Okay forgive me for posting my forsaken English homework. I just didn't want it to rot in my PC, alone, unseen, a ghost stuck withing gigabytes of files. :-) Don't mind my peculiarity. Read on if you so please. It's a Response to The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. Why did I choose this over uncomplicated short stories? How the hell am I supposed to know! :-) It was just the first thing that came to my mind during that hexagon pre-writing thing our dear Ms. C. asked us to do. Oki? Oki. :-)

The story begins when Antonio, a Venetian merchant, expressed sorrow for a cause even he can not identify; it was this time that his good friend, Bassanio, arrived to request Antonio to loan him some money to travel to Belmont and court a wealthy heiress by the name of Portia. Antonio agreed, however, he did not have the means at the moment for all his ventures were at sea, so he instead suggested that Bassanio borrow money from one of the city’s moneylenders named Shylock, a Jew. Shylock, having a long-kept grudge against Antonio for humiliating and disgracing him on public, decided to take advantage of the situation by agreeing that he shall lend them three-thousand ducats without interest, provided that if the loan goes unpaid, he shall take a pound of Antonio’s flesh.

In Shylock’s household, his daughter, Jessica, ran off with a Christian named Lorenzo, with a bit of help from their servant Lancelot, who later worked for Bassanio after resigning from Shylock. This caused some sort of a stir in the household and the city as people began gossiping and claiming that they have seen Jessica selling precious stones.

Portia is bound by her father’s will in terms of choosing a husband; it states that Portia’s portrait is to found inside one of three caskets—gold, silver and brass—and the one who does find it shall win the hand of Portia. Bassanio arrived with gifts that he bought with the money he borrowed, and figured out the puzzle, in turn winning Portia’s hand in marriage.

Their celebration was cut short when they learned that Antonio indeed lost his ships, and that Shylock was very insistent on taking his end of the agreement which is Antonio’s flesh. Bassanio quickly fled to Venice and tried to bargain, to talk Shylock out of doing it, but his methods were not working. Surprisingly, a young lawyer came to their rescue, defeating Shylock’s claims and freeing Antonio. When Bassanio and Antonio arrived in Belmont, they discovered that the lawyer was, in fact, Portia in disguise and that Antonio’s ship, fortunately, survived the mishaps after all.

When charming Bassanio fell for the well sought-after girl, Portia, it reflected the cliché of love stories circulating everywhere, whether today or during Shakespeare’s time. The story was not particularly admirable, it was very typical, predictable, and, in all fairness, lame. It is very typical Shakespeare, trying to turn uncomplicated infatuation into something so great that it shall resemble love that would tread great mountains. The triumph of Christians against the lone Jew, though thought as acceptable and normal during their days, is now an act of prejudice and discrimination. It emphasized the inequality that existed at the play’s setting, letting the Jew appear as the villain for the mere reason that he was different in race. Instead of Shylock appearing to be the sinner, I see him more of as a person sinned against. Every detail of the plot was against him, even his daughter’s elopement with a Christian, leaving him alone and persecuted mentally and emotionally. Being a normal human being with regular impulses and emotions, he wanted revenge, as he so stated in a speech. And for doing what a Christian would do and for feeling the way a Christian would do, he was punished the way a Christian would not be.

But hey, the story is not everything that would make a play or a piece of literature commendable, is it? The way Shakespeare phrased his poetry and prose captivated the audience or reader more than the plot did for his meter and wording is quite revolutionary, against all the strict measures of language during his time. It’s admirable to the extent that it’s enjoyed by a great number of readers, even centuries after his death. Shakespeare had his own way with words that you can distinguish amidst all the piles of literary works, his work was so unique one would recognize it within a glance of a verse. It is admirable, in a way, to be able to turn such a horrendous plot overflowing with discrimination, to something of a comedy. That, my friends, take talent.

♥BEE