Is The Merchant of Venice anti-Semitic?

Professor Bevington suggested that "Renaissance Neoplatonism, depicting love as a chain or ladder from the basest carnality to the supreme love of God for man," helps explain Antonio's relationship with Bassanio: "On this ladder, perfect friendship and spiritual union are more sublimely Godlike than sexual fulfillment." Professor Bate, however, quotes W. H. Auden: "Shylock, however unintentionally, did, in fact, hazard all for the sake of destroying the enemy he hated; and Antonio, however unthinkingly he signed the bond, hazarded all to secure the happiness of the man he loved." These obscurities may be in part, Shakespeare's response to the uncertainties surrounding the death of Christopher Marlowe and the strange case of Dr. Lopez, who was hanged for conspiring to murder his client, the queen. Marlowe was reportedly killed with a dagger. The coroner ruled than the man who killed him acted in self defense. Marlowe is thought to have been gay and atheist. It may then be tempting to say that Antonio is at the end of the play the same as at the start, simply a melancholy man.

Professor Bevington and Professor Bate may be right. As a person Antonio is melancholy from the beginning to the end of the play, but his initial protagonism as a character has to give way to Portia´s. He loses not only Bassanio but also the limelight to her, ending the play among the secondary characters.

But is there any evidence that Marlowe´s death has anything to do with MV?

I'll return to Marlowe's death later. In his introduction, Professor Drakakis notes that a play called THE THREE LADIES OF LONDON "was evidently popular " in the early 1580's. Bevington tells us that the Jewish character in that play "is an exemplary person." Marlowe's play, THE JEW OF MALTA, written in the late 1580's, is a very different play. Shakespeare, then, took a different approach. In ROMEO AND JULIET, the Friar says "Two such opposed kings encamp them still / In man as well as herbs--grace and rude will"(R&J2.3.25-6). In MV, Lancelet the clown says to Bassanio: "you have the grace of God, sir, and he hath enough."(MV2.2.133). Therefore, in MV the audience hopes to learn whether Shylock is more like Tybalt and Mercutio or like Romeo.

"Therefore, in MV the audience hopes to learn whether Shylock is more like Tybalt and Mercutio or like Romeo."
Not sure, if the audience is making any comparisons between MV and other plays, but Shylock is certainly no Romeo. No Mercutio either, though he has some grotesques moments.

The author also recommends comparison of Shylock and Capulet. Capulet says to his daughter: "How, how, how ,how, chop-logic? What is this?............But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next.........Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither....."(ROM3.5.150-157). Shylock says to Tubal: "Why there, there, there, there..........Would she were hearsed at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin"(MV3.1.71-78). Lady Capulet's response to her husband, ""Fie, fie! What, are you mad?," is a serious question as MV begins with Antonio telling us that "sadness" has made him a "want-wit" and at the end of the court scene Shylock is "not well"(MV4.1.394).

Well, both have daughters that rebel against the will of their fathers, because of their lovers. But while one is of the side of Julia Capulet, I personally I´m not so sure about Rebecca. She robs her own father and the play gives some indications that the love relationship might not last.

And Professor Bate tells us that Shakespeare "found in Ovid a great store of examples of female feeling---something that was notably lacking in many of his other models, such as the plays of Marlowe and the history books of Plutarch and Holinshed." Professor Kermode marked the uncertainty surrounding the deaths of Marlowe and Dr. Lopez by sharing his opinions that "Marlowe was murdered, but that was when he was apparently engaged in his second career as a spy" and Lopez "was in 1594 tried on false evidence." Morocco's farewell, "Portia adieu, I have too grieved a heart / To take a tedious leave. Thus losers part"(MV2.7.26-7), foreshadows Antonio's "These griefs and losses"(3.3.32). In making his choice, Morocco says: "Let's see once more this saying graved in gold: / 'Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.' / Why that's the lady, all the world desires her, / From the four corners of the earth they come / To kiss this shrine, this mortal breathing saint"(MV2.7.36-40). "Saint" and "shrine" are also found in Romeo and Juliet's first conversation, which, we are told is in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet. Therefore, the author recommends comparison of the Sonnets once again with the play.

I must have a look at Ovid, sometime.

I see, but what does Marlowe's life or death have to do with MV?

Maybe it was usual at that time to compare "good" women to saints.?

Among other things, the author seems to be recommending sympathy for grieving widowers and eccentric gays. The play begins with discussion of Antonio's melancholy. One possible cause is clearly stated in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM: "This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look sad"(MND5.1.284-5). Shylock's "What, wouldst thou have a serpent sting thee twice?"(MV4.1.68) might recall Juliet's "O serpent heart, hid with a flow'ring face!........Dove-feathered raven, wolvish-ravening lamb"(ROM3.2.73-6) . In turn, Gratiano echoes Juliet: "for thy desires / Are wolvish, bloody, starved and ravenous"(MV4.1.137). As the author suggests that Portia's father and a woman named Leah have passed on to eternity, Antonio and Shylock are possibly each grieving both losses.

Is Leah Shylock´s deceased wife?

Portia´s father died, as we know, before the play started. It is not clear if Antonio knew him personally.

All that we know about Leah is the 3 or 4 lines quoted in post #96. Hawkman wrote, "Shylock's wife perhaps?" Charles D wrote, "who I can only assume is his[Shylock's] wife." Professor Bate, reasonably, argues that there is no other reasonable inference. Back to the matter of Marlowe, Professor Parrott wrote in his general introduction: "In short, one feels in reading RICHARD 2 that the poet has graduated from the school of Marlowe and is now his own master." R2 was written about 1595, two years after the death of Marlowe, that "school" was by then closed. One might then suggest that Shakespeare was sad that such a talented rival was gone: "and it shall go hard, but I will better the instruction"(MV3.1.61). Some have suggested that RICHARD 3(written before R2) was in part Shakespeare's response to Marlowe's THE JEW OF MALTA. Parrott wrote, "like Marlowe's HERO AND LEANDER, which Shakespeare must have read in manuscript, VENUS AND ADONIS is a narrative poem(written in 1593).

She probably is. But would she have known Antonio? Shylock would hardly have taken him home. I quite agree with Professor Bate that there is not much that can be said about her.

I believe that Shakespeare had read or, maybe,even watched some of Marlowe´s plays and that he was influenced by them.

Indeed, Antonio may know less than the audience about Leah. We learn more about Lancelet the clown's mother: "Her name is Margery indeed. I'll be sworn, if thou be Lancelet, thou art mine own flesh and blood"(MV2.2.85-6). This last line is echoed in Act 3, scene 1: "I say my daughter is my flesh and my blood"(MV3.1.33). The next line, Salerio's "There is more difference between thy flesh and hers than between jet and ivory," corresponds to black and white images in R&J. On the way to Belmont, Salerio met Lorenzo and Jessica and invited them to join him: "I did my lord, / And I have reason for it. Signior Antonio / Commends him to you"(MV3.2.229-31). And as Professor Parrott wrote: "Portia herself is, of course, the most delightful character of the play. She is one of Shakespeare's ideal women, a lady of the Renaissance, beautiful, prudent, cultured and courteous." The added implication that Shylock and Antonio are both grieving the loss of Leah may have been intended to please the Queen.

I like Professor Parrott´s comment on Portia.

But I insist: I don´t think Antonio was grieving the loss of Leah. Even if he knew her, he would hardly have fallen in love with her.

Roger Tory Peterson wrote: "caution should be the keynote." A good thought in many circumstances. Professor Garber, I think, noted that Shylock tells us in Act 1, scene 3 that Tubal will supply the funds to furnish Bassanio's adventure. In Act 3, scene 1, we meet a character named Tubal(Someone pointed out that there may be two Salerio's!). In this thread we find Professor Greenblatt's notes regarding the good news/bad news nature of Tubal's report. One will then note the Nurse's reports to Juliet in R&J: "What storm is this that blows so contrary?"(ROM3.2.64). It seems, then, that Tubal is as generous towards Shylock as Antonio is to Bassanio. Tubal's line, "Yes, other men have ill luck too. Antonio as I heard in Genoa"(MV3.1.84), corresponds to Duke Senior's: "Thou seest we are not all alone unhappy. / This wide and universal theatre / Presents more woeful pageants than the scene / Wherein we play"(AS YOU LIKE IT2.7.135-9). Is Tubal a gay fellow or is he simply a Neoplatonic natural philosopher?

Another cause of Antonio's sadness is suggested by Lancelet the clown and Professor Parrott. Parrott notes that he is "an idealist, overshadowed, like most of Shakespeare's men of thought, with a cloud of melancholy." Lancelet tells us: "My conscience says, 'No; take heed, honest Lancelet, take heed, honest Gobbo', or, as aforesaid, 'Honest Lancelet Gobbo, do not run, scorn running with thy heels'"(MV2.2.5-7). Therefore, Antonio is sad because his own conscience is telling him that his behavior towards Shylock is bad form.

"Is Tubal a gay fellow or is he simply a Neoplatonic natural philosopher?"
I think Tubal is simply another Jewish merchant and Shylocks friend.
Yes, I think Antonio could be called an idealist.
The problem I see when one interprets every line of a play is losing sight of the whole picture. A certain interpretation may be right, if you take the line isolately, but not in regard to the play as a whole.

In the film THE FRENCH CONNECTION, the mechanic says to the detective: " We've looked everywhere[for the illegal addictive drug] except the rocker panels." Gene Hackman(as the detective) says, "Then take apart the[expletive deleted] rocker panels." I think we've noted some possible causes of Antonio's grief. One remaining is that he is losing Portia by her marriage to Bassanio.

I haven´t seen this film. If I understand you right, the idea is that the interpretation is in the detail.
So far ok. But now you are suggesting that Antonio might have been in love with Portia?

The end of MACBETH, or the Scottish play, is useful here: "We shall not spend a large expense of time / Before we reckon with your several loves"(MAC5.9.26-7). Therefore, Antonio may then have, like the narrator of the Sonnets, "Two loves." Shakespeare wrote this play such that these various possibilities are each implicit.

I should say Bassanio and some of his ships should be loss enough for Antonio!

Let 's take an air guitar break. I just watched on Youtube the "Stones" performing JUST MY IMAGINATION, a popular song from 1971 by Norman Whitfield and Barret Strong. Mick Jagger sings "But in reality, she doesn't [expletive deleted] know me!" Therefore, it's not necessary that Antonio know Leah, it's just his imagination.

To be sure! Poor Shakespeare!
Anyway I hope you enjoyed the music.

There's a fine essay by Professor Pequigney about the Antonio character in TWELFTH NIGHT, that is, how similar he is to Antonio in MV. Professor Bate says of the second Antonio: "He is rewarded for his devotion by being left alone and melancholy, again in the exact manner of a sonnet writer turned away by his frosty mistress." Of course, Viola is disguised as a young man and Olivia loves her. In the end, Olivia marries Viola's twin brother. Therefore, the second Antonio could follow her example and find himself devoted to someone of the other gender.

I get your point. But this second Antonio is a minor character in the play. His function is just to save and accompany Sebastian. Remember that there is another Shakespearean Antonio, the Marc Anton of "Julius Cesar" and "Antonius and Cleopatra" who doesn´t efface himself.

By the way, where do you get all those Professors. Some of them have very curious names.

Thanks for reminding me that I misspelled the name of one of the Professors, and I have been quoting Professor Thomas Marc Parrott's textbook more, perhaps, than I should. All that I know about A&C is that Antony is "A lover, that kills himself most gallant for love"(MND1.2.20). A certain Professor did also recommend it.

I did not intend to remind you of any misspelling, stanley, as I have no idea who these Professors are and how their names are spelled. I just got the idea that you were a student of Literature because you often referred to them.

And did you intend to refer to Mary Sidney? We find that her version of the A&C story is titled ANTONIUS. She is certainly an interesting person to read about, three years older than Shakespeare. And speaking of titles or names, after I first read Prince Hamlet's lines, "I am but mad north-north-west; when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw"(HAM2.2.173-4), I can't help but associate the Alfred Hitchcock movie NORTH BY NORTHWEST and Shakespeare.

No, I never heard about her, thanks for calling my attention to that interesting Renaissance woman. I`ll see if I find the play "Antonius" that is said to influence Shakespeare. Here is her wiki, to start with:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sidney

In the court scene, Bassanio says: "Good cheer, Antonio! What, man, courage yet! / The Jew shall have my flesh, blood, bones and all / Ere thou shalt lose for me one drop of blood"(MV4.1.113-14). In Act 1, scene 2, Nerissa says: "Do you not remember, lady, in your father's time, a Venetian, a scholar and a soldier, that came hither in company of the Marquis of Montferrat?"(MV1.2.97-9). Therefore, when Portia says "Tarry a little, there is something else," Shylock is patiently waiting for Bassanio to step aside, they are face to face. The one is married to Portia, the other is, it seems, grieving the loss of his own wife. And thus, again, we may both be in the ballpark.

Hi, stanley
I´m just getting a bit dizzy with all that unexpected pairing. You are not pairing Shylock with Nerissa, are you?

An interesting question. Bassanio says to Gratiano: "But hear thee, Gratiano, / Thou art too wild, too rude and bold of voice"(MV2.2.173). This is comparable to the Duke's "stony adversary" speech(MV4.1.4). Therefore, perhaps, Shylock and Gratiano are each Nerissa's kind of guy. The dizziness you note may be in part caused by the subject matter of the play. As Hawkman put it, the author is dealing with the "contemporary climate of suspicion and hate regarding 'otherness'- whether Catholic or Jewish." And the first Shakespeare play I read was MND at age 14 for school. This may be why the simple answer regarding Antonio's melancholy for me is "the death of a dear friend"(MND5.1.284). Therefore, if Antonio is gay, he may have been a lover of Portia's late father.

Sonnet 130 is recommended at the other Sonnet threads. We read there: "I grant I never saw a goddess go, / My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground." The scholar at the Shakespeare-sonnets site tells us: "Literature abounds with incidents of intervention in human affairs by various deities. Odysseus for example is often surprised when Athena disguises herself as a maiden and only reveals herself to him as she leaves." Therefore, Bassanio's last lines in MV, "Sweet doctor, you shall be my bedfellow. / When I am absent, then lie with my wife"(MV5.1.300-1), are consistent with the conclusion of the ODYSSEY: "Though still she kept the form and voice of Mentor"(Fitzgerald's translation). I had thought that Antonio, Shylock or both("But here's the joy; my friend and I are one," Sonnet 42) were intended by the author to be identified with Odysseus.

I caught a performance of late actor Brian Bedford's one man Shakespeare show titled "The Lunatic, the Lover and the Poet." Such a show by a major leaguer, would, I'm sure, relieve dizziness. In sonnet 147 we find "My thoughts and my discourse as madmen's are, / At random from the truth vainly express'd; / For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright, / Who art as black as hell, as dark as night." Certainly one might compare "madmen's" and "The lunatic"(as found in MND). The conclusion also might recall Juliet's "O serpent heart, hid with a flow'ring face!" and "Dove-feathered raven"(ROM3.2.75-8). Therefore, Shylock's question, "What, wouldst thou have a serpent sting thee twice?"(MV4.1.69), identifies Antonio and Romeo without denying the possibility that Antonio may be gay. As Juliet changes her mind a bit regarding Romeo, so too may Antonio have felt various passions.

I think you are right there. Passions often appear in Shakespeare as inconstant, that is, maybe, why the constant ones are so deeply valued.

Post #100 and others point the way back to Shylock's "and no satisfaction, no revenge, nor no ill luck stirring but what lights o'my shoulders, no sighs but o'my breathing, no tears but o'my shedding" and Tubal's reply: "Yes, and other men have ill luck too. Antonio, as I heard in Genoa"(MV3.1.81-85). We then recall Juliet's conversation with the Nurse: "Tybalt's death was woe enough if it had ended there: Or if sour woe delights in fellowship / And needly will be ranked with other griefs....."(R&J3.2.119-21). Juliet instructs the Nurse to "Give this ring to my true knight, / And bid him come to take his last farewell"(3.2.146-7), and Shylock exclaims "It was my turquoise, I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor"(MV3.1.107). And in due course, Jew rhymes with Montague.

In her book for young people, Marchette Chute wrote that "THE MERCHANT OF VENICE is a romantic comedy, but of a most unusual kind." Here, Drkshadow and others suggest, cogently, that Ms. Chute "is still deceived with ornament"(MV3.2.74). That is, the play is chiefly conventional. On the other hand, Lokasenna noted the famous line from KING LEAR: "The quandry is to decide whether.....he is 'more sinned against than sinning.'" Hawkman, Gladys, Ms. Slop(post #142) and others suggest that Shylock and Antonio are co-villains, and rightly so.

The play ends with the lines from Gratiano: "Well, while I live I'll fear no other thing / So sore as keeping safe Nerissa's ring." In the last scene of R&J, Romeo asks: "Ah, dear Juliet, / Why art thou yet so fair? Shall I believe / That unsubstantial Death is amorous, / And that the lean abhorred monster keeps / Thee here in dark to be his paramour? / For fear of that I will stay with thee"(ROM5.3.101-106). Bevington glosses Gratiano's lines "with sexual suggestion." Therefore, the author concludes the play with the suggestion that Shylock is in a fantastical, rhetorical and poetical sense, defending his honorable wife from that lusty gentleman Antonio.

There are other echoes of MV in AS YOU LIKE IT. "Which of the two was daughter of the Duke / That here was at the wrestling?..........Neither his daughter, if we judge by manners"(AYL1.2.258-60) recalls Jessica's "But though I am a daughter to his blood, / I am not to his manners"(MV2.3.17-18). Rosalind's first line disguised as a young man, "O Jupiter, how weary are my spirits"(AYL2.4.1) recalls Portia's first line in MV: "By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of this great world"(MV1.2.1). There are two comic villains in AS YOU LIKE IT, the younger brother of Duke Senior and the older brother of Orlando(adding Charles to the list is optional, I think). Therefore, it is plainly reasonable to regard Antonio as a second villain in MV. And of course scholars tell us that, in AS YOU LIKE IT, the author refers to the work of Marlowe and also his death, something Shakespeare clearly would like us all to avoid.

In keeping with the above, we note Romeo's exclamation: "O mischief, thou art swift / To enter in the thoughts of desperate men!"(R&J5.1.35-6). Prendrelemick(#56) wrote "Notice at the end of the trial when his Jewishness is torn from him there is not much man left either." Hawkman replied: "Well to be honest, there's not much man left in Antonio when he's stripped of his wealth........He'd rather die than be poor." I do believe it in part. We have further seen that the author identifies the passion of each with Romeo, though as we've also seen, they may be grieving the loss of Portia's father.