Malachai

I watched the Shakespeare production of the Merchant of Venice.

Summary:

 In this story, a man named Antonio seeks financial aid from a Jewish moneylender. He needs the money for a friend named Bassanio, who wishes to woo a beautiful and rich woman named Portia. However, Antonio has previously been hostile to this same moneylender. In anger, the moneylender, Shylock, strikes a bargain that allows Antonio the money, but if Antonio does not pay the debt on time, then Shylock is to be payed one pound of flesh from Antonio. Antonio didn’t pay on time. What an idiot.

This plot drew in all of the characters into a single courtroom in the climax act of the play. Antonio ends up not paying the debt on time, and in hope of recompence, his young friend Bassanio and his new wife offer Shylock twice what had been owed. Shylock refused. This movie was incredibly interesting in that it showed much of the hostilities between Christians and Jews. In fact, during Antonio’s trial, Shylock, rather than being refered to by his name is simply called Jew. Additionally, it shows how uneaqual things really were in Venice. Shylock, although having been made out to be the bad guy was simply trying to treat Christians the same way he had been treated as a Jew. There is an excellent scene in this play where Shylock finds out that his daughter has run away with all of his gold, and that she was on the ship that Antonio had borrowed. Essentially, Shylock was stripped of everything. In that same scene he rants about how Jews breathe the same air as Christians just as they are nourished by the same food. They have the same wants, the same feelings. And according to Shylock, they are both wronged. The Christian way to cope with this is to seek revenge, but Jews are expected to let it go. But Shylock does not. Almost the entire story is taken from the point of veiw from Antonio and his friends, but when one puts themselves in Shylock’s shoes, it shows an entirely different perspective. The Jews get spit on, beaten and thrown off bridges. And then the people who do these things to them come and ask them to lend them money. Shylock tries to use the Cristians’ own laws against them and demands to be payed his due. Personally, I would have asked for two pounds of flesh. I won’t ruin the ending to this movie, but it has an extremely good twist. (And Shakespeare still manages to make his characters cross-dress. Nifty fellow…)