of the characters in the play? Why?
ReplyDeleteAs it is noticed, the Venetians and Belmontese feel there is something wrong with them. Apparently, it is not clear for the characters, but it makes them experience nervousness and unhappiness. We know this from the very beginning of the play, when Antonio does not know the reason for his sadness. Then, Jessica explains there is a sense of melancholy, weariness and tedium, in his house.
Therefore, the characters aim at entertaining themselves in different ways or playing certain roles in the story, in order to keep their minds busy and avoid thinking. For instance, Gratiano pretends to be cheerful and talkative all the time; Launcelote Gobbo talks a lot, as well; and Lorenzo is occupied criticising people of higher positions.
The truth is that the characters want to keep their unconscious mind quiet, probably because it is trying to show them that there are negative aspects of their personalities that should be changed.
6. The Other in the play: Shylock. Why is he an outsider, a pariah even?
Many characters dislike Shylock because he represents money and exclusion, as he is a moneylender and an excluded thing. These characteristics are strongly criticised in the Venetian society. As a consequence, Shylock is not accepted and treated as an outsider. At the same time, those who criticise him are not paragons. For that reason, the Venetians make him their scapegoat, i.e., they blame him for bad things that they themselves have done. Unconsciously, they see their own faults reflected on Shylock’s personality and this make them feel uncomfortable.
Daiana B. Corgnali
Yes, indeed. Good job, Daiana!
Delete14.What traits of Portia’s personality are revealed in the trial scene? How does she affect Shylock’s fate and why? (the answer is on pages 105-112)
ReplyDelete16.What makes The Merchant of Venice relevant today?
Yamila Flores
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGoddard, Harold
ReplyDelete2.What’s the difference between a playwright and a poet? How does it explain the kind of plays Shakespeare wrote?
A playwright must make his plots plain, his characters easily grasped, his ideas familiar. The public wants the confirmation of its prejudices. That’s way plays have immediate success but seldom survive.
The poet is seeking the secret of life, and he cannot share with a crowd in a theatre, he can share it only with the few and mostly in solitude.
3.How is the play structured? Explain each story.
The Merchant of Venice is the story of the friendship of an unselfish Venetian merchant for a charming young gentleman who is in love with a beautiful heiress; of the noble sacrifice that the friend is on the point of making when nearly brought to disaster by a vile Jew; of the transformation of the lovely lady into lawyer and logician just in the nick of time and her administration to the villain of a dose of his own medicine.
I'd like to add something to the answer 2: According to Goddard, Shakespeare is a poet-playwright, i.e., someone who can write simple plots, which are easily understood by the audience but who can, at the same time, write the play using brilliant poetry, that survive the passing of centuries and make us reflect on great issues such as racism, prejudice, love, mercy, etc.
DeleteAs regards question 3, the play is an interweaving of 3 strands - the casket story, the bond story, and the ring story. The casket story stresses the contrast between what's within and what's without. The bond story is built around the distinction between the letter and the spirit of the law (what's within and what's without again). The ring story is about the difference between the outer and the inner essence of a promise (When Bassanio rewards the Young Doctor of Law with Portia's ring, he's keeping the spirit of his vow to her as certainly as he'd have been breaking it if he had kept the rind on his finger. In the circumstances, literal fidelity would have been actual faithlessness).
DeleteSOLE, you need to read the sources more carefully to be able to answer properly.
Delete7.Bassanio is a good example of someone who appears to be one thing on the outside and another thing underneath. Explain this idea.
ReplyDelete10.Why does Shylock offer Antonio a loan of 3,000 ducats without interest?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete8.What are Antonio and Shylock like? What connects them?
ReplyDelete11.Shakespeare uses all his art to show us the noble potentialities of Shylock. Explain this idea.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete14. What traits of Portia’s personality are revealed in the trial scene? How does she affect Shylock’s fate and why? (The answer is on pages 105-112)
ReplyDelete-At the beginning of the trial, Portia asks Antonio if he owes Shylock money and he affirms, so she tells him:
Portia- then must the Jew be merciful
Shylock realises the use of must in Portia’s sentence, so he asks:
Shylock- On what compulsion “must” I? Tell me that
He has asked an unanswerable question, as “must” and “mercy” has nothing to do with each other. Besides, no law, moral or judicial can force a man to be merciful. This question must have thrown Portia off balance, but she rises to the occasion superbly. She accepts she is wrong by giving a speech, where she becomes the “Portia God-made”, the celestial angel who was sent to “exorcise” the demonic powers that possess Shylock.
-Later she is the one who fails Shylock. Her antipodal self emerges: from one second to the other, the God-made Portia reverts to the Doctor of Laws. Her change of voice marks a change from compassion to legality, anticipating what is going to come next.
-The bond stipulates a pound of flesh, no more or less than a pound and without shedding a drop of blood, or all his lands and goods will be confiscated by the state. Shylock immediately backtracks, agreeing to accept the original sum, but Portia is insistent, saying that he must have the pound of flesh or nothing. Shylock drops the case, but Portia stops him, reminding him of the penalty that noncitizens face when they threaten the life of a Venetian. In such a case, Portia states that half of Shylock’s property would go to the state, while the other half would go to Antonio. Here we have an arrogate Portia, who instead of showing compassion, she forces Shylock to stand on his knees and beg mercy to the Duke
-Portia’s skills at stage prove her to be a consummate playwright, director and actress, three in one. She arranges every contrast, climax and reversal, doing nothing too soon or too late, for example, holding back her “tarry a little” when Shylock was on the very verge of triumph.
-She tortured Antonio and her own husband just because she wanted a spectacle, a dramatic triumph with herself at the center
16. What makes The Merchant of Venice relevant today?
Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” deals with topics and social issues that belong as much, or even more, to the 21st century as they did to Shakespeare’s own day: fathers and daughters, racial discrimination, colour prejudice, love and friendship. And to all of these, there is some financial aspect.
Yamila Flores
I'd like to add something to your answer 16: As you very well say, Shakespeare seems to have written the play more for us than for his own age. We have many economic problems which threaten to eclipse all other problems and we forget the moral and spiritual problems because of them. The play offers wisdom that we need, deeper than any economic school doctrine. Well done, Yami!
Delete9. Gratiano says of his beloved, "Now, by my hood, a Gentile, and no Jew." What does this line imply about Jessica?
ReplyDeleteWhen Jessica disguises herself as a boy in order to elope with Lorenzo, she says:
“I will make fast the doors, and gild myself
With some more ducats, and be with you straight.” (Exit above)
The word “gild” refers not only to the golden casket, but also the fact that she deserts and disappoints her father by stealing him the ducats. While she is climbing down as if she was a thief from the balcony, Gratiano yells out with great admiration: “Now, by my hood, a Gentile, and no Jew”. Gratiano is fascinated with Jessica because she is brave enough to escape even dressed up as a boy. He says that she cannot belong to the Jewish religion because she is too good to do so; he believes she belongs to “them”, i.e. Christianity. However, Shakespeare remembers the ducats she had stolen. The phrase “by my hood” refers to an unexpected promise, which proposes that there is something hidden. The poet doesn’t mention why Jessica is called “gentile”, but he states that “Jew” and “Gentile” are different words for him.
13. What changes Shylock's mind about having his bond? Why does Shakespeare make him say "I will not hear thee speak" when he next sees Antonio?
Even though Shylock is considered an insensitive person by his vocation, or being desperate because of his daughter, there is not any proof that he is hard-hearted, wicked or desperate. He feels a strong desire deep inside him of leaving behind his revengeful personality in order to be more good-hearted as any other human being. However, the offer he gives to Antonio of a loan without charging interests appears to be an incredible effort, for Shylock’s part. Ironically, Shylock seems to be a Christian, not a Jew.
Dalma Di Giovanni
I'd like to add something to your answer 13:
DeleteSalanio describes Shylock's change: "I never heard a passion so confus'd/ So strange, outrageous, and so variable..." Shylock is a proud man showing his inmost heart to all beholders, driven to the edge of madness due to his daughter's betrayal. He becomes more ferocious, tormented by the fact that Antonio and Bassanio must have helped Jessica elope. Plus, he's pursued by mocking boys. He becomes irrational and repetitive: "I'll have my bond; speak not against my bond..." It seems as if he's afraid that one reasonable word from Antonio might bring his kinder instincts back to him so he doesn't want to hear anyone speak ("I'll have no more speaking") otherwise he won't resist persuasion. Good job, Dalma!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete9.Gratiano says of his beloved, “Now, by my hood, a Gentile, and no Jew.” What does this line imply about Jessica?
ReplyDelete12.What do Shakespeare and the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky have in common? How does this comparison help us understand Shylock’s character better?
9- This line is another allusion to one of the big points Shakespeare illustrates during the play: are Jews different to the rest of the people?
DeleteGratiano here is impressed by Jessica's behaviour. She crossdresses to be able to elope with Lorenzo, and she steals her father's money among other valuable objects. The fact that she's capable of doing all those things shows Gratiano she is as courageous and daring as one of them, and he expresses in this line that she seems to be one of them, a Christian, more than a Jewess because those characteristics are too good for the image they have of Jewish people.
12-Shakespeare and Dostoevsky's similarity is that both of them create characters who are psychological complex. Dostoevsky shows the psychology of people who have been damaged by others and as a consequence they are constantly struggling between their conscious or reason and their unconscious reactions or desires.
DeleteFollowing this way of analysing the characters, Shylock is the perfect example of someone who has faced insults and scorn so much that his own essence got lost. In some way, it is as if two Shylocks live in the same person, and he is constantly trying to join them together. One clear example of this is what happens after Jessica's elopement. Shylock's reactions are those of a father, but the usurer is also present there. In that moment, his mind is struggling to decide what aspect he is more worried about: the lose of his beloved daughter or the robbery.
Something similar happens when Antonio comes to ask for the loan. All that Shylock could have unconsciously desired is there. One of the richest merchants of Venice is asking him money, without any insult or mistreatment, and this causes a first good reaction in Shylock. Unfortunately, same as Dostoevskian characters, what follows that good impulse of becoming friends and forgetting the past is a negative action. Those years of suffering one humiliation after another show up and the thirst for revenge is too strong that wins the battle inside Shylock's mind.
Correction: psychologically complex*
DeleteVery good, Delfi!
Delete8 -What are Antonio and Shylock like? What connects them? (You will need to read pages 86-92).
ReplyDeleteOn one hand is Antonio, In one of the first scenes he is seen as melancholic person but he does not know why, this melancholy without reason could be the premonition that he is about to lose his friend Bassanio through marriage. However, his depression could also be a mark of something older and deeper. On the other hand, we find Shylock; who is smarter than Antonio is. His emotions are quite different from the former. Shylock has great thirst for revenge and a huge hatred for Antonio. Although he gives several reasons why he hates Antonio so bad, at the end he recognises that there is no other reason than “a certain loathing I bear Antonio.” This loathing matches the certain sadness of Antonio and with the detestation that Antonio also has for Shylock. Nevertheless, the main connection between them might be that Antonio detests Shylock because he sees unconsciously his own reflection in Shylock’s face as although Antonio is not a “usurer” as Shylock is but his money come from profits, and profits are only “usury” but in a more respectable way.
11 .Shakespeare uses all his art to show us the noble potentialities of Shylock. Explain this idea.
Shakespeare depicts Shylock as a man who is what it is because he is no more than the result of a society, which condemn him, hurt him, and humiliate him only because of the fact that he is a Jew. The pride he feels for his race is only an answer to the world’s scorn rather than a real admiration for the bases of his race itself. Also, a degenerate religion provokes his love of sobriety and good order. What is more, it happens the same with his domestic “tyranny”, a vitiated love of family and home. Even his avarice is partly a providence imposed by the insecurity of his lot; Shylock is repressed by all these factors.
Florencia Magnago.
I'd like to add something to your answer 8:
DeleteGoddard claims that Antonio – like Shylock – is a victim of forces from far below the threshold of consciousness: he hates Shylock because he catches his own reflection in his face. Both are alike in many respects and it’s A’s unconscious protest against this humiliating truth that is the secret of his antipathy. The contrast between A & S is seen in their attitude towards money: S is a usurer and A is disgusted by S’s usury so he lends money without interest. But his money come from his ships, from his profit ( profit under analysis is usury in a more respectable form). Portia doesn’t recognise A as the merchant during the trial: ‘Which is the merchant here and which the Jew?’ SH seems to suggest that they are both men so it’s difficult to distinguish between them.
Antonio seems to be a man who is too good for money-making, who has dedicated his life to that trade and suffers from it. So much so that he attacks anyone who consecrates his life to something below his spiritual level.
And in addition to your answer 11:
DeleteSH tries to show the noble potentialities of Shylock in spite of the fact that his nature may have been twisted by the sufferings and persecutions he’s undergone. His vices are more perverted virtues and his pride of race is in a way inverted to answer the world’s scorn. He’s got an exaggerated love of family, home, sobriety and good order, part of which comes from his religion, together with a tyrannical manner at home. He appears to be servile, ferocious, with a depraved patience and frustrated self-respect. His avarice is partly due to the insecurity of his lot. There is a repressed Shylock. Repression produces rapid alternation of polar states of mind. His dreams about his money bags are evidence of the struggle in his divided nature (‘My daughter! O my ducats’ / My ducats, and my daughter!’ – shows his ambivalence) It’s a mark of the near-balance between love and avarice. When he’s told that Jessica gave away the turquoise ring for a monkey, he says, ‘Would she were hearsed at my foot and the ducats in her coffin!’ This takes the meaning: ‘I would give my daughter’s life to get my ducats back’, which is part of the truth but the phrase also talks of the ducats in the coffin too: unconscious wish to bury his own miserliness /avarice / meanness. Very good, Flor.
7.Bassanio is a good example of someone who appears to be one thing on the outside and another thing underneath. Explain this idea.
ReplyDeleteBassanio is a good example in how appearance and reality are different. For instance, he cheats the common lector or viewer. He creates doubts about his love to Portia. What is more, in Belmont, he said to be in a higher social status than he actually was, also he claimed to have more money than he had. This is clearly seen when was standing in front of the golden casket and said that he would not choose that one because he had a lot of that mineral, which the reader know that was a lie.
Another action, that tell us how Bassanio actually is from the inside, is when he chose the lead casket. The inscription in the box said that the one who chooses it will probably risk all what he has and Bassanio, who at that moment had nothing, only put in danger the money that he owned by putting her friend’s, Antonio, at risk.
10. Why does Shylock offer Antonio a loan of 3,000 ducats without interest?
A lot of interpretation of the play means that there is more than one answer to this matter but Goddard suggest that the Jew predict that Antonio will not have the enough money to pay him on time. So, he cheats him and make him sign a sinister contract by pretending that is only a joke. This theory is severally contradicted by the play, for instance it is hard to think that a usurer may think in Antonio, a rich man who has a lot of ship trading merchandise along the globe, to be in bankrupt. That is to say, the story tell us that the only thing Shylock wants is to take revenge in Antonio and kill him because he always offends him whenever they both meet.
Romero Franco
Good job, Franco.
Delete