The Sunday News
Highway to Success Charles Dube
THIS is a follow up to discussions carried out last week. The Merchant of Venice also brings the idea of the divine quality of mercy. The conflict between Shylock and the Christian characters is at its peak over the issue of mercy. The other characters acknowledge that the law is in Shylock’s side, but they all expect him to show mercy which he refuses to do.
Shylock claims only what is legal, that is a pound of flesh as agreed in the merry bond. If Venice will not give him what is lawful, let the city lose its good name for justice. The other characters are well aware of this. Shylock asks Portia what could force him to show mercy, “On what compulsion must I? Tell me that.”
Portia gives a length reply to Shylock’s question beginning with the words: “The quality of mercy is not restrained; it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath; it is twice blest: It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes.” These words clarify the core of the argument. Human beings should be merciful because the creator, who is God, is merciful.
Mercy is an attribute of God himself therefore greater than power, majesty and the law.
Once Portia turns the case against Shylock, she has the opportunity to give freely of the mercy she feverishly advocates for. However, she pushes Shylock to a corner where she strips him of his bond, his properties and his dignity by forcing him to kneel and beg for mercy. She says to Shylock: “Down, therefore, and beg mercy of the duke.” We now turn to Antonio still on the same case. Is Antonio merciful? What does Antonio do at this juncture?
Antonio decides not to take Shylock’s goods as punishment for conspiring against him. This could be taken as a merciful gesture but we may also question whether it is merciful to return Shylock all his goods, only to take away his religion and his profession. Antonio says: “Two things provided more — that for his favour he presently become a Christian. The other, that he do record a gift, here in the court, of all he dies possessed unto his son Lorenzo and his daughter.”
By forcing Shylock to convert, Antonio hits the former below the belt. He disables him from practising usury, which according to Shylock was Antonio’s main reason for insulting and spitting on him in public. This, critics say, it seems to stem as much from self-interest as from concern for his fellow man. This leads us to the subject of hatred. Shylock hates Christians.
He claims that he is simply applying the lessons taught to him by his Christian neighbours.
But in Shylock’s first appearance, much of his personal hatred of Antonio is kept hidden: “How like a fawning publican he looks!” Later on in the Trial Scene he speaks openly of the “loathed hate” and “certain loathing” he feels for Antonio. When Shylock decides to harm Antonio, his entire plan seems to be born of the insults and injuries Antonio has inflicted upon him in the past. His dislike of Christians is shown: he will not eat, drink or pray with them.
Shylock would rather that his daughter had married any man of Jewish faith than a Christian. He says: “These be the Christian husbands! I have a daughter — Would any of the stock of Barabbas, had been her husband, rather than a Christian.” What Shylock is saying here is that he wished his daughter, Jessica, had married any descendant of Barabbas (i.e. any Jew, however bad)”. Barabbas was a Jewish thief and revolutionary who was set free at the time Jesus was killed.
Next there is an element of disguise, at times called “cross-dressing”. Twice in the play we find escapes carried out with the help of cross-dressing. Jessica escapes her father’s tedious house she likens to hell dressed as a page to join her husband to be, Lorenzo. Portia and Nerissa help extricate Antonio from Shylock’s jaws by posing as officers of the Venetian court.
One writer says that Portia reveals that the donning of men’s clothes is more than just comedy. She says she has studied a “thousand raw tricks of these bragging Jacks,” implying that male authority is a kind of performance that can be initiated successfully. Portia feels confident that she can outwit any male competitors, declaring, “I’ll prove the prettier fellow of the two and wear my dagger with the braver grace.”
By assuming the clothes of the opposite sex, Portia enables herself to assume the power and position denied to her as a woman.
For views, link up with [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> or sms only to 0772113207.
