Question

Using modern English, write a 50-60 words conversation between Salarino and Solanio when they had left the stage.

Answer 1

Explanation:

The Merchant of Venice, written sometime between 1596 and 1598 by William

Shakespeare, is known as a problematic play. John Drakakis begins the introduction of

the Arden Shakespeare with the statement that ‘The Merchant of Venice is arguably

Shakespeare’s most controversial comedy,’ contending ‘it broaches a topic that has

become a touchstone of the political difference between tolerance and prejudice’ (2010:

1). The play has also evoked the questions about anti-Semitism, father-daughter

relationship, homoeroticism, usury, and so on. I have been implementing a stylistic

analysis of this play with the object of proposing a new interpretation in my PhD thesis,

focusing on the character Antonio, the merchant whose one pound of flesh is demanded

as a forfeit by a Jewish usurer.

Scholars’ interpretations of Antonio tend to be sympathetic to him. Jonathan Bate

argues that ‘Antonio is the one who really cares about love more than money, about the

“bond” of friendship more than the legal and financial bond, about what is “dear” to his

heart more than what is “dear” in the sense of expensive’ (2010: 5). Conversely, Jan

Lawson Hinely states, ‘the titular hero, Antonio, is found peculiarly inconsistent and

unrealized’ (1980: 217), and Cynthia Lewis states, ‘Antonio may be the least visible

character ever to have had a play named after him’ (1983: 19). Whatever the critics may

say, it has seemed to elude them that Antonio is a man who has openly persecuted a

Jewish usurer with his words and actions.1

On the other hand, Antonio’s adversary, Shylock, has a common reputation of

being greedy. The definition of New Oxford American Dictionary (2005) for the word,