Book Review: The Merchant of Venice
This is billed as a comedy, if one can see antisemitism as funny then sure Shakespeare, it’s a comedy. Now one can always argue that it was a sign of the times. Perhaps that is true, but it doesn’t age particularly well in the 21st century. Historically in Venice during the 16th to the 19th centuries Jews were relegated to one specific area of Venice, the Cannaregio district. The Jewish district or “ghetto” was a gated community and at night and on specific religious holidays they were locked in. Obviously, that is the just the tip of the iceberg as to how Jews have been treated over several millennia, and, in a Christian dominant world, were often viewed as villainous. Such is the case in our play this week. Shylock, a wealthy Jew, bonds Venetian merchant Antonio three thousand ducats for his friend Bassanio to travel and win over the wealthy heiress Portia. Shylock is somewhat reluctant to do so, he is Jewish, and Antonio is Christian, Shylock has endured abuse from him before and does not wish to be taken advantage of. The money is promised against Antonio’s merchant ships which are set to return to Venice in three months’ time. Failure to pay? And Shylock demands a “pound of flesh” from Antonio. Literally. The fool hardy Antonio agrees. To say he’s “cocky” is an understatement.
So, this is where things get messy. Bassanio wins Portia. Good. Great. Amazing. Congratulations. But, Antonio’s vessels don’t return, and he now owes a fuck ton of money… and his own flesh for good measure. Bassanio returns to Venice and offers to pay the bond twice over so that Antonio doesn’t suffer an awful fate. But, no. It gets worse. How much worse? Shylocks daughter runs off with a Christian and converts and is therefore, hell bent on revenge. So, I’d say pretty bad. And he really wants his pound of flesh. It sounds mad. But the bond is legal. So, like I said, pretty bad.
We do get some fun moments, Portia and her handmaid dress as lawyers and successfully defeat Shylock, but at the cost of his own personal identity. Shylock forfeits his lands, properties to the state of Venice and to Bassanio. Not to mention he must convert to Christianity. All we get is a simple ‘I am content’ from Shylock and we never hear from him after. There are many things wrong with this. Fine blame it on being another time and around 400 years ago. Antisemitism was strong then and it is still, unfortunately, prevalent today. If we are to try and gauge whether Shakespeare has any regard for Jewish culture and religion, then we must look at the ‘Hath a Jew not eyes’ speech. It shows that a person, regardless of their faith, is a human being and has a heart, soul, eyes and, guts just like a Christian. Yet for simply being a Jew there is tough discrimination in Venice. However, discrimination against Jews is not an unfortunate stance only found in Venice. It is found everywhere, even Elizabethan England.
Despite its billing as a comedy, in 2022 this is known as a ‘problem play’. Like in all of Shakespeare’s comedies the women come off particularly well at the expense of their husbands which, is always good fun. Shame we cannot say the same for Shylock who is outnumbered, out gunned and outwitted. There is no happy resolution for him, unless you see a Jew being forcefully converted to Christianity as a ‘happy resolution’ then you really need to re-evaluate your life’s choices.