The human experience is the perception of human emotion, encompassing a wide range of conceptions about life and loss. Our capability to love and hate allows writers such as William Shakespeare to construct a world with binaries that highlights how experiences and motivations affect human behaviour. Shakespeare’s 16th-century play ‘The Merchant of Venice’ a comedic tragedy, discovers self-interested behaviours amidst prejudice within anti-Semitic values shaped by context in Roderigo Lopez and Christopher Marlowe’s ‘Jew of Malta’, featuring extensive racial prejudice...
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The study of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (1605) (Merchant) has illuminated the notion that individualistic desires lead not to the human experience of self-betterment, but instead on the experience of fragmented identity and relationships. Inspired by his Elizabethan context, Shakespeare challenges the ‘impartial’ justice system by revealing the resulting experiences of discrimination. Furthermore, Merchant explores how materialism paradoxically leads to a loss of wealth and genuine relationships. In response to Merchant, the audience comes to understand the anomaly...
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Introduction William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, tells the story of a 16th-century merchant who secured a loan from a Jewish moneylender for his friend. Considered as one of William Shakespeare’s most contemporary works, The Merchant of Venice covers various aspects, from religious to poverty, greed to bitterness. It has been viewed as either a tragedy or a comedy or both. Though several factors influence the reasoning, the elements, characters, and how the play ends are significant to its classification....
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“Fathers, you are the head and strength of the family unit. If you are not in place, there is a weakness in the link.” (Marinoff). This quote signifies that a father must be present for his family. If a father is absent, he becomes the least dependable member. In “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee and “The Merchant Of Venice” by William Shakespeare, the two main antagonists destroyed their reliability, which in the long run ruined their father-daughter relationship....
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Prejudices borne by persecuted individuals, and born out of stereotypes, corrupt an individual’s relationship with self and society. The exploration of prejudice, as a human experience in texts, highlights the collective struggle humans inhabit as a result of institutionalised notions within society. William Shakespeare’s classic play, ‘The Merchant of Venice’, and Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ illustrate this innate struggle humans endure, through careful characterisation. The human condition desires to find acceptance in society without the compromise of self-expression...
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THE play, Merchant of Venice, written by William Shakespeare consists of strong themes such as greed and generosity. This idea of greed and generosity can be carried into thoughts of todays society, relating to the thoughts of Christmas for children. With Shylock being such a key character in the portrayal of the themes of greed there are obviously multiple occasions of his selfishness. Another example of this greediness is after his daughter, Jessica, stole some of his jewels and riches...
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Feministic values are very prominent in the play The Merchant of Venice, mostly those involving the radical feminist concept of a patriarchal society. The female personas were able to exploit the activity of cross-dressing to accomplish the business they needed so that their lives might be more tolerable while under the control of men within the society. Not all of the personas felt empowered by their action to become men, Jessica developed a sense of shame during her disguise as...
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Compelling texts draw in the responder to confront new ideas regarding the inconsistencies within personal and collective experiences. The Merchant of Venice depicts the struggle of the individual against the imposed obligations of society, while To Kill a Mockingbird, explores the human morality where the distinction between right and wrong can be seen. Throughout The Merchant of Venice, assumptions of women having less power than men are accentuated through gender barriers in the renaissance period, and how fate and destiny...
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Introduction Portia’s character in The Marchant of Venice plays a significant role in how the story goes on to the extent that we can consider it as the main character of the play. She is the one who does different things to alter the destiny that befalls Shylock towards the end of the play. Thus, this play and Portia’s personage may be from on aspect regarded as feministic with regards to the historical and cultural context in which the story...
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The Merchant of Venice, a 16th century play penned by William Shakespeare, opens with Antonio, a Venetian merchant, sunk in gloom. When he finds himself unable to trace the roots of his seemingly endless melancholy, his friends attribute it to his ships at sea. Bassanio, Lorenzo and Gratiano arrive shortly after. Bassanio, who is in pursuit of a wealthy heiress from Belmont named Portia, asks Antonio for a loan in order to court her. By virtue of all his investments...
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One of the most controversial plays of its period, The Merchant of Venice remembers many question. When the reasons are addressed, it can be said that The Merchant of Venice is a rich work on religious, moral, class and gender discrimination. When the work is examined on different topics as stated, the aim of the play and the writing purpose of Shakespeare can be grasped. First of all, in this essay, it is aimed to reveal the characteristics of the...
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The treatment of justice and mercy in Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice is done throughout different layers of narrative. Firstly, it is done through the city itself. Venice’s economic stability heavily relies on foreign business. To protect the rights of these merchants, the city has economic laws in place. Although these laws are on Shylock’s side when he goes to court to demand his “pound of flesh”, Shylock is still expected to show mercy, as everyone wants to prevent...
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