Comparing the Merchant of Venice and a Mid-Summer Nigth's Dr
Comparing the Merchant of Venice and a Mid-Summer Nigth's Dream
William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice and A Midsummer Night’s Dream are two comedies. A comedy is a “drama that provokes laughter at human behavior, usually involves romantic love, and usually has a happy ending” (Boyce 119). While both plays have romance and happy endings, they differ in the mood they set throughout the play. William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice and A Midsummer Night’s Dream are different because The Merchant of Venice is a dark comedy because of the anti-semitism, Antonio’s close call with death, and Shylock’s tragic ending whereas A Midsummer Night’s Dream is light-hearted because it involves fairies, has a funny climax, and everyone has a happy ending.
The Merchant of Venice has very anti-semetic undertones. Shylock, the moneylender, is Jewish, greedy, and seen as murderous and inhuman. Throughout most of the play, Shylock is referred to as “the Jew” but he is also referred to as an animal. Gratiano refers to Shylock when he says, “O be thou damned, inexecrable dog!” (IV, I, 128) and is also referred to as “currish spirit govern’d a wolf” (IV, I, 133-134) and whose “desires are wolvish, bloody, starved, and ravenous” (IV, I, 137-138). Stirling says, “These labels that are applied to shylock effectively strip him of his humanity, and his religious identity. He becomes reduced to something less than human” (Stirling).
Shylock is also portrayed as murderous. People don’t like Shylock because of the way he deals with people. This is shown through his lines against Antonio because he knows Antonio is trapped in a contract with him and Shylock intends to kill him. Shylock’s daughter Jessica tells Antonio that she overheard her father say, “When I was with him I have heard him swear to Tubal and to Chus, his countrymen, That he would rather have Antonio’s flesh than twenty times the value of the sum” (III, ii, 248-2488). He is so intent on Antonio’s ruin that when he hears of Antonio’s financial disappointment, he says, “I’m very glad of it. I’ll plague him, I’ll torture him, I am glad of it” (III, I, 116-117). During his trial, at the end of the play, the Christians finally take half of his money and force him to convert. Boyce comments on Shylocks fate saying, “He...