Lesson learned in this story merchant of Venice?

Answer 1

It is a dangerous business trying to find "moral lessons" in Shakespeare's plays, because what the characters say and do is what they say and do. Whether it is good or bad is something the audience, the director and the actors bring to the table. In an earlier age, the Merchant of Venice was used by anti-semitic people to say anti-semitism is good. Nowadays, it is much more likely to be used to say that anti-semitism is bad. In fact it says neither; it only says that racism exists, and where it exists it begets more hatred.

In an earlier age, Portia and the Duke were looked on as models of mercy and kindness in their treatment of Shylock. Nowadays they are more likely to be seen as smug, self-satisfied hypocrites who are happy to dress their cruel treatment of Shylock up as kindness. Either way, it is clear that Shylock made a tactical error in trusting to the Christian establishment (in the form of the law) to carry out his revenge on the Christians, personified by him in the person of the unfortunate Antonio.

In an odd way, the subplot of Merchant of Venice is a revenge story like Hamlet or Titus Andronicus, and has the same kind of result: revenge results in misery and disaster. Unlike the others, Shylock's revenge only brings misery and disaster on himself. But unlike the others, Shylock is seeking revenge not against one person who has wronged him, but against all those who are in power and who have persecuted him and the other Jews. In any case, he would have been better off to have taken the offer of settlement made to him.

Answer 2

The Merchant of Venice is a play, not a sermon. It does not teach lessons. Indeed, of all plays, the Merchant of Venice is one which in its performance history shows that plays reflect current attitudes and do not form them. In Shakespeare's day, when nobody knew any Jews or what they were like, Shylock was played as a hook-nosed, red-bearded caricature who could be treated as a figure of fun because nobody had the least idea what real Jews were like. Later people who had a better idea what Jews were like but were strictly anti-Semitic portrayed him as an evil and frightening villain. In the post-Holocaust world, he is likely to be shown as a tragic figure, a victim of prejudice, and almost as a suffering saint.

In other words the play does not teach anti-Semitism, or pro-Semitism either, but can be used either way. Although Portia talks a good line about mercy, she and the Duke don't show much in their treatment of Shylock. In what civilized country would a failed litigant be threatened with death, have his entire property confiscated and be forced to undergo a religious conversion?

Answer 3

Shakespeare's plays do not have moral lessons. That is nowhere more true that with this play, The Merchant of Venice. The Nazis loved this play because they thought the moral was "Jews are money-obsessed and nasty", but the play could just as easily be interpreted to mean "Never trust those goyim schmucks."

Shylock has been interpreted in a number of different ways over the years, and the lesson the audience thinks it is getting from the play depends on how he and the other characters are played. He has been played as a humorous buffoon, a cruel villain, a proud and aristocratic person, and the victim of racial and religious bigotry.

In fact, the sympathetic view of Shylock has been common for almost two hundred years and has been the only view for over fifty. It is the only way to avoid the simple-minded way of looking at him as a Snidely Whiplash melodrama villain. One's assessment of Shylock is found in the conflicting moral claims of the right to try to gain redress for one's wrongs and the caution that if that redress exceeds the wrong, it is just as wrong. Our feeling that Shylock ought to have shown mercy to Antonio is balanced by the fact that the court is less than merciful toward him. Our feeling that Jessica is entitled to get out of the cheerless house she lives in is tempered by the fact that Lorenzo is a wastrel and has not made her happy. Our feeling that Portia says some good stuff about the quality of mercy is balanced by her own lack of that virtue. In other words, morality is a complicated thing, and good plays, like this one, do not give us the luxury of a simple-minded approach to it.

Answer 4

Shakespeare's plays are not sermons. They do not have moral lessons, especially not the comedies. People take from them what they want, and this is especially true of Merchant of Venice. Shylock has been portrayed both as an evil character to show that Jews are bad and as a sympathetic one to show that Jews can't get justice from Christians. Here are some other lessons you might or might not want to take from this play:

1. Don't pay your lawyer's bills; it can get you into trouble with your wife.
2. If you are sending things by sea, buy insurance, especially if you have borrowed on the strength of the cargo.
3. If you have a daughter of marriageable age, don't give her the combination of your safe.
4. Strange loan agreements don't hold up in court.
5. Good things sometimes come in plain packages--like lead caskets.

Answer 5

The Merchant of Venice is a play, not a sermon. It doesn't have a moral lesson built into it, thank God. You can take whatever you want from it, of course.

Answer 6

love is the most common theme in the play merchant of venice