Yes, I Voluntarily Study Shakespeare

Venice, Italy. The late 16th century. A spendthrift young aristocrat needs help from a wealthy merchant to court an heiress whose marriage is controlled by the will of her dead father. They take out a loan from the merchant’s greatest enemy, a forfeiture penalty on which he will pay with his life. The lady is won through a trial of wit, and the daughter of the merchant’s enemy escapes with her beloved. However, the ships of the merchant fail to arrive. His life would be forfeit to his vindictive enemy were it not for the prompt and intelligent action of the aristocrat’s new bride, though she is disguised. The identity of the brilliant young lawyer is eventually discovered and all is brought to a satisfactory conclusion for our heroes.

This is an admittedly brief, but still fairly accurate summary of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, one of my favorite plays of the Bard, if not my favorite. That is why I have chosen (yes, of my own free will) to immerse myself in the study of this play for a semester. (Well, that and the fact that Shakespeare is not going to be read in my English class this year. I felt cheated and deprived, so I made my own Shakespeare class.)

Though many of his dramatic works have developed, complex, and varying characters like The Merchant, this play is unique in its presentation of Jewish characters. No other Shakespeare play has such a strong element of religious conflict or characters who embody it, so I intend to study that aspect of the play. I also plan to look at the close relationship between love and money, which are inextricably tied together here. The third most important aspect here is the law. The play’s climax forces characters to work within the law rather than against it to gain what they desire.

There are other important and controversial aspects of this play, of course, all of which are fascinating, but these three really drive the story and the meaning. In the end, I will benefit greatly from this study in my career as a scholar and in my personal life as a devotee of Shakespeare. I would be flattered if you’d join me on my quest for understanding and read The Merchant of Venice yourself.

~Jordan N.