Tubal, Shylock, and the Myth of Venice

Pólemos ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 415-428
Author(s):  
Peter D. Usher
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
Merchant Of Venice ◽  
The Merchant Of Venice ◽  
The City

Abstract In Shakespeare’s comedy The Merchant of Venice, Tubal’s chief function seems to be to furnish cash for Shylock’s loan to Antonio. However, I argue that when Shylock approaches Tubal for money, Tubal does not confront Shylock but vows instead to establish conditions by which to convict the moneylender of intent to harm Antonio. For this to work, Tubal needs the connivance of the Duke, which gainsays one component of the myth of Venice that holds that the city-state’s legal system is above reproach.

scholarly journals Wonder, Ambivalence and Heterotopia: The City in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 29-45
Author(s):  
Maria Clara Versiani Galery
Keyword(s):  
Justice System ◽  
Merchant Of Venice ◽  
The Merchant Of Venice ◽  
Italian City ◽  
City State ◽  
A Site ◽  
The City

This essay proposes a discussion of the representation of Venice in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, addressing the city as a site of ambivalence and cultural interrogation. It examines how Shakespeare drew on the “myth of Venice” to create a space into which Renaissance anxieties about justice, gender, religion and finances were projected. Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia is applied here to show how representations of Venice are used to mirror Elizabethan and Jacobean society. The essay also proposes an analysis of how the Italian city-state is rendered in Michael Radford’s filmic adaptation of Shakespeare’s play, with special attention to the images of the prostitutes in the film, and the ambivalent portrayal of the justice system during the courtroom scene.

scholarly journals Na cidade historiada: justiça e outros conflitos em O Mercador de Veneza, de William Shakespeare

Diálogos ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Maria Clara Versiani Galery
Keyword(s):  
William Shakespeare ◽  
Merchant Of Venice ◽  
Central Importance ◽  
The Merchant Of Venice ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The City ◽  
The Universe

RESUMO: Na época em que Shakespeare escolheu Veneza para cenário de Otelo e O Mercador de Veneza, a cidade-república correspondia aos ideais renascentistas de liberdade e estabilidade. Descobertas no âmbito da geografia e da astronomia exigiam uma reavaliação do lugar ocupado por mulheres e homens na nova concepção do universo. Este ensaio pretende refletir sobre a Veneza mítica do imaginário shakespeariano, uma paisagem simbólica, menos física e concreta que ideológica. Nesse sentido, o trabalho recorre ao conceito foucauldiano de heterotopia para ilustrar como, na representação da cidade, se projetavam os anseios de uma época. Aqui, a jurisprudência é de importância central. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Shakespeare, Mercador de Veneza, Renascimento, Veneza, heterotopia, jurisprudência In the storied city: justice and other conflicts of The Merchant of Venice ABSTRACT: When Shakespeare chose Venice as the location for Othello and The Merchant of Venice, the republic corresponded to Renaissance ideals of freedom and stability. Discoveries in the realm of geography and astronomy required a re-evaluation of the place occupied by women and men in the new conception of the universe. This essay intends to discuss the mythical Venice of Shakespeare’s imagination, a symbolic landscape, less physical and concrete than ideological. In this sense, this paper turns to Foucault’s concept of heterotopia to illustrate how the anxieties of an epoch were projected in the representation of the city. Here, jurisprudence is of central importance. KEYWORDS: Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Renaissance, Venice, heterotopia, jurisprudence En la ciudad historiada: justicia y otros conflictos del Mercader de Venecia RESUMEN: En la época en que Shakespeare escogió Venecia como escenario de Otelo y El Mercader de Venecia, la ciudad-república correspondía a los ideales renacentistas de libertad y estabilidad. Los descubrimientos en el ámbito de la geografía y de la astronomía exigían una reevaluación del lugar ocupado por mujeres y hombres en la nueva concepción del universo. Este ensayo pretende reflexionar sobre la Venecia mítica del imaginario shakespeariano, un paisaje simbólico, menos físico y concreto que ideológico. En este sentido, el trabajo recurre al concepto foucauldiano de heterotopía para ilustrar cómo, en la representación de la ciudad, se proyectaban los anhelos de una época. Aquí, la jurisprudencia es de central importancia. PALABRAS CLAVE: Shakespeare, Mercader de Venecia, Renacimiento, Venecia, heterotopía, jurisprudencia

The Merchant of Venice, Rosamond and Other English Plays Performed on the Continent in 1703?

1981 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-58
Author(s):  
J. P. Vander Motten
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
Merchant Of Venice ◽  
The Merchant Of Venice ◽  
Historical View ◽  
The City

In September 1781, Jean Van Gulpen, printer in the city of Maastricht, brought out a small octavo volume, entitled Tableau du Spectacle Français ou Annales Théâtrales de la Ville de Mastrigt. Now a rarity, this historical view of the Maastricht stage was the work of the lawyer François Bernard (fl. 1788), a shadowy figure today only remembered – if remembered at all – as the author of a number of works on political and economic history, all published at Leyden in the 1780s. Bernard dedicated his Tableau to ‘Madame Clairville, Première Chanteuse de l'Opéra Français de la Ville de Mastrigt’ and preceded his two-hundred page account of the ‘Spectacle Français’ with a lengthy defense of the stage, in which he claimed due recognition for the acting profession and greater support for the players whose condition was ‘flétri par l'injustice des hommes’.

scholarly journals Problem Plays

Spectrum ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine DeCoste
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
Merchant Of Venice ◽  
Midsummer Night's Dream ◽  
Legal Proceedings ◽  
The Merchant Of Venice ◽  
A Midsummer Night's Dream

William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice is typically identified in scholarship as a comedy. However, the play’s fourth act is troubling, as Shylock loses his wealth and is forced to convert from his ancestral Judaism to Christianity, undermining the play’s comic nature. In this essay, I examine what are called surface and fundamental conventions of comedy to discuss whether The Merchant of Venice can be classified as a Shakespearean comedy. Surface conventions appear regularly in comedies, but are not necessary to classify a play as a comedy; fundamental conventions are less immediately obvious. Although the play subscribes to surface conventions of comedy, it fails to present the fundamental conventions of a just universe or comically satisfying ending, particularly in the legal proceedings of both the trial scene and the protagonists’ marriages. Noting comic tropes in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in contrast to The Merchant of Venice, I argue that Merchant is, in fact, a “problem play” that does not fit neatly into any generic classification. While typical comedies offer justice in the sense that characters achieve deserved outcomes, justice in The Merchant of Venice is undermined through Portia’s intervention in the trial. Ultimately, I aim to understand with more nuance the complex role that the legal system plays in constructing genre in The Merchant of Venice, and to question the play’s traditional, though not universal, classification in Shakespeare scholarship as a “comedy.”

The Merchant of Venice

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Shakespeare ◽  
Tom Lockwood
Keyword(s):  
Merchant Of Venice ◽  
The Merchant Of Venice

Maritime Fantasies and Gender Space in Three Shakespearean Comedies

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-37
Author(s):  
Wai Fong Cheang
Keyword(s):  
Female Characters ◽  
Merchant Of Venice ◽  
Twelfth Night ◽  
The Merchant Of Venice ◽  
The Tempest ◽  
Gender Space ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Gender And Space

Abstract Laden with sea images, Shakespeare‘s plays dramatise the maritime fantasies of his time. This paper discusses the representation of maritime elements in Twelfth Night, The Tempest and The Merchant of Venice by relating them to gender and space issues. It focuses on Shakespeare‘s creation of maritime space as space of liberty for his female characters.

Figuren des Hasses. : Prolegomena zu einer Literatur- und Kulturgeschichte1

2020 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-90
Author(s):  
Von Martina Wagner-Egelhaaf
Keyword(s):  
Merchant Of Venice ◽  
The Merchant Of Venice

In William Shakespeares um 1596/97 entstandener und wohl noch vor 1600 in London uraufgeführter Komödie The Merchant of Venice findet sich im 3. Auftritt des 1. Akts die folgende Äußerung des Juden Shylock in Bezug auf Antonio, den titelgebenden Kaufmann von Venedig:

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