Money and Love —— Appreciation of The Merchant of Venice

Money and Love—— Appreciation of The Merchant of V eniceShakespeare is Britain's the most outstanding Renaissance masters, " "Romeo and Juliet" -----makes all of us shed tears for their beautiful love; "Hamlet" ---- a large number of people is shocked by the happy prince of melancholy ... ... This time I read his comedy the Merchant of Venice and I think it really worth reading.Shakespeare's play, "The Merchant of Venice" explored the timeless topic of money and love. Money is the world's most valuable things .Is there something even more precious than money? Love. Most of us will say. Yes, love is very priceless. As an old Chinese says goes “Life is dear. L ove is dearer.” Since love is dearer than life, we can see how precious love is.I believe that everyone who has read this play has been deeply impressed not only by the conflict between Shylock and Antonio, but also by the love in this play. While most of us are praising and attracted toward the romantic love Shakespeare shows to us, some doubt of the so-called true love in this play. They think all the loves in the play are based on money. Here, I would like to talk a little bit about the relationship between money and love in this play from a different perspective.Firstly, let us talk about the love between men and women.One is between Bassanio and Portia, the two main characters. Portia is a woman of wit, imagination, intelligence, humor, resourcefulness, sensibility, and compassion, a perfect Renaissance lady. Therefore, there is no doubt that Bassanio loses his heart to her, which leads him go to Belmonte to chase her at all costs. As for Bassanio, he is “a Venetian, a scholar, and a soldier.” As a scholar, he can be expected to use language with great wit, to run and jest ironical with the beat of them (Portia). As a soldier, of course, he has been brave and bold, skilled in the use of weapons, physically alert, admirable in every way in the eyes of the fair lady of the Renaissance ideal. Other courteous traits are implied in Nerissa’s descripti on of Bassanio. He will be a passionate friend, a humble suppliant, and a totally dedicated lover. He can be counted on to “hazard all” and choose the leaden casket. He is the perfect gentleman, in short, and as Nerissa tells us, he is worthy of a fail lady. So there is also no doubt that Portia falls in love with him. She tells him that his eyes have divided her in two: one half is his and the other half is also his, for what is here is also his. Talking on at length, she is trying to draw out the time before he must choose. She loves him so much that she wishes him could stay a month or two so she could teach him how to choose correctly. She loves him so much that she fears to lose his company if he chooses incorrectly. But Bassanio begs to be allowed to try his fortune, for he cannot bear the rack on which he lives. Portia and Bassanio are obviously attuned to each other, for Bassanio quickly learns how to use Portia’s hint for his “deliverance”. The harmonious lovers speak the courteous and witty language of love, which is saturated with religious connotation and demonstrates the correspondence in thought between the noble love of man and woman and the higher love which is eternal. Portia compares Bassanio to the young Alcides (Hercules) of mythology, who rescued the Trojan virginfrom a sea monster, and herself to the sacrificed virgin, for her life and happiness depend on him. Looking at the caskets, Bassanio first comments to himself that outward appearance is not to be trusted to reveal the inner truth of anything. He will not be duped by ornament, which so often deceives men in all affairs of life. Bassanio therefore will not put his trust in “gaudy gold” or silver, the “common drudge” used for business transaction. Instead, he chooses “meager lead”, wh ich threatens rather than promises anything. Fortunately, Bassanio is not cheated by appearance to choose gold casket or silver casket but lead casket. He chooses the correct one and gets Portia with his wisdom. Portia declares that everything she has is now his to command, in token of which she gives him a ring, bidding him guard it always as the symbol of their love. Bassanio swears that he will die rather than part with the ring. After hearing the news that Bassanio’s best friend Antonio will be damaged because Antonio can not discharge timely, Portia bids Bassanio come to church to be married immediately, and then he can haste away to Venice, “For never shall you lie by Portia’s side/ With an unquiet soul.” After he has paid the debt, twenty times over i f necessary, she bids him bring Antonio back with him to Belmont. In the meantime she and Nerissa will live like maidens or widows, awaiting the return of their husbands. Actually, Portia dresses up as a young lawyer and does to Venice to help her husband’s best friend with Nerissa dressing up as a lawyel’s clerk. Even when Portia hears that her husband gave his ring to the young lawyer as an honorarium, she forgives him.From all above, we can see how much they love each other. But don’t you just focus on this point and stop. Please let us go back to the beginning when Bassanio is attracted by Portia and decides to chase her.Bassanio is a moneyless young Venetian. Just as he himself reminds Antonio that because he squandered his fortune and lived beyond his means in his youth, he is now heavily in debt, and chiefly to Antonio, his friend and kinsman. Bassanio is deeply distressed at being unable to repay this debt, but now he has an idea of how to win a new fortune. The idea is that he is going to propose to Portia, a rich beauty of Belmonte, whose father left her a lot of property. And as long as he can marry to her, he can be rich and pay all his debt. That is to say, the love between Bassanio and Portia is based on money more or less. Another similar example is the love between Lorenzo, a friend of Bassanio, and Jessica, the daughter of Shylock.Jessica is wise, fair and true just like Portia. Though she is Shylock’s daughter, she has not inherited his father’s personality of worshiping money like his life. Instead, she is ashamed to be her father’s child. She loves Lorenzo so much that in order to be with him, she is willing to lose everything, including her father, her right of inheritance and even her faith. She is secretly engaged to Lorenzo and, thinking of him, she swears aloud, “if thou keep promise, I shall end this strife, Become a Christian and thy loving wife!” We can see that she is a woman with character and idea. We can also see how much she loves Lorenzo. Unfortunately, the man she loves can not treat her like she does. When Jessica is prepared to elope with him, Lorenzo says,” she has taught me how to take her away from her father's home, also told me that she had brought much gold, silver and jewelry.” For a man just getting love, Lorenzo’s a ttention only concentrates on the wealth love can brings instead of the value of love itself. When Lorenzo is late for picking Jessica up, Gratianosays,” it is strange that he will be late, since lovers will always be earlier than the clock.” As a bystander, Gratiano points out that Lorenzo’s love to Jessica is not pure. That is to say, this kind of love is engendered by the attraction of wealth.Then, you may doubt that there is no true love in the world. Do not be stupid. There is true love in this world, indeed. Please let me show you.As is known to all that Shylock, one of the main characters in this play, is a typical miser. His miserliness id given added emphasis in Shylock’s ironic parting words:” Fast bind, fast find--/ A proverb never stale in thr ifty mind.” Shakespeare spent a lot of words to describe this character. We cannot help admitting that he loves money very much. And this kind of love is without any impurity. He loves money much more than anything else so that when he hears the news that his servant Launcelot will go to serve Bassanio, he declared that Launcelot is kind enough but that he eats too much and sleeps by day, which makes him an unprofitable sort of servant. Shylock is glad that the clown will now help to waste Bassanio’s money. Money is much important even than his daughter. When he hears that his daughter has eloped with Lorenzo with his money, he is quite angry not because of losing his daughter but because of losing his money. He is so confused, so strange, outrageous, and so variable. He does utter in the stree ts:” My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter! Fled with a Christian: … And jewels—two stones, two rich and precious stones, / Stolen by my daughter! Justice! Find the girl! / She hath the stones upon her, …” He even curses her:” I would my daughter were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear! Would she were hearsed at my foot and the ducat s in her coffin!” When Tubal, a friend of Shylock, says that he heard that Jessica spent eighty ducats in one night in Genoa, mise rable once more, Shylock exclaims,” Thou stick’st a dagger in me. I shall never see my gold again.” When Tubal remarks that he saw a ring that Jessica gave for a monkey, and Shylock, horrified, laments,“ It was my turquoise; I had it of Leah when I was a b achelor. I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys.” His loss of Jessica will not be tragic in this play, and the loss of his money will provide for a comic portrait of the Jew foiled. When Shylock knows his decrees that half the usurer’s wealt h must go to Antonio, but offers to reduce the debt to that state to a small fine, he is hardly grateful to this concession. “ Nay, take my life,” he tells the Duke, for without his wealth he cannot earn a living, and he feels he might just as well die now as starve in the course of time. We can say that his love to money will never change until death. He can sacrifice everything, including his servant, his daughter and even his life for money. There is no doubt that his love to money is pure and true.“What you just talk about is another example of love of money, not love between humans.” You may judge me like this and become more depressed. Please be patient, my friend, and let me continue. There is pure love between humans.Firstly, let us see the love between friends or, let’s say, brothers.One example is the love between Antonio and Bassanio. Bassanio, a moneyless young Venetian, is making preparations to propose to Portia, a rich beauty of Belmonte. He needs money and appeals to his friend Antonio, a merchant of Venice, for help. Antonio in this play represents the principle of noble friendship. He is a ideal friend, one who is willing to set aside his Christian scruples to negotiate a loan for his friend, and who is even willing to die in supporting the cause ofhis friend. So when hearing this, Antonio begs to know how he may be of service to Bassanio and assures him that “My purse, my person, my ext remest means/ Lie all u nlocked to your occasions.” After knowing Bassanio’s idea, Antonio immediately a grees to help his friend, but, with several ships at sea, he does not have the necessary cash on hand. He therefore asks Bassanio to find someone who will lend the money on the basis of Antonio’s.Bassanio finds Shylock, a Jewish usure who hates Antonio be cause Antonio has insulted him many times and Antonio’s generosity has made his reputations damaged and his property loss. Antonio knows that Shylock hates him very much, but to help friend, he demeans himself to ask Shylock for money. And even when he hears that Shylock agrees to lend the money on the condition that if the loan is not paid in time, he may cut a pou nd of flesh from Antonio’s body, Antonio agrees without hesitation. With this money, Bassanio goes to Belmonte and succeed in the marriage with Portia. But news comes that Antonio’s ship sank and can’t return on time so he cannot pay the loan. Shylock demands his pound of flesh. When Antonio is ready to accept Shylock’s claim for his flesh, he only requests Bassanio to tell Portia that his friendship is sincere and he can die for friendship without regret. From all of these, we can see clearly that Antonio loves Bassanio very much and he is capable of the extraordinarily devoted and selfless friendship of an older man.The other example is the love between Bassanio and Gratiano. Gratiano, a fool, is offered as a contrast to the grave and silent wise man whom Antonio represents. After hearing Antonio says,” I hold the world but as the world, / A stage where every man must play a part. / And mine a sa d one.” Gratiano replies that he, for his part, prefers to play the role of the fool, always gay and laughing. He says that he would rather have his liver heated with wine than his heart cold as the marble on a tomb. From this remark about his own predisposition, Gratiano goes on to criticize those men who keep up an appearance of gravity and silence in order to impress the world with their profundity, as if he thought that Antonio were only pretending to be melancholy. Lorenzo declares that by associating with the loquacious Gratiano he is afraid he will gain the reputation of the kind of false wise man of whom Gratiano was speaking, for he can never get a word in edgewise as long as Gratiano is around. Bassanio declares that “Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice. His reasons are as obscure as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff, and worth just as little.” That is to say, Bassanio recognizes Gratiano’s absurdity and still remains his fiend is a sign of the former’s noble spirit. Associations of this kind were thought to be commendable because the gentleman could instruct the fool on how to mend his way. By setting a good example, Bassanio does just this for Gratiano.These two typical examples just show us the preciousness of love between friends. The friendship is above all, including money and even life. And also we can say, the love between friends is nothing about money.At last, let us see another example.As we, who has read this play carefully, all know that Portia must obey his father’s instruction laid down just before he died that suitors for her hand must choose which of three caskets contains her picture to get her. Portia find s it hard to bear that she is” curbed by the will of a dead father,” tha t she may neither accept nor refuse any man on the basis of her own inclination. Not only can’tPortia accept, as a reader, I believe that most of us can not accept such a folly. But to change an angle to muse, we can see how clever her father is. Why do I say so? Then let us analysis these three caskets. The gold casket reads:” Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.” What men desire is the lady, for suitors undeterred by arduous voyages through the desert or over the ocean have come from all over the world to seek her. It would be sacrilege to put her picture in a lead or silver casket instead of a gold one. So the prince of Morocco chooses it. However, deciding to unlock the gold casket, he is horrified to discover a picture of Death with a message written in his hollow eyes:” All that glisters is not gold; / Often have you heard that told. / Many a man his life hath sold/ But my outside to behold. / Glided tombs do worms enfold.” The silver casket reads:” Who chooseth me shall get as much as he d eserves.” It seems proper, for no one should be granted privileges and titles of which he is unworthy. So the prince of Aragon chooses it. However, deciding to pick the silver casket on the basis of his own merit, the Prince unlocks the casket only to find inside the portrait of a blinking idiot and scroll which reads in part,” Take what wife you will to bed, / I will ever be your head. So be gone, you are sped.” The lead casket reads:” Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.” None of the Princes choose it, since it is too cheap to be worth taking the adventure. But Bassanio chooses it. He believes that outward appearance is not to be trusted to reveal the inner truth of anything. He will not be duped by ornament, which so often deceives men in all affairs of life. In legal matters and in religion a gracious or learned voice often conceals evil and corruption. He chooses “meager lead” and gets Portia. From all of these, we can conclude that Portia’s father arranged this to exclude those come for wea lth instead of Portia, to exclude those only pay attention to outward appearance and to insure that only a man truly worthy of her would be able to choose correctly. We can see that Portia’s father loves her and cares about her happiness, which is quite different from the relationship between Shylock and Jessica.Both the love of friends and the love of a father are pure and nothing about money. So it is not necessary for us to be depressed by the utilitarian society, since love is and will always be existing.。