Merchant of Venice project post

In my opinion, my project went very well. I thought I covered the subject sufficiently and I am impressed with my essay. I was rather satisfied with my project, but there are a few areas where I would like to improve. First, I could have been more specific with my examples of cost infliction checks. The students seem to have gotten the concept, but I felt my delivery was slightly lacking. Second, there were many places where I felt that I hadn’t gone in depth enough, such as cost infliction checks once again. Third, my articulation was flawed. Overall though, I am extremely happy with how the presentation and essay turned out.

Merchant of Venice final

In the Merchant of Venice, Shylock is A Jewish moneylender who, depending on who you talk to, functions either as a protagonist or antagonist in the story. The most interesting part of this character is the fact that despite him fitting the Elizabethan stereotype of jews nearly perfectly, he is arguably the most complex character in the entire play. Despite how easy it would have been for Shakespeare, a man who was not at all sympathetic towards Jews, to make him into another flat Don John, he made the character relatable. While Shylock sought vengeance, his motives made sense and were even validated by the story itself multiple times. Of course, if you go be the traditional Shakespeare play structure, Shylock is obviously the antagonist, but he is complex enough to make observers sympathize with him more than the intended protagonists. His anger, as fierce as it is, is very similar to the way most of us feel anger, which allows us to connect with Shylock much more easily than the other characters who live lives of luxury and nobility. Comparing Shylock’s story of rapid transition of power, loss, and ruin to Antonio’s story of just constantly screwing up and being rescued out of nowhere makes me connect much more with Shylock as a character because I understand his predicament. With Antonio, I can’t help but feel like he deserved at least some kind of punishment.

Merchant of Venice post 3

Personally, I do not think Shylock deserved his punishment at all. Simply denying the sentence is already plenty, destroying his livelihood over attempted revenge against someone who not only was a thorn in his side since his maturation, but also gave him the idea in the first place is a bit much. I am most definitely highly biased, as Shylock is one of my favorite characters in theater, but taking him out of work, making him forfeit his religion, and forcing his forfeit of half his estate does not seem just, let alone merciful. Quite hypocritical considering Portia’s speech was all about mercy, but I suppose that if Shylock gave none, the court might also give none. If I were observing this in the Victorian era, however, I would have thought that he deserved the sentence, and not because of his religion. Assuming that I would have been Christian, the concept of mercy would have been much more valuable to me than it is now. My personality favors justice and retribution over mercy and absolution, but had I been raised rigorously as a Christian, my outlook would have been significantly different. This would mean that seeing Shylock’s cold want for revenge would make the punishment seem sufficient. At first glance, this seems strange, after all, if I had considered mercy important, would I not see it fit to give Shylock mercy as well? Possibly, but it is the contents of the punishment that matter. Making Shylock a Christian, assuming he took the punishment seriously, would mean educating him in the Christian ideal of mercy, something which had I been raised at that time, I would consider important. Of course, as I have not been raised as a Christian, I do not know whether or not I would think this way, but This is my hypothesis.

Merchant of Venice post 2

In terms of who is the protagonist, it definitely seems that Antonio was intended to be the protagonist. He is made out to be the righteous, virtuous Christian that was antagonized by a moneylending Jew. Then, it was obvious, but now, with a significantly less prejudiced population, the lines aren’t that clear. Shylock seems wicked, but is written in a way so that the observer feels sympathy for him. Everything he does feels justified and his hardships make you feel empathy for the character. The “good Christian’s” deception makes this clear, Shylock was punished for attempting to finally have his revenge against a man who attempted to destroy his livelihood and ruin his reputation multiple times. Instead of being able to exact his revenge, he was punished further on a technicality. Shylock feels more like a rounded dynamic character than anyone else, as he feels emotion and drive unlike the others, and he is the only one who acts predictably like a person would while Antonio is a stock, flat character.