The Merchant of Venice: contextual variations across time, place, and audience

Merchant of Venice

If the text had been written in a different time or place or language or for a different audience, how and why might it differ?

William Shakespeare is one of the most important figures of the universal literature and an essential figure in the playwright scenery. One of his most important plays, "The Merchants of Venice" is to this day both admired and subject to discussions and interpretations. One of the main reasons for this is the complex nature of the structure of the play, of its characters, the language, as well as the environment in which the pay was written and the public it was addressed to.

The play is a traditional work by Shakespeare and it includes the specific characteristics of his literary art that vary from the way in which he uses the language of the time to the means through which he builds his characters according to contemporary standards, concepts, and preconceptions. If an exercise of the mind would be possible and the play "Merchants of Venice" would have been written in a different language, setting, or with different construction of characters, although the subject may not suffer major changes, the entire impact of the play would be different on the audience.

Firstly, the language Shakespeare used provides a certain understanding of the words and this particular consideration of different meanings of the same phrase provides depth and space for interpretation. For instance, the relation between Antonio and Bassanio may be interpreted as one of erotic nature and love related and, at the same time, can be viewed as one of intense friendship. In this sense, it is important to take into account a passage that clearly provides an example to point out the role language plays in Shakespeare's plays and this one in particular: "ANTONIO: Commend me to your honourable wife: Tell her the process of Antonio's end, / Say how I lov'd you, speak me fair in death; / and, when the tale is told, bid her be judge / Whether Bassanio had not once a love. / BASSANIO: But life itself, my wife, and all the world / Are not with me esteemed above thy life;' I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all / Here to this devil, to deliver you." (Shakespeare, n.d.) in today's language, such smooth transition from one meaning to another could be difficult to create and would probably fail to be that delicate. However, Shakespeare's language is constructed in such a manner that it ensures the possibility to interpret and leave the actual meaning of phrases and notes for the audience to best judge and provide their own understanding of the writ.

Secondly, if the scenery would be different, another type of city similar to Venice should be looked for. The city of Venice is symbolic for its exuberant life style, its easier morals, and the Italian republic that is more liberal in thought and mind than any other of its time. Moreover, in cities such as 16th century Venice could women be disguised as male advocates and would actually succeed in their attempts to interfere with the justice act. Also, the role of the Duke would not be as prominent if the city of Venice would not have been selected for the majority of the activity of the play. The city in itself ensures a certain aura that traditional cultural life as well as the fame of a modern, yet traditional in many instances cities, that provides the story a special twist, embedded in culture, yet modern in line of thought.

The subject is yet another element that would be interpreted differently had the play been written in a different time and era. The plot, among other aspects, also includes signs of what literary critics nowadays consider anti-Semitism. Therefore, the role of Shylock and the way in which this role was constructed through the perception of all characters in the play, is essential as being the central focus of the play, the person from which most of the events, including the famous trial and speech on the Jews, started. In current social conditions nowadays, such a discourse would be totally unacceptable and seen as lacking human rights dignity.

Finally, another aspect to be taken into account in order to consider the complex nature of the elements comprising Shakespeare's work is related to the actual issues debated and on which the author indirectly drew attention. Therefore, motives such as mercy, un-conditioned support, the law, are all aspects that have been touched upon in the play. Yet, the choice of words and that of the characters determine the way in which the playwright arrives at such a construction. Therefore, the complexity of the play is ensured by the combination of factors, myths, legends, and characters. In a different setting, such as the one of today's world, such motifs would most likely not provide the same impact as they did in Shakespeare's play.