Essay for Shakespeare The Merchant of Venice

Resource Description

"The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon."
Evaluate this statement in relation to your prescribed text.
  
Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice gives the audience questions to think upon in regards to the
collective assumptions of Christians as good, of individual Jews as evil, and of justice as a fair process. The
blended 'tragi-comic' play form reflects complexities and inconsistencies in human nature, raising questions
about established social structures and flaws in human behaviour. This unpredictable and continually
shifting environment of the play leads to ambiguities, encouraging questioning and reflection rather than
telling the audience how to think.
 
Shakespeare gives insight into the collective assumptions in Venice about Jewish and Christian faiths, but
shows how inconsistencies in human nature challenge these ideas which prompts us to reconsider the
extent to which stereotypes are true. Shylock provokes the audience at first, in the creation of the bond for
a "pound of fair flesh", and this appears to solidify the collective view of him as a "devil". However,
Shakespeare represents the collective Christian majority in contrast to traditional thoughts of them as
'good' – for example, Antonio's sarcasm in "the Jew will turn Christian, he grows kind", suggesting that the
"devil" aligns with Christian values. Further, the ambiguous double meaning of "kind" as both good-
heartedness and revenge challenges the Christian ideals of mercy, presenting the possibility that their core
values align with those of hate and revenge, raising questions of who the villain in the play is. Shakespeare
then provides Shylock the ability to narrate his own story, furthering the shift of the audience' assumptions
of the Jew as evil to raise questions. The use of monologue to communicate this idea forces us to connect
directly with Shylock and think upon our biases as he demonstrates a sense of deep humanity. Aligning his
rhetorical question "if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?" with his appeal to common traits "hath not a
Jew eyes?" shows that his desire for revenge is equally as human as having "organs, dimensions, senses"
and thus identifies himself with the audience and the rest of society. In highlighting a common humanity
the audience is prompted to further question ideas of Shylock as the villain if we share common traits,
illuminating inherent prejudices and allowing us to reshape our perspective.