Text guide: The Merchant of Venice

Is The Merchant of Venice a comedy of love lost and earned? Or a tragedy of Otherness and oppression? First performed in 1605, and written c. 1596, Merchant leaves behind a long and complicated legacy that continues to challenge modern audiences. Your job, when preparing to face the eldritch horror of HSC English, is to untangle these challenges and ultimately write a strong essay response (the metaphorical death blow). 

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This text guide aims to familiarise you with all the essential elements of Shakespeare’s tragicomedy The Merchant of Venice. Whether you are using it to revise before Trials, or as your first introduction to the play, read on to discover key context points, form elements, and a thematic breakdown to help you achieve top marks in your Merchant essay! 

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Part 1: Context

Understanding Shakespeare’s context is key to any Common Module essay. The rubric heavily emphases how audiences respond to texts, and what we can learn about the human experience through engaging with them. Let’s delve into the most important elements of the play which you should include when crafting your essay. 

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Capitalism, Trade and Mercantilism

If it wasn’t already apparent in the title, Merchant is a play deeply concerned with the rise of capitalism and the merchant class within Shakespeare’s England. British imperialism begun by the late 16^th century, developing international trade routes which transformed Britain’s agrarian economy to one built on commerce. Throughout the play, Shakespeare describes how an ethos dedicated solely to gaining profit erodes the depth of both platonic (Antonio and Bassanio) and romantic (casket plot) relationships, and devolves Christianity into a tool to maintain financial control and exercise inequality (Antonio’s mistreatment of Shylock). The play questions the role of Christian agape, mercy, and empathy in a world where even human flesh can be bought.

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Shakespeare predominantly sets his play within the city-state of Venice to cement these concerns. Venice was founded upon institutions of mercantilism and in the late 16^th century, was a cosmopolitan trading hub connecting Europe with the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Within a world driven by capital and transaction, Shakespeare presents human emotivity as problematic, emboldening his audience to question whether humanist values can coexist within their own societies.

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Individualism and Renaissance Humanism

Closely linked to the growth of capitalism in Europe is the rise of individualism. Wealthy merchants emerged through the Age of Exploration and the expansion of international trade networks, challenging traditional aristocratic structures. Simultaneously, Renaissance ideas began to circulate in England during the 16^th century, disrupting feudal structures by celebrating individual human potential and self-worth instead. Merchant explores how personal desires and identities can challenge traditional moral or legal obligations. For example, Portia regrets being bound by her father’s will in the aristocratic Belmont and asserts agency through crossdressing as a male lawyer and controlling the outcome of Shylock’s trial. Shakespeare embodies her with the intellect and rationality brought by Renaissance humanism, even if he ultimately condemns her to the domestic sphere as Bassanio’s wife. 

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Ultimately, Renaissance ideology is demonstrated in how Shakespeare challenges his audience: to consider the role of relationships in an increasingly self-interested and transactional world, and to understand the consequences when justice is used to exact vengeance.

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Antisemitism

Let’s address the elephant in the room: the long-lasting oppression of Jewish people which Merchant seems to both proliferate yet also complicate. What societal factors may have compelled Shakespeare to create a victim-villain like Shylock?

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Antisemitic ideas circulated around Shakespeare’s writing of the play. Jews were officially expelled from England in 1290, though they continued to live there, mostly associating within their own circles. Furthermore, in 1594, a Jewish doctor to Queen Elizabeth I, Roderigo Lopes, was wrongfully executed for treason, a public example of contemporaneous antisemitism. Some critics have noted that Lopes’ wrongful sentence could have inspired Shakespeare’s empathetic and intentionally nuanced portrayal of Shylock.

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Merchant was also written within a decade of Christopher Marlowe’s famous The Jew of Malta (1590), a play whose titular villain, Barabas, is a one-dimensional Jewish caricature: greedy, corrupt and Machiavellian. Consider how Marlowe’s deeply antisemitic characterisation is disrupted by Shakespeare, who chooses to imbue Shylock with humanity and demonstrates how his villainy is taught (“the villainy you teach me I will execute”) rather than an innate quality of his religion. 

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Part 2: Form

Form is an incredibly important consideration that you must bring up in your essay! The ambiguity of Merchant’s form, as neither a full comedy, nor a tragedy, is closely intertwined with Shakespeare’s discussion of the nuance within the human experience, and will signal to your marker a sophisticated engagement with the play.

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For the large part, Merchant would have been interpreted as a comedy for Elizabethan audiences: there are 3 pairs of lovers, along with many humorous and light-hearted moments, such as Portia’s casket tests, miscommunication around the wedding ring, and Portia and Jessica’s crossdressing. However, there are also many tragic elements within Merchant. Shylock’s fate is deeply tragic - he becomes a forced Christian convert and is stripped of his belongings; he disappears in Act V. Furthermore, by the end of the play, Antonio does not find love - only wealth, returning him to his original state at the play’s beginning, where we found him moody and depressed.

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It is more accurate to refer to Merchant as we now understand it as a tragicomedy - blending elements of both forms. But Shakespeare’s audience may not have viewed it as such. It is thus a testament to our evolving humanity, and the continual resonance of Shakespeare’s storytelling, that a post-Holocaust audience can now view Merchant as a tragicomedy, rather than a comedy at Shylock’s expense. 

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The tragicomedic form is a more accurate representation of the human experience than either of its composites. We live lives marked by tragedy and comedy, lives that traverse the entire spectrum of emotions, whose richness and complexity define us as human. Only such a form can accurately reflect the human experience - much like it represents the dual victimhood and villainy of Shylock’s character.

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Part 3: Themes

Now, let’s move on to exploring the main themes of the play, which you can structure your essay around!

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Religion and the Christian collective

A point closely linked to the “individuals vs collective” part of the rubric, Shakespeare explores the hypocrisy of the Christian collective within Venice who only use their religion to cement inequality and their own economic power. By reducing religion into a weapon for oppression, Antonio and other Christian characters no longer embody true Christianity. In fact, Antonio even agrees to wager a pound of his own flesh, disrupting the traditional sanctum of the body, a sacred gift from God – suggesting that religion itself can be sold and owned.

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Some quotes you might want to include:

• The mercantile nature of Venice itself and the characters within it: “To you, Antonio, I owe the most in money and in love,” (A1S1) 
• Antonio’s mistreatment of Shylock: “You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine.” (A1S3)
• Antonio agreeing to wager “a pound of flesh” with Shylock (A1S3)
• The “comedic” ending of the play, which establishes the triumph of the Christian collective despite the silence of Shylock

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Shylock’s dualistic response

In your essay, it is crucial to unpack both sides of Shylock’s character – how he is the victim to the Christian collective, yet also the villain who perpetrates a single-minded pursuit of vengeance against Antonio. By exploring the nuances and contradictions of Shylock’s character, you can demonstrate your understanding of the “human motivations and behaviours” part of the rubric.

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Some quotes you might want to include:

• Shylock’s vengeance, requesting “a pound of flesh” just for “merry sport” (A1S3)
• Shylock’s humanity revealed through his famous monologue “Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, affections, passions?” (A3S1)
• Shylock revealing how “the villainy you teach me I will execute” (A3S1)
• Shylock’s destruction in Act IV and beyond; his ironic, penultimate line “I am content” (A4S1)

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Portia and mercy

In Merchant, it is Portia who advocates for mercy and empathy to nuance the legal institutions of Venice. An outsider from Belmont, she (as a stand-in for Shakespeare himself) reminds the Christian characters that true Christianity lies in a capacity to show love and mercy. However, her behaviour is inconsistent, and she ultimately refuses to grant Shylock the mercy that she advocated for. It is in her individual failure to evoke change that Shakespeare advocates his audience to collectively imbue institutions with humanist values, so they can reflect the nuance of the people they serve.

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Some quotes you might want to include:

• Portia’s courtroom speech demonstrating how mercy brings us closer to God: “The quality of mercy is not strained. / It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven…” (A4S1)
• Portia’s reminder that “In the course of justice none shall see salvation” (A4S1)
• Shylock demanding justice and the law: “I stand here for law”; “I stay here on my bond.” (A4S1)
• Portia being limited by her surroundings and punishing Shylock: “Down, therefore, and beg mercy of the Duke.” (A4S1)

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How mercantilism corrodes relationships

Central to Shakespeare’s reasons for writing Merchant is the rise of capitalism, and his fears that it would corrode human relationships by reducing them to transaction and self-interest. In the play we see relationships or “bonds” between most characters characterised in financial terms, realising Shakespeare’s worst fears of the lack of emotion within a world run by mercantilism. 

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Some quotes you might want to include:

• Bassanio and Antonio’s deeply financial relationship: “My purse, my person, my extremest means / Lie all unlocked to your occasions.” (A1S1)
• Bassanio’s financial reasons for pursuing Portia: “In Belmont is a lady richly left…” (A1S1)
• Shylock conflating his daughter with money: “My daughter, O my ducats, O my daughter! / Fled with a Christian! O my Christian ducats!” (A2S8)
• Jessica and Lorenzo’s relationship as heavily financially influenced: “I will make fast the doors and gild myself / With some more ducats, and be with you straight.” (A2S6)

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Storytelling and theatre

You may wish to have a paragraph that centralises on form, revealing how theatre can powerfully illuminate the hypocritical nature of society. Shakespeare encourages his audience to look beyond simplistic facades and actively realise the insidious and deceitful institutions within their world. The power of his storytelling transcends time, manifesting itself in how our audience today can understand Shylock’s downfall as tragic, nuancing original interpretations. This theme links well to the “storytelling” part of the rubric, which is often neglected by students!

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Some quotes you might want to include:

• Shylock’s revealing monologue allowing us to empathise with his emotions: “I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes?” (A3S1)
• Portia adopting the dress and mannerisms of a man to invade a patriarchal society: “I have within my mind/A thousand raw tricks of these bragging jacks/Which I will practise.” (A3S4) 
• We ourselves are invited to be a jury and respond to Shylock’s fate as he is silenced by the laws of Venice
• Within A5 too, Shakespeare reminds us to be wary of the comedic, light ending which so powerfully juxtaposes with Shylock’s fate

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Part 4: Wrap-up

Hopefully this text guide provided you with a useful overview of the most crucial elements of The Merchant of Venice. It is a play full of contradictions, critiques and challenges that ultimately has as much relevance today as it did 400 years ago, a great testament to Shakespeare’s storytelling. If you can prove that to your marker, you should be well on your way to writing a 20/20 Common Module Merchant essay!