briefly describe the story of Shakespeare's Merchant OF Venice(starting to end).... please do not copy-paste from google......answer fast...and post applicable answers
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A young Venetian, Bassanio, needs a loan of three thousand ducats so that he can woo Portia, a wealthy Venetian heiress. He approaches his friend Antonio, a merchant. Antonio is short of money because all his wealth is invested in his fleet, which is currently at sea. He goes to a Jewish moneylender, Shylock, who hates Antonio because of Antonio’s anti-semitic behaviour towards him.
Shylock nevertheless agrees to make the short-term loan, but, in a moment of dark humour, he makes a condition – the loan must be repaid in three months or Shylock will exact a pound of flesh from Antonio. Antonio agrees, confident that his ships will return in time.
Because of the terms of Portia’s father’s will, all suitors must choose from among three caskets, one of which contains a portrait of her. If he chooses that he may marry Portia, but if doesn’t he must vow never to marry or court another woman. The Princes of Morocco and Arragon fail the test and are rejected. As Bassanio prepares to travel to Belmont for the test, his friend Lorenzo elopes with Shylock’s daughter, Jessica. Bassanio chooses the lead casket, which contains her picture, and Portia happily agrees to marry him immediately.
Meanwhile, two of Antonio’s ships have been wrecked and Antonio’s creditors are pressuring him for repayment. Word comes to Bassanio about Antonio’s predicament, and he hurries back to Venice, leaving Portia behind. Portia follows him, accompanied by her maid, Nerissa. They are disguised as a male lawyer and his clerk. When Bassanio arrives the date for the repayment to Shylock has passed and Shylock is demanding his pound of flesh. Even when Bassanio offers much more than the amount in repayment, Shylock, now infuriated by the loss of his daughter, is intent on seeking revenge on the Christians. The Duke refuses to intervene.
Portia arrives in her disguise to defend Antonio. Given the authority of judgment by the Duke, Portia decides that Shylock can have the pound of flesh as long as he doesn’t draw blood, as it is against the law to shed a Christian’s blood. Since it is obvious that to draw a pound of flesh would kill Antonio, Shylock is denied his suit. Moreover, for conspiring to murder a Venetian citizen, Portia orders that he should forfeit all his wealth. Half is to go to Venice, and half to Antonio.
Antonio gives his half back to Shylock on the condition that Shylock bequeaths it to his disinherited daughter, Jessica. Shylock must also convert to Christianity. A broken Shylock accepts. News arrives that Antonio’s remaining ships have returned safely. With the exception of Shylock, all celebrate a happy ending to the affair.
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Answer:
The Merchant of Venice is essentially a play about property: in telling the story of a merchant who treats his own flesh as property to secure a loan, and the moneylender who calls in the debt, the play asks questions about the value of life itself. Throughout the play, tangible objects such as rings and caskets stand in for intangible ideas about love and fidelity. A test where three suitors must choose between silver, lead, and gold caskets functions to remind audiences that “all that glisters isn’t gold,” and the true value of life has no financial equivalent. However, money plays a significant role for most of the characters, for whom financial security equals independence. Language about penalties, bonds, and forfeitures add to the sense of life reduced to commercial transactions. The fact that the most avaricious, greedy character in the play ends up having lost both his physical wealth as well as his daughter and his religion warn against the dangers of excessive greed. While the play culminates in a trial scene, Portia’s soliloquy suggests that mercy, or forgiveness, is ultimately more important than legal justice.
The major conflict driving the plot of The Merchant of Venice takes place between Bassanio, who wants to marry Portia to gain the financial means to pay back his debt to Antonio, and Shylock, who wants revenge on Antonio for lending money without interest and for his anti-Semitic insults. Shylock’s desire for revenge on Antonio implies a deeper desire to defend his humanity and his way of life. During the play’s inciting incident, Bassanio uses Antonio’s credit to secure a loan from Shylock, binding Antonio to Shylock and making their final confrontation inevitable. Though the men separate after this incident, the stakes of their conflict are raised during the rising action of the play. First, Lancelot and then Jessica rob and abandon Shylock in quick succession, fueling his fury. Next, Bassanio wins the chance to marry Portia in the casket game, fulfilling his superficial desires for money and marriage and bringing him close to proving his character by repaying Antonio in money, love, and loyalty. Finally, Antonio’s ships fail to return, giving Shylock has the opportunity to get his revenge and Bassanio the opportunity to prove his character by coming to Antonio’s rescue.
The conflict between Bassanio’s desire to redeem his character by proving himself a loyal friend and Shylock’s desire to defend his humanity by enacting revenge on Antonio comes to a head in the play’s climactic trial scene. Shylock makes the case for his right to collect his bond by arguing that he has the same rights as any other hateful character in Venice. But Portia, disguised as Balthazar, argues that in trying to collect on his loan, Shylock has threatened Antonio’s life, and therefore broken the law. Not only can Shylock not collect the money he loaned, he is stripped of his livelihood and religion, signaling that the world of the play will not accept Shylock’s humanity or his way of life. Bassanio, Portia, Gratiano, Nerissa, Lorenzo, and Jessica all finish the play happily married and financially secure in Belmont. While the couples in the play end up happy, Shylock’s punishment seems neither merciful nor just. Not only is he unable to collect the money he is rightfully owed by Bassanio, he loses the rest of his wealth, his daughter, and his Jewish faith. While Shakespeare’s contemporaries would have seen Shylock’s conversion to Christianity as a victory for his immortal soul, Shylock’s forced conversion is shockingly anti-Semitic and unjust to modern readers.
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