Classifying the Merchant of Venice

In some scenes, the play has been featured containing such problematic and dark elements. This element can be illustrated well more clearly especially where shylock is forced to convert to Christianity. The Play as a Comedy In the play, most of the characters have ended up happy. Therefore, comic relief has been abundant in the scenes and the characters. The lightheartedness of some plots has also forced some people to classify this play a comedy. The ending of Antonio is beyond doubt that is a happy one. This is evident where he was cleared of any charges and his spared as well. Additionally, partially is portrayed to have such a favourable ending where she can marry a suitable lover. This is as portrayed in Act II, Scene I, where Portia end up marrying the only man who had caught her eyes Bassanio (Johnson, Brandon) Most of the primary characters in the play have ended up with a happy ending.

These happy endings is a good illustration of comedy by Shakespeare. While on the other side, through shylock, an alien Jew would become a resident of the Christian Venice. Through the teachings and life of Jesus, the essence of his teachings became clearer to the Jewish. Historically, Jewish scholars have described Jesus as a Jew who was loyal while on the other side Christians criticized such definition with an argument that the definition denied Jesus his uniqueness and originality. In the 19th century, the Protestants started claiming that Jesus was not a Jew but instead an Aryan who had the intention of destroying Judaism. Shylock who is represented as an anti-Jesus also represents a Jew figure in the world of Christianity who has already poisoned it.

She has described the blacks as devils, and she would never imagine getting married to a black person. This can be related to the story of African colonisation by the white people who discriminated Africans in everything they did (Susannah, Heschel) Merchant of Venice as a tragedy As a tragedy, this play has presented various characters who have faced misfortunes in their missions. We can look at Antonio who has lost all his ship and money which he had sent for business. With the hope of the ships to come back home, he requests Bassanio to Borrow money with a promise that he would repay back for him. A tragedy befalls him when his ship gets a wreck in the sea.