Modern Audience's Response to Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice

Modern Audience's Response to Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice

The modern audience respond in a very negative way. Some of the things

which make them respond in this way are the racism and the not so

funny jokes.

The open racism is a very sensitive subject due to what happened in

world war two and the modern audience is not very appreciative of it.

When Antonio talks to Shylock about borrowing money he is not kind and

polite but is rude and very anti-Semitic towards Shylock. You can tell

that Antonio and Shylock hate each other by looking at act 1, scene 3,

line 39 where Shylock says ‘I hate him for he is Christian ‘. Lower

down on the page he also says ‘He hates our sacred nation, and he

rails even there where merchants most do congregate, on me, my

bargains, and my well-won thrift, which he calls interest. Cursed be

my tribe if I forgive him’. This tells you that Antonio and Shylock

have hated each other for a long time and they also dislike each other

because of their religions.

This argument continues and Shylock starts to use sayings from the Old

Testament. The story of Jacob grazing his uncle’s lambs is Shylock’s

excuse for charging interest. Antonio says in Act 1, Scene 3, line 55,

‘The devil can cite scripture for his own purpose’. This means that

even the devil can use sacred writing for his own needs. By saying

this Antonio is calling Shylock a devil. At the start of line 103

Shylock reminds Antonio of his past abuse towards him. For example in

line 108 Shylock says ‘you call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, and

spit upon my Jewish gabardine’. This is more proof that Antonio is

really anti-Semitic and this would...

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...e has the ring, Gratanio replies that if

he catches the clerk with her he will cut his ‘pen’ off. This type of

joke is known as a dirty joke and is mainly used for an adult

audience.

To sum things up I think that the modern audience would; out of a

hundred percent; about fifteen percent would like it. These types of

people would like it because they are either a Shakespeare fan or a

Christian who was very anti – Semitic and thinks what Shakespeare

wrote is still acceptable in the present time and moment.

As for the percentage of people who did not like the play is probably

because of the racism and the stereotypical nature of the play. To

make things worse instead of better are the jokes except the odd one

or two, so not liking the play is not a big deal, because you have

loads of valid reasons not to like it.