Free Merchant of Venice Essays: The Price is Right :: Merchant Venice Essays

When I first teach The Merchant of Venice, I had a luck of mixed reactions. One of them, surprisingly enough, was that it was too short How can this be? We all know that Shakespe atomic number 18s plays are notoriously too long.  In class period it over, I think this perception comes from a number of sources.  One is the humor that the two story lines, that of Portia and her suitors and that of Shylock and his money-grubbing ways, are only loosely held in concert by the title character, Antonio.  The other reason is that when we finally get to the trial run scene, the supposed highlight of the play, we notice that the trial is only a truly small part of the whole play.  It is not what the play is ab kayoed in my opinion. Many people guard suggested that the play should have ended by and by the trial, that the final scene served no purpose.  I saw it more handle the hurriedly thrown together conclusion to a choppy paper.  We have talked nigh cut versions of literature as they make their way to the screen. This seems to me as though it is a choppy version of an idea that didnt work out as well as the playwright had hoped.  As I read even more closely, I may find I veer my mind.   Since it didnt seem to be about what I thought it was supposed to be about, I decided to try to figure out what it really is about. found on my current understanding (subject to further enlightenment), the play is (at least partially) about the merchandising of people.  People can be bought or sold for ternary thousand ducats, well (Act I delineation 3 Line 1), or chests of gold, silver and lead (I.ii.30). Every one has a price.  All are bought or sold at one time or another. Lets gestate at some of the leading characters and see what price they require.    Antonio sells a cud of his flesh for three thousand ducats in Act I ikon 3.  Bassanio sells his marriage vows to repay the lawyer/ judge for defending Ant onio (Act IV Scene 2).  Grationo sells his vows, by giving away the ring that represented them, and his friendship to Bassanio at the same time. Portia sells herself as property in marriage