William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

John Drakakis (University of Stirling)

Ed. by Virginia Mason Vaughan, Clark University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.03: English Writing and Culture: Renaissance (Elizabethan and Jacobean periods) , 1485-1625.
Vol. editors: William M. Hamlin (Washington State University), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University), Ema Vyroubalova (Trinity College Dublin)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1596

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Comedy
Play

Resources

Few of Shakespeare’s comedies have aroused such contradictory passions as  The Merchant of Venice. Harold Bloom asserts “[one] would have to be blind, deaf and dumb not to recognise that Shakespeare’s grand, equivocal comedy The Merchant of Venice  is nevertheless a profoundly anti-Semitic work” (171). The problem involves the portrayal of the figure of the “Jew” Shylock since it is difficult for us to approach this character outside the context of the Holocaust. Indeed, Arnold Wesker – who re-wrote the play as  The Merchant  (1976-1978) in order to explain and exorcise its anti-Semitism – argued it was no longer appropriate to …

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

8635 words

Citation: Drakakis, John. "The Merchant of Venice". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 August 2005; last revised 20 January 2020. [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=151, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Save this article