The play ‘The Merchant of Venice’ written by Shakespear was a story about a man from Venice called Bassanio, he wanted to pursue a pretty woman Portia. He asked for help from Antonio, a businessman in Venice, he agreed to help. Bassanio lends money from a Jewish moneylender Shylock, and named Antonio as the loan's guarantor. Shylock didn’t agree to deal with Antonio because he disgraced Jews at first, he then agreed for a condition, Antonio will pay a pound of his flesh to Shylock if he is unable to pay back the money, Antonio agreed. Luckily, Bassanio passed the test and won Portia. At the same time, Antonio’s business failed, so he had no money to pay back. Shylock decided to get revenge and took Antonio to the court. Bassanio and Portia married, Gratiano and Narissa married. The couples went to ask for a compromise for Antonio and Shylock, but Shylock refused to accept double the amount of loan. Portia and Narissa disguised themselves as men who were proficient at laws, and they used the law to save Antonio. At the same time, Shylock was forced to be Christian, his properties were given to Jessica and Lorenzo. At last, Antonio learns that his ships had safely arrived at their destination. Religious discrimination existed throughout history, one of the most widespread was the conflicts between Jews and Christian. Antisemitism was prevalent, people hated Jewish because of various factors, and caused displeasure between people. In ‘The Merchant of Venice’, Bassanio borrows money from Shylock with Antonio as the guarantee, and Antonio should pay back the money before due. But the unusual part was that Antonio will give Shylock a pound of his flesh if he cannot pay back the money before the deadline. This condition was based on the hatred of Shylock to Antonio. Antonio was an antisemitist and Christian, he disgraced Jews, but Shylock was Jewish. On the other hand, Shylock’s career was as a moneylender, receiving high interest after lending money. This career itself is not humane, it plundered the properties from others, which profits the moneylender but baffled others. The reason that Shylock was having this shameful job was because of antisemitism. Antisemitism is like an unexpected calamity to the Jews, and the anger overstocked in the Jews cannot be released obviously, so what they can do was to put the pain to the Christian by being a moneylender and extract their properties. But the religious discrimination was neither harmful to only Christian nor Jews, it was not beneficial for both sides, so this kind of discrimination was totally unnecessary.
Everything happens for a reason, same for the hatreds and revenges. The hatred came from the unexpected calamities that caused unnecessary pains, the overstocked hatred will eventually explode, and the revenge began. In the play ‘The Merchant of Venice’, Antonio was an antisemitist, he disrespected Jews. For Shylock, being a Jews, he decided to take revenge on Antonio by having an unusual deal with him. If Antonio cannot pay back all the money before the due date, Shylock was allowed to take away a pound of Antonio’s flesh. Shylock could make this deal with Antonio because he was protected by the law. But actually, laws are not set to punish the ones who do not deserve the punishment, they are not set to grieve people. Shylock twisted the meaning and the purpose of the laws and used the law to help his plan of revenge. For Antonio, he might deserve punishment but not deserve to die. Laws are used to protect justice and peace, but Shylock’s cognition to laws are totally wrong. I deemed that it was caused by hatred. Hatred can make people confuse right and wrong, they can drop the baseline because of hatred, it is a dreadful thing that breaks the peace and justice. Mercy is the basic part of human nature, it is invisible but obvious to be shown. Mercy can be redemptive, but it is not the excuse for people to force others to change something that is unalterable. In the play ‘The Merchant of Venice’, people gave high praise to mercy, saying that mercy is part of the god, so we should follow the god. But one man did not show any mercy, who was called Shylock. Shylock refuses to get rid of the inhumane deal to put Antonio to death. Portia and others who claim that Shylock should be punished because of his cruelty. Due to the law, Shylock was supposed to be sentenced to death, but he did not receive this punishment. Because he failed to execute the procedure, the other punishment to Shylock was that all of his properties were confiscated, and he was forced to be a Christian. Eventhough he deserves to receive a harsh punishment, but all the people should know that religion is a faith which cannot be easily changed. The ironic part was that they asked Shylock to be merciful, but did they show mercy to Shylock and his faith? People should not twist the meaning of being merciful, we cannot force others to change things that cannot be changed, or else the word ‘mercy’ will lose its original purpose.
In conclusion, ‘The Merchant of Venice’ written by Shakespear was a brilliant play that contains themes that are worth pondering. Religious discrimination existed throughout history, one of the most widespread was the conflicts between Jews and Christian. Antisemitism was prevalent, people hated Jewish because of various factors, and caused displeasure between people. But the religious discrimination was neither harmful to only Christian nor Jews, it was not beneficial for both sides, so this kind of discrimination was totally unnecessary. Everything happens for a reason, same for the hatreds and revenges. The hatred came from the unexpected calamities that caused unnecessary pains, the overstocked hatred will eventually explode, and the revenge began.Hatred can make people confuse right and wrong, they can drop the baseline because of hatred, it is a dreadful thing that breaks the peace and justice. Mercy is the basic part of human nature, it is invisible but obvious to be shown. Mercy can be redemptive, but it is not the excuse for people to force others to change something that is unalterable.
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