Question

the merchant of venice is a tragic comedy . explain with examples from drama. BEST AND FAST ANSWER would be marked as BRAINLIEST...

Answer 1

Shakespeare’s ‘The Merchant of Venice’ is a comedy with a difference. It was written almost certainly between 1596 & 1598. The play is classed as one of the 16 comedy plays but it is also a ‘problem’ play due to the tragic elements woven throughout the intricate plot. The play concludes with a harmonious ending but all through the plot, reoccurring themes of sadness and tragedy are included.

In terms of dramatic structure, “The Merchant of Venice” is undoubtedly a comedy. It follows the typical upward trajectory of comedy (beginning complication to ending resolution}. Act 1 introduces the plays main complication, but it also sets the tone for comic expectation by establishing upward rhythm of comedy in each of its three scenes. Antonio and Portia’s melancholy are shortly alleviated by appropriate distractions & hope. Bassanio hopes to thrive, Antonio tries to help his friend, Portia will not have to worry about being chosen by the suitors she has mocked. Bassanio and Antonio get what they mistakenly but happily think is a friendly loan and Shylock mistakenly and happily, he has hit upon a winning scenario.

After the opening act has set the rhythm and expectation of comedy, there is increasing fluctuation of the rising and dashing of hopes because of the various characters choices. Raised hopes and satisfaction however outweigh dashed hopes and dissatisfaction. Launcelot, Jessica, Lorenzo, Portia, Nerrisa, Gratiano & Antonio all escape the danger they most fear and realize their aspirations. Morocco, Arragon, Shylock and Antonio all suffer losses. However, Morocco and Arragon receive the strict justice of their penalty that they swore oaths to accept but both Shylock & Antonio are spared death & half of their financial losses are recovered.

The plot devices used in “The Merchant of Venice” are quite typical of romantic comedies. For example, external forces keep the lovers apart, not by shortcomings in their own characters or incompatibility. These forces include arbitrary laws & restrictions (the conditions of Portia’s fathers will) & cases of mistaken identity, often involving the wearing of disguises.

“The Merchant of Venice” is a play about friendship & love. In the first scene itself Antonio displays the nature of love & friendship he feels for Bassanio, “My purse, my person, my extremest means lie all unlocked to your occasions”. There is also a predominance of young people and many pairs of lovers and multiple marriages are present in the play.

Another common feature of comedies is that the original problem is often less important and complex than the original solution. This is certainly true in “The Merchant of Venice”. At the beginning of the play, Bassanios ‘problem’ is supposedly that he wants to repay the debt he owes Antonio Even though Antonio does not care Very much about getting his money back. Bassanio’s solution to this problem courting and marrying a beautiful heiress promises to be pleasant enough for him but requires turning Antonio into a debtor himself & even endangering his very life. Only in the world of comedy would this sequence of events be accepted without question.

However, “The Merchant of Venice” is too dark to be considered merely as a romantic comedy. It has come more & more to be seen as a play, which introduces into Shakespearean comedy a range of disturbing tones. Even if we allow structure to dominate, arguing that love wins over hatred & Shylock is primarily a function of the overall design, there are too many disquieting elements to allow any complacency.

Shylock far from being a mere plot device, is a character of considerable dramatic power & he is presented as embodying an intractable mixture of racial vulnerability & obdurate insistence upon the inviolability of commercial & legal facts. He was hindered and insulted by Antonio for which he wants to kill the merchant. His thrust for revenge suggests an anger that a petty spirit could not feel. At the end of the play, he is left without the props of his life and although he is considered the villain, one cannot help feeling sorry for him.

The title character Antonio belongs in a different kind of play. His mysterious sadness & his apparent willingness to die to prove his love for Bassanio suggest the world of tragedy. His ill treatment of Shylock makes him a rather dark hero. The bond he signs with Shylock is unromantically explicit about the three-month term and the consequences of forfeiture. His contempt for Shylock finds no comic expression & at the end of the play, he is the odd man out among the pairs of happy lovers.

Answer 2

• The Merchant of Venice is a tragicomedy. This play is a dark comedy in the tragic sense. It was written in 1596, and is most often seen today in performance with an all-male cast, though it was also performed with female actors in the past. It is one of William Shakespeare’s earliest and most famous plays.
• It’s funny because it’s tragic. The playwright introduces the conflict and the tragedy in a two-pronged approach. He begins by showing a comic murder scene in which a man is murdered for going to the bathroom during a game of bocce instead of hitting the balls.
• The playwright then explains the effect of the two prongs of the tragedy. He shows a pattern of social interaction that is very successful in the play. The comedy is a result of the cruelty of the audience to the characters. The tragedy is the effect that the audience has on the characters.
• The play ends with a happy ending with the man standing up for himself and going back to work. In the end, he is the one who is killed, and the audience thinks that he is the “good” guy.
• It’s also a play that deals with the way that society treats its most vulnerable members. The play invites the audience to evaluate the social attitudes toward the poor, and what they can do about it.

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