The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare and Your Shoes by Roberts: The Use of Contrast within a Character or between Characters
William Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” and Michele Roberts’ “Your Shoes” both explore similar themes of contrast, particularly within characters to create interest for the reader or audience. Shakespeare’s play was written in the late 1500s, a time of strict gender and age roles where society was largely focussed on social class that was impacted highly on by religion. This in turn led to constant discrimination to those who were not in the highest social class. Despite “Your Shoes” being a much more modern piece, it still has plenty of similarities to “The Merchant of Venice” because of similar gender and age roles that have not – in relation to social class and religious discrimination – changed a lot within modern Britain. Therefore, similar messages and themes of the play can then be conveyed through the short story and still be relevant and interesting to a modern audience.
Shakespeare’s main character, Shylock, is central to constant discrimination simply because he is a Jew. This is demonstrated in Act 1, Scene 3 when Antonio borrows money from Shylock. This scene is the first time the audience is introduced to Shylock and he quickly speaks of how he has been mistreated by Antonio because of his religion “You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, And spit upon my Jewish gabardine”. Shakespeare then reinforces this when Salarino is attempting to convince Shylock not to take a pound of Antonio’s flesh by questioning what good it would do. Shylock explains that “if nothing else it will feed my revenge” and how “He hath disgraced me…and what’s his reason? I am a Jew.” (3,1).
Shylock continues his monologue in Act 3, Scene 1, with 10 rhetorical questions one after another to convey the sheer amount of pain he has endured and how it is always constant. Shakespeare deliberately uses very strong emotives to grab the audience’s attention and to involve them in the action and in Shylock’s feelings “If you poison us, do we not die?” By ending on “die”
Shakespeare’s main character, Shylock, is central to constant discrimination simply because he is a Jew. This is demonstrated in Act 1, Scene 3 when Antonio borrows money from Shylock. This scene is the first time the audience is introduced to Shylock and he quickly speaks of how he has been mistreated by Antonio because of his religion “You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, And spit upon my Jewish gabardine”. Shakespeare then reinforces this when Salarino is attempting to convince Shylock not to take a pound of Antonio’s flesh by questioning what good it would do. Shylock explains that “if nothing else it will feed my revenge” and how “He hath disgraced me…and what’s his reason? I am a Jew.” (3,1).
Shylock continues his monologue in Act 3, Scene 1, with 10 rhetorical questions one after another to convey the sheer amount of pain he has endured and how it is always constant. Shakespeare deliberately uses very strong emotives to grab the audience’s attention and to involve them in the action and in Shylock’s feelings “If you poison us, do we not die?” By ending on “die”