Short stories and Other Whatnots

My junior essay #2

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE

In the first part of the play, Shylock is indeed the Villain. To ask for a pound of flesh is just as horrendous for payment and just as questionable, what would he even do with that? I’m sensing a Cannibal in the making here. Anyways, Shylock has a clear hatred for Christians seeing that his only daughter eloped with one and he lived in an era where Jews were frowned upon. So it’s no surprise that he wanted to murder, in such a subtle and unobvious way, a Christian by ridding them a pound of their own flesh. But later in the play, during the scene of the trial, he is shown as the victim as he was forced to convert to a religion he despised, humiliated during the trial and leaving the court room without the money Bassanio owed him/Antonio was bound to guarantee. So yes, Shylock is the combination of both victim and villain.

In the whole lot of Shakespeare’s plays, I would definitely agree that Portia is the erudite of all his female characters. Of course we can consider Juliet as being intelligent enough to fake her death so she can run away with Romeo; too bad she forgot to tell him that she wasn’t really dead so he wouldn’t have committed suicide. Or Lady Macbeth who was driven to madness after she pushed her husband to be a mass murderer. Portia was clever enough to disguise herself as a young lawyer, cleaver enough to find a loop hole in the bond and clever enough to fool a load of people; including her gold-digger of a husband who took her for granted. Portia managed to single-handedly rescue Antonio from death and debt, to make Shylock’s life a living hell for him as well as Bassanio’s; even if the play didn’t show a seen where Portia confronted him, she obviously sent him to jail for conning her and plotting to get her inheritance.

For Bassanio borrowing money in exchange of a pound of flesh or twice as much as he borrowed was the biggest mistake he could have ever done. Sure he was determined and ambitious to take Portia’s hand but he did it out of greed, Bassanio never loved Portia but he sure did love her inheritance. Sad part is that Portia thought Bassanio was being true of him and gave him a ring, a symbol of their everlasting bond. Nothing good came out of Bassanio’s con; he almost got his friend murdered because he was the guarantor of his loan! And not to mention, he was caught by Portia. During the trial, Portia –disguised as a man- said that Shylock can have his pound of flesh from Antonio if he can take it without spilling a drop of blood. She was clever enough to analyze the contract and state that Antonio owed him flesh, no blood included.