Book Reports /
The Human Condition as Portrayed in The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare's) [4]
The subject was "Shakespeare's
The Merchant of Venice speaks to the human condition. Analyze how Shakespeare, in writing
The Mercahnt of Venice, succeeds in his didactic purpose for all of humanity. Any feedback you have at all would be much appreciated!!
The Human Condition as Portrayed in The Merchant of VenicePeople are not purely good or purely bad: they are some combination of the two. No one is perfect, and no one is completely evil. Everyone does both right and wrong. All people are both greedy and generous, are able to love and to hate, and are full of revenge and mercy. In
The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare shows us the true human condition through his characters' actions. They are completely human. The "good" characters are not perfect, and the "bad" characters have feelings and reasons for their actions. They do not always do what is expected of them: people can be unpredictable, sometimes choosing to go against the rules and follow their own desires. Through the personas Shylock and Antonio, Jessica, and Portia, Shakespeare demonstrates the complex nature of the human condition, showing no person is completely who they at first seem to be.
In Shakespeare's day, Shylock was seen as the antagonist of the story. He was the hated Jew who tried to kill a beloved Christian merchant. Today, however, Shylock is often seen as the protagonist. Everyone hated him, but he just wanted to be understood and liked by others. He is sympathized with and seen as a broken down man, not an evil one. Both of these interpretations, while very different, are correct because of the complexity of Shylock's human nature. Shylock does indeed try to kill Antonio out of revenge. He will not take any amount of money, but wants Antonio's life. He is ruthless, showing no mercy. "My deeds upon my head! I crave the law, / The penalty and forfeit of my bond," (4.1.211-212). Critics of Shylock may say that he has no good in him. He is offered the money Antonio owes him, yet me will not take the money. Why? Because he is evil. If he has any good in him, he would take the money and go, not try to take Antonio's life, even if Antonio agreed to it. Antonio is a good man, and he should be spared. Any decent person would realize this. This, while true, is not the whole story. Shylock wants to kill Antonio because Antonio, while a good man, has been a horrible one to Shylock. Antonio mocks him, spits in his face, and calls him a dog. If Antonio had not been hateful to Shylock, Shylock would not want to kill him now. Antonio's doom is as much his own fault as Shylock's. There can be much sympathy for Shylock when the story is seen through his eyes.
"He hath disgraced me, and hind'red
me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my
gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled
my friends, heated mine enemies - and what's his reason?
I am a Jew." (3.1.48-52)
Shylock only wants Antonio to suffer as he has, for Antonio to realize what he has done to him. It may indeed by evil, but it is understandable. It is human. Shylock is the corruptive man he was interpreted as in Shakespeare's day, but also human, with real feelings and emotions, broken down by a life of misery.
When Jessica, Shylock's daughter, is introduced in the play, she is planning to run away and elope with a Christian. There are more sides to Jessica than there first seems to be. She appears to be running away from her oppressive father, the man she hates, to be with the man she loves. But at the same time, she knows it is wrong. Jessica realizes that it is a bad thing for her to hate her father, but she cannot not change the fact nevertheless. "Alack, what heinous sin is it in me / To be ashamed to be my father's child! / But though I am a daughter to his blood, / I am not to his manners" (2.4.16-19). Jessica is probably a good daughter to Shylock. He trusts her to lock up all his money and not go out to the masque with the Christians. There must be a basis for that trust, for Shylock does not trust people easily. But even though she is a good daughter and knows what she is doing is wrong, she cannot bring herself to stop. She is a good daughter doing something that will hurt her father. But this does not mean she is a bad person. Shylock has indeed been an overbearing father, not allowing Jessica to do many, if any, fun things. To Jessica, running away from her father is a sort of revenge for all those years of suffering, and a way of liberating herself. This still, however, is not an excuse for what she does to her father. If she is truly good, she would talk to Shylock about it before eloping, even though that probably would have meant not getting her way. Jessica is a complex person with conflicting emotions. She is a good person and in some ways a good daughter, but she follows her own feelings and runs away from her father, not thinking of what it would do to his. She is not perfect. She is simply human.
Portia is often seen as the perfect woman. She is intelligent, beautiful, loving, and polite. Her intelligence and cunning end up saving Antonio's life. She fulfills her father's dying wishes and chooses her husband through a lottery of caskets. But by no means was she perfect. In some ways she was hypocritical. She admits, "It is a good divine that follows his own / instructions. I can easier teach twenty what were good to / be done than be one of the twenty to follow mine own / teaching" (1.2.13-16). She knows how to be good but does not always do good. She is rude to the Moroccan Prince, at first only because of the color of his skin. In fact, she does not give any of her suitors, except Bassanio, the benefit of the doubt. If she really had been perfect, she would have at least given them time to prove themselves. Portia is also critical of her husband. She seems to trust him and love him completely, yet she tricks him into giving her his ring. Why would she do that? She does not fully trust him or his love for her. But her faults make her relatable. Shakespeare would not have written Portia to be the perfect woman, because no such woman exists. Everyone has faults. Portia is a little insecure about her marriage to her husband because she overheard him saying he would give her up to save Antonio. She has prejudices like everyone else, and she judges people by their first impressions, but that was the culture she grew up in. Portia is not perfect; she is simply human.
Shakespeare shows the complexity and faults of human nature through the actions of Shylock, Jessica, and Portia. Shylock tries to kill Antonio, a seemingly good person, but he does it because Antonio beat Shylock down again and again. Jessica runs away form her father and abuses his trust in her because she felt oppressed and was in love. Portia was was insecure about her marriage and prejudiced, but she had reasons to be. All of these characters have both good and bad qualities; both good and bad reactions to different situations. But the complexity of their natures is what makes them human.
