The Merchant Of Venice Introduction 4xk1i

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE: INTRODUCTION The Merchant of Venice belongs to Shakespeare’s mature period. It is a mature comedy. Shakespeare was obviously enchanted by Italian culture. Many Italian works were translated into English so Shakespeare established his stories most of the time from Italian characters. In this play, Shakespeare chooses Venice for his story because Venice in medieval times was the center of commerce in Mediterranean Sea. This is a place where money-making was the basic profession. Venice was a city-state in Ottoman times in which there was a national unity or national Unity established in 19th century. Venice is the Dukedom Kingdom just as Verona. Venice had its own rules, laws, and regulations of commerce. There were divisions between the Venetians who were in Shakespeare’s concept, white Christians and foreigners included anybody like white Christians Jews etc. Jews were not allowed to do free-trade. This play which has a plot and a sub-plot like “Midsummer Night’s Dream” is composed of two stories. The first one , the main plot , has its merchant called Antonio. In the play he has an enemy who is a Jew and usurer, fights against these usurers by lending money without interest. This is the reason why the two men are enemies. Shylock is an old Jewish man and Antonio, the white Christian is a young man about 30-35. In the main plot we are going to study the conflict between the merchant and the usurer, the white Christian and the Jew in the city of Venice which is one of the interesting cities in the world. Shakespeare had never been there when he wrote this play. The main plot is more of a tragedy. It is more than a comedy. The play begins with the tragic potential which may lead to tragedy. We have sub-plot which is the comic sub-plot that takes place in a dream space in Belmont, an imaginary place. It is a dream city like the wood in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” In Belmont, moving around Belmont, a love story is going to be developed, actually three love stories. In this play, Venice is going to be a space of reality and Belmont is going to be the dream space. The events which turn tragic in Venice finally move towards the happy end in Belmont. This play is a late comedy, belongs to Shakespeare’s mature period. We find all elements of classical comedy and all of the Shakespearean contributions to comedy. The play includes both the themes of classical comedy-money matters and love matters. In that sense it is a direct development from new comedy to Roman comedy.