Analysis of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice: Character and Themes, Appunti di Letteratura Inglese

Scarica Analysis of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice: Character and Themes e più Appunti in PDF di Letteratura Inglese solo su Docsity! LETTERATURA INGLESE 14.10.21 password moodle: bicicletta  Cartaceo del testo The Merchant of Venice  The Short Oxford History of English Literature, (Oxford) di Andrew Sanders: “Renaissance and Reformation” .  Essays and book chapters (study materials available in the Library): • Shakespeare After All (Anchor Books), Marjorie Garber: chapters on The Merchant of Venice.  • Shakespeare's Division of Experience, Marilyn French, introduction, The Gender Principle and chapters on The Merchant of Venice. ESAME: orale in lingua: - tematiche trattate relative al testo - lettura di un estratto del testo, collocazione e riconoscimento dell’estratto (atto, chi parla, commento) INTRODUZIONE ALLA TIPOLOGIA DI TESTO  Shakespeare and his contemporaries tend to write texts which belong to three dramatic genres  tragedies  comedies  history plays = classical third one; - not just plays about history, they had to be about English history - Ex. Julius Caesar or Macbeth = are not history plays, but tragedies  The dramatic genre of The Merchant of Venice is the comedy, a genre which Shakespeare really practised a lot since the very beginning of his career. TITLES OF SHAKESPEARE’S HISTORY PLAYS FOLLOWING THE KINGS’ ORDER: King John, Richard II, Henry IV (2 parts), Henry V, 3 plays about Henry VI, Richard III, and another not entirely Shakespearian, Henry VIII.  Except for the last one (Henry VIII), they all concern with one specific period of English history the WAR OF THE ROSES (1455-1487)  Political obsession of this period: idea of the inheritance and of the legitimate king. It represents an extremely important political and cultural element.  War of the Roses  civil war: internal war, between people belonging to the same kingdom tearing each other to pieces, killing one another.  The mess begins with the killing of Richard II. What he focuses on is one of the most tragic, bloodiest, chaotic, disturbing periods of English history.  For this reason, these plays are not a celebration of England, they cannot be. Brothers that kill brothers. Violence and blood are always, at the end, self-destructive. You will always end up destroyed by your own violence, there’s no way out or way back. History plays are very bloody texts.  There is a political goal that he has: that at the end of Richard III (one of the most amazing characters that he invents) he is killed by the founding father of the Tudor Monarchy  the future Henry VII  aim  it represents the beginning of the Golden Age of English History and he has to celebrate that.  Rappresentazione in arte del male (dei personaggi) rendendolo estremamente attraente. ELIZABETHAN PERIOD  Plays were the only means of popular entertainment, open to every single social class. They were the perfect way to communicate messages to the whole population. The portrait of England that emerges is so relevant from a political point of view.  Writing these plays, Shakespeare is practising. TRAGEDIES   masculine texts which tell a masculine story. These males are all in charge of the community, they are at the head of the entire community.   Intensely sad. With multiple deaths.  Message that he delivers with this  everything that came before the end, has to go away and disappear and then you can begin again.  Hamlet  all the facts following the cesura, the “original sin” there has to be the destruction of evil and of the good as well in order to start again a new cycle, otherwise there’s no continuation.  Macbeth*, Hamlet, Julius Caesar  they all have in common the fact that their titles represent the names of the main character, who is a male. At the very beginning, the male character by enlarge finds himself in the happiest and most successful moment of his life. Then, he does something wrong. He makes a mistake which is generally motivated by aristotelic amartia = difetto che l’eroe ha in quanto umano. Tumbling down towards the tragic ending, the blood and the deaths. - Small thing that will lead to that. BODY POLITIC  For Renaissance culture, the kingdom is like a human body  if the head doesn’t work or is corrupted, the entire structure collapses and there’s no hope for anybody. - The entire society becomes affected. [Macbeth = very representative in this]  The very ending is always in the case that a new era is about to begin at the end of the play  technically a happy ending. Message: hint / chissà se il futuro sarà migliore. COMEDIES  Shakespearian comedies  more choral  net of human relationships without a single character that stands out  Are always concerned with the possibility to avoid tragedies and the tragic ending:  the evitability principle that governs Shakespearian and Renaissance comedies in general. - In order to avoid tragedies you need to have someone who is able to find a way out this someone is always a female character  powerful woman who is clever, witty, fast, brave enough to find the solution.  The competition between Portia and Antonio for Bassanio is very strong (even if not explicit)  LOVE and MONEY  “..my purse and my person are yours” = are the same thing in The Merchant ACT 1 Antonio says to Bassanio that they need to go to Venice in order to get some money for him (B)  from Shylock SHYLOCK (like Portia) = they both talk very well  repetition**  With Shylock enters hatred  Shylock: if he doesn’t give me the money back by a certain date, “a pound from his fair flash”  we are given the impression that Shylock gets the idea during the scene, thinking about his revenge while he’s talking.  This scene represents the moment when you start thinking that in the plot something is starting to go wrong  blood, revenge and sin  Shylock often talks about hunger, eating and food  disturbing element of cannibalism  idea that he is going to eat that pound of flesh  Bassanio understands that there’s something wrong  Antonio signs the deal  Important theme: the law. BILOCATION Venice on a hand  male location, public space acted by males Belmont  a house, Portia’s house, domestic space, feminine sphere - They represent different spaces  opposition but also similarity. What connects both Belmont and Venice is money JESSICA  Shylock’s daughter. Her story is also part of the whole plot ACT 1 - SCENE 1  It opens with the theme of depression.  Bassanio is going to Antonio to ask him for money when Salerio and Solanio are out  in sooth = truly  Shakespeare opens the play with very simple language, simple word = SAD  2 lines = Antonio has been depressed for quite a while  3rd = triade (+amplificatio) retorica  a good speaker goes by three, esthetically satisfying number for the human mind  (Shylocks goes for diadi)  SALERIO and SOLANIO = minor characters che non hanno una definizione precisa, sono più una funzione narrativa, cercano di dare delle spiegazioni ad Antonio per la sua depressione  they take a very long time to express the idea of their suggestions, except when they talk about love.  WATER ELEMENT introduced in line 10  poetic image to describe ships, symbolic of the character, waves personalized  overpeer = guardare dall’alto al basso  Antonio overpeers people like Shylock. - Shakespeare infila sempre il dettaglio di quello che avverrà dopo.  line 19 = TRIADE: ports, piers and roads  ultima riga del discorso di Salerio e Solanio = esprime il concetto centrale che entrambi hanno espresso nei precedenti 30 righi  representful how stressful life is for people who have so much money the fear of losing money makes life unbearable  “wind cooling my broth” = everyday actions, everyday life things become a nightmare, a source of worry  Plot of human life = impredictable; challenges are always there. The world is a stage in which every single person “..must play a part” (line 77) - Shakesperian comedies = the characters often make the same mistake twice  When referring to commerce, they just go on and on talking, but when love goes on stage, they just have one line  love does not need rethorical means for them who are male business men  Description of the kind of richness we’re dealing with (..)  The other 3 are the other 3 males (3 male sides of romance) who will end up married at the end  Bassanio, Lorenzo and Gratiano  Antonio and Bassanio are kinsman = connected  Something is anticipated about the plot in line 70 GRATIANO = important voice in the play, who stands/speaks the voice of gut VOICE OF GUT  symbolic meaning, whenever he speaks there is a part of the human psyche that we all have. Desires of eros, appetites, which the ego must keep under check. It is not accidental that when he speaks he mentions parts of the body and makes references to drinking, eating, bodily material and basic human needs.  He does represent a kind of a darker side of the human psyche heat vs.cold  reth.fig. l. 84  he’s the most anthi-semithic character in the play  he’s the voice of the body, of the male body  he represents the pleasure principle of the comedy  his voice is an unpleasant voice, there’s something disturbing about Gratiano’s voice, it’s a voice of excess  he’s the Shakespearian fool, typically unpleasant and allowed to say things that others are not allowed to say (sort of licence).  he represents anarchy, but he often speaks the truth and the truth is often unpleasant.  one of those who speak out of place Long speech of Gratiano  drinking wine, talking about eating and drinking (for them life is pretty much that, only material)  The physicality of human life comes on stage  liever, heart, blood, wine, enjoying life line 101: he’s the first to mention fish (that will repeat Shylock) - Metafora del pesce e dell’esca **  ECHOS = characters saying the same things using the same images and semantic fields often makes them connected (Gratiano and Shylock speak the same language, s.e. affinità elettive) 4.11.21  impression of being wise 92-93  theme of appearance, of judging by appearance, always central in Shakespeare 98-99  Shylock and Gratiano have something in common. PART 2 - ACT 1 - SCENE 1 ANTONIO AND BASSANIO  We are able to understand the relationship between Bassanio and Antonio when they are left alone (line 113)  Antonio is asking Bassanio about a lady, a woman. With this we’re beginning to think / we have the hint that Antonio’s depression might be connected to what Bassanio is about to tell him  PILGRIMAGE (line 120) = the semantic field of religion represents a central issue in the play  Thanks to the metaphor of the secret pilgrimage used to talk about Portia, we can see that she stands for the Mother of God, or for the figure of the women according to the courtly love style.  Bassanio starts articulating what we think is an answer, but he doesn’t answer directly. Double negation  It is not unknown to you (l. 122) = stylistic choice. If you start talking with a double negation, you complicate things. And that is a sign of an attempt to soften the effect of what he’s saying, which is probably something not easy to say.  He doesn’t want not to be rich anymore, he doesn’t want to get off from that (line125)-  Bassanio is a spendthrift who needs and plans to pay off his debts, but he is also the male hero.  Money stands for love and give expression to it and viceversa.  line 131: we understand that its not the first time Bassanio is asking Antonio for money.  WARRANTY = legal term. It is introduced the idea of the bond.  Antonio says back that his PURSE and his PERSON are his. Everything he has belongs to Bassanio. These words will be heard again by Portia. PURSE and PERSON are on the same level, they are the same thing.  line 139  operation of locking and unlocking that gives us the hint of what will happen for the three caskets to open in Belmont.  INNOCENCE and the IMAGE OF THE CHILD  line 140: he presents himself as a child, trying to play with Antonio’s emotions and feelings in order to soften the money request.  image of innocence of the child playing with bow and arrows and throwing the shafts  technique used whenever he has to impress in his speech  something that is emotionally affective and that represents innocence.  Greek mythology also important and relevant in the play, with the image of Cupid in line 148: Bassanio’s stanza in the first scene.  The suspance is growing and it is a sadical trait, like a psychological torture  important hint  Bassanio is asking for money and Shylock is in the position of the one who has that power of giving that money  3 thousand, 3 months  repetition of number 3  Bassanio is being subjected to the same waiting game that he played on Antonio.  Shylock talks with a very simple language, all paratactic, without hypotax.  The adjective “good”  two different meanings for Shylock and for Bassanio: - For Shylock = GOOD means SUFFICIENT in business terms  first hint of the gap between them, religious, ethical and cultural gap  S understands that B misunderstood: he meant that A was enough as a warranty  Shylock is very well informed about Antonio’s situation  We’re given the image of how much Antonio rich is, we see Antonio’s power.  Interchangeability between Antonio and Shylock:  they will be the only two males who will end up unmarried, unfertile  After Shylock makes the list of Antonio’s ships, he implicitely anticipates the misfortune that will happen.  Shylock often talks about animals, he mentiones rats  Shylock’s mind is inhabited by a jungle of horrible beasts. 11.11.21  Shylock is thinking and putting together his plan and in the space of 10 mins he gets the idea.  In the answer to Bassanio’s invitation for dinner, it emerges that he first racist is Shylock.  He associates Jesus to the devil. line 32 Going to dinner together  was symbolically very important - motivation of Shylock’s hate: firstly because of Antonio’s religion, because he is a Christian who offended him PRINCIPAL REASON: he spoils the business of Shylock -Shylock hates and Antonio hates back  Money connected to hatred.  line 58: The name of Shylock appears in the verses as pronunciated by another character, Antonio. It is very important when the names are mentioned by the characters themselves.  Shylock begins to defend the idea of usury, of giving and taking money with interests making use of the Bible, quoting the Bible.  Shylock is just like the devil in the New Testament: like the devil, he’s quoting the Bible in order to corrupt. line 94-99: appearances are deceitful  idea of the outside and the inside  Antonio keeps making the same mistake over and over again. He’s over confidente  that is why he will get a penalty  lines 151-152: Bassanio understands that there’s something wrong.  The text doesn’t say yet where the piece of fair flesh will be removed from.  Idea of Shylock described by himself as a MERRY BOND CONVERSION  intended as an act of punishment.  The last thing Antonio says in line 176: it’s prophetic, it introduces the theme of conversion  Jessica will convert too, voluntarily  Shylock forced to convert  For Christians converting people is an act of salvation of that individual who would otherwise be damned  Shylock’s soul will be saved in the name of salvation, but it is also a form of severe punishment  Pound of flesh = idea of cannibalism. parallel between the human flesh and animals = putting them on the same level  Life is a jungle and men are part of that jungle. Covenant  Patto between God and the israeliti, la tribù stessa di Abramo  Any male who has not being circumcised  prescription of God towards Jews  Shylock trying to make Antonio part of that tribe that Antonio hates  The first act ends with the voice of Antonio, the same one who opened it. ACT 2 - SCENE 1  Shylock doesn’t have much textual space, but yet he dominates the whole comedy.  This act is a bit more fragmented, there are many more scenes.  It begins in Belmont and it ends, again, in Belmont -The first guy that we see to try to win Portia’s hand, is the Prince of Morocco  character who stands for the concept of hypermasculinity, he is the caricature of the romantic hero  his competitor is Prince of Aragon, a Spanish Catholic  The first thing that Morocco says is not to be judged for the colour of his skin, but he’s not able to put that principle into practice himself.  he speaks the language of competition with other males (with the fairest skin)  line 6: again idea of incision = obsession with human flesh and cutting and blood  the connection between the cutting and the blood will be central in the trial scene  there are all hints from Shakespeare)  Portia’s wit in line 20 = destroys male overconfidence - The Merchant’s comedy could be rewritten as Shylock’s tragedy ACT 2 - SCENE 2 function of the soliloquy = it stands for a sort of classical concept of stream of consciousness  Shakespeare’s monologues are tricky because you never know if it represents the truth  LAUNCELOT’S PSICHOMACHIA = internal conflict of Launcelot - Behind the comic passage, the message is that making a decision is always so hard and things are always more complicated than they seem to be. Schema delle morality plays  Shakespeare is rewriting a very old tradition. Vices and virtues that fight for the possession of the soul.  Launcelot is the first to abandon Shylock, he is prolectic, anticipating Jessica’s choice to abandon her father too.  he represents the first piece of Shylock’s identity that he is starting to lose  he will shift from Shylock’s service to Bassanio’s service  he starts making fun of his blind and old father  this makes him again a double of Jessica - Unlike Launcelot, though, Jessica will not have the slightest doubt in abandoning Shylock. It’s (as always) up to the reader to decide whether Jessica is ethically wrong or right in her rebellion against Shylock.  Then Gratiano goes to Bassanio to tell him that he wants to go to Belmont with him and Bassanio warns him about being too wild, too rude and too bold of voice line 168. This is yet another description of Gratiano’s identity and of his function in the play: he is the wild one, he is the rude one and he is the bold of voice. 18.11.21 ACT 2 - SCENE 3  FATHER - CHILD THEME  What happens between Launcelot and her father is a PREFIGURATION in a biblic sense (common in Shakespeare) of what’s gonna happen between Jessica and her father. He, like her, seems to be rather unconcerned with the issue of offending his own father and yet he is conflicted at the idea of misbehaving with Shylock.  Shylock is gonna lose everything and this is the first hint of it. Shylock’s tragedy has begun. Launcelot is the signal and symbolic event which anticipates that things are going to go wrong for Shylock from that moment onwards.  We are in Shylock’s house, the only time we enter another domestic space which is not Belmont.  Belmont should be read also vis a vis: Shylock’s household, because we are in a place where the first voice we hear is a female voice, Jessica’s, and this is the first time we are getting to know her. And like always in Shakespeare, characters are always defined by the words that they say, so what Jessica is about to tell us is the hint concerning her identity and her future as well. opening scene: FAREWELL BETWEEN JESSICA AND LAUNCELOT - If on one hand we will be able to understand why Launcelot wants to go, we’ll also understand why Jessica wants to go. Again the theme of fatherhood, of being a child becomes relevant, comes to the fore, central. - lines 1-2: Shylock’s house is hell because of its tidiousness, boredom. Hell = religious semantic sphere and terminology that always circulates - Theme of doing things in secrecy = the letter that Jessica gives to Launcelot for Lorenzo. - In saying goodbye we find again the theme of Pagans, Jews and Christians against each other and also the theme of a Christian trying to get Jessica who is a Jew. To keep the track…  In Belmont we have the suitors trying to make the right choice, so there’s tension. It’s a moment of danger, what if prince of Morocco or Aragon chooses right?  In Act II things are tense.  In Venice we have a corresponding element = Jessica getting away from Shylock’s house. There’s tension for her elopment from Shylock’s patriarchal power. Focus on females and the danger of females’ life in patriarchal society. ACT 2 - SCENE 6 - JESSICA’S ELOPMENT INCIPIT: Salarino and Gratiano coming up with very strange observations and refections on love and on the constancy of love and how in reality love doesn’t last that much, that it’s easy to just get tired of the person you’re with  not reassuring for the whole structure of the play, since Jessica is about to lose everything for love. - We are under Shylock’s house: Gratiano and Salarino arrive first and Lorenzo is late. They wonder why he’s late. - Gratiano says: once you’ve eaten, you don’t have the same appetite you used to have at the beginning. - Shakespeare always finds the way to somehow problematize the romance, the theme of love. We know that Gratiano is the fool and the fool speaks the truth, unpleasant though the truth may be. We must pay attention to what Gratiano is saying because he is giving us a warning. Meeting between Jessica and Lorenzo page 66: Instead of speaking directly to one another, they keep asking questions, using the device of making questions, even if they’re rethorical. theme of light and darkness  symbol of the candle - Not only is Jessica leaving his father’s house, she is also stealing money before leaving  pretty much in the tradition of her father himself’s job. She is not only depriving her father of herself, she’s also stealing money and another specific object which is highly symbolic. line 51: Jessica’s jewishness is always spoken about whenever she’s mentioned, as if that is something that cannot be forgotten by anybody. It is repeated obsessionally. Antonio arrives unexpectedly: he tells Gratiano and the others he’s coming to get them because the party is cancelled  the wind is good, so Bassanio and Gratiano are immediately to board and leave Venice for Belmont. ACT II AS JESSICA’S PLOT - Act II as far as Venice is concerned, is entirely focused on Jessica’s elopment and on the consequences. We will hear from Salarino and Salanio about Shylock’s reaction about Jessica’s elopment. There is a non-scene narrated by the secondary characters that often have the function to reporting back scene that are too emotionally charged to happen on stage. Scene 8: on the one hand he will hear the strong Shylock’s reaction to Jessica’s elopment. Then they also describe the farewell between Antonio and Bassanio. They are in charge of the description of two very tense and intense emotional reactions, not performed on stage but reported. It’s important that we have on the one hand Shylock’s reaction to Jessica’s betrayal (the very important father-daughter relationship being destroyed) and on the other hand Antonio saying goodbye to Bassanio: another ropture, another separation from which there’s no going back, it’s a loss. There are two very deep and painful losses, tragic moments in the comedy. In Shakespeare for every new relationship, romance that is born, there is a price to pay, someone has to lose and suffer for them. - The sense of emptiness is very heavy. - Ogni nuovo inizio, anche splendido, alle spalle si lascia qualche rovina. - Salarino and Salanio are the representation of the ruins which are necessary, unevitable for a new beginning to begin. Shakespeare is always keen on making always cleare that everything always comes with a price, even happy endings. ACT 2 - SCENE 7 Back in Belmont - the choice of Morocco - It’s a very crowded scene: everybody is there to see what happens. - Morocco looks and describes what he sees, reading the inscriptions and asking some God to direct him and eventually making the wrong decision. - We get to know that every casket has an inscription that should be guiding the men in the choose. The father has been very careful, a very complicated and articulated system that he has invented, because there’s teaching behind it. Morocco uses these words to describe the inscriptions: GOLD  inscription; there is death inside, a skull in which eye there’s a message SILVER  promise LEAD  warning; HAZARD = we’ve already encountered this word and what it means. We have already encountered someone who is hazarding everything he has, and that is Antonio for Bassanio. The lead casket’s inscription is important also because defines the relationship Antonio-Bassanio. When Morocco talks about Portia speaks words of religion: face of heaven,shrine, mortal breathing saint, damnation  language of amor cortese, lady idealised as a saint.  semantic field of santity and worshipping line 65: All that glisters is not gold  Morocco was the first to say not to judge (and to ask not to be judged) by appearance, and then he makes that precise thing, judging the caskets for their “complexion”. lines 75: He mentioned the sun, when he talked about the reason for his complexion. opposition with frost: circular structure in terms of metaphorical fields. - Very long process of thinking while choosing. Reading the inscriptions, thinking, reading them backwards and making a choice, the wrong one. Bassanio, instead  we will see the differences. He has something the other suitors don’t have. line 71: Young in limbs, in judgement old  prefiguration of what will be the characteristics of: 1. Bassanio 2. Portia dressed as a judge, as a solicitor. She will be the figure of puer senex  the young one who has old and mature judgement. 25.11.21  Antonio at some point may become a danger for Portia because he has done precisely what the casket (the right one, the lead one) prescribes and indicates as the right choice for love. We will have 2 letters: 1. From Jessica to Lorenzo 2. From Antonio to Bassanio  dangerous letter. As soon as Portia comes to know what is the deal between Bassanio and Antonio, she understands that Antonio is the equivalent of what Bassanio is for her, perfectly fitting the lead casket’s inscription. And so she understands that her relationship with Bassanio might be in danger.  Dark side of the triangle: implicit competition between Antonio and Portia who are equal because are both rich and wealthy. - Incipit of Ophello  same situation: we have religion, ethnic and social differences - the same ones that are explored in Venice. ACT 2 - SCENE 8  Solanio performs Shylock like a sort of play in the play  the reliability of this performance is to put in doubt for what we have previously seen about this character.  Shylock is a target of ridicule. The sense of betrial is in the play represented by Solanio as a comic scene.  Shylock is out of rage, in despair.  Then there’s the mise en scene of Antonio’s farewell to Bassanio, by Salarino. - lines 26-33: There is a possibility that one of Antonio’s ships has miscarried, has sunk. Like with Shylock, Antonio’s parabole begins to descend. We get a hint / rumour that Antonio’s fortunes are not as safe as he had predicted at the beginning. FAREWELL BETWEEN ANTONIO AND BASSANIO - ARRATED BY SALARINO  Parting of two lovers, of two individuals who are in a deep connection. Play within the play. Shylock and Antonio are somehow parallel in the text. Salarino  Antonio’s voice like Solario  Shylock’s voice.  Ambiguity of this relationship.  Antonio says him not to worry  rethorical figure of the PRETERITION  effect that the other begins to worry; because Antonio doesn’t want to part from him. EYES FULL OF TEARS: Antonio and Bassanio’s hands not letting go one another. Not only holding each other’s hands. Antonio’s love for Bassanio is certified by this. Idea of the SACRIFICIAL LAMB = elemento cristologico nel martirio di Antonio, si autopresenta come tale. - Interesting how Shakespeare decides to put together the scenes  She is trying to stay as long as possible with him before he makes his choice, being afraid that he could choose wrong.  The long speech of Portia is also used as a mean to intensify the scene of the choice and the choice itself.  After she stops talking, there’s music  harmony while Bassanio is thinking. Then Bassanio starts another long speech.  HAZARD = key word in the choosing of the caskets.  Women are always the first to confess their interest, they’re braver in talking about feelings. v. 2-3. All Portia’s speech is a long love confession  Who is really buying those gifts are from Antonio’s money, and not even Antonio’s, but Shylock’s. The concept of giving and taking = key concept in the three caskets.  She wants to delay, he wants to hurry up  opposite reactions  rethorical style gives an aura of something mythological that is about to happen.  First three verses are leading him to choose right. Rhyming with lead  Trying to communicate with him on a lower level, at the subconscious.  Act full of speeches.  We are just as eager as Bassanio is to know what’s gonna happen  Bassanio’s speech: appearances are disightful, like the previous suitors. --  And then he begins giving examples of this principle, which is something that other ones didn’t do.  LAW = one of the main themes of the play  gracious voice = referring to Shylock’s voice  RELIGION = another central issue  The kind of deseit he’s talking about are rethorical traps. Connected to rethorical skills.  Then he re-asserts the principle. Vices can take the form of virtues  valor, courage and cowardise  male topic in patriarchal societies like that  then he talks about female  even beauty can be disightful. opposition between beauty and death  Also Bassanio’s speech is full rethorical images.  choice: ragionamento, quindi scelta: he hasn’t read the mottos, he doesn’t need to. He just knows.  Morocco lacks something; there’s no invocation for hope in Bassanio’s speech.  line 115: importance of looks in the lyrical description of the portrait and of Portia’s beauty  lines 140-41: very important moment. He’s speaking by heart. He’s saying that it’s like when you win a competition and you don’t really understand whats happening. He says that he won’t believe it until Portia will conferm, sign and ratify it. Using the language of the law and this play is about the power of the law (law of the father, law of the caskets, law of the bond). By doing this, he is giving her the freedom of choosing. This is a (sort of) female empowerment.  In Shakespeare romantic love always has to be mutual choice, alla pari, una scelta di entrambi. In alcune commedie questo viene messo in dubbio.  line 171: ring = symbol of female - it is not an end that you would expect for her speech. She talks about herself, about what she has and then it comes the ring. Structure carefully neat together. Portia often goes for the triade retorica -prima diminutio, poi contrario -giving, taking and hazarding = someone has already done that for Bassanio, and this is Antonio. They both gave their own self, but Antonio gave him money, while Portia is giving him is everything she has. The kind of giving is male against female.  like with Shylock, it is the female who gives the ring to the male  ring symbol of female.  the love scene ends with something unusual  Portia comes up with her own test. Now is her testing Bassanio with giving the ring. She is using her power of her freedom now. It’not improvised. She agrees with the father’s construction. To make sure by her own principles that he is the right one. She will be the one who will be testing Bassanio. The fact that this is just act III alerts us that things are not just all here.  3 most rethorical and elegant choice  blood = associated to males. He adds something to the simple joy and happiness: he intensifies the sinister element or threatening element connected with the ring of the parting from it. Both speeches are acceptance beginning with joy happiness and giving and both end with the disturbing dark note. With Shaks you always find the beauty of love with a but on the background.  --  issue of Bassanio’s const:  B is using S’s words talking about him. In s evil permeates the language of other characters  words that keep reappearing in male context: blood, cutting, --  line 270: everytime we hear about Antonio’s ships they multiply to make the idea of his wealth  Nobody is able to convince Shylock to give up his bond.  Portia is listening and she will offer money, but then she realizes that Antonio is a competitor. 9.12.21 It is Portia who gives voice to Antonio’s letter. Sadistic choice Part of the play where Portia and Antonio, the two lovers, are first brought together by the text. - Characters tend to speak hyperbolically when Antonio is involved  descr of how A wonderful is - B had described P better than -- - B: same cultural references to talk about Antonio -320: tricky letter  it informs but it also put a request on the table. He wants Bassanio to go and see him dying (for him). - scene 3: Antonio is being arrested, scene that prepares the audience for the trial scene. It anticipates what will be seen in act 4, trial scene. Many directors choose to delete act V because they find it useless or even wrong. - obsessive repetition: Shylock has an obsessive mind that reflects on his language - A is giving his own reasons for Shylock’s hatred. pag 120: the law is on Shylock’s side. He is entitled by law to have his bond  trick and issue of the play - ethical aspect that the law seems to leave out. strof30: why does he want to see him paying his debt  subtle, disturbing element. Sort of revenge. - chain of events utterly unbearable  implicit revenge of Antonio tow Bassanio and Portia act 2 scene 4 - hyperbolic image of A’s nobility even if we just heard about his wanting to be seen dying by B - P is offering way more than Antonio ever had  overdoing a’s richness and wealth. Complicated net of love, money and competition - P is leaving Lorenzo in charge of Belmont. -P: transpassing in venice as a young solicitor - P: like j was in charge of her own elopment, now P is trying to save her own marriage (saving Antonio) - Female characters often have to dress up as men in order either to survive or do something very dangerous. On the one hand because it’s a moment of empowerment , 2nd because men don’t need to. - scene 5: L, J and Lorenzo. p 128 l 30: ambiguity of Jessica’s conversion, even if it it expressed as a joke. -- Conversion is accepting otherness into your own community. -- - they seem not to believe that jessica is “convertible”. - Again the world mercy reappears. ACT 4: grande scena corale - The act is focused on the issues of the law. What is law, mercy and fairness, what is equity in the legal sense? - How do u deal with a legal reasoning (expressed by Shylock) and a moral-ethical reasoning connected to mercy? - scene 1: very long scene. Shakespeare stratche is out to the limit. The moment we get the peripeteia. Reversal of the situation, very sudden. Connected to the idea that we are not in charge of others’ destiny. Antonio made a huge mistake being so sure about his ships’ fate. - We’re very close to get a tragic ending. - duke: symbol of legal authority. - prologo: spirit of Antonio and of Shylock are juxtaposed Shakespeare had great experience and competences in legal field. Technical languageo Duke opening the trial: full of legal terminology --  implies that Shylock is part of that civilization. -He’s not only replying to the Duke, he is also pretending to give an explanation. He puts inserts and examples between the beginning of his answer and the ending, when he actually answers the question. He is being a very good lawyer of himself. The examples he gives are themselves disturbing. We go back to animals, rats. In his rethor he goes lower and lower. Rather shocking image too be presented in a court of justice, debased image of humanity. very poetic moment = carefully constructed lines, anaforic. They evoke other lovers. -- element of falling in love Dido = widow. The love story between her and Enea is a tragic one. -- 23.12.21 BEGINNING OF ACT V Stories which increase in the amount of violence that they are characterized by. Climatic series of tragic, violent, destructive and self-destructive love stories. We also have suicides. Losing the balance, not exactly the celebration of the happy ending of the comedy. line 25: Stefano, pORTIA’S MESSENGER and of Launcelot  they both announce tha arrival of Portia and Bassanio Stefano informs us (construction of fiction) giving us the image of portia busy praying for the happy wedlock hours Different from the image of Portia in act IV line 46 - 47: both are coming back at dawn. Their arrival means that they are bringing back the light of the day, leaving the darkness of act IV. This opp betw darkness and ligght id one of the lements -- We’re abandoning the tenebre and were going back to light. philosophy of music = armony From tragic references we go to the effect that music has on listeners or on creatures in general.  line We are powerless on front of the power oif music  in S always the elemen Importance of being able not only to enjoy it, but only to stand the effects of music that sometimes can be overwhelming. Line 54: moon, moonlight, stars, In s the image of something that creeps and enters in sm’s ears is common: sometimes it is positive, some others is negative (macbeth, -) - Harmony is the theme of act V - celebration of music, harmony and immortality. connected back to the speech of mercy which Portia articulated in act IV. piercing the ear  indicator of jessica’s(?) internal disharmony. shylock in act II  theres a little bit of shylock in jessica, not tolerating music stanza l. 80: the image given of the power of music is almost magic  it has the power to taim or to calm down even wild horses. -- Shylock is gone but his figure keeps - in certain circumstances is more powerful than presence most harmonic rethorical construction = triade Memory of the man that has darkness  he has not abandones us yet and he will never do - 90: power of light Comment on the power of a brighter light vs a les spowerful light: through the images of more and less Music does belong to Belmont. 100: contrasts: music vs silence If there is silence music is more powerful very poethical and lyrical language  reconciliation -- how articulated harmony is -- Endemion is the myth fig of the pastore di cui si innamora selene, la luna. not only the reference to the moon but also to fertility. Portias voice reaches L and along with music. you cannot have light without darkness, music and harmony without noise and silence (?) opposites that in reality are in a relationshipo which is complementary because they need one another moving from darkness into light 114: we enter the field of disharmony, betrial diadi di opposizione first time that antonio sees portia as portia - the two competitors are together on stage the text switches over to gratiano and nerissa, fighting about the ring Gratiano stands for the fleshing part of human life, the guts -- dramatic irony da 150 in poi performative words = if you swear something, you change something in your reality. It will be different because of that powerful words = tricky topic -- 198: sofisticated rethorical construction epistrofi  frasi che finiscono retoric con la stessa parola antonio is put in the first place how the femal carachters in the text never lie and they manage through language in the confrontation with husbands 216: enforced = kinda lying Again there is one figure who begged Bassanio to give the ring  even him is connecting Antonio to Portia -- Somehow Antonio is the one who is making sure that bond of marriage Marriage is also a contract -- ultime battute: - punishment or retribution and then immediately relief - 2 more letters 1peripeteia antonio’s ships are safe another parallel with shylock -- Antonio and Shylock do belong to the same community, the only two left in a condition of sterility. - end: thing and ring. The ring is the circle, symbol of female sexuality, so he refers about that This is intentionally the note with which the comedy ends. Marriage is -- Eros, desire and pure physical enjoyment.