1 / 9

The Merchant of Venice

The Merchant of Venice. By William Shakespeare. Sources. The Merchant of Venice combines two folk-tales: The story of a savage creditor who tries to obtain a pound of human flesh as payment for a debt; and

domani
Download Presentation

The Merchant of Venice

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. The Merchant of Venice By William Shakespeare

  2. Sources • The Merchant of Venice combines two folk-tales: • The story of a savage creditor who tries to obtain a pound of human flesh as payment for a debt; and • The story of a lover who gains his lady because he chooses the right casket among three in a riddle game. • Shakespeare’s immediate sources are the first story of the fourth day in Ser Giovanni’s prose collection Il Pecorone, a lost play called The Jew, and GestaRomanorum. • Shakespeare was also influenced by Christopher Marlowe’s wildly successful tragedy The Jew of Malta (1589).

  3. Placement in Shakespeare’s Canon • The Merchant of Venice was written in either 1596 or 1597. • This was just after he had written Romeo and Juliet and Richard III. • However, this was before he wrote his four great tragedies ( King Lear, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth) and before his great middle period comedies ( A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, and The Merry Wives of Windsor)

  4. Why are we reading this? • Portia was Shakespeare’s first great heroine. • Shylock is Shakespeare’s first great villain. • Deals with themes that are very relevant to you today: Selfishness versus love, Mercy for others, and racisim (i.e. anti-semitism).

  5. Anti-Semitism in Shakespeare’s time • Scholars argue that Shakespeare was not actually anti- Semitic. • His plays were merely a reflection of the treatment of Jewish people in 16th C England. • Jews were banished from England for three centuries, since the reign of Edward I.

  6. Anti-Semitism contd. • In 1594, Roderigo Lopez, a Portuguese Jew who had been Queen Elizabeth’s physician, was tried and executed for his part in a supposed poisoning plot aimed against her.

  7. Male Characters (1/2) • Antonio: a merchant of Venice • Bassanio: his friend, suitor to Portia • Solanio, Gratiano, Salerio: friends to Antonio and Bassanio • Lorenzo: in love with Jessica • Shylock: a rich Jew

  8. Male Characters (2/2) • Tubal: a Jew, his friend • LauncelotGobbo: a clown, servant to Shylock • Old Gobbo: father to Launcelot • Leonardo: servant to Bassanio • Balthazar and Stephano: servants to Portia

  9. Female Characters and Others • Portia: a rich heiress of Belmont • Nerissa: her waiting-gentlewoman ( lady-in waiting and confidant) • Jessica: daughter to Shylock • The Duke of Venice, Prince of Morocco, Prince of Arragon: suitors for Portia

More Related