My Project - The Merchant of Venice

For my response project to the Merchant of Venice I wrote about how Antonio's ships affected the plot. I thought that my project was successful in different ways. I thought my topic was great and something I could dive deep into, and I didn't dive that deep. My presentation was alright, but not as good as it could have been. If I could change something about my process it would be to go more in depth in the reading and find more examples. I would do this project again, I enjoy writing essays, depending on the topic. I also enjoyed creating a power point presentation and I will do that again next year.

Who was the most influential character?

In The Merchant of Venice there were many characters that played huge roles or had very important lines in the play. But, who was the most influential character in the play. By influential I mean the character that had the biggest effect on the other characters lives. There are a couple clear choices, like Portia, Antonio or Shylock. These three characters all had moments where they were very compassionate and influenced the play very heavily. For Portia it was her mercy or justice speech when she disguised herself as a lawyer in Antonio and Shylock's trial. For Shylock it was his speech asking why he was treated differently because he was Jewish. And for Antonio it was his letter to Bassanio asking for him to come visit him before he goes to trial with Shylock. Given these three examples, the most influential moment that these characters had was Portia when she gave her mercy or justice speech.

Did Shylock deserve the punishment he received - Merchant of Venice

For the most part Shylock did deserve a punishment, after all he was trying to kill someone. I don't believe he entirely deserved the punishment he received. Making someone change their religion is way too extreme, it is asking someone to change the way they lived for their entire life. Also taking all of someone's money away that they've worked their entire life to get could be extreme, but he did try to kill someone. Antonio wasn't completely innocent either though, he deserved to be punished as well because of the way he's been treating Shylock his entire life. The majority of an Elizebathan audience would have thought he deserved the punishment, whether it is because they actually thought that or because he was Jewish I don't know. After all people were very Anti-Semitic in Europe back when this was written.

Shylock's Speech - Merchant of Venice

Until Act 3 in "The Merchant of Venice" the character Shylock does not express much emotion besides for his money. What happens in Act 3 is a speech that Shylock gives and it touches base on the anti-semitism in the play. In the speech he goes on about how is a Jew different than anyone else, wee both have ears, eyes, legs and so on. The reason he gives this speech is because he has been treated horribly throughout the entire play just because he is Jewish. He has finally had enough and asks why he is treated differently just because he has a different life style than other people. Shakespeare probably put this in his play to add more depth to one of his characters. He may not agree with what he wrote for Shylock, but it does definitely make Shylock a much more relatable person.