Merchant Of Venice Research Articles

Cultural entrepreneurship in Shakespeare’s Italy

This study deals with Shakespeare's work in Italy and how it has been used today in the form of cultural entrepreneurship. The three famous works he inspired and wrote about the Veneto region, namely "The Merchant of Venice", "Romeo and Juliet", and "The Taming of the Shrews" have been a trigger for many travelers to visit Italy since ancient times even in the context of the "Big Tour". Today the cities mentioned in the works and especially Verona have developed cultural entrepreneurship in the footsteps of "Romeo and Juliet".

The subversive subtext of Shakespearean allusion in Sheridan LeFanu’s ‘Carmilla’

Early on in J. Sheridan LeFanu’s ‘Carmilla’, Laura’s father rattles off the opening lines of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (p.14; 1.1.1-4). It is the most obvious but not the only allusion to Shakespeare in LeFanu’s gothic tale. This article identifies a handful of further references, notably to Cleopatra and Ophelia, and to instances of disguise in The Taming of the Shrew and Romeo and Juliet, and to cross dressing in Twelfth Night. It begs the question, ‘What is Shakespeare doing haunting LeFanu’s nineteenth-century text?’ Ultimately connecting these allusions, some more subtle than others, to the othering of Carmilla (and her associates) and to the twin corruptions of cross-dressing and suicide, the article finds that the sometimes only half-visible figures of Shakespeare’s plays act as alluring but corrupting forces within LeFanu’s diabolical tale not unlike the titular vampire.

Shakespear’s Employment of Malapropism in “Much ado about Nothing”and The Merchant of Venice”

Malapropism, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, is a linguistic mistake occurs when one term is replaced with another that sounds similar but has a different meaning. The current article aims to find out how malapropism is used in Shakespear’s “Much ado about Nothing “and “The Merchant of Venice “and to investigate the most common type of malapropism used in these two plays .The article mainly draws on Fay and Cutler’s(1977) division of malapropism to analyze the selected data. The study concludes that malapropism is used by the plays’ characters basically to create a sense of humor by using a word or a phrase that is different from what they intended to say .It was also found that classical malapropism is the most common used type in both selected plays.

A wilderness of monkeys: value, love and the law of the father’s will in The Merchant of Venice

ABSTRACT ‘I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys’: so, says The Merchant of Venice’s Shylock, referencing the ring gifted to him by his late wife, Leah, now stolen by his errant daughter, Jessica. An odd pronouncement for a character often read as an exemplar of exchange values for whom everyone and everything has its price. Excepting, of course, Leah’s ‘turquoise’. The implied use value of which repositions Shakespeare’s most uncomfortable stereotype – Shylock as the Jewish usurer – as a critic, rather than comprador, of early modern Capital, thereby anticipating not only Marx but Freud. For at stake in The Merchant of Venice is nothing less than the surplus-jouissance of the Capitalist’s discourse itself, coincident with, but ultimately defined against the ‘jewish-ssance’ of Shylock. This article will draw upon the insights of psychoanalysis, as well as those of political economy to examine the status of value, love, and law in The Merchant of Venice, arguing that Shylock may be not only Capitalism’s fiercest critic, but its most misunderstood psychotherapist.

Shapes of hatred and violence in Shakespeare

I use five Shakespearean plays to discuss how the meaning of the shapes of hatred and violence depend on individual character traits. In this sense, hatred and violence can either make comic characters meet some sort of reconciliation or self-destruction in the case of tragic characters. In The Comedy of Errors, the Dromio brothers, who are subject to violence from their master’s part, are the ones who can find redemption nonetheless. In The Merchant of Venice, the structural hatred between Shylock and Antonio seems to configure a form of meaning to them. In King Henry V, the enablement of violence during war time seems to suggest that the capacity for violence is inherent to every human being. This suggestion is carried over through Titus Andronicus, in which Shakespeare explores the traumatic effects of violence within a mythical realm. Finally, in Macbeth, we see how the protagonist, who is accustomed to the violence of war, can have his own nature changed when he is forced to unwillingly commit a murder outside the context of war.

Differentiating between romantic and mature love: Revisiting the three caskets.

Freud's paper on the three caskets is revisited. His view that the lead casket represented death is supported by extracts from The Merchant of Venice, in particular the song, "Tell Me Where is Fancy Bred". It is argued that the acceptance of death is a necessary step in the transformation of romantic love to mature love. With experience of reality a disillusion of romantic idealisation becomes possible, but this means that losses have to be accepted and mourned. It is argued that this is made more bearable if an ironic stance enables an acceptance of the pleasures of romance without believing them to be literally true.

“Shallow fopp’ry” and “music of the spheres”: the multifarious mnemonic values of music in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice

“Shallow fopp’ry” and “music of the spheres”: the multifarious mnemonic values of music in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice

Shakespeare and the Bible -- Taking the Characterization in The Merchant of Venice as an Example

Shakespeare and the Bible -- Taking the Characterization in The Merchant of Venice as an Example

Women Characters in the Works of Tagore and Shakespeare

This comparative study delves into the representation of women characters in the works of Rabindranath Tagore and William Shakespeare, two luminaries from distinct cultural and temporal backgrounds. By examining key female characters such as Charulata from "Nastanirh" and Binodini from "Chokher Bali" alongside Lady Macbeth from "Macbeth" and Portia from "The Merchant of Venice," the paper explores themes of strength, resilience, intelligence, and societal constraints. The analysis reveals that despite their different contexts, both authors portray women with profound depth, challenging traditional norms and highlighting their enduring significance in literary discourse. Through specific line-by-line examples and textual analysis, the paper underscores the universal and timeless nature of these characters, emphasizing their roles in reflecting and critiquing the societal dynamics of their respective eras.

Do Shakespeare’s characters mean what they say?

Do Shakespeare’s characters mean what they say?

Devising Happiness in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice

The Merchant of Venice is a literary master piece written by William Shakespeare. This paper aims at exploring the philosophy of happiness extant in the play employing the Aristotelian critical framework of happiness. The objectives of this study are to enquire how to determine the essence of happiness and how to ensure it in the life of the polis. The paper reveals that virtue is highly necessary for attaining happiness in human life. The paper suggests that doing good to others is the highest virtue, which is a predominant element to bring happiness in our personal as well as societal life.

Double-Gifting and Self-Interested Charity in The Merchant of Venice

This essay analyzes the enacting of charity in The Merchant of Venice, with particular emphasis on moments of “double-gifting” in the plotlines of Portia and Antonio. Building on Henry Berger Jr.’s reading of the play in “Mercifixion in The Merchant of Venice,” I argue that both Bassanio’s wife and friend attempt to exert power over him by weaponizing unspoken obligations of reciprocity underlying their extravagant, repeated gifts of both self and property. Though Portia’s success at winning Bassanio’s fealty (as well as personal freedom for herself) contrasts sharply with Antonio’s near-complete loss of influence, a close reading of the ring plot and merry bond reveals a similar strategy of manipulation via charity behind the actions of both characters. I conclude by connecting the essay’s discussion of the play’s altered gift exchanges to the reality of emergent mercantile capitalism in early modern England, suggesting that said exchanges can be read as instances of “purchasing” interpersonal goods in a manner less explicit than, though bearing resemblance to, Shylock’s use of the money lending contract to obtain revenge on Antonio.

A Study of the Contract Spirit in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice

As a famous playwright and one of the most remarkable literary figures in Britain and the world, Shakespeare is the master of humanist literature in the European Renaissance. The Merchant of Venice is one of his the most representative of works. In this play, a conflict arose from different laws: that is Roman law and Christian law. Shakespeare depicts two laws together perfectly. The spirit of contract and Shakespeare’s humanist ideas are profoundly reflected throughout the play. Shakespeare achieved his desired humanist sentiment while complying with the social and legal system of Venice. The spirit of contract plays quite an important role in social relations. This paper will explore the spirit of contract from three aspects in The Merchant of Venice: family relationships, individual relationships, and societal and individual relationships. It aims to analyze the essence of Shakespeare’s contract spirit, understand the Western countries in the dialectical way and recognize the spiritual essence of Western people.

Framing Polish-Jewish Relations Through Shakespeare in Post-war and Contemporary Polish Theatre

The paper aims to analyse how the staging of Shakespeare’s texts in post-war and contemporary Poland reflected the indifferent and hostile attitudes of Poles towards Jews, particularly during the Holocaust, and the distortions and gaps in the collective memory regarding the events. In the first part, the author focuses on Hamlet Study (dir. Jerzy Grotowski) performed in 1964 by Laboratory Theatre of 13 Rows in Opole, which is symptomatic of silencing the matter during the communist period. The second part draws from the statement of Jan Ciechowicz, a Polish theatre historian, who claimed that “the Holocaust killed Shylock for Polish stage.” While verifying it, the author analyses selected aspects of three productions directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski (The Tempest (2003), The Merchant of Venice (1994) and The African Tales by Shakespeare (2011)) and juxtaposes them against the background of the changes in collective memory. He argues that the most cogent productions concerning Polish attitudes towards Jews are those that position the audience as witnesses of the acts of re-enacted violence and thus provoke an affective response.

Comical Treatment of Queer Identities in The Merchant of Venice (Yugoslav Drama Theatre, 2004)


 By analyzing the performance of The Merchant of Venice directed by Egon Savin, this paper explores the connection between the queer and the comic in contemporary Serbian theatre. The theoretical premise is that humor is a deeply paradoxical phenomenon: although it is usually perceived as a positive, vitalist, and subversive force, humor also functions as a repressive and conformist cultural mechanism that strengthens social norms. Our case study is a typical example of the stereotypical representation of queer identities which aims at inducing the comic effect. Antonio, the merchant of Venice, is portrayed as a typical inauthentic, superficial, and promiscuous gay man, while the character of Bassanio strengthens the most common representation of a bisexual as manipulative and mischievous. The most complex is the queer identity created by cross-gender casting in the interweaving of the physical body of the actor Dragan Mićanović and the semiotic body of the character of Portia. Considering the fact that there is no conceptual vindication for the cross-gender casting in the case of Portia, the incongruity of the man in a woman’s role primarily functions as a source of laughter. The excluding humor, based on the ridicule of queer identities, is partially amortized by the nuanced acting of Dragan Mićanović, which denaturalizes the Portia’s gender, emphasizing her queerness.

Revenge as a Mirror of Corruption in Shakespearean Drama

Speaking in general terms, a revenge play is a genre of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama in which the protagonist is seen to seek revenge since, sometimes imaginatively, sometimes in reality, he has been exposed to injustice and/or injury and wronged. The approach to the notion of revenge was dualistic in early modern culture. Revenge was something accepted and approved in the feudal world. However, in the early modern period, it was solely God who had the responsibility of taking revenge. Plays which ended with the accomplishment of the avenger are indicative of the fact that feudal codes were more powerful than the Christian ones. However, the Christian notion of revenge in which God might be the only avenger was actually praised since it was believed that the sovereign represented God. Thus, early modern revenge plays, especially revenge tragedies, reflected this twofold consideration on the subject. Undoubtedly, Shakespeare was among those dramatists of the Renaissance period who illustrated his time’s ambivalent treatment of the notion of revenge. This study proposes a reading of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar and Hamlet focussing on the notion of revenge to demonstrate that Shakespeare embedded revenge in his plays to mirror or even emphasize social/political corruption and inequity. Thus, the paper contends that Shakespeare’s depiction of revenge becomes a solid metaphor to dramatize justice and the judicial system in the selected plays.

An Exploratory Practice Study on the Use of Film Adaptation in the Tunisian Literature Classroom

This exploratory practice study examined the effectiveness of film adaptation in teaching a Shakespearean play, The Merchant of Venice, during the fall semester of 2022 at the Higher Institute of Languages, Gabès. Qualitative and quantitative data from third-year students majoring in English language, literature, and civilization, as well as teachers of English literature were collected through a questionnaire and two interviews. Questionnaire results indicated that the majority of students had a positive view of the film adaptation of the play in question, noting that it helped them overcome their anxiety when reading Shakespearean works and increased their motivation and engagement. The teachers interviewed highlighted the effectiveness of film adaptation in teaching literature, in general, and Shakespearean plays, in particular.

التطور التاريخي للصراع اليهودي المسيحي في مسرحيات مختارة من العهد الإليزابيثي

The study seeks to examine the historical and the socio-political representation of Jews in the Elizabethan drama through a close examination of the three major Jewish characters in the selected plays: Barabbas in Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta, Shylock in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, and Gerontus in Robert Wilson’s The Three Ladies of London. The study investigates the root causes of the historical tension between Jews and Christians as represented in the plays; these motives are ascribed to religious differences, usury and social crimes linked to Jews, mutual hate crimes and economic rivalry between the two groups. These factors have heightened the ongoing hatred and deepened the conflict between the two communities. As a result, several stereotypes of Jews have been developed, the idea that enhanced the establishment of various forms and practices of the so-called anti-Semitism in the Western culture. To critically examine the stereotyping of the Jew character in the selected plays, the Critical Race Theory (CRT) is adopted throughout the paper as a framework. Remarks that have been labeled as anti-Semitic identified in the texts describe Jews as blasphemous, cruel, murderers, unscrupulous usurers, miserly and cowards. Shakespeare’s Shylock and Marlowe’s Barabbas are labelled negatively as foul-mouthed individuals, unfriendly, deceitful, shrewd, scheming, racists, and manipulative. The Jew character in these plays is the antagonist of the rising New Elizabethan Man. On the other hand, Wilson’s portrayal of Gerontus is less rigid and different; he is shown as honest, kind, forgiving, and virtuous. Wilson is rather sympathetic to his Jewish characters and he does not openly present Jewish stereotypes and anti-Semitic representations. This study shows how Elizabethan drama developed different conflicting discourses about Jewishness and the other races. The Jewish image in the Elizabethan drama reflects the complication of history, religion and culture in establishing discourses of representation. The establishment of the Protestant faith in England may have enforced some revised versions of anti-Semitism in the Elizabethan age.

Ponzi Schemes as Africa's Twenty-First-Century Shylocks: Complicities in Femi Osofisan's Love's Unlike Lading: A Comedy from Shakespeare and Fires Burn and Die Hard

Abstract: This article equates the antics of Shakespeare's Shylock with Ponzi schemes in contemporary Africa. Given the paucity of literary works on Ponzi schemes, it focuses on Nigeria to invoke a correspondence between usury and Ponzi schemes, using the former as a metaphor philosophically to account for the latter. Its discoveries afford an intertextual critique of Nigerian author Femi Osofisan's Love's Unlike Lading , its prototype, Merchant of Venice , and Fires Burn and Die Hard . With the background of New Historicism and intertextual theories, this study reconceptualizes Shakespeare's Shylock as Ponzi schemes, which are economic wolves in the dress of a humanitarian lamb, as they take more than a pound of flesh from investors who are effectively complicit in their own predicaments. It signals a place for literature in the quest for authorities and cybersecurity professionals to rid Africa and cyberspace of get-rich-quick schemes.

The First Folio and the merchants of Venice: A collection of books from the natio Anglica in Padua

The Padua First Folio owned by the Biblioteca Universitaria does not include the original binding, but photos show the shelfmark as having belonged to the Santa Giustina Library. Other English books with the same binding and similar shelfmarks have been found, all coming from Santa Giustina. Some of them contain a mark of ownership by the two John Hobsons, consuls of the English nation in Venice in the seventeenth century, who bequeathed their books to the library of the natio Anglica at Padua University. We know very little about this library, founded in 1649. An Appendix proposes a reconstruction.