Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant that had an extraordinary life. As a young adult‚ Marco would begin a monumental journey that would span continents and would solidify his place in history. His story would become wildly popular and spark many imaginations when it was dictated to and written down by Rustichello da Pisa‚ in The Travels of Marco Polo (c.1300). Along with his father and uncle‚ Marco set out for the seat of Kublai Khan at Khanbaliq‚ Cathay. During the 17 years Marco was in Kublai’s
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Lord Byron called Venice (Venezia) "a fairy city of the heart." La Serenissima‚ "The Most Serene‚" is an improbable cityscape of stone palaces that seem to float on water‚ a place where cats nap on Oriental marble windowsills set in colorful plaster walls. Candy-striped pylons stand sentry outside the tiny stone docks of palazzi whose front steps descend into the gently lapping waters of the canals that lace the city. In Venice‚ cars are banned -- every form of transportation floats‚ from water
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founded by Muhammad‚ an Arab merchant‚ in the 7th century CE. Jesus‚ a Jewish carpenter‚ founded Christianity in the Roman Empire during the 1st century CE. Initially‚ Muslims promoted trade while Christians had a negative view of merchants and trade. By 1500 CE‚ however‚ it became evident that these attitudes had become increasingly similar‚ with Muslims more skeptical of trade and Christians being more tolerant towards it. Muslims seem to have had a favorable view of merchants. The Qu’ran states that
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let the forfeit Be nominated for an equal pound Of your fair flesh‚ to be cut off and taken In what part of your body pleaseth me. ANTONIO Content‚ in faith; I ’ll seal to such a bond‚ And say there is much kindness in the Jew. (Shylock‚ The Merchant of Venice). The term “antiSemite” was first used in 1860 by Moritz Steinschneider an Austrian Jewish scholar. Steinschneider used this phrase to characterize Ernest Renan ’s (A
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portrayed in the fiction novels "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee and "The Merchant of Venice" by William Shakespeare. From Shakespeare’s time to the present day‚ racism and prejudice will always be a factor in the judgement society faces. The characters in "To Kill A Mockingbird" Tom Robinson and Aunt Alexandra are both victims and perpetrators along with Jessica and the prince of Maroco from "The Merchant of Venice." Aunt Alexandra is a prime example of a racist and a perpetrator. She judges
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A villain is a wicked person or a criminal. The question is does Shakespare portray Shylock‚ the Jewish moneylender as more of a villain than a victim in "The Merchant of Venice" The first scene is one of the main scences in which Shylock could be seen more as a victim. In this scence Bassanio goes to Antonio‚ a merchant of Venice and his good friend. Bassianio asks Antonio if he is able to lend him some money. Antonio promises him the money if he is able to borrow it. Then both Bassanio and
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To what extent does Shakespeare present Shylock as a victim? In the ‘Merchant of Venice’ Shakespeare makes it very difficult for us to define who is the victim and who is the villain as certain characters‚ such as Shylock reveal many personalities and therefore portray elements of both the victim and the villain. We are first introduced to Shylock in Act 1 scene 3. In this scene it is quickly made apparent that Shlyock enjoys power‚ especially over Bassanio and likes watching him suffer. This
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which the Portuguese‚ Spanish‚ French‚ Dutch and English built kingdoms that required continued expansion and that warred with each other for control of territories and commercial networks. An important theme of the chapter is the growing role of merchants who got rich by partnering with the warlord of Europe for their mutual benefit. Read this guide and the chapter with an eyes to identifying the five major forces we are using in our class to interpret the rise of Europe: Predatory State = political
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How does Shakespeare present strong feelings about love in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘The Merchant of Venice’ In Romeo and Juliet and The Merchant of Venice There are many examples of strong love. The two most prominent examples of strong love are romantic love and unrequited love. In Romeo and Juliet‚ there appears to be more examples of unrequited love than that of romantic love‚ despite the main theme of the play being the romantic love between Romeo and Juliet. The unrequited love between Romeo
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Consider the relationship between homosocial and homoerotic in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice and A Twelfth Night. “To talk of an Individual in this period as being or not being a ‘homosexual’ is an anachronism and ruinously misleading” (Bray‚ 1982‚ pg. 16) Before a solid argument can commence the reader has to first distinguish a number of key points of view‚ and more over understand them. The problem with such arguments is of course the hurdle between contemporary opinions and
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