Let's Bust a Recap : The Merchant of Venice

Look at me, coming through on my promise and posting my recap of The Merchant of Venice just three weeks after my recent recap of The Tempest. Are we proud of me? Are we? 

But all joking aside, The Merchant of Venice is a doozy and even though I don't usually do this, we're going to talk about some pretty problematic elements of the play before we get into it. I'm not the most politically correct person living my life out here, but even I was a bit uncomfortable reading about poor Shylock and did I Google "was Shakespeare an anti-Semite?" upon completing my reading of this play? Yes. Yes I did. 

Debate still exists to this day on whether or not The Merchant of Venice is, at its core, anti-Semitic, but after reading it for myself, I'm coming down hard on the side of: it DEFINITELY is. Forcing Shylock to convert to Christianity was the final nail in the coffin. If that hadn't been his unfortunate end, I might not feel so strongly about it, but yikes. This play is not a good look for Shakespeare no matter how we try to spin it. It shouldn't even have to be said but let me just go on record right now and say anti-Semitism is awful and has led to horrible crimes against humanity. I will not tolerate it and would appreciate you keeping that in mind as you read the rest of this post. 

Are we clear? Do you feel me? The unfortunate nature of Shylock's character aside, I enjoyed The Merchant of Venice and I'm ready to get into it. 

The play opens on sad sack Antonio (our titular merchant of Venice) moaning about how depressed he is for no good reason to two of his buddies who are trying to cheer him up but are finally just like, "Peace out, bro, you're a total drag." Right as they're leaving, Bassanio arrives to hit up Antonio for some cash because he's broke as a joke and needs some capital to go woo Portia, this total hottie that he's completely in love with. And Antonio is all, "Of course, my guy. I don't have the cash, but I'll figure it out and set you up, no problem." 

Meanwhile on Portia's estate, she and her maid Nerissa are busy roasting all the suitors who have recently come trying to wife Portia up. As it turns out, Portia's dead dad left a twisted little caveat in his will requiring any marriage prospects she has to choose one of three caskets he left behind, and if they manage to choose the one with Portia's picture inside, they can marry her. 

Because that seems reasonable. 

But the crazy apparently doesn't fall far from the tree because Portia has one-upped her dad by also requiring any aspiring suitor to promise never to marry at all if they don't get to marry her. So right off the bat, we know Portia likes to play mind games. Like, sis is not a catch. Why are all these guys losing their minds over her?

Back in Venice, Bassanio and Antonio are making a deal with the Jewish moneylender Shylock to get a loan that Antonio will repay once his ships come in. Shylock hates Antonio because Antonio is basically a horrible human being, but agrees to loan the money to Bassanio on the condition that if Antonio can't pay up on time, Shylock can take a pound of his flesh instead. (His heart, guys, he totally wants to carve Antonio's heart out of his chest and watch him die. Kindof psycho, but okay.) Bassanio feels some kind of way about this, but Antonio assures him it's all good so Bassanio skips off with the cash to go court Portia. 

So that's Act I. 

In Act II there is a lot going on and Shakespeare is setting a lot of stuff up so try to stick with me here. 

First of all, the Prince of Morocco has shown up seeking Portia's hand in marriage so she takes him to the three caskets—one gold, one silver, one lead—and he picks the gold one, but inside is a skull and a note that says "All that glisters is not gold." Bummer, dude. 

We also have a scene with Shylock's servant Launcelot who gives a whole speech about how awful Shylock is and how he wants to run away from him. We get it, Shakespeare, Shylock is your villain. (But is he, though?)

We also meet Shylock's daughter Jessica in Act II, and she piles on even more with how she's ashamed to be her father's daughter and how she hopes her beloved Lorenzo will keep his promise to marry her so she can become a Christian instead of being stuck as a filthy Jew. (Like, wow. Okay already.) She commissions Launcelot to take a letter to Lorenzo secretly detailing a plan of how they can run away together. 

So, it gets a little muddy through this part with all the details of a masque that's happening that night, but basically Lorenzo gets the letter and then goes and gets Jessica who is dressed as a boy—shocker. Can we even have a Shakespearean comedy that doesn't involve cross-dressing? She's embarrassed about how she looks, but Lorenzo is all, "No baby, you're still hot to me." Neither of them have any shame whatsoever about stealing a bunch of Shylock's gold and precious jewels though. Whatever.

Back at Portia's, the Prince of Belmont is next in line to play "Pick the Casket" and he chooses the silver one. Inside is a mirror. You're out, my guy. (I should add at this point that each coffin has a message on top and the silver one is basically "if you open this you get what you deserve" which makes the mirror thing pretty funny actually.)

So that's pretty much all the important stuff for Act II. Oh, except for the fact that when Shylock discovers his daughter has run off with Lorenzo, he's more concerned about the gold she took than the fact that she ran off. More stereotypical profiling, blah blah.

In Act III, we learn that all Antonio's ships are lost and he's not going to be able to pay back Shylock. His friends are with Shylock and ask him if he really plans to take a pound of flesh from Antonio. Shylock's like, "For sure." And they're like, "Yeah, but what good will it do you?" To which he responds, "I'll use it to bait fish." Stone cold, my man. Antonio's friends keep pressing him to which he gives an impassioned, and kind of beautiful, monologue about how he's human too and Antonio has always treated him like scum so why shouldn't he have his revenge. (This monologue is why the whole anti-Semitism debate exists. Is Shylock a sympathetic character or not??)

Back to Portia: Bassanio has shown up and is ready to play "Pick the Casket" but Portia is reluctant to let him because she actually likes him. He's all, "No, let's do this mother because putting it off is torture." She contemplates cheating, but finally decides against it and takes him to the caskets. He picks the lead one and everyone is happy that he gets to marry Portia. She gives him a ring and tells him never to lose it or it will ruin their marriage. Nerissa marries his buddy Gratiano and follows suit giving him a ring of her own. (Do you remember how we talked about Portia playing mind games? Remember this bit about the rings.) They're all partying hard when Lorenzo and Jessica show up with a letter telling them how Antonio is in jail and probably going to die because Shylock's ready to make good on their deal to take a pound of Antonio's flesh. Portia basically offers her entire fortune to her new husband Bassanio to go save Antonio's life. (And now we know why all these men were trying for her hand: sis is loaded.)

So Bassanio and Gratiano leave to try to rescue Antonio while Portia leaves her estate in the care of Lorenzo and Jessica telling them she's going to a monastery to pray for her husband. As if. Naturally, she has come up with a plan for her and Nerissa to dress up as men and go to the trial themselves. And then we have like a whole page of Portia bragging about what a hot guy she is. So there's that.

Meanwhile in Venice, Antonio is in prison and Shylock is vowing to cut his heart out. Everyone's like, "The duke will not stand for this!" But Shylock is all, "He better uphold the law or Venice will riot." I mean, Shylock is not wrong, you guys. He's psycho, but he's not wrong. 

There is also a completely random scene in Act III where Launcelot is teasing Jessica about how awful it is that she's a Jew and it'd be better if Shylock wasn't her dad to which she responds that then she'd be a bastard and have just as much reason to be ashamed of her mom. Like a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't type thing, and then Lorenzo walks in and informs Launcelot that he got some poor girl in Venice knocked up before he left. Which has nothing to do with anything, y'all. Like, sheesh. 

But moving on to Act IV. 

Now we're at court and every single person in the play is begging Shylock for mercy and he is like, "I will have my revenge." Bassanio has offered literally any amount of money to pay off Antonio's debt but Shylock is not having it. Antonio has given up all hope of living through this. And then a young doctor of the law (aka Portia) and his clerk (aka Nerissa) show up to judge the case. Portia then proceeds to also ask Shylock for mercy—he continues to adamantly refuse—and then she gives a speech about how the court cannot force Shylock to show mercy. They have to cut out Antonio's heart. 

Shylock is all, "Finally."

Then as he is literally pulling out his knife to carve out Antonio's heart, Portia pipes up with, "If you spill one drop of his blood, you are a dead man." 

What?! 

She points out that the bond states he can have a pound of flesh, but it said nothing about blood and if Shylock—a foreigner—sheds one drop of Antonio's blood—a native Venetian—then the law says the state can confiscate all his land and goods. 

Bruh.

So Shylock gives it up and says, "Fine, I'll take the money instead." To which Portia is all, "Nah, bro, you already publicly refused that offer." And, to add insult to injury, since they just proved that Shylock did all this as a plot against Antonio's life, the state can confiscate all his goods anyway. According to the law. 

Antonio then tells Shylock that if he promises to leave everything to his daughter Jessica when he dies and if he will convert to Christianity, then he can keep his stuff. To which the duke then adds, "Take the deal or die." 

So I mean, Shylock takes the deal. Woof.

But that's not all. Next, we have Antonio and Bassanio and Gratiano basically groveling at Portia and Nerissa's feet asking how can they ever repay them, and naturally, they ask for the rings from Bassanio and Gratiano. At first, Bassanio is like, "No, my wife made me promise to keep this ring forever." but then he gives it to Portia (in disguise as a man, remember?) anyway. 

So as Act V opens, we see Lorenzo and Jessica basically in the middle of a game no-I-love-YOU-more when everyone shows back up. Portia and Nerissa mess with their husbands heads for a while before finally revealing the whole story and then they all live happily ever after. Except for poor Shylock who has been done dirty once again by all these insane Italians. Even Antonio gets news that all his ships are actually safe so he's rich again. 

I mean.....yikes, yikes, yikes. If Shylock's ancestry had been left out of it and he was just your basic bad guy, this would have been a super-fun play, but as it is? I just can't. Shakespeare, my guy, what's up?

Have you ever seen or read The Merchant of Venice? What's your take? Do you think Shakespeare meant for Shylock to be a sympathetic, nuanced villain, or was Willy just a straight-up hater?