The relationship between parents and children affects their behavior later on in life. Portia and her father have the closest relationship seen through Portia’s constant obedience to her father’s will. The second best relationship is Lancelot’s and Gobbo’s since although Lancelet purposely confounds his father, he makes amends later on. The worst relationship is between Shylock and his daughter, who both abhor each other. In all these relationships, however, there are similarities in the relationships between the parents and the children. In Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare, these three relationships tell us that although they sometimes have good intention, parents are too oblivious and domineering over their children who dislike their …show more content…
At first, Lancelet states “ My honest friend Lancelet, being an honest man’s son or rather an honest woman’s son, for indeed my father did something smack”. Lancelet implies that his very own father engaged in sexual affairs. After Lancelet’s father mentions that his son is merely a poor man’s son, and not a master, Lancelet toys with him,” But I pray you, ergo, old man, ergo, I beseech you, talk you of young Master Launcelot?” Then Lancelet takes it onto the next level, and claims,”for the young gentleman, according to Fates and Destinies and such …show more content…
Her father does not allow Jessica to be exposed to Christians and tells her, “ Lock up my doors, and when you hear the drum/ And the vile squealing of the wry-neck 'd fife,/ Clamber not you up to the casements then,/ Nor thrust your head into the public street/ To gaze on Christian fools with varnish 'd faces”. He does not even know that she has a lover who is a Christian, so she herself wants to convert to Christianity, and never even tries to understand her. He commands Jessica around like she is a slave, not a daughter. Shylock even loves money more than his own daughter. After Jessica elopes and steals his ducats, he announces , “I would my daughter were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear.” Therefore, Jessica does not even want him to be her father as she declares, “Farewell; and if my fortune be not crost, I have a father, you a daughter, lost.” To add salt to this wound, Jessica betrays Shylock and takes what he loves most, money. While escaping, she states “I will make fast the doors, and gild myself /With some more ducats, and be with you straight.” She abhors him so much that he takes as much of his true love as possible. This relationship is different than the other two relationships because Jessica hates Shylock with a burning passion, and Shylock reciprocates this feeling. There is never any forgiveness or obedience. In
In the Merchant of Venice, Shylock a jewish money lender living in the city of Venice, has a daughter named Jessica. Shylock believes that he had raised Jessica in a manner that was just right for her. He had always thought that Jessica was the type of girl that just listens to what she is told to do and does not question or deny the request. But this was not so, Jessica somewhere growing up picked up the trait and thought that her father was not always correct and that he in fact was sometimes a bad person towards other people. She had as well noticed that being jewish was not the best thing for her. Jessica did not like the attacking of jews or the discriminated yelling by the anti semitic christians. She had decided it was time to leave her father's home, the home where she had been raised by a not so pleasant man. We see in the play that after she had ran away Shylock was very hurt, crying to himself.
“It is a wise father that knows his own child” stated by William Shakespeare, a poet, which suggests that a good parent must have a connection with their child. However, Shakespeare lacked parental affection, the plays that Shakespeare had written, never had a well established relationship between a parent and their child. However the correlation between a parent and child may vary in many occasions and factors such as a healthy/unhealthy relationship, a tempting desire for self success, and a change of heart. Therefore, through an analysis of Jeannette Wall’s The Glass Castle, William Shakespeare’s King Lear, Tennessee William’s The Glass Menagerie, and Martin Fan’s bond with His parents, it becomes clear that the establishments between a
"Love is whatever you can still betray. Betrayal can only happen if you love." (John LeCarre) In William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of King Lear, characters are betrayed by the closest people to them. The parents betray their children, mostly unintentionally. The children deceive their parents because of their greed and power hunger. Their parents were eventually forgiven, but the greedy children were not. Parents and their children betray one and other, and are only able to do so because they are family, however, the children betray for greed while the parents betray through the credulity caused by their children's greed.
This shows that Shylock puts his money before his religion. He says he hates Antonio because he is a Christian (and so an immediate enemy of the devout Jew) but more than that he hates him because he lends out money for no fee and so takes business away from Shylock. He also puts his money before his daughter, Jessica. When she runs away with Lorenzo she takes some of her father’s money and we hear from Solanio and Salerio that Shylock runs out into the street shouting; “My daughter! O my ducats!” He repeats the two phrases until they become confused, and it is clear that the money is more important to him than Jessica. Shakespeare emphasises the confusion in Shylock’s mind between his ‘daughter’ and his ‘ducats’ by using alliteration. The only time when money...
In Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice there are two major contract’s made, a contract is any promise or set of promises made by one party to another for the breach of which the law provides a remedy. The promise or promises may be express (either written or oral) or may be implied from circumstances. The first contract in the play that I discovered is one between Portia and her father. Nerissa telling Portia :
mistreated under Shylock’s care to go as so far as to run away from him. It
soon have several ships in port, agrees to part with a pound of flesh if the
It is worthwhile to take a close look at the marriage and trial plots in The Merchant of Venice. The antagonists of the respective plots have similar goals; they seek access to power and privilege. However, the types of power they seek is very different. The methods they use of gaining power are also differ. Bassanio succeeds with his intent, but Shylock fails. Focusing on the before mentioned plots, one may draw some conclusions concerning the reasons of success and failure in this play.
Prospero and Miranda, the father and daughter in William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, are an example of a relationship between a father and daughter in Elizabethan England, however they were slightly different from the norm of their period. Prospero had to become
If he had been more daunted by Christian influence, he might have been forgiven, as Jessica is subjectively exonerated. He is not contrite and it is believed that his appalling birth cannot be absolved (Bonnell). All of the characters are defined by Shylock. Launcelot Gobbo, Shylock’s servant, treats his father disrespectfully, but this disdain is not ill-received by the audience; like the other examples of inequity, Launcelot’s apathetic attitude toward his near-blind father is inexplicably tolerated by past and contemporary society (Picker). Launcelot’s contempt is generally assumed to be a result of his underprivileged upbringing, if it is noted at all.
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.
True Love in The Merchant of Venice Among the various themes presented in the Merchant of Venice most important is the nature of true love. The casket plot helps illustrate the theme of the book. Through a variety of suitors the descriptions of the caskets, Shakespeare shows the reader how different people view true love. He also shows what is most important to the suitors and in some cases it is not true love, but material things and outward appearance. The first suitor who tries to win Portia's hand is the Prince of Morocco.
The first theme is that religious intolerance and prejudice play destructive roles in the book. Even to this day, there is racism and prejudice in schools about race and religion. Antonio, as a true Christian, has often condemned moneylenders. He knows that since the early twelfth century, Christians are forbidden by the Church to lend money for profit. Shylock, as a Jew, does not consider his money-lending and overwhelming interest to be a sin in any manner. In fact, he considers his earnings through money lending as the gift of God. He appeals to and quotes the Scriptures in defense of his profession. Shylock and the other Jewish moneylenders are essential to the prosperity of the merchant community, but they are also outcasts as human beings and as Jews. Shylock often shows his dislike to the Christians; “I hate him for he is a Christian”, (Act I, Sc. III, L. 38). The Christians ridicule and hate the Jewish moneylende...
Shylock also seems to show little or no love towards his daughter, Jessica. He may have been hurt by his daughter running away with a large amount of his wealth and with a Christian lover (Lorenzo); this is a point where Shylock can be viewed as a victim in the story. This still does n...
Shakespeare highlights three of Portia’s suitors, the Prince of Morocco, the Prince of Arragon and Bassanio. He does this to heighten dramatic tension, as these three men are the most important candidates to win Portia’s hand in marriage. They reveal the contents of the three caskets and their different characters as exposed as being proud, vain and humble. They also emphasise the racial prejudices of Venice a place where many races clash. Their attitudes towards the caskets and their choices indicate what their character is like. This essay will compare and contrast the three suitors and will explore how Shakespeare influences the audience’s attitudes towards the three men.