The Merchant of Venice presents an interesting situation because it is hard to tell who Shakespeare intends the “bad guy” to be. Although Shakespeare is known for his understanding of why people do bad things, (such as racism or murder), Shylock is not necessarily portrayed as a victim in this play. When Antonio fails to pay his bond, Skylock is shown as the “bad guy” and they devise a plot to stop him. Although today we know that treating someone for his or her religious views is unreasonable, (even though it still happens a lot more than people think), I actually believe that Shakespeare did not write this play to show that. I believe he wrote this play for purely entertainment.
In the beginning Shylock is portrayed as a victim and we initially feel sorry for him because of how he is treated. To be honest though, as the play progressed he started to turn a little darker than I would have expected. I started reading this play waiting for some moral message on how people can mess up by wanting too much power, money, and love. At first I thought it was that racism is bad and that Jews were treated unfairly, but then after Shylock made his bond with Antonio he became a mean person. He wanted a pound of flesh, human flesh. That is not a nice thing to do regardless of how you are treated. Shakespeare began to show that “the Jew” was actually heartless and it puzzled me. So what is the point of the play? The closest thing to a message that I could find was that one should always cherish his loved one from the situation between Bassanio, Portia, and her ring.
After analyzing the play more closely, I came to the conclusion it was made purely for entertainment because even Antonio does not really learn his lesson for mistreating Shylock because he wins in the end! He defeats the “bad guy” and gets his money back because it turns out not all his ships were doomed. Also, another way Shylock is portrayed as the bad guy is with his situation with his daughter Jessica. He does not let her marry out of faith even though they are madly in love. This play made me distrust Shakespeare a little bit because he does not show that it is bad to be a racist. He allows Antonio and Bassanio to live happily ever after, while in the end only Shylock got scammed.
After much thought; however, I have come to the conclusion that Shakespeare did not mess up, but he indeed wrote a play for entertainment because of the time he lived in. He did not know what it was like to be accepting because in that era Jews were seen as bad people and they were separated in ghettos. To him it was normal, and therefore that is why he didn’t write The Merchant of Venice in order to sympathize but in fact to be funny and to attract an audience. I am disappointed in him because after following his works in our class, he has showed me that he really is a good person and understands the principle values that people should follow such as honesty, love, patience, and virtue. I did not enjoy this play as much because there was no distinct humane message that I could relate to.
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