The Merchant of Venice Essay Examples Page 2

During the 1600’s, the city of Venice was the most liberal and powerful city state in the whole of Europe. However, intolerance of Jews was a problem which was rife. Many Jews were forced to live in the ‘Ghetto’ of Venice which was ruled by Christians. If they wished to leave the ghetto during the…

On the first reading of Shakespeare’s play, ‘The Merchant of Venice’, the character of Shylock the Jew seemed to me to be that of a villain. Because it is a play, an audience in Shakespeare’s time may well have thought the same and, indeed, may have been expected to do so. The reason for this…

In The Merchant of Venice, the part of Shylock, a money lending Jew, is one which carries many emotions, pain, joy, cruelty and loss. His character’s contrary attributes mean that one moments sorrow for Shylock can turn to hate in the blink of an eye. In this essay, I must come to a conclusion on…

The play “The Merchant of Venice” was written about 1596 by the great English playwright William Shakespeare. Although the play has gone through some revisions it has never been changed a great deal. In the past fifty or so years as Hollywood has come into light and the movie adaptations of some of Shakespeare’s greatest…

On the whole I feel that this is a fairly accurate description of the play’s characters, with the mercantile Venice and Belmont (which trades in a different commodity but is trade none the less) mirroring their inhabitants. However to say that money was their only reason would be missing vital elements of the play. The…

The Merchant of Venice, deals with issues that have as much of a relevance, if not more, in today’s society than they did in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century: money, discrimination and love between people that aren’t supposed to fall in love. Attitudes in the sixteenth century towards Jews meant that any Jewish…

In the Merchant of Venice, Shylock is shown to be an evil character, who tries to kill Antonio and is stopped by the good Antonio. Shakespeare probably made the play for a 16th Century, prejudicial and anti-Semitic audience, so a more modern audience would sympathize with some of Shylock’s actions. Shylock is a Jewish Puritan,…

The Merchant of Venice was written by William Shakespeare and includes a number of smaller stories linked together to produce one play. The ideas for these have been adapted by Shakespeare from other plays at the time. This play however, is seen by many to be racist, as the main theme of these stories is…

In this essay the theme of prejudice will be carefully analysed, by focusing on Act 4 scene 1 of The Merchant of Venice, or as it is also known as the court scene. Though this play is a ‘Romantic Comedy’ it also highlights the darker sides of human nature: greed, prejudice, hatred and deception. Prejudice…

Throughout the text ‘The Merchant of Venice’ presents a main them of anti Semitic racism both anti Jewish and anti Christian. The play is set in Venice, an ancient civic republic and not a nation ruled by a king or queen. However it reflects London in the late 1500’s. Venice was also a trading centre…