Resumo de Merchant Of Venice - William Shakespeare

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William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was born to John Shakespeare

and mother Mary Arden some time in late April 1564 in

Stratford-upon-Avon. There is no record of his birth, but

his baptism was recorded by the church, thus his birthday is

assumed to be the 23 of April. His father was a prominent

and prosperous alderman in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon,

and was later granted a coat of arms by the College of

Heralds. All that is known of Shakespeare's youth is that he

presumably attended the Stratford Grammar School, and did

not proceed to Oxford or Cambridge. The next record we have

of him is his marriage to Anne Hathaway in 1582. The next

year she bore a daughter for him, Susanna, followed by the

twins Judith and Hamnet two years later.

Written sometime between 1596 and 1598, The Merchant of

Venice is classified as both an early Shakespearean comedy

(more specifically, as a "Christian comedy") and as one of

the Bard's problem plays; it is a work in which good

triumphs over evil, but serious themes are examined and some

issues remain unresolved.

Seven years later Shakespeare was recognized as an actor,

poet, and playwright, when a rival playwright, Robert

Greene, referred to him as "an upstart crow" in "A

Groatsworth of Wit." A few years later he joined up with one

of the most successful acting troupes in London: "The Lord

Chamberlain's Men." When, in 1599, the troupe lost the lease

of the theatre where they performed (appropriately called

"The Theatre"), they were wealthy enough to build their own

theatre across the Thames, south of London, which they

called "The Globe." The new theatre opened in July of 1599,

built from the timbers of "The Theatre", with the motto

"Totus mundus agit histrionem" (A whole world of players).

When James I came to the throne (1603) the troupe was

designated by the new king as the "King's Men" (or "King's

Company"). The Letters Patent of the company specifically

charged Shakespeare and eight others "freely to use and

exercise the art and faculty of playing Comedies, Tragedies,

Histories, Interludes, Morals, Pastorals, stage plays ... as

well for recreation of our loving subjects as for our solace

and pleasure."

The play

In Merchant, Shakespeare wove together two ancient folk

tales, one involving a vengeful, greedy creditor trying to

exact a pound of flesh, the other involving a marriage

suitor's choice among three chests and thereby winning his

(or her) mate. Shakespeare's treatment of the first standard

plot scheme centers around the villain of Merchant, the

Jewish moneylender Shylock, who seeks a literal pound of

flesh from his Christian opposite, the generous, faithful

Antonio. Shakespeare's version of the chest-choosing device

revolves around the play's Christian heroine Portia, who

steers her lover Bassanio toward the correct humble casket

and then successfully defends his bosom friend Antonio from

Shylock's horrid legal suit.

In the modern, post-Holocaust readings of Merchant, the

problem of anti-Semitism in the play has loomed large. A

close reading of the text must acknowledge that Shylock is a

stereotypical caricature of a cruel, money-obsessed medieval

Jew, but it also suggests that Shakespeare's intentions in

Merchant were not primarily anti-Semitic. Indeed, the

dominant thematic complex in The Merchant of Venice is much

more universal than specific religious or racial hatred; it

spins around the polarity between the surface attractiveness

of gold and the Christian qualities of mercy and compassion

that lie beneath the flesh.

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