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The Merchant Of Venice As A Comedy Analysis

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It could perfectly be considered a comedy because of all the generic features present in that genre. On the other hand, it also contains gloomy elements. Some example of this is Shylock’s desire for the alternate mode of payment on the debt, the pound of flesh from Antonio. Because of this various elements, attempting to categorize The Merchant of Venice into just one genre can get a little confusing. First, what is comedy and what is tragedy. According to TurtorVision.com, “comedy is a type of drama that is intended to amuse, usually with a happy ending. The central character of a comedy is usually an ordinary character that faces conflicts that arise from misunderstandings or mistaken identities but overcomes them, and the play ends with a happy resolution.” (TutorVision) and tragedy is “a drama that ends in the downfall of its main character… The hero’s downfall is meant to inspire audiences to examine their own lives, to define their beliefs, and to cleanse their emotions of pity and terror through compassion for the character.” (TutorVista). The difference in the two genres is very evident, mainly because in a comedy the protagonists end with a happy ending, but in a tragedy the …show more content…

In The Merchant of Venice that comic relief came in the form of Launcelot Gobbo. “LAUNCELOT. Ergo, Master Launcelot. Talk not of Master Launcelot, father; for the young gentleman, according to Fates and Destinies and such odd sayings, the Sisters three and such branches of learning, is indeed deceased; or, as you would say in plain terms, gone to heaven. GOBBO. Marry, God forbid! The boy was the very staff of my age, my very prop.” (Shakespeare 316). This character was a clown that would tell jokes to lighten the moon in his occasional conversations. The presence of a fool or clown in stories is proof that this is not a tragedy, as the tone is too serious to incorporate

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It needs to be in there and part of the performance. And it helps to remember that even the darkest play was meant to be entertaining.” This shows that Randy Murray’s article explains that highbrow and lowbrow humor is needed to please the groundlings and the merchants. Many of the groundlings were not educated so they needed

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According to A.C. Bradley, Shakespearean tragedy have the following elements “although a tragedy may have many characters, it is pre-eminently the story of one person or at most two. The story leads up to and included the death of the hero. The story depicts also the troubled part of the hero’s life which precede’s and leads up to his death. The hero is a conspicuous person, a person of high degree. The suffering and calamity are exceptional, of a striking kind.

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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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