The Merchant of Venice

Sources/Background

Sources

• First performed in 1597• First published version of play

published in 1600• Merchant is not an original story

by Shakespeare

Sources

• Shakespeare almost always borrowed ideas and stories from other sources and improved them

Sources

• Immediate source for Merchant is Il Pecorone, an Italian short story that translates “The Idiot”

• Published in Italy in 1558• “Pound of flesh” plot

Sources

• Another source is a medieval tale from Gesta Romanorum (Roman Tales), published in London in 1577

• “Casket” plot

Sources

• Christopher Marlowe’s Jew of Malta (1589-90) was familiar to Shakespeare

• Idea of Jew having daughter

Sources

• Classical sources: Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Plutarch’s Lives

History of Jews in England

• Jews allowed to live in England from 1066

• Allowed to practice usury, or money-lending; Christians were not

History of Jews in England

• Jews became target of government taxations because of their wealth

• At death, Jews’ assets seized by king

• Jews paid Christian church taxes

History of Jews in England

• In 1290, Jews expelled from England

• Suspicion and bigotry practiced against Jews

• Term “Jew” became a label

History of Jews in England

• Secretly practicing their faith, some Jews remained in England

Elizabethan Image of Jew

• Moneylenders (“usury”)• Bloodthirsty murderers (Jews

might demand a pound of flesh as repayment for a loan)

Elizabethan Image of Jew

• Rumors of Christian travelers being mutilated by Jews

• Jews accused of spreading Black Death by poisoning water

Elizabethan Image of Jew

• Jews stereotyped as evil, dressed in black cloaks, horned hats

• Jews played as parodies on stage: actors wore bright red wigs and false noses

Usury

• Lending of money and charging interest on its repayment

• Traditionally Jews were money-lenders

• Christianity forbade charging of interest

Usury

• Aristotle: beyond the laws of physics for money to breed money

• Elizabethans condemned usury, yet this didn’t stop them from borrowing money themselves

Women in Patriarchal Society

• In Elizabethan society, fathers controlled the lives of wives and daughters

• Women had subordinate position in Elizabethan England

• Women’s rights were restricted

Women in Patriarchal Society• Defying authority had serious

consequences• Disobedient sons were disinherited;

daughters were confined at home or in convents

• Father-daughter conflict a recurring theme in Shakespeare

Women in Patriarchal Society

• Women’s power limited by rules of inheritance

• Renaissance ideal of women suggested that they should live in quiet obedience to husbands and fathers

Venice and Trade

• England’s role as trading nation grew in late 16th century

• Merchants took greater risks as their wealth grew

Venice, Italy

Venice, Italy

Venice and Trade

• To Elizabethans, Venice was symbol of trade and wealth

• World center for banking• Had great tolerance for different

cultures and minorities

Gondola and Piazza San Marco

The Rialto Bridge