-The moon shines
bright: in ‘such a night’ as thus.
When the sweet
wind did gently kiss the trees.
And they did make
no noise.-
It is a genre, in which Shakespeare is a master. For the
other great comedy of the world’s literature, the comedy of Moliere or Ben
Jonson, is different in kind to his. The
play, ‘The Merchant of Venice’, resolves itself purely into a simple form. It
illustrates the clash between the emotional and the intellectual characters,
the man of heart and the man of brain. The man of heart, Antonio, is obsessed
by tenderness for his friend. The man of brain is obsessed by lust to uphold
intellect in a thoughtless world that makes intellect bitter in every age. Shylock,
is a man of intellect, who born into a despised race. It is a tragedy, that the
generous Gentiles about him can be generous to everything, except to intellect
and Jewish blood. Intellect and Jewish blood are too proud to attempt to understand
the Gentiles who cannot understand. Shylock is a proud man. The Gentiles, who are
neither proud nor intellect, spit upon him and flout him.
“How like a fawning
publican he looks!
I hate him for he is
a Christian;
But more that in low
simplicity
He lends out money gratis,
and brings down
The rate of usance
here with us in Venice.”
All we can say, is that in the tragedies,
the dramatist seeks to entertain generally mainly by playing on our capacity to
shudder and shed tears whereas in the comedies are the Elizabethan feelings,
whether humorous or sentimental. Shakespeare
has a careful selection of the titles of his plays. His tragedies and historic
plays are named after the central character of the play. His comedies on the
other hand, are named after weak and passive characters; similar is the case
with the present play. It has been named after Antonio, the merchant of Venice,
a weak and passive character suffering from nameless melancholy. As with
character, so with the feelings, the gaiety and folly and pensive sentiments of
love are portrayed to the life, but not its pain, nor its mystery-its
profounder influence on the character of the lover.
“Let me play the
fool:
With mirth and
laughter let old wrinkles come,
And let my liver
rather heat with wine
Than my heart cool
with mortifying groans.
Why should a man, whose
blood is warm within,
Sleep when he wakes ,
and creep into the jaundice
By being peevish?”
If there is a moment of anxiety or sorrow, it passes and leaves
no mark when things go well again. Melancholy Antonio is so not very melancholy
at the end of the play, though he has been in danger of a dreadful death hours
before. Shakespeare has been regarded as a master of opening scenes. No matter what terms we may use, the fact
cannot be denied that an author, while portraying life and human nature in his
work, gives his own point of view to us in the process. Every author looks a
life from a certain angle, and that determines the kind of reality he depicts
in his work.
“Then let us say you
are sad
Because you are not
merry: and ‘twere as easy
For you to laugh and
leap, and say you are merry
Because you are not
sad.”
The opening scene of play’ The Merchant of Venice’ fully
illustrates this view. The play simply begins on a street in Venice. Antonio , the
protagonist, a rich and prosperous merchant appears as a kind of a brooding man,
who says that he regards this world as the stage of a theatre on which every
man has to play a certain role, his own role being a sad man.
“ I hold the world
but as the world, Gratiano;
A stage where every
man must play a part,
And mine a sad one.”
Gratiano, another friend, who says in contrast that he would
like to play the role of a happy and jovial man wanting that the wrinkles of
old age should come to him with mirth and laughter. He ridicules the man who is
too serious and solemn, and who pretends to be “Sir Oracle”, wanting all others
to become silent when he is about to open his mouth to speak.
“I’ll tell thee more
of this another time:
But fish not, with
this melancholy bait,
For this fool-gudgeon,
this opinion.”
Salerino and Solanio, other friends, are talkative persons
as Gratiano is, though Gratiano has more wit and is more glib-tongued than
they. Solanio says that he too would be feeling melancholy at this time if his
ships were sailing upon the sea; and Salerino
elaborates this view as his speech contains of vivid pictures of a ship
being tossed by the sea-waves and getting struck in shallow waters or
over-turning after a collision with dangerous rocks.
“Should I go to
church
And see the holy
edifice of stone,
And not bethink me
straight of dangerous rocks,
Which touching but my
gentle vessel’s side
Would scatter all her
spices on the stream,
Enrobe the roaring
waters with my silks..”
Salerino, in another speech is
reasonably distinguishes now between the two kind of men, those who are always melancholy
and sullen, those who are always laughing and chattering.
“Nature hath fram’d
strange fellows in her time:
Some that will evermore
peep through their eyes,
And laugh like
parrots at a bag-piper;
And other of such
vinegar aspect
That they’ll not show
their teeth in the way of smile,
Though Nestor swear
the jest be laughable’’..
Bassanio, Antonio’s best friend, however, is a prodigal young
intelligent man, is also romantic with an enterprising and adventurous spirit.
He wants to try his luck at Belmont but he has no money. He had previously
taken a loan from Antonio, whom he has not yet repaid. He now asks him for again,
another loan. He has an ingenious and fertile mind therefore too. Asking for a
second loan, he refers over here to one of his boyhood habits. He says that
whenever as a school-boy he lost one arrow, he used to shoot another arrow in
the same direction, succeeding in finding the first arrow, besides recovering
the second.
..”I donot doubt,
(As I will watch the
aim) to find both,
Or bring your latter
hazard back again,
And thankfully rest debtor
for the first.”
This scene, further introduces to the play’s compassionate
natured heroine, Portia, who is quite obviously resourceful and confident of
herself can able to take quick decisions to put them into action with
intelligent plans. She has been much praised during two centuries of
criticisms. She is one of the smiling things created in the large and gentle
mood that moved Shakespeare to comedy. The scene in the fifth act, where the
two women, coming home from Venice by night, see the candle burning in the
hall, as they draw near, is full of naturalness that makes beauty quicken at
heart.
“The man that hath no
music in himself,
Nor is not moved with
concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons,
strategems, and spoils;”
However, though not directly, but through Bassanio’s
description of her in the opening scene, he is speaking to Antonio about his to
go to Belmont in an effort to win ‘her’. In this description, loyal Portia is here
described as “a lady richly left”, as “fair, and, fairer than that word”, and
“of wondrous virtues.” Bassanio becomes eloquent when he goes on to describe
her:
“Her name is Portia;
nothing undervalu’d
To Cato’s daughter,
Brutus’ Portia;
Nor is the wide world
ignorant of her worth,
For the four winds
blow in from every coast
Renowned suitors;”..
Of the mature comedy, the foundations of the major stories
of the play hence have been laid very clearly and firmly. Indeed, Shakespeare became
successful in his skill of becoming an architect who had built up the plots
with his many-sided genius in the portrayal of his characters. It is wonderful
that Shakespeare has built up this play in such a way that the impacts of each
of ‘the two stories’ are found in the opening scene.
‘The Merchant of Venice ‘consists of four plots- two major
and two minor, so intricately interwoven to form one whole integrated story.
The two main plots comprise ‘The Bond Story’ and ‘The Lottery of Caskets’.
These two plots are closely interlinked.
The main plot of this play pertains to Antonio and the Jew and money-lender,
and of the bond that Antonio sighs and subsequently forfeits. This story is
known as ‘The Bond Story’.
“Why thou-loss upon loss!
the thief gone so much,
And so much to find
the thief; and no satisfaction,
No revenge: nor no
ill luck stirring but what lights
O’ my shoulders; no
sighs but o’ my breathing;
No tears but o’ my
shedding.”
The other major story pertains to the will left by Portia’s father,
laying down the condition which a suitor of Portia must fulfil before he can
claim Portia’s hand in marriage. This is known as ‘’The Casket Story”.
“O my Antonio, had I
but the means
To hold a rival place
with one of them,
I have a mind presage
me such thrift
That I should
questionless be fortunate.”
Bassanio, asks therefore for a loan of three thousand ducats
from Antonio in order to be able to go to Belmont to try to win Portia as his
wife. Antonio, who has no cash in hand, hence asks Bassanio to borrow money in
his name as the guarantor from some money-lender or merchant. Both the stories hence
have been set afoot at the same time and the stories have closely interwoven
also. Without the one, the other has no obvious significance of its own.
“You know me well,
and herein spend but time
To wind about my love
with circumstance;
And out of doubt you
do me now more wrong
In making questions
of my uttermost
Than if you had made
waste of all I have.”
The two sub-plots in the play are- The Jessica-Lorenzo love
story and The Ring Episode. Both these sub-plots are interrelated to each other
and to the main plot as well. However, this former story includes Jessica,
Shylock’s daughter, falls in love with Lorenzo, a friend of Antonio and Bassanio.
Both the lovers go to Belmont, where Portia entrusts them with the responsibility
of looking after her household, till she remains in Venice for the trial of
Antonio. When the Court scene reveals
Shylock at his most horrible and the Christians also not at very best, the
scene immediately shifts to a peaceful vicinity of Belmont, where on a glorious
moonlit night the run-away lovers Lorenzo and Jessica are seen in Portia’s
garden engaged in a highly romantic conversation bandying the names of lovers
of bygone times and distant climes. Lorenzo and Jessica get half the share of
Shylock’s wealth when Shylock loses the case against Antonio.
The next episode constitutes one
of the important stories in the play. It is only after Bassanio wins the lottery
of caskets, that Portia marries him and gives him a ring as a token of their
love. She takes a promise from Bassanio
that he will never part with the ring. At the same time, Nerissa married Gratiano
and gives him a ring, with the promise from him that he will not part with it
at any cost. The rings represent wealth as well as emotional value. This is
known as ‘The Ring Episode’, acts as an offshoot of the Casket story. Then it
is connected with the Bond Story in the Trial scene, as Bassanio and Gratiano give
their rings to Portia and Nerissa respectively as a token of gratitude for
saving Antonio.
“The quality of mercy
is not strained
It droppeth as the
gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place
beneath; It is twice blessed
It blesseth him that
gives and him that takes.”
Justice and mercy, as
delivered in the play, do not appear to be as sweet, selfless and full of grace
as presented by Portia. The play depends on the theme of appearance and reality
to enrich the plot and to present the atmosphere and to create the suspense in
the storyline. The exposition of the play is therein to the audience to convey the
circumstances that unfold, leading up to the events of the play. Outward
appearances are liable to be deceptive. This principle is best demonstrated
through the lottery of the caskets. In the choice of caskets, not only their
appearance but the mottoes inscribed on them are to be considered:
“Gold: Who
chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.
Silver: Who
chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.
Lead: Who chooseth
me must give and hazard all he hath.”
Thus the plot of the play,
determines the general framework but into it are fitted the other elements
which enrich and diversify their sense of pleasure. There is an Elizabethan
phrase-‘A Paradise of Dainty and Delight.’ The phrase
well described the romantic comedy except that daintiness is not essential. Any
delight has a right to be admitted to the paradise. In the words of Raleigh,
the last Act of the play of ‘The Merchant of Venice’ is ‘an exquisite piece of
Romantic Comedy’ and Shylock has no place there. It is easier to find an
analogy to Shakespeare’s comedies in musical compositions than in his classical
comedy proper. Shakespeare is closer to Mozart that to Moliere.
‘’ The lunatic, the
lover, and the poet
Are of imagination
all compact.”
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[Except References, ideas, settings,contextualized- orientation
of words and its elaboration from Dr. S. Sen (of Critical Evaluations), Rajinder Paul,
Textual Workbook and other]
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