Launcelot, Jacob, and Esau: Old and New Law in 'The Merchant of Venice'

Abstract

Audiences and critics continue to be perplexed by The Merchant of Venice. The play seems more disturbing than other romantic comedies. Shylock, for instance, can be considered a ludicrously exaggerated stage villain and the young lovers simply can be applauded. But are audiences self-indulgently romantic when they find the defeat of the Jew troubling and the reunion of the lovers tainted by the hard mercantilism of Venice? Shylock, after all, was tricked by some accomplished legalistic hair-splitting (out-Shylocked, as it were) and is ultimately bereft of family, religion, and fortune. Of course the Jew is a hard customer and stands ready to commit murder in open court; he is no tragic hero. But his defeat seems orchestrated to produce puzzlement as well as celebration, and is certainly the source of the greatest critical confusion about the play.1 The tensions produced by The Merchant of Venice are not merely products of the liberal inclinations of contemporary persons who shudder at Gratiano's jeers and who heed Shylock's anguished complaints. It is an unsentimental yet compassionate Shakespeare who makes the play troubling for us. One commentator complains that audiences and critics tend to seize upon certain details ('hath not a Jew eyes') and dwell upon these details until they obscure the larger pattern of the play: 'the trick is . . . to see the larger pattern as helping us to interpret the details and also to see the details as helping us to shape the pattern'.2 An awareness of the relationship between detail and pattern is perhaps most helpful in Act II, Scene 2, when Launcelot Gobbo debates whether or not he should remain in the service of the Jew. During his monologue the clown parodies episodes from the Old Testament in such a way as to suggest how we can come to terms with some of the most troubling ambiguities of the play. Launcelot's ruminations help to clarify Shakespeare's attitude towards Jew and Christian, justice and mercy, and may help us understand the seemingly pathetic figure of the vanquished Shylock.