First things first: despite a loooong hiatus (oh, adulting…), I will still attempt to meet my goal of reading (or watching or listening to) all of Shakespeare’s plays by the end of the year. This will require a few modifications to my original plans. I will be posting about two Shakespeare plays per week from now until the end of the year (fingers crossed!). I won’t be doing any bonus posts until after the new year – just the posts about each play as I read them – and format of the posts will look slightly different (to help speed things up for me). Other than that, I’m back and ready to take on the Bard!
Today’s topic: The Merchant of Venice.
Sadly, this was not the best play to dive back into this project, which was very disappointing. I decided to watch this one and found a version I was quite excited to see. I had sort of read this before and sort of watched it before, but as I was watching it for real this time around, I realized why it had only ever been “sort of.” It was really hard for me to get through.
Here’s the thing. I love Shakespeare. I adore Shakespeare. I mean, this entire blog is devoted to Shakespeare (obviously). But the story of Merchant does not work for me. I’m certain that people with more knowledge and probably better taste would be appalled and defend the greatness of this play. And that’s fair. But it just doesn’t make sense to me. I think the characters are among Shakespeare’s worst crafted. The anti-Semitism in the play feels intrinsic and internal rather than thematic or constructive. (I contrast it with Taming of the Shrew, for example, which manages to comment on stereotypes without truly relying on them.) The plot in some ways feels oddly scattered. It bothers me that this is supposed to be a “comedy.” There’s really nothing funny about it (and any humor you can find in it is quite mean-spirited in one way or another).
I just don’t like it.
It’s the first one so far that I just simply don’t like (although I did admit to feeling a little conflicted and slightly disappointed with King John).
To be fair to this play (which is a very famous one) and to my beloved Bard, I am not entirely sure how much of my dislike is because of the play itself and how much is due to the terrible film version that I watched. I don’t want to bash two much-loved artistic icons in the same post, so I will refrain from saying that *coughitwastheversionstarringLaurenceOliviercough*. Excuse my cough… 😉 (For the record, I really enjoy pretty much all of Olivier’s other Shakespeare films.) It’s only a two-hour film, but it was so bad that I kept looking at the time stamp, every 15 minutes, legitimately thinking it had to have been at least an hour since I had last checked. Guys. It was that bad. But I don’t think it’s entirely the movie’s fault that I don’t like the play, because I saw a close retelling of The Merchant of Venice called District Merchant on stage early in the summer and, while there were some things I liked, I didn’t particularly enjoy it.
So. There we are.
Please, please tell me why I am wrong about this play! I want to like it. There are some beautiful lines, and you know…other great qualities I’m sure. But please: if you like this play, let me know, and tell me why! Who knows?
I could very well end up eating my words.
Ok so as an intro to Good Things About The Merchant
As far as intrinsic ideas, The Merchant if Venice is for me about the economy, or What is Anything Worth?
As a set up we have men, Antonio, Bassanio and Shylock, who rest their wealth on speculation, on bonds, on the words of other men and the whims of fortune. And women, who have inherited everything they have (both their wealth and their problems are because of their fathers), but it is somewhat more tangible (Portia is able to easily use her wealth to assure Bassanio his friend’s debts will be paid, Jessica is described as furnished with “gold and jewels” and is able to pay for everything she desires.)
What is Anything Worth? is the question to ask for all characters: is it worth being Bassanio’s sugar daddy to be close to him and have him love you? Is it worth risking your life on a bet you’re almost certain you’ll win? What is a converted Christian (Jessica) worth compared to someone born Christian (other characters still call her “stranger” once she has converted)? What is the value in being Christian (so much better than all those other people) when you’re proven to be just as cruel (the speeches of the Sals) and still involved in some form of money speculation/interest, just as unsympathetic to others as Shylock? Is it worth marrying a man who may well always love another man above you? How much is your daughter worth? Do you have enough wealth to wish her ‘dead at your feet with the money in her hands’ if both go missing? How much is your flesh worth? The market says nothing, no-one wants to buy it, but it does insure you stay alive and all…
Are the words of men worth anything? is another great question at the centre of The Merchant. In Venice, the reason Antonio is up for death and the judge can do nothing about it is that Venice is a trade city, based on bonds like this, and Venice has sworn to uphold bonds from all foreigners in order for merchants to function. If the judge swayed the law for Antonio, the foundation of the Venetian economy would crumble. During the trial sequence, men are forced to abide by their word: Antonio would be forced to lose a pound of flesh, but Portia saves him by pushing Shylock further into his exact wording.
But elsewhere, men’s words are not proven to be reliable at all.
In response to Portia’s promise/wedding vow to Bassanio that he may have power over “This house, these servants, and this same myself” he fails to respond with words: “you have bereft me of all words”, but he does promise that if he even takes off the ring she gave him, “Bassanio’s dead”.
But he one-ups his promise of his own death three scenes later to Antonio, when admitting while he loves his wife as dear as “life itself”, but “life itself, my wife, and all the world, / Are not with me esteem’d above thy life” “I would […] sacrifice them all […] to deliver you”.
This is another example of both deciding what anything is worth and very clever wording. Loving as much as life itself sounds like a lot but it does not mean “more than anything”. Bassanio doesn’t promise to love Portia. And the promise he does make he breaks very quickly. But she’s already made a contract, a bond, with Bassanio. So the play has to end on her promising to talk more with Bassanio. All this trusting men/words proves very problematic.
The final thing about worth and words is Do we create by naming/valuing? By which I mean, if we value something, does it become what we value it to be? The market says yes, if we put a high value on diamonds, then diamonds will be valuable.
What about applied to humans? If the Christian characters constantly call Shylock a dog, does he become one? Shylock argues yes:
Thou calls’t me dog, before thou had’st a cause; But, since I am a dog, beware my fangs.
But he only argues yes after his plea for his humanity (“Hath not a Jew eyes?”) goes ignored. (In fact, the response likens Shylock to the devil. The Sals are not very receptive to the “we’re all human” argument.)
The Merchant is about how we function in a society where things aren’t tangible. About how we chose who to love, how to value others, who we trust. Just because someone says something doesn’t mean they’ll abide by it, unless forced to by the law, and even that takes unexpected turns. And when we trust too much in contracts and the market, we become unable to value human life. Antonio puts his life on the line for 3000 ducats. Shylock wishes his daughter dead if only he can have his full fortune back. Men who equate Portia to gold and silver do not get to marry her.
(I could probably ramble about The Merchant for longer but this seems Enough. Thank you to anyone who read this all.)
Thank you SO MUCH for this post! Reading that did give me a slightly new perspective! I love that!
I still maintain that I don’t like this play, but my level of appreciation has definitely risen.
Ugh…reblogged onto the wrong blog – sorry! Moving over to the right one…
