serious play with a happy ending or enough jokes throughout the play to lighten the mood. I consider the ‘Merchant of Venice’ by William Shakespeare a tragicomedy as both tragedy and comedy can be seen throughout the play. There are many factors that give proof to this statement. To begin with‚ one of the factors of a tragedy is the presence of a tragic hero. The protagonist‚ the real merchant of Venice‚ Antonio is the tragic hero. He is sad from the beginning to the end of the play. In the beginning
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Shylock: Victim or Villain? He is a Jewish moneylender who earns his living by charging interest on money he loans (like modern banks). He often speaks prose in the play‚ which marks him out as an outsider. He is persecuted by all the non-Jews he knows: He tells Antonio‚ "suff’rance is the badge of all our tribe". He is verbally abused and bullied by most characters in the play and is called cruel names including "villain with a smiling cheek‚ cut-throat dog‚ bloody creditor‚ damned inexecrable
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Is Shylock’s Revenge Justified? Shylock is a major character in the play‚ most people consider him a villain. He is a wealthy‚ moneylending Jew who practices usury. He’s revenge is justified for many reasons‚ these reasons include him being abused for being a Jew and a moneylender at the same time. Another reason is that Antonio prevents him from doing business as he loans money interest free. Shylock was a victim of an unjust trial which leaves Shylock’s will to live demolished as he is bloodthirsty
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how a strong wind could wipe out my ships. Every time I’d look at the sand in an hourglass‚ I’d imagine my ships wrecked on sandbars. I’d think of dangerous rocks every time I went to church and saw the stones it was made of. If my ship brushed up against rocks like that‚ its whole cargo of spices would be dumped into the sea. All of its silk shipments would be sent flying into the roaring waters. In a second‚ I’d go bankrupt. Who wouldn’t get sad thinking about things like that? It’s obvious. Antonio
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friendship. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Merchant of Venice‚ Shakespeare highlights the relationship between a father and his daughter. Both of these plays show examples of how common father and daughter relationships are. Also‚ it is not unusual for a comedy to have a father demanding that his daughter marry a certain person. The law of the father plays an important role in the stories of both A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Merchant of Venice. In the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream‚ we are
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Is Shylock a Villain or a Victim? In William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice‚ Shylock‚ a Jewish money-lender‚ is portrayed as the cold-blooded‚ greedy antagonist of the story. Some people may see him as the villain of the story – and in some ways he is – but‚ really‚ this is a result of the stereotypes associated with Jews. He is quite a peculiar character and his role in the story is indefinite because he has traits of both a villain and a victim. A villain is ‘a wicked person or criminal’
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Shakespeare portrays Shylock as a villain because he is greedy and selfish‚ and because he has a vengeful and violent personality. Shylock stands in the way of love‚ and is very materialistic. When Tubal brings news of Jessica to Shylock‚ Shylock says "Two thousand ducats in that‚ and other precious‚ precious jewels! I would my daughter dead at my foot‚ with the jewels in her ear!" This clearly shows that Shylock would prefer to have his wealth over his daughter’s return. Furthermore‚ Shylock is extremely
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Shylock is a man more to be pitied then condemned. To what extent do you agree with this statement? Be sure to refer to details of the play in your response. In the historic play “The Merchant of Venice” written by William Shakespeare‚ Shylock is one of the main characters who I have great pity for. Therefore I agree with the above statement that Shylock should be more pitied than condemned. Throughout the play we see Shylock involved in many different incidences and it is unknown whether he is
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parallel increase in problem behaviour. Indeed‚ in recent years there has been a slight fall in actual vandalism‚ for example‚ against a dramatic increase in newspaper mentions of antisocial behaviour (3). When looking at the issue of antisocial behaviour‚ the starting point for most commentators is to accept that the problem exists and to then work out why people are more antisocial today. The ’collapse of communities’ is often seen as a key influence in the rise of antisocial behaviour‚ with young
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Italian merchant traveler from the Republic of Venice[2][3] whose travels are recorded in Livres des merveilles du monde‚ a book which did much to introduce Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned the mercantile trade from his father and uncle‚ Niccolò and Maffeo‚ who traveled through Asia‚ and apparently met Kublai Khan. In 1269‚ they returned to Venice to meet Marco for the first time. The three of them embarked on an epic journey to Asia‚ returning after 24 years to find Venice at war with
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