William Shakespeare
and
The Merchant of Venice

Why Shakespeare?

Literary history

The emergence of the modern period

Two Gentlemen of Lebowski

THE KNAVE

Thou knowst. The Knave abideth.

The Problem of Shakespeare

I dreamt last night that Shakespeares GhostSat for a civil service post.The English paper for that yearHad several questions on King LearWhich Shakespeare answered very badlyBecause he hadnt read his Bradley.

The Problem of Shakespeare

His canonical position

Our current perception of him

His contemporary position

His identity

The Problem of Shakespeares Works

28 octobr 1600Tho. haies. Entred for his copie vnder the handes of the Wardens & by Consent of mr Robertes. A booke called the booke of the merchant of Venyce

The historical views of Shakespeare

an Upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers [] supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you

(Greene)

having small Latin and less Greek

(Ben Jonson)

As Plautus and Seneca are accounted the best for Comedy and Tragedy among the Latines: so Shakespeare among ye English is the most excellent in both kinds for the stage

(Francis Meres)

John Heminges and Henry Condell assembled all the dramatic works of Shakespeare in 1623 in what is today known as the First Folio. This proves a high degree of interest in Shakespeare.

A Midsummer Nights Dream is the most insipid ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life

Samuel Pepys

In 1741, a monument was erected to Shakespeare in Westminster Abbey.

After an hundred and thirty yearsnap,Enter Shakespear, with a loud clap

Alexander Pope

Shakespeare has suffered the virtue of Cordelia to perish in a just cause, contrary to the natural ideas of justice [] but since all reasonable beings naturally love justice, I cannot easily be persuaded that the observation of justice makes a play worse.

Dr Samuel Johnson about King Lear

Make out your amplest catalogue of all the human facultites [] and then compare with Shakespeare under each of these heads all or any of the writers in prose or verse that have ever lived! Who, that is competent to judge, doubts the results?

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1836

A.C. Bradley, the first academic critic to heavily impact Shakespeare studies, argued that Shakespeare could serve as proof of a stable and unchanging human nature. (Published in 1904 but written earlier)

By presenting Shakespeares characters as representative of unchanging types, people believed they had an argument against Darwin and evolution. Thus, Shakespeare was used as a cultural weapon.

Is Shakespeare a product of his time?

Is he for all times?

Are his texts privileged and if so, why?

The Problem of Drama

Where is the text?

What about the stage directions?

Who is the creator of the text?Writer, director, actor, all of them?

What about the audience?

The Problem of History

How much do we need to know of a plays contemporary culture?

How can we understand texts that are so far removed from us?

The Problem of the Elizabethan World Picture

A very different world

Very different conventions

Very different notions of the human

The Problem of The Merchant of Venice

What is its genre?

Comedy, History, Tragedy?Laughter, catharsis, realism

Comedy in Elizabethan times

the moving of laughter is a fault of comedy, a kind of turpitude, that depraves some part of a mans nature (Ben Jonson)

The unities of time, plot and action

A play should have:

Only one setting

One plot

All events should take place within 24 hours

(Aristotle, Poetics)

Analyzing Shakespeare

Notations follow internal references rather than page numbers

4.1.16-34 = Act Four, Scene One, Lines 16 to 34

The Merchant of VeniceAct One

How is the basic plot established?

How are the characters introduced, especially Antonio, Bassanio and Shylock?

How should we understand the characters of the play; as real people or as literary constructions used to further a specific narrative?

Why is Antonio sad?

Why does Antonio agree to lend money to Bassanio?

What is the impression that we get of Portia?

What is the relevance of the English/Scots/French quarrel and their exchange of blows (1.2.64-67)?

What do you think of Shylock's reaction to Antonio (1.3.33-43)?

What does Antonio mean when he says "Hi thee, gentle Jew. | The Hebrew will turn Christian, he grows kind." (1.3.170-171)?

Considering Act One, how would you classify The Merchant of Venice?