In His Sublime Name Deconstructive study of Act 5 of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice

1. In His Sublime Name Deconstructive study of Act 5 of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice FatemehAghaei – Saba Parvaresh Fall of 2013

2. Summary Act 5 Act 5 opens on an avenue in Belmont near Portia's house with Lorenzo and Jessica. Lorenzo and Jessica are waiting for Portia to return. Lorenzo comments about the beautiful evening and how it is so perfect a night for historical lovers and for themselves. Stephano enters the scene. He states he is a friend and carries a message that Portia will be back by dawn. Launcelot walks onto the scene with the news that Bassanio will also arrive before dawn. Lorenzo asks Stephano to go into the house and request the musicians to come out to play .

3. Portia and Nerissa come to the house as the music plays. A trumpet sounds informing them that Bassanio is near. Bassanio, Gratiano and Antonio enter the scene. Nerissa notes the absence of Gratiano’s ring. Bassanio also admits to giving away his ring to the judge. After much teasing, the women tell the story of dressing up as judge and his clerk. Portia gives Antonio the news that his ships are safe and Nerissa gives Lorenzo and Jessica the dead promising Shylocks wealth to them after his death.

4. The elements found in Act 5 • Phallogocentrism • Logocentrism

5. Phallogocentrism Phallogocentrismis coined by Derrida to refer to the privileging of the masculine in the construction of meaning. phallocentrism is the term he uses to describe the way logocentrism itself has been genderized by a "masculinist" and "patriarchal" agenda. Hence, Derrida intentionally merges the two terms phallocentrism and logocentrism as “phallogocentrism”.

6. Portia burdens the guy with the gift of a ring which she uses to convert this first gift to a loan, a bond, which can be forfeit, but even in imposing that qualification she brings it off as a generous act. It is this power of giving, of placing someone in one’s debt, that allows her to so easily gain the ring from Bassanio. Bassanio, understanding the gift in the same way, feels that he has transgressed the rules of gift receiving:

7. “ I were best to cut my left hand off/ and I swear I lost the ring defending it.” Act 5 And his remorse and shame give Portia yet more power over him. She has shown him mercy, and she thinks, in return she can take power. Portia uses gift-giving to gain power over others; but we can see that Bassanio suggests only cutting his left hand off, indicating that at this point the power that Portia has over him may not supersede the already existing power he has over her by courtesy of their respective positions within a patriarchal society.

8. Underlying his unwillingness to part with his right hand maybe “man’s assumption that men are superior to women, that is men who save each other”. Portia as a woman- an other- deserve the sacrifice of only the other hand!

9. Logocentrism Derrida names the Western proclivity for desiring a center logocentrism, the belief that an ultimate reality or center of truth exists and can serve as the basis for all our thoughts and actions. opinion held by the public that they consider something as an ideal could which no other person oppose it. Derrida asserts that western discourses generally tend to impose hierarchies of power by defining certain concepts against necessarily subordinated alternatives. Extending this critique to logocentrism, Derrida notes the tendency in western philosophy and semiotics to value the signifier as opposed to the thing it signifies in what he calls a “metaphysics of presence.”

10. During the whole play it can be seen that people make logo out of money, power, wealth, law and etc, to name a few. Gratiano speaks about his ring this way: Portia: what's the matter? Gratiano: About a hoop of gold, a paltry ring That she did give me, whose posy was For all the world like cutler’s poetry Upon a knife’ love me and leave me not; Act5 Maybe it shows that his mind is logocentric and he thinks of ring’s price not true value of ring and its spiritual worth.

11. It seems that Jessica and Portia don’t keep boundaries and deconstruct these logos. LORENZO: In such a night Did Jessica steal from the wealthy Jew And with an unthrift love did run from Venice As far as Belmont. Act5

12. Jessica by leaving her wealthy father and in order to be independent and make decision for her life, deconstructs the established rules in her society. Also Portia is limited by her circumstances as a woman and has to obey her dad and navigate relationships with men(like Bassanio) who wants her for money. But she manages to play by society’s rules while having a lot of fun twisting said rules to her own advantage.

13. WWW.Wikipedia.com • Bresler, literary criticism • Shakespearian play: deconstructive readings of The Merchant Of Venice- university of Pretoria etd- van Niekerk, MC (2003)- MarthinusChristoffer Van Niekerk.