Shakespeare and the politics of culture in late Victorian England

Abstract

Explores the broad cultural issues which gave Merchant of Venice such resonance for the audiences of Victorian England. The text considers how much of the play's power derived from Portia, whose mastery of Shylock, the law, and her beloved typified all the aspirations of English women, still seeking suffrage, legal rights, and respect under the reign of Queen Victoria. However Shylock, the author argues, spoke just as profoundly to the concerns of the English. She considers how the Question had not left the national agenda with Disraeli, but instead became a focal point for discussions of nationality and immigration. The text offers an account of a hit production of Merchant of Venice by Henry Irving which electrified its audiences by portraying Shylock as a tragic hero and how the critical debate that ensued about Shakespeare's intentions quickly became a much larger debate about Jewish history in England.