Abstract
According to Ruth Nevo, the deeper structures of The Merchant of Venice have produced a play which is "split, sundered, schizoid."' She could just as well be referring to the nature of the critical response which the play has traditionally stimulated. For centuries, The Merchant has attracted more radically, even hysterically, divergent reactions than Shakespeare's other problematic works. Perhaps because the play is exceptional in its insistence on polarities, or perhaps because it raises irritating (or embarrassing) issues that threaten Shakespeare's reputation as a masterful and enlightened artist, criticism of the play has been characterized by polemic, apology, and rationalization.2 Intent on finding unity, theme, meaning, and similar abstractions, critics have felt compelled to resolve the play's conflicting alternatives by systematizing them, often by appealing, positively or negatively, to some variety of the Christian ethos and the conventions of comic form.3
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