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Why does Shakespeare have Solanio report Shylock's reaction to his daughter's elopement in Act 2?
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Shakespeare has Solanio report Shylock's reaction to his daughter's elopement to engage the audience's imagination and personalize the event's impact. This technique, common in Shakespeare's plays, allows viewers to envision the scene's emotional intensity, enhancing their connection to the narrative. Additionally, it keeps the focus on the main plot, as the subplot's dramatization could distract from critical developments involving Antonio's shipwreck, thus maintaining suspense and thematic coherence.
Without being able to ask Shakespeare himself, there isn't a way to answer this question with absolute certainty. Shakespeare didn't leave behind footnotes that explain why he wrote things the way that he did. His reason could have been something as simple as he didn't want to overly tax whatever actor played Shylock with too many lines and dramatic moments; however, I don't think that is the likely reason. I believe that Shakespeare's main reason for having this particular event occur off stage is to enlist the audience's imagination. The audience knows what news Shylock was going to hear, and each audience member can then make this event as dramatic or mundane as he/she wants. This will personalize Shylock's response to match each person's expectations. If Shakespeare scripted it, he would have done a good job, but he ran the risk of having audiences be disappointed in Shylock's exact response.
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reason. I believe that Shakespeare's main reason for having this particular event occur off stage is to enlist the audience's imagination. The audience knows what news Shylock was going to hear, and each audience member can then make this event as dramatic or mundane as he/she wants. This will personalize Shylock's response to match each person's expectations. If Shakespeare scripted it, he would have done a good job, but he ran the risk of having audiences be disappointed in Shylock's exact response.
First, since William Shakespeare left no written record of why he made decisions to structure his plays in certain ways, it is not possible to produce a definitive answer to this question. One can speculate about his possible motivations, but one cannot actually know them absent any form of actual evidence.
Next, it is important to note that having messengers recount important events was a relatively standard device in plays of the period.
In this particular case, Jessica's marriage is part of a subplot. In the speech, Salerio also reveals the more important information concerning the wreck of a Venetian ship, creating suspense as the audience worries that it might have been Antonio's ship. Since the news about the ship is part of the main plot line of the play, a dramatic scene about a subplot at this point might distract the audience from the main plot developments. Thus, it is possible that Shakespeare chose this construction to produce a more focused type of dramatic development.
Keep in mind, too, that Shakespeare often has important events "reported" as opposed to staged in front of the audience so that each of us has to imagine that event. In our minds, the event will be scarier, sadder, happier, etc. than what we may see on the stage since the scene itself rarely affects each watcher in exactly the same way. So, the playwright leaves it up to us individually to imagine the outcome, therefore solidifying the correct response in the heart of each audience member.
Shakespeare structured the event this way because what is most significant about it is the way Salarino and Solanio mercilessly taunt Shylock about this and, even more important than that, Shylock's response: he grieves, and they make fun of him. Furthermore, at this same moment everyone discovers Antonio's ship was lost at sea, putting Antonio at the mercy of an enraged Shylock, mocked by his daughter as well as by the Christians.