The Merchant of Venice is shows the dynamics of love and to what extent humans will go to show love, they will use their wealth and even be prepared to give up their life for the people they love. Both Antonio and Portia love Bassanio differently. Portia perceives Antonio’s phileo in competition with her eros, (both forms of love will be defined later) and throughout the play she is seen trying to defeat Antonio’s phileo and she does this by subjugating Antonio, firstly with her wealth, she offers to pay of his debt to Shylock three times more the amount he had bound himself, then she saves his life and finally teaching Bassanio that she can use her womanly powers to refuse him the consummating power in marriage, through the ring saga.
There are two reasons why this paper dismisses the notion of homosexuality between Antonio and Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice. First throughout the play there is no evidence that Antonio and Bassanio have had a physical intimate relationship. The reason why Bassanio wants to go to Belmont “for a lady richly left” is to have this physical intimate relationship with Portia, thus dismissing the notion that Bassanio has homoerotic feelings for Antonio. And secondly the word love can multiplicity of meaning which if not understood properly can lead one to see Bassanio and Antonio’s friendship as homoerotic. For the purpose of this discussion, we will define the word love in terms of two Greek words, both of which means love, but in two different senses. The two that are relevant to this paper are phileo and eros. Love –phileo “means to have affection (sentiment, or feeling) for. A fondness based in the heart. What the Greeks meant by Phileo love is what we normally think when say "brotherly love" (E...
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...r eros leads us to betray our responsibilities and our relationships” and this is exactly what Bassanio does to Antonio, to be able to achieve an erotic relationship with Portia he almost puts his friends life at risk and at the same time he does not offer his wife the commitment she wants from him in their marriage. On the other hand this play also portrays that marriage comes with a responsibility, that when one gets married he or she needs to realign his or her priorities giving paramount importance to their partners. And finally moreover Shakespeare in this play placed a woman above the patriarchy. It is Portia who wields much of the power in the play, than does Bassanio or Antonio. Her wealth and stealth to force Bassanio to realign his commitment shows that it is not only men that are able to subjugate women, but women have the equal ability to do the same.
All through history, the role of women and their place in the general public has tremendously changed. William Shakespeare’s Othello was established during a time period where the role of women and their collective value were downgraded in the Venetian and Elizabethan era. During the Venetian era women were dominated by their sexual orientation. The Venetian era had a patriarchal society. In a patriarchal society, the father is the head of the household and men have authority over women and children. During the Elizabethan era the conduct toward women was vicious. Women were considered second class citizens. Males only consider women as possession, who is obligated to remain submissive and meek. Additionally, women are expected to be quiet, obedient to male figures, and chaste. Women were either considered a good wife or a whore. There are only three women in Othello; Desdemona, Emilia, and Bianca. Desdemona is the passive wife of Othello who has a quite idealistic take on life and marriage. Emilia is the cynical, perceptive women who seem to have a bitter take on her marriage to Iago. Bianca is portrayed as the whore of the play, and she has relations with Cassio. Although, each woman varies in roles and personality, they all had a common trait; they lived in a patriarchal society and suffered together. Each of them live in a society where it was ideal to think women were psychologically and physiologically inferior to men, however in reality each of them knew their role in society.
Marriages everywhere have their troubles, yet everyone is able to relate to other couples problems. By looking at A Delicate Balance and The Merchant of Venice we will see their perspective on how marriages have changed over time of the martial relationship. After getting an overview of these books we will then apply it to present day and see if anything really has changed. The marriages I’ll be analyzing is Bessanio and Portia from The Merchant of Venice and Tobia ad Agnes from A Delicate Balance. By examining Bessanio’s behavior towards Portia and Tobia’s toward Agnes, we can see how the role of the husband has changed from emotional support and conversations to the development of the wives having bigger roles.
The William Shakespeare tragedy Othello features various types of love, but none compare to the love we find between the protagonist and his wife. In this essay let us examine “love” as found in the play.
In the time of William Shakespeare where courtship and romance were often overshadowed by the need to marry for social betterment and to ensure inheritance, emerges a couple from Much Ado About Nothing, Hero and Claudio, who must not only grow as a couple, who faces deception and slander, but as individuals. Out of the couple, Claudio, a brave soldier respected by some of the highest ranked men during his time, Prince Don Pedro and the Governor of Messina, Leonato, has the most growing to do. Throughout the play, Claudio’s transformation from an immature, love-struck boy who believes gossip and allows himself to easily be manipulated is seen when he blossoms into a mature young man who admits to his mistakes and actually has the capacity to love the girl he has longed for.
...deceit, due to her beautiful ambiance yet her secret intelligence. William Shakespeare not only reveals a lot regarding the characters in the story, but the readers understand his perspectives regarding gender inequality. It is definitely well known that he does not believe neither gender is better than one another. Additionally, he does not believe that woman lack intelligence or smartness, he believes their brains are equivalent to men's. Furthermore, William Shakespeare incorporates Portia into the story to promote the message that if people want to prove something, it does not have to be to anyone, besides themselves, and that is extremely significant to the story as well as life in general. So overall, The Merchant of Venice promotes the message, using Portia representing deceit, that gender inequality as well as proving oneself is irrelevant and not important.
She does not spew out all the reasons why she loves Othello or say that she is unavoidably attracted to him as she could have. Instead, she picks a practical reason –
Bassanio makes many choices that sets a path ahead of him. Bassanio is low on money since he is not very good at keeping it. Nevertheless, Bassanio continues to acquire money and owing several people. Bassanio is in love and is taking a chance to go win the love of a fair lady. He asks his good friend, Antonio, for money for his travels. “I owe the most in money and in love, /and from your love I have a warranty/to unburden all my plots and purposes/How to get clear of all the debts I owe.” (1, 1, 131-134) Antonio agrees to lend the money to Bassanio out of love. Antonio wishes Bassanio to be happy and with the woman of his choice. Bassanio reaches Belmont in high hopes of winning over fair Portia. He chooses to risk the consequences of the lottery just for a small chance to be with his love. “Confess and love/ Had been the very sum of my confession. / O happy torment, when my torturer/ ...
Shakespeare’s tragic play Othello is an unfortunate example of gender bias, of sexism which takes advantage of women. The three women characters in the drama are all, in their own ways, victims of men’s skewed attitudes regarding women. Let us delve into this topic in this essay.
The Venetian Community setting of the play Othello and its multilayered society standards and customs greatly attribute to the actions of the characters. The author of the article goes into to the difference of the military hegemony, in which Othello originates, and the patriarchal hegemony that is the where Brabantio, and his daughter Desdemona are part of, and its effects on the players in Othello. Their lives are intertwined, even though they are from different hegemony groups which lead to misunderstandings intentional and unintentional throughout the play. Henningfed article is enlightening to the novice readers of Shakespeare’s Othello as it gives in-depth perspective into the societal and cultural aspects and understandings of the characters in the play. The tolerances of Othello by the Venetians is explained in the article by the author as they see Othello as this great military warrior who serves them, they own him for the services he provides to them in war against the Turks. The explanations of the interaction of Brabantio and Othello are explained utilizing their different places in society and examples author Henningfed uses;
Venice is a busy place where all the characters are constantly worried about their income, they give loans and they borrow money to maintain their business. Here we see the first clash of love and money. Bassanio needs to impress a rich heiress from Belmont, but unfortunately, he does not have the money to win a lady from a rich family as a wife, “O my Antonio, had I but the means to hold ...
The women in Othello are few. A grand total of three have lines, and only two are truly important characters. The females in the play, in accordance to Shakespeare’s time period’s own Elizabethan English ideologies and the gender norms of the society in which the play takes place, are put firmly ‘in their place’. They are meek, soft spoken, and submissive, treated like possessions by the dominating men and almost completely disregarded as individuals with their own thoughts and emotions. Bawdy jokes and cracks at women’s sexuality are rampant, and husbands get away with frequent misogynistic rants at their wives’ expense. The female character who plays the most dynamic role in Othello is Emilia. In the duration of the play, we observe her evolution from a simple handmaiden, to a loyal wife enduring her husband’s maltreat, to a complex woman of conflicted feelings and fluctuating emotions. In this way, Emilia disproves the total weakness of women in Othello, and rises as her own sort of minor tragic hero, a preliminary feminist champion.
Weedin, E. K. Jr. Love's Reason in Othello. Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. 15,
Women of the late 16th century were subjected to patriarchal ways and not granted the same rights and privileges as males. Yet, Shakespeare gives women in The Merchant of Venice significant roles in controlling the fates of all of the other characters. Portia and Nerissa cleverly disguise themselves as an esteemed lawyer and clerk, respectively, and interpret the law in such a way that Antonio and Bassanio are saved from Shylock’s bond, while Shylock is forced into a position of utter humiliation. The William’s Center for the Arts takes The Merchant of Venice and amplifies the play’s feminist qualities, not only through context of the play and performance, but also through gender-blind casting.
The play, The Merchant of Venice drastically altered the perception of women during the time as Shakespeare makes women during the Italian Renaissance appear independent and intellectual, such as the beautiful Portia and the young Jessica. This play shows that women are not only beautiful people to look at but also powerful and intelligent individuals. The characteristics of the women in this play show the possibilities of equality between men and
William Shakespeare shows how two tradesmen can have completely different lives when others view them differently in the play The Merchant of Venice. In the play, Bassanio, Antonio’s friend, needs money to pursue his love. They seek a loan from Shylock, a Jewish moneylender in Antonio’s name. The contract is for three times the value of the bond in three months or else Shylock cuts off a pound of flesh from Antonio. While all this is happening, there are love plots going on. One of which is for Shylock’s daughter to elope with Lorenzo, a Christian. Later on, Antonio’s source of money, his ship, is reported sunken in the English Channel, dooming him to the loss of one pound of his flesh. There is a trial on the bond, and when it seems sure that Antonio will die, Portia, disguised as a doctor of laws legally gets Antonio out of the situation and Shylock recieves harsh penalties. Antonio and Shylock, two similar businessmen of Venice, are viewed differently and are treated oppositely to heighten the drama of the play and mold a more interesting plot.