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The Merchant of Venice

by William Shakespeare

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The Merchant of Venice: Blending Comedy, Tragedy, and Romance

Summary:

The Merchant of Venice blends comedy, tragedy, and romance, making it a complex Shakespearean play. Comedic elements include Launcelot Gobbo's humorous scenes and Portia's witty disguises and tricks. Romantic elements are evident in the relationships of Bassanio and Portia, and Jessica and Lorenzo, with the play ending in marriages typical of romantic comedies. However, the play's dark undertones, notably Shylock's tragic downfall and themes of anti-Semitism, introduce a serious, tragic dimension, classifying it as a tragi-comedy.

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What parts of The Merchant of Venice are comedic?

There are two main comic interludes in The Merchant of Venice. One of these is the scene with Launcelot the clown and his father, Old Gobbo; the other is the masquerade of Portia and Nerissa as men and the tricks that they play upon their lovers.

In act II, scene 2, Launcelot debates with himself about whether or not he should run away from his master, Shylock. The wordplay and the vacillating self-debate are ludicrous and much like slap-stick comedy:

“Go,” the devil says. “Don’t go,” says my conscience. “Conscience,” I say, “you give good advice.” “Devil,” I say, “you give good advice.” If I listened to my conscience, I’d stay with the Jew my master, who’s a devil. But if I ran away from the Jew, I’d be following the advice of the devil, who’s the very devil himself. Certainly the Jew is the devil incarnate, and my conscience is giving me a hard time by telling me to stay with the Jew. The devil’s advice is nicer. I’ll run, devil. Tell me to run, and I’ll run. (2.2.6-11)

Later in the scene, Old Gobbo enters. Because he is nearly blind, he does not see his son well. Consequently, he asks his son if he knows Launcelot. Launcelot tries to convince his father of his identity, but Gobbo still does not recognize him. When Launcelot tells his father that Margery is his mother, old Gobbo begins to believe him. In his blindness, the father feels the back of Launcelot's head and thinks it is his son's beard:

Lord worshipped might he be, what a beard hast thou got! Thou hast got more hair on thy chin than Dobbin my fill-horse has on his tail. (2.2.23-25)

More comedy is in act V when Portia disguises herself as a man so that she can provide defense for Antonio. She defeats Shylock by telling him that the contract between him and the merchant does not allow for any blood to be shed when he takes the pound of flesh. Afterwards, Bassanio, who does not recognize Portia's disguise, praises the "young law clerk" for saving Antonio. He is then pressured by this supposed clerk into giving her his ring from Portia that he had promised her he would always keep. Likewise, Gratiano is also tricked by Nerissa, who disguises herself as the law clerk's assistant. He also relinquishes a ring given to him. Then, when the men return to their ladies, they find themselves in a humorous predicament. They realize their women have fooled them.

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Does The Merchant of Venice balance love, romance, and comedy effectively?

The Merchant of Venice is basically the same thing as a modern day romantic comedy. It's got romantic elements, everybody gets married or close to it at the end, and there are comedic elements throughout. It can be dark at times. Shylock is one nasty guy, but a reader definitely would not call the play a drama. 

Romance first. It is pretty romantic that Bassanio is willing to "risk it all" in order to woo Portia. No, his life isn't at stake, but it has got to be humbling for him to have to ask for money from his friend Antonio so that he can go through with his love search. Some people would argue that it's romantic that Jessica and Lorenzo are running away together to get married.  

The play is not only about the romance of those characters though. They aren't just taking each other out to dinner with romantic candle light. Each couple is in love, and believes that the end goal of that love is marriage. Portia and Bassanio, Jessica and Lorenzo, Nerissa and Graziano. They are all in love, and they all want to be married. It's a standard Shakespeare motif to have the play end with a wedding or plans of a wedding soon. Hollywood loves to end romantic comedies this way, too. The characters romance each other, then fall in love, and get married. 

As for the comedy; it's there. Lancelot's entire purpose to provide comic relief.  He makes snide comments and bags on just about everybody else in the play. Apparently cross dressing was as funny in Shakespeare's time as it is today. Portia dresses like a man. Jessica dresses like a boy. Plot twist abound, too. The entire court case is one twist after another. First Antonio is winning, then Shylock, then Antonio, and it's treated with levity more often than not vs. a dark sinister court case tone. 

The Merchant of Venice has it all: romance, love, and comedy. 

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Is The Merchant of Venice a romantic comedy? Why?

The Merchant of Venice is a romantic comedy. It is a comedy in the broadest sense of the term: nobody dies and the play has a happy ending. Though it can be dark at times, humorous moments punctuate the play, such as when Portia and Nerissa, still in disguise as lawyer and clerk, play a joke on their husbands in prevailing upon them to give up the rings the men had promised never to relinquish.

It's a romance in the sense of its fairytale-tinged plot, in which the lovely Portia must be wooed through her successful lover choosing the correct one of three caskets, and even more so in that Bassanio is willing to risk losing everything--"give and hazard all he hath"--to gain Portia's hand. If he is interested in her dowry, he is more interested in her. He genuinely loves her, calling her "fair" and of "wondrous virtue." In this play, sacrificial love triumphs: the Prince of Morocco, who desires worldly wealth, chooses the gold casket and does not win Portia, nor does the Prince of Arragon, who believes he "deserves" Portia. It's Bassanio, who willing accedes to the lead casket's demand that he risk all, who gains his beloved. 

The play is a romantic comedy too in that Portia and Nerissa, after demanding their rings, admit to the joke they played, forgive, and continue to love their husbands so that all ends happily and harmoniously. Love in this play may be bounded by the pragmatic--and that is part of the comedy--but it is love all the same.

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How does The Merchant of Venice blend comic, tragic, and romantic elements?

William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice expertly blends tragedy, romance and comedy, the latter two categories closely connected. The main plot in Shakespeare's play involves the titular figure, Antonio, a businessman who borrows money from the Jewish moneylender Shylock in order to help his friend Bassanio court the beautiful and wealthy Portia. The tragedy lies in the nature of the agreement between merchant and moneylender. Shylock, bitter over the anti-Semitic treatment he has habitually received at the hands of Antonio, will only lend Antonio money if the latter agrees to forfeit a pound of his own flesh if unable to repay the loan. The relationship between the two, as well as the climactic courtroom confrontation in which Shylock makes his heartfelt plea for humanity ("Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?") provides the tragedy that infuses Shakespeare's play.

If The Merchant of Venice is a tragedy, it is also a comedy. Portia wants Bassanio as much as Bassanio wants her. That constitutes romance, but it is in the details of Portia's manipulation of the process her father set in motion to ensure she wed the proper gentleman that one finds the comedy. That process requires the successful suitor of Portia's hand to select the correct casket among several arranged in a room. Portia's efforts at helping Bassanio to choose correctly whilst discouraging other male visitors seeking to marry her provides the play's comedy.

Romance in The Merchant of Venice occurs along two parallel tracks. The first involves Bassanio and Portia, as discussed above. The second involves Shylock's daughter, Jessica, and Lorenzo, a friend of both Antonio and Bassanio. The latter relationship qualifies as romantic, but it also crosses over into tragedy. The defection of his daughter to Lorenzo and, by extension, to Antonio, Portia and Bassanio, is tragic to the defeated Shylock. Having already seen his arrangement with Antonio nullified in a trumped-up legal process, he must now endure his daughter's elopement with Lorenzo.

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In what ways is The Merchant of Venice an atypical comedy?

The Merchant of Venice is what is known as a dark comedy. In the broadest literary definition of comedy, a comedy is any work of literature that doesn't have a tragic ending: in other words, nobody dies. The Merchant of Venice is, therefore, by definition, comic because all the characters survive. Beyond that, it has a happy ending in that, not only is Antonio spared having a pound of flesh cut from his heart, his ships come to port, meaning he will be in the money again. Further, the play ends on a joyous note, with the lovers and Antonio reunited and gathered at the delightful Belmont.

However, the subject matter is nevertheless dark. Antonio's ugly anti-Semitism is a driver of the play's plot, creating in Shylock a seething anger at the injustices he suffers and causing him to seek revenge through a contract that, for a time, seems to give him the right to kill his enemy. The danger Antonio is in is, at first, real, grisly, and frightening, and hardly laugh-out-loud funny.

Further, Shylock, while he comes out of the law court alive, is broken and humiliated by the way the Christians turn on him. For such a central character to suffer such a reversal of fortune adds a dark, almost tragic note to the play's ending, especially if we see it as evidence of the misuse of Christian power and privilege.

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Is Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice a successful romantic comedy?

This is an interesting question, and a tough one to answer. On the one hand, it would appear that the play is something of a comedy, and a romantic one at that: there's the courtship between Portia and Bassanio, humorous sequences (such as the ring prank during the end of Act 4 and in Act 5), and a seemingly happy ending without any loose ends. By all accounts, these seem to be the qualities of a romantic comedy.

On the other hand, we have Shylock. A controversial character, Shylock is tough to characterize. Is he a bloodthirsty villain rendered with blatant anti-Semitism, or is he a tragic victim, an individual assailed by the racism of his fellow Venetians? However you see him, one thing is clear: it's difficult to avoid sympathizing with Shylock. For example, in Act 3, Scene 1, Shylock struggles to establish his status as a human in the face of the prejudice that oppresses him, saying, "I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew / eyes?" (51-2) and "If you prick us, do we not bleed?" (57-8). This poignant speech is one of the most famous points in the whole play, and it helps the reader understand that members of the Jewish community in the play are viewed as more or less subhuman. With this idea in mind, Shylock becomes the most sympathetic and relatable character in the play, and it becomes very difficult to rejoice in his humiliation during the later courtroom scene.

To put it simply, there are elements of romantic comedy in the play, but there are also much darker layers hidden beneath the glittering, comedic facade. As such, one would be hard-pressed to call The Merchant of Venice a successful romantic comedy, as Shylock's complex character consistently destabilizes such an easy reading.  

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Does The Merchant of Venice incorporate comedy? Is it a comic play?

The Merchant of Venice can be considered a comedy an older sense of the word: all the characters we're supposed to be rooting for get married and grow wealthy, and they live, as far as we know, happily ever after. There are also some funny or potentially funny sections of the play, as well as sections that would have seemed funnier to a period audience than they might today: the insults, the disguises, the contest with the caskets, the egotism, teasing the almost blind father, etc. That said, I'd rather call it a tragi-comedy: a mix of tragedy and comedy. Shylock is harsh in wanting the pound of flesh, but his quest is more just than what happens to him. He is fundamentally mistreated.

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Why is The Merchant of Venice considered a comedy?

My understanding is that the word "comedy" in Shakespeare's time didn't mean the same thing the word generally means today.  Instead, a comedy was a play that had a happy ending -- one in which no one really got killed.

If you think about it this way, and if you think about it in contrast with the true tragedies, it might be easier to see it as a tragedy.  You don't have everyone dying at the end like in Hamlet or in Romeo and Juliet.  Instead, you have Portia and Antonio marrying and Shylock getting his comeuppance (which may make it hard to like the play today because it seems racist to portray him as Shakespeare does).

So, it's not funny like some of the other comedies, but it's certainly not as tragic as the real tragedies.  This has led many people to think of it as something other than a comedy or a tragedy.

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