Law and Love in The Merchant of Venice

Abstract

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE IS THE ONE PLAY of Shakespeare which can be called a work of Christian apologetics. Elements of Christian belief function importantly in several of Shakespeare's other plays, and he everywhere draws heavily upon the cultural endowment of Christianity, but only in The Merchant of Venice does he make an expressly Christian argument the basis for an entire play. The play is also notable for giving rise to a persistent impression among audiences and critics that the poet's real sympathies are at odds with the ostensible message of the piece. Anxiety about anti-Semitism doubtless predisposes modern audiences to fasten upon whatever may be found in the play to suggest that the poet was really of the Jew's party without knowing itor, at any rate, of the party of common humanity as against the particular Christian bias he assumed-but much that is not directly related to the treatment of Shylock has also been felt to counteract the play's Christian affirmation.' This should not surprise us, for it is of the very nature of that affirmation to incur just such a counter-interpretation. The play is in fact a kind of hermeneutic drama, reflecting the contest between Christian and Jew for the possession of Hebrew scriptures. The issue is joined on the subject of usury, on which the Old Testament provides a clear directive: Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury, but thou shalt not lend upon usury unto thy brother, that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all that thou setest thine hand