Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

Shakespeare: Merchant of Venicw

Good Essays
529 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Shakespeare: Merchant of Venicw
“But love is blind, and lovers cannot see
The pretty follies that themselves commit;
For if they could, Cupid himself would blush
To see me thus transformed to a boy” (Shakespeare, 37).

The play The Merchant of Venice lays a huge emphasis on love and how it ultimately makes us human. Love is portrayed in many ways. There is love between family, friends and lovers. Each of the relationships in the play can teach us a lesson. We see in Antonio and Bassanio’s relationship that love may not always be returned in the same capacity. In Bassanio and Portia’s relationship we learn that love isn’t necessarily always about affection, it can just be a means of moving ahead. In Jessica and Lorenzo’s love we discover that love can be a means of escape to change a life forever.
Antonio, one of the main characters in The Merchant of Venice clearly loves Bassanio. What I don’t understand is if the love between these two is shared, equal, or completely misunderstood. Antonio is willing to sacrifice his life in-order for Bassanio to be with his love. He even forgives Bassanio of his previous debt. Bassanio on the other hand, throughout the whole play is only concerned with himself. He only cares about marrying Portia and sharing in her inheritance. Antonio might see his love in competition with Portia’s love. The only place where I see any sort of affection from Bassanio is when he gets news of Antonio’s trial. This just goes to show that sometimes love is not returned in the same capacity.
Portia may or may not love Bassanio. Judging from her talking about the Hercules myth, we know she knows he was using her to get to her money. Behaving, as a sensible woman, she over looks this. She convinces herself to care for him anyway. She is making the best of a bad situation. I think that the love between Portia and Bassanio is completely misunderstood. One is using the other for money; the other knows about this but continues with the relationship. This goes to show that sometimes love is about how you can move ahead.
Jessica and Lorenzo’s love is very interesting. One is looking for an escape and the other could be looking for fortune. Jessica is a Jew and the daughter of Shylock. Lorenzo is a Christian and a friend of Bassanio and Antonio. Jessica runs away from her father, with his fortune to be with Lorenzo. Lorenzo accepts her hoping to convert her to Christianity. This shows that love can be a means of escape that can save your life.
People in Shakespeare’s time are loyal and wise. They care about relationships and living in the present. Love is a big deal in their pursuit of humanness. Being the right kind of person will help you love and act a certain type of way. This is ultimately what Shakespeare wants us to take away from all these complicated relationships. Before you can love you have to work on yourself first.

Shakespeare, William and A.R Braunmuller. The Merchant of Venice. New York: Penguin Group, 2000.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    There are infinite ways to define love. Love has become such an ambiguous and vague term, though it is one of the most recognizable of human emotions. It has existed as far back as humans remember and love has been a source of interest and inspiration in the Arts, Religion, Sciences, and most popularly, in Literature. The most memorable and popular work of love is William Shakespeare’s tragic Romeo & Juliet. What is so remarkable about this play is its bold exploration of different types of love. Traditionally, Romeo and Juliet’s love has been portrayed as ‘true’ but Shakespeare makes an effort to expose the vain love that exists in his Verona. Romeo and Juliet’s love is superficial; true love requires maturity, a foundation, and time; all of which are lacking in their romance.…

    • 1000 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Othello did not love Desdemona "wisely," for he was unable to understand that his original love was not adequate to be sustainable. On the quality of the love between Desdemona and Othello, he claimed that "She lov 'd me for the dangers I had pass 'd, And I lov 'd her that she did pity them," which is evidence of Othello loving his own grandeur reflected in Desdemona 's enthralled eyes and not a profoundly tender, passionate…

    • 690 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cosi Exam Notes

    • 3733 Words
    • 15 Pages

    Love is not just the central theme of the opera, but also the central theme of Cosi. The particular aspect of love that is the focus of both musical and play is fidelity: the notion of faithfulness, commitment and loyalty. The play explores many aspects of the theme of love and fidelity, and the characters present slightly…

    • 3733 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In The Taming of the Shrew, love intertwines with money. It clearly relays that a man can easily have a woman through wealth; as long as a man is thriving, he can pursue any woman and attain her with no physical effort.Baptista involves a comparison of riches between Gremio and Hortensio for Bianca’s hand. Baptista says to Lucentio, who is actually Tranio, that he “plays a merchant's part and venture madly on a desperate mart” (Shakespeare 2.1.345-346). That signifies how Baptista is desperate to negotiate the marriage of Bianca. Although that could make some audience feel compassion towards Bianca, her prejudice towards Hortensio makes her obnoxious. It seems like she is more amiable and communicative to Hortensio, but it seems like it is…

    • 141 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the play `Romeo and Juliet` the writer William Shakespeare uses the theme of love as a main feature to push the story along. Presented are a plethora of variations of love including family love, true love and courtly love. This essay aims to analyse these three types of love chosen.…

    • 2529 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    17. What does Bassanio’s reluctance to allow Antonio to agree to Shylock’s bond reveal about him?…

    • 2284 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Essay Romeo and Juliet

    • 1543 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The play was set in romantic Italy and has various different themes explored by Shakespeare which portray his views on different aspects of life. The main theme that this essay will be focusing on is exploring the different types of love and how they run throughout the play.…

    • 1543 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    First of all, the relationship between Othello and Desdemona is weak because it is merely based on pity and not true love. Othello tells the Duke of Venice about how his love for Desdemona began after he was accused of eloping and marrying her without her consent.…

    • 858 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The relationship between the two may also be one not only of lust and love, but a relationship reflecting the way in which women were viewed in an Elizabethan context. Othello contradicts himself by ironically saying that he was "one that loved not wisely, but too well" despite having doubted and killed…

    • 783 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The prince studies the inscriptions on the three caskets and chooses the gold one, which proves to be an incorrect choice. In Venice, Shylock is furious to find that his daughter has run away, but rejoices in the fact that Antonio’s ships are rumored to have been wrecked and that he will soon be able to claim his debt. In Belmont, the prince of Aragon also visits Portia. He, too, studies the caskets carefully, but he picks the silver one, which is also incorrect. Bassanio arrives at Portia’s estate, and they declare their love for one another. Despite Portia’s request that he wait before choosing, Bassanio immediately picks the correct casket, which is made of lead. He and Portia rejoice, and Graziano confesses that he has fallen in love with Nerissa. The couples decide on a double wedding. Portia gives Bassanio a ring as a token of love, and makes him swear that under no circumstances will he part with it. They are joined, unexpectedly, by Lorenzo and Jessica. The celebration, however, is cut short by the news that Antonio has indeed lost his ships, and that he has forfeited his bond to Shylock. Bassanio and Graziano immediately travel to Venice to try and save Antonio’s life. After they leave, Portia tells Nerissa that they will go to Venice disguised as…

    • 5051 Words
    • 21 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Romeo and Juliet is a well known tragedy by the great 16-17th century playwright William Shakespeare. Various dramatisations and films have been made of this famous text such as Franco Zeffirelli’s classic historical version, and Baz Luhrmann’s modern spin on the story, but each of these still retain the original words written by the Bard. This play was one of Shakespeare’s earlier texts – written in about 1595, and is very firmly themed around love. This essay will explore the different areas of this theme and discuss how Shakespeare presents love in different ways.…

    • 3589 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    This essay talks about the role of love as it used in Shakespeare’s comedies. It directly talks about “Much Ado about Nothing” and “Twelfth Night”, and how they use love in their stories. “Shakespeare expects us to accept wonder as having some kind of value in itself and in its relations to the action that has gone before. We are presented with the wonderful as an incitement to knowledge and to pleasure; and we are asked also to consider the dramatic fact that those who participate in the happy ending must be ready to set aside their human confinement to the probable and accept an intrusion of the improbable into their lives.” (262-263) Wonder and love are on equal footing in Shakespeare. He expects us to accept that the characters fall in love with each other as well. Love is a vital part of every romantic comedy whether it’s a play written by Shakespeare or a movie like “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days”. The essay also makes a note of how the characters change through the plays and compares how it works in both stories. The author of the essay…

    • 301 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Comparative Essay Example

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages

    One of the themes Shakespeare explores in his plays is the way Romance works. In Romeo and Juliet, the young couple meet at a party at her house, and fall almost instantly in love, but they have a problem, right from the start. Their parents are feuding, and they cannot be together because of the hate between the families. Similarly, in Merchant of Venice, Bassanio falls in love with the rich and beautiful Portia, and they also start with a problem. She lives far away in Belmont, and he is too poor to see and woo her. In Romeo and Juliet, things get even worse when Romeo kills Juliet’s cousin Tybalt. Now they are still in love, but he is banished from Verona. But Bassanio’s romantic life improves when Antonio helps him to borrow money, and he is able to win the casket lottery and marry Portia. The “star crossed lovers” romance ends in tragedy when Juliet is found “bleeding, warm and newly dead” (Shakespeare 5.3.175) after she kills…

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are different intents to illustrate in each of Shakespeare's plays. In one of his plays, The Merchant of Venice, his intent was to illustrate that whatever you do to a person or to a group at the start, will always come back to you at the end. (karma) However, if we take an honest look at those thing that we have done, it doesn't always come back as the same. Just as judging a person by the cover isn't always right, you need to dig deeper into him, become friends with him, and give more time to realize he isn't what you thought he was. The protagonists in The Merchant of Venice, Shylock, Bassanio, Antonio, and Portia, has deal with this kind of issues. They demonstrate in the play that it is important to know what family really wants, abide the roles of parents, and the courage to do anything for friends. Also the revenge between antagonist and protagonist, because it could truly foreshadow the events that will happen to you later on.…

    • 913 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Love is a dominant theme in Merchant of Venice. It actually is the umbrella of other sub-themes, which are love of friends, love of family and love of lovers. Shakespeare gives more focus to these themes as they are significant and serious issues in life, thus giving his play a universal approach that fits everywhere and when. The irony, however, is that there is no real love shown in these relations. One can notice that love is associated with self-interest or with the love of money, not the others. Shakespeare clearly depicts the theme money and love in the relations between lovers and family members.…

    • 779 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays