The Merchant of Venice

The play The Merchant of Venice is, believe it or not, mostly set in Venice and focuses on a merchant, Antonio. This merchant is asked by his close friend Bassanio to take out a loan of 3000 ducats for him from Shylock, a Jewish moneylender.

Shylock is hesitant about the loan but eventually they all agree on a set of terms: if the loan is not paid within the designated time, Shylock will be able to take one pound of Antonio’s flesh in lieu of the money he is owed. Bassanio uses the money to win the hand of Portia, a rich young lady living in the nearby town of Belmont. Portia’s marriage is to be decided by a test her father designed before he passes away. The text involves making suitors choose one of three caskets – one gold, one silver, and one lead – each with a cryptic inscription, and whoever chooses the correct casket will earn the right to wed Portia. Bassanio is successful in this endeavour, choosing the lead casket and “hazard[ing] all he hath,” and so they get married.

Simultaneously, Shylock’s daughter Jessica runs away with Lorenzo, who is one of Bassanio and Antonio’s associates. She also steals an immense amount of valuables from her father, leaving Shylock enraged and wishing she were dead so he could reclaim the money she stole. Just as this happens, we find out that all of Antonio’s business deals have fallen through; he is running out of money and has been arrested as he was unable to repay Shylock’s loan in time. Since Shylock assumes Antonio must have known about his friend Lorenzo’s plan to steal these valuables, Shylock decides to seek revenge by carrying out the terms of the loan and demanding to “have the heart of him” as his pound of flesh.

Portia and her maid Nerissa send Bassanio off with the money so he can help Antonio, but the two of them also procure lawyer’s clothes and go to Venice, unbeknownst to him. There, Portia takes part in the hearing between Shylock and Antonio as a legal assistant. She finds a loophole that saves his life and has Shylock indicted for attempting to kill a Venetian instead. She and Nerissa take their own wedding rings from their husbands as payment for their work and pretend to be infuriated at them for giving away the wedding rings when they all return home. Once they unveil the truth, the play closes with all three newlywed couples celebrating.

Is The Merchant of Venice an anti-Semitic play?

This question will no doubt be something you discuss in class, and it is an issue that has vexed Shakespearean scholars for hundreds of years. Before we go any further, we’ll present you with the approach this Text Guide will take, although you are highly encouraged to form your own interpretations and challenge what we’ve presented here based on your own reading of the text.

The Merchant of Venice has irrefutably anti-Semitic elements. The depiction of Shylock as “the villain Jew” and overtly emphasising racist stereotypes may be startling to modern readers, but this was the product of Shakespeare playing upon the prejudices that were commonplace in Elizabethan society at the time. This of course does not excuse this portrayal, and you may side with some critics such as Howard Bloom in concluding that the whole play is “profoundly anti-Semitic” because of this.

However, this Text Guide will argue that the play presents these elements in a way that invites audiences to critically examine them. Shylock is not a superficial villain, nor are the other characters portrayed as moral heroes for mistreating him. That said, the play is far from sensitive or tactful in dealing with matters of religion and social prejudice, and there are quite a few lines that wouldn’t fly with contemporary audiences, hence why Merchant is not as popular or performed as often as Shakespeare’s other plays.

Ultimately, the play is a product of its time, so rather than dismissing it as irredeemably racist, this Text Guide will critique the values Shakespeare portrays and endorses. Below are some links for further reading on this topic. There are a variety of views expressed here, and as always, you should read widely to form your own.

• Ambrosino, B. “Four Hundred Years Later, Scholars Still Debate Whether Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice Is Anti-Semitic”. Smithsonian Magazine, 21 Apr. 2016. Available from: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-scholars-still-debate-whether-or-not-shakespeares-  merchant-venice-anti-semitic-180958867/
• Croucher, R. “Shylock and anti-semitism – reflections on the 70th anniversary of the Universal
  Declaration of Human Rights”. Australian Human Rights Commission, 5 Jul. 2018. Available from: https://humanrights.gov.au/about/news/speeches/shylock-and-anti-semitism-reflections-70th-  anniversary-universal-declaration
• O’Rourke, J. “Racism and Homophobia in The Merchant of Venice”. ELH, vol. 70, no. 2, 2003. pp.375-397. Available from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/30029881Sebag-Montefiore, C. “If a Shakespeare play is racist or antisemitic, is it OK to change the ending?” The Guardian, 3 Nov. 2017. Available from:
  https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/nov/03/if-a-shakespeare-play-is-racist-or-antisemitic-is-it-  ok-to-change-the-ending
• Wilson, R.J. “Censorship, Anti-Semitism, and The Merchant of Venice”. The English Journal, vol. 86,
  no. 2, 1997. pp. 43-45. Available from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/819672