Is The Merchant of Venice anti-Semitic?

[stanley2]

You yourself wrote in post #192 that "when you take these sentences out of their original context, they can be read in several ways." Professor Tiffany also wrote: "TWELFTH NIGHT'S Antonio-Sebastian pairing is curiously revived in THE TEMPEST, although THE TEMPEST'S Antonio and Sebastian share a political(and criminal) rather than an amorous tie." In the list of characters for THE TEMPEST and AS YOU LIKE IT, we find an "usurping brother" in both. Antonio in the former and Frederick in the latter. Therefore the author invites the reader to compare Antonio in MV to Antonio in THE TEMPEST. She also wrote that "'Antonio' is variously allusive, invoking both the reputations of genuine historical figures (including the saint), and the associations which would eventually accrue to the Antonio's scripted later by Shakespeare--- not only the Antonio of TWELFTH NIGHT, but the Antonio of THE TEMPEST, and ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA as well." I myself am not too worried about Jessica, who like Lancelet, is young. Bassanio says: "So may the outward shows be least themselves, / The world is still deceived with ornament"(MV3.2.75-6). Shylock's aside begins: "How like a fawning publican he looks!"(MV1.3.36). Antonio's first line, "In sooth I know not why I am so sad"(MV1.1.1), plainly is also allusive. The words "sad" and "sadness" also are found in Act one, scene 1 of ROMEO AND JULIET.

[stanley2]

"I am trying to remain within the play"(post #420). One thought regarding this is suggested by reading a fine essay by Professor Linda Bamber included in the Signet Classic KING LEAR. That is, you are in a sense preparing to play the part of Portia onstage. Professor Bevington was imagining himself playing the role of Antonio(see post#391). I don't have this propensity as I can only imagine myself playing the part of the Second Clown in HAMLET("But is this law?" HAM5.1.20). This is reasonable as Portia has by far the most lines to speak.

[stanley2]

And speaking of Lancelot, one might compare his father and Shylock. "Marry, God forbid! The boy was the very staff of my age, my very prop"(MV2.2.58-9). In the court scene, Shylock says: "You take my house, when you take the prop / That doth sustain my house"(MV4.1.371-2). "Her name is Margery, indeed. I'll be sworn, if thou be Lancelot, thou art mine own flesh and blood," says Old Gobbo. In Act three, scene 1 we have Shylock's "My own flesh and blood to rebel!"(MV3.1.29) and "I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor"(MV3.1.101).

[stanley2]

In Professor Parrott's intro to TWELFTH NIGHT we find: "the third in time of Shakespeare's glorious triad of romantic comedies is in some ways the most delightful, in many ways the most perfectly finished. It lacks to be sure, the greenwood atmosphere of AS YOU LIKE IT; it has no such rapier thrusts of repartee as we find in the wit-combats of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING." The guy could not help himself; he was always comparing one play to another and here recalls even R&J. The "amorous tie"(see #421) between Antonio and Sebastian contrasts with Benedick, who would rather "fetch a toothpicker now from the furthest inch of Asia"(I don't have it in front of me) than marry Beatrice. Lokasenna's comment that the quandry is to decide if Shylock is more sinned against than sinning is, as we've seen, a two hundred year old question. Therefore, Antonio and Shylock are co-comic villains. In the intro to MV by Professor Bate we find the first page and a half are comments regarding the title of the play. No character but Antonio is explicitly identified as a merchant, yet Bate notes that "The part almost seems to be deliberately underwritten." And yet "to remain within the play" it is important to note such lines as "Mark you this, Bassanio, / The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose"(MV1.3.96-7).

[stanley2]

Therefore, Portia's line, "Tarry a little, there is something else," is crucial to understanding the play. As we have seen, some people, at first, feel that the play either favors Antonio or Shylock. It is clear that the text favors neither. When we search the play we always find "something else." When Shylock says "How like a fawning publican he looks! / I hate him for he is a Christian," we find in the same speech "He hates our sacred nation."