Essay, Research Paper: The Merchant Of Venice

Shakespeare's The Merchant Of Venice combines
three themes to form this successful play.
It is actually a combination of romance, comedy
and tragedy. A romance is a love story which ends
with a happy note. Comedy involves an amusing
play which also ends with a happy note. Tragedy
differs from comedy and romance in that, it is a
serious play and the central character exits the
play in disaster. Comedy is one of the themes
portrayed in this play. Examples of comedy are
shown through dramatic irony. One example of this
irony is the ring plot at the end of the play. The
ring plot begins when Bassanio gives up his ring
to Portia, who is disguised as a doctor of law.
Bassanio swore not to let the ring leave his hand
until his death. Bassanio then arrives home to
Portia, who has the ring but does not let Bassanio
know it. After a short fight Portia gives the ring
back to Bassanio and says that she had to sleep
with the doctor to obtain it. The dramatic irony
in this is that we know that Portia is the doctor
and her statement is true. Soon after Portia lets
Bassanio learn that she was in fact the doctor.
Bassanio acknowledges this by telling the doctor
that he can sleep with Portia in his absence.
"Sweet doctor, you shall be my bedfellow: when I
am absent, then lie with my wife."
(Shakespeare, 229, ll. 284 - 286). This too shows
irony because Portia is the doctor and no matter
what he will be sleeping with her.
There is also romance involved in the play.
The romance between Lorenzo and Jessica is bounding
all over the place. Their romance begins when
Jessica decides to run away from her fathers house
with a large sum of money so that they can elope
to Belmont. After Jessica arrives at Belmont with her
Christian suitor, Lorenzo and she are left in charge
of the kingdom while Bassanio and Launcelot travel to
Venice and Portia leaves with Nerissa to a nun's temple
to pray for their husbands safe return. Near the end of
the play, while still in rule of Belmont, Lorenzo proposes
that she and he could make sweet music together.
"Come, ho! And wake Diana with a hymn: with sweetness touches
pierce your mistress' ear, and draw her home with
music."(Shakespeare, 217, ll. 67 - 70). It depicts
Lorenzo's love for Jessica and how much romance
there is between them.
Tragedy unfolds for Shylock near the end of the
play. Shylock loses many things, like his daughter,
his money and his religion. He lost his daughter to Lorenzo,
a Christian, and he, being a Jew took this very hard.
However what made him really depressed was losing all
his valuables. He lost his money and other jewelry, but he
also lost the ring his wife gave him before being wed.
After receiving this information he depended on the
bond between him and Antonio to bring his spirits up. However
the bond between him and Antonio is lost when Portia finds a
loop hole in the contract. The contract states that Shylock is
entitled to a pound of Antonio's flesh. The loop hole is that
Shylock is not entitled to a drop of his blood. So if he were
to let one drop of blood fall to the ground the bond would be
forfeited and Shylock would lose the case. Shylock tried to
change his mind and take the money offered to him but the court would not allow it. Shylock then lost all of his money to Lorenzo and he had to become a Christian. It can be seen how sad Shylock is when he says, "Nay, take my life and all; pardon not that: you take my house, when you do take the prop that doth sustain my house; you take my life when you do take the means whereby I live." (Shakespeare, 20 , ll. - )
The Merchant Of Venice is a blend between these three themes. Romance mixes with comedy and tragedy to form the book. The themes are also arranged in a pattern so that the audience is put through a series of emotions. Emotions like love, amusement and pathos. They are also arranged so that these themes are one after another, not one long part. This is why the play is such a success.