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Good And Evil In William Shakespeare's The Merchant Of Venice

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Much has been discussed and elaborated about one of numerous Shakespeare’s masterpieces – The Merchant of Venice. Opposite points of view have been supported, concerning the themes displaying the play, and all of them have been accepted as quite valid throughout the centuries. How is it possible to achieve such a result, out of interpretations which are in absolute contrast amongst themselves? Needless to say, every generation in history tends to analyse the great masterpieces of the previous times according to the current patterns. The themes touched in the play are highly topical, for we can engage in a comparative analysis of such themes, which are nowadays on the headlines. Portia’s resoluteness goes beyond patriarchal structures, first by …show more content…

Despite on the surface there is a logic allocation of characters in the opposing categories “evil vs. good," the play gives rotundity to the characters, in an exquisitely relativist fashion. The man is permanently swinging between the two extremes of good and bad, never reaching one of the two absolutes. In those times, such as nowadays, a silent but capital part is played by money, but the lust for capital, by the need to possess things. Shylock gets as far as asking for its rival flesh in exchange for the debt, in an extreme will of possession; the happy ending of the story is enriched by the news delivered by Portia, “ three of your argosies are richly come to harbour suddenly” (Act V, scene I). Maybe Freud made us somehow skeptical about the understanding of friendship between men, and in this way we may grasp the possibility for Antonio’s semi latent sexual attraction for Bassanio, expressed by his unexplained depression and readiness to give everything for his friend. The possibility for endless interpretations is what makes a classic what it is, and this perfectly combines with Shakespeare ability to create complex, multifaceted

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Often it is the dark side of human nature that brings a story to life, and there is no sounder proof of this than William Shakespeare’s masterpiece Othello. The tragedy of the Moor of Venice is inflicted by the cruelty of Iago, perhaps one of the most intriguing antagonists in literary history. Iago’s cruelty is a defining element of the play, in that it pushes the plot forward as the trigger for all of the major actions throughout the story, serves as the cause of the cruelty of others around him, and reveals the character of each person in the play through their responses to his cruelty. The action of the entire play is centered around Iago’s various acts of cruelty.

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Shakespeare’s language and choice of words portrays one of the most vital characters of the play, Portia, as a powerless woman to a large extent… but only in a certain way. Being ‘powerful’ has three meanings, one is “having great strength”, two is “having control over people and events”, and lastly three is “having a strong effect on people’s thoughts and feelings”. The two latter definitions are similar yet very different in this context. Making it possible for Portia to seem like a powerless woman, but surprisingly remain one of the most important characters.

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Thesis William Shakespeare’s Othello, The Moor of Venice should be labeled as an Aristotelian tragedy due to his portrayal of Othello as a tragic hero. Shakespeare portrays Othello in a light that causes the reader to see his character in both a positive and negative light by first casting him as someone who commits terrible wrongs but without evil intentions, also as someone who is to be both feared and pitied, and finally as someone whose righteousness becomes arrogance, leading to a fatal flaw, all of which go along with Aristotle’s views of Greek tragedy. Outline I. Introduction/Thesis II. Othello made terrible wrongs III.

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In Shakespeare’s play Othello, Othello, a renowned and respected character, is duped by a vengeful Iago, causing his title and position to be stripped away. He ultimately participates in some unbelievable acts, including the murder of his own wife. Shakspeare explores the idea that appearances can be misleading throughout the play. It leads characters to perceive or behave in ways that are not in line with their inner emotions. Iago’s exchanges with Cassio, Roderigo, and Othello, closely prove the theme appearances can be deceiving.

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The following passage is significant to the play ‘Othello’ in retrospect to the plot progression, as it reiterates themes and introduces important facets to the plot development. Through Iago’s cunning manipulation and Shakespeare’s crafting of language, this passage is constructed as a pivotal point of the play, marking the transition of Othello’s personality and revealing his deepest insecurities that eventually lead to his downfall and tragic ending. Iago wields a lot of power over all the characters throughout the play, but in this passage in particular he is presented at his most powerful. The passage is riddled with subtle suggestions and insinuations by Iago to raise Othello’s suspicions of his wife’s fidelity, opening with the admonition to “beware, my lord, of jealousy!

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The Merchant of Venice, is one of Shakespeare's most well known plays, but also one of the most controversial because some people think that it it anti-semitic. The Merchant of Venice is anti-semitic because you can see how poorly they treat Shylock, you don’t see any Christians being treated this poorly, the Jews are very much segregated out, and the courtroom is full of Christians voting to help Antonio, but no Jews there for Shylock. Throughout the play, Shylock and all the other Jews, get treated extremely poorly. In all of the scenes Shylock is in, he is getting spat at, called names, talked down to.

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To be or not to be morally ambiguous is to have the lack of coherence in making moral life decisions. In Shakespeare's play Hamlet, the main character Hamlet goes through a great transformation. Hamlet seeks revenge toward Claudius who he believes killed his father for the throne. In many of Shakespeare’s play there is always a hero and a villain, but in Hamlet, Hamlet plays a pivotal role because he can be viewed as both the hero and the villain. Hamlet is seen as a morally ambiguous character due to the decisions he makes throughout the plot of the novel that ends up leading him to his demise.

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On the one hand, it is difficult for the audience not to feel a certain degree of sympathy towards a man who has endured as much loss and punishment as Shylock suffers by the end of the play. He leaves the courthouse broken and broke, with half his wealth in the hands of the city and half in the hands of the man he hates, Antonio. Antonio further humiliates him by having Shylock convert to Christianity if he wishes his wealth be left to Jessica, his daughter, and not Antonio. Jessica, meanwhile, has left him and his faith behind, converting to Christianity herself and eloping with Lorenzo. On the other hand, not all of the hatred on display against Shylock is completely unwarranted.

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The article attempts to read Shakespeare in a New-Historicist perspective. We find Shakespeare’s Othello as a literary deviation of history. Consequently, the text is decentered on a contesting principle. By contest, we mean a reference to Shakespeare’s New-Historicist perception of history. Shakespeare contests and doubts the historical Othello who in fact led the readers into finding resemblances with King James I.

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In the story, “The Merchant of Venice,” there is a character named Shylock. Shylock is a Jewish citizen who lives in Venice, a place where Jewish people are one of the lowest class of citizens. This piece by Shakespeare creates this controversial character that can be viewed as a villain or victim. In this play, through the archetypal lense, we can see that Shylock is a villain because of his hatred and his desire for revenge. Some people may see Shylock as a victim because during the time period in which the story is wrote, jewish people were treated like animals and given nearly no rights or role in society.

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This play consists of a lot many themes. To cite a few: Rewriting the tale of Cinderella and Sleeping beauty, Class, language and phonetics and Independence. But in this paper, I would like to work on the feminist aspect of this play for this aspect, is the one which impressed me more. As this paper is based on Gender analysis I am restricting my analysis to the theme of Feminism in this play.

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I plan to dive deeper into the making of the Jew in this paper. The Merchant of Venice is a play spurred into action by love and to a far extent by hate. Hate has been associated usually with Shylock ,it was hate which made him exact revenge through his profession, however, evidence points it to all of the characters of the play. It was hate which made him exact revenge through his profession.

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In Merchant of Venice, a romantic comedy written by Shakespeare, Shylock, a man of Jewish faith, is portrayed as the villain and obstacle of the tale. Many have argued that the play was written as an anti-Semitic piece of work because of the portrayal of Shylock. Anti-Semitism is the hatred, prejudice or discrimination of Jews in all aspects of their lives, and this treatment is clearly seen being thrown onto Shylock by one of the main protagonists, Antonio. One must ask the question now, if the role of Shylock is simply to be the villain. I say this because there is a reason as to why Shylock is a villain in the first place; the treatment of Shylock by our good hearted Christian, Antonio.

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