Merchant of venice

The aim of the course paper. The objective of this study is to analyze love, hatred and death and also to find out moral values in The Merchant of Venice. Shakespeare’s works are dominated by classic narrative structures that, although not invented by Shakespeare, were debatably applied better by him than any author since. The title page of the First Quarto of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, published in 1600, reads, “The most excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. With the extreme cruelty of Shlock the Jewel towards the said Merchant, in cutting a just pound of his flesh: and the obtaining of Portia by the choice of three chests” often consider the play a comedy, given the ultimate defeat of Shylock as the play’s chief villain and the final celebratory marriages that take place in Belmont.
The practical value of the course paper This thesis analyzes the various manifestations of the commercial in The Merchant of Venice and their significance in explaining the intricacies of the play, with particular focus on the characters of Antonio, Bassanio, Shylock, and Portia, and the locales of Venice and Belmont. A close reading and detailed analysis of The Merchant of Venice reveals the inescapability of commerce in the play, as it simultaneously reflects the diverse motives and affiliations of characters, and shapes characters’ perspectives of seemingly extra-commercial considerations.
The structure of the course paper. This course work is divided into two main Chapters and 2 part in each chapter and includes introduction, conclusion and list of references.

CHAPTER I. THE GREATEST WRITER IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

1.1. Shakespeare and his life

William Shakespeare, Shakespeare also spelled Shakespeare, byname Bard of Avon or Swan of Avon, baptized April 26, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England—died April 23, Stratford-upon-Avon, English poet, dramatist, and actor often called the English national poet and considered by many to be the greatest dramatist of all time. Shakespeare occupies a position unique in world literature. Other poets, such as Homer and Dante, and novelists, such as Leo Tolstoy and Charles Dickens, have transcended national barriers, but no writer’s living reputation can compare to that of Shakespeare, whose plays, written in the late 16th and early 17th centuries for a small repertory theatre, are now performed and read more often and in more countries than ever before. The prophecy of his great contemporary, the poet and dramatist Ben Jonson, that Shakespeare “was not of an age, but for all time,” has been fulfilled. It may be audacious even to attempt a definition of his greatness, but it is not so difficult to describe the gifts that enabled him to create imaginative visions of pathos and mirth that, whether read or witnessed in the theatre, fill the mind and linger there. He is a writer of great intellectual rapidity, perceptiveness, and poetic power. Other writers have had these qualities, but with Shakespeare the keenness of mind was applied not to abstruse or remote subjects but to human beings and their complete range of emotions and conflicts. Other writers have applied their keenness of mind in this way, but Shakespeare is astonishingly clever with words and images, so that his mental energy, when applied to intelligible human situations, finds full and memorable expression, convincing and imaginatively stimulating. As if this were not enough, the art form into which his creative energies went was not remote and bookish but involved the vivid stage impersonation of human beings, commanding sympathy and inviting vicarious participation. Thus, Shakespeare’s merits can survive translation into other languages and into cultures remote from that of Elizabethan England. The Merchant of Venice raises is “What kind of play is this? Is it a comedy, a tragedy or a problem play?”. The Merchant of Venice is believed to be written between 1596 and 1598. Already from the very beginning, hardly any other play has experienced so many diverse receptions after its publication. In his essay on The Merchant of Venice, Walter Cohen comments that “no other Shakespeare comedy before All’s Well That Ends Well and Measure for Measure, perhaps no other Shakespeare comedy at all, has excited comparable controversy.” Although the title page of the first edition of the play “The Most Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice” suggested it to be a history play, it had initially been classified as a comedy. In 1623, Heminges and Condell placed The Merchant of Venice among the comedies in the First Folio of Shakespeare’s works. However, many readers, actors, directors and playgoers still argue about the genre of the play. They have difficulties in defining The Merchant of Venice as a comedy as the following quotation shows: “Indeed, seen from any angle, The Merchant of Venice is not a very funny play, and we might gain a lot if, for the moment, we ceased to be bullied by its inclusion in the comedies”. Today, The Merchant of Venice is often read and played more like a problem play or even a tragedy. The following term paper deals with the classification of the literary genre of The Merchant of Venice. Does the play belong to the category of comedies or shall it rather be identified as a tragedy or problem play? To assign the play to a specific category, it is necessary to shortly present the criteria of the genres comedy, tragedy and problem play. In chapter 3, the play will be analysed in terms of comic and tragic aspects. The focus is put on the flesh-bond and the courtship plot, the first having its setting in Venice, the second in Belmont. The aim of this chapter is to illustrate that The Merchant of Venice contains both comic and tragic elements. Chapter 4 deals with the complex character Shylock whose perception has changed through the centuries. Is he still the comic villain of the Elizabethan time or can he rather be seen as a victim of extreme anti-Semitism?¹ By giving an insight into comic and tragic aspects in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, this term paper shall try to solve the problem of assigning the play to a specific literary genre.As already mentioned in the introduction, it is difficult to define the genre of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. When the play was first produced and published, it was classified as a comedy since its “[…] main thematic and structural elements […] seem to belong to the category of romantic comedy rather than elsewhere.”. In the 19th century, an emphasis was put on the fairy tale elements in the play. Harley Granville-Barker is among those who characterized The Merchant of Venice as a “fairy tale”. To his mind “[…] the play ends, pleasantly and with formality, as a fairy tale should.” Critics in this field refer to the multiple marriages at the end of the play. However, The Merchant of Venice is perhaps more remembered for its dramatic scenes, which lead to interpret the play as a tragedy. In 1839, the German poet Heinrich Heine classified Shakespeare’s play as a tragedy: “I must include The Merchant of Venice among the tragedies, although the frame of the work is a composition of laughing masks and sunny faces as though the poet meant to write a comedy.”. Even in the late 19th century, in a pre-Holocaust world, The Merchant of Venice seemed to be read and played as a tragedy. Theatre productions of that time often ended on a tragic note upon Shylock’s departure at the end of the trial scene. Hence, many people felt that the play succeeded better as a tragedy than a comedy. In 1869, the critic Frederick Samuel Boas coined the term “problem play” and classified Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice into this category. After the events of World War II, many people could hardly see any comedy in the humiliation, mockery and forced conversion of the Jew Shylock. The Merchant of Venice was therefore perceived as a problem play in the second half of the 20th century. Since the aim of this term paper is to classify the genre of Shakespeare’s play, it is first of all necessary to shortly define and present the criteria of a comedy, tragedy and problem play. Comedy is an imitation of the common errors of our life, which he representeth in the most ridiculous and scornefull sort that may be; so as it is impossible that any beholder can be content to be such a one. The above-mentioned quotation from Sir Philipp Sidney shows that a comedy is the mirror of our life. Traditionally, comedies deal with the concerns and exploits of ordinary people. The aim of a comedy is to leave a feeling of satisfaction at the end of the play when the reader or spectator witnesses deserving people succeed. (Simpson 1998). In his Speculum Maius, written in 1250, Vincent de Beauvais defines comedy as follows: “Comedy is a kind of poem which transforms a sad beginning into a happy ending” (Beauvais 1250 qtd. in Janik 2003: 120) This definition is according to Nevill Coghill the “true basis of Shakespearean comedy.” (ibid). It is important to mention, that in the Elizabethan time, the term “comedy” had a very different meaning from modern comedy. Holderness assumes that the concept of comedy in the 16th century was broader and more elastic than it is today. A Shakespearean comedy is nowadays understood as a play in which the central character is in the end saved from death or a catastrophe. Comedies do not necessarily have to be funny or evoke laughter. Nevertheless, it has to be considered that particular matters, such as social and moral questions, might have been funny for the readers and spectators of that time. Moreover, the conventions of comedy require a happy ending. A Shakespearean comedy is one that has a happy ending, usually involving marriages between the unmarried characters.