The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 17.0603 Tuesday, 27 June 2006
From: David Bishop <
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
>
Date: Tuesday, 27 Jun 2006 03:08:13 -0400
Subject: 17.0599 The Big Question
Comment: Re: SHK 17.0599 The Big Question
I think Mari Bonomi is right about the two lenses through which we look
at MoV and the confusions that result.
We talk about anti-Semitism, but seldom make a distinction that helps me
understand the play, between two kinds of anti-Semitism. Racial
anti-Semitism, as in Hitler's Germany, sought the death of "Jews" even
when they had converted to Christianity, based on their family history.
The anti-Semitism of MoV--and I think that's a loaded and somewhat
anachronistic term--is ideological anti-Semitism. It means you hold
beliefs that are wrong, and you could simply decide to change: to become
a Christian.
Shylock's Jewishness is mostly tied to his being a usurer, and generally
mean, though the play says nothing about usury being his only allowed
occupation. Antonio spits on him because he's a usurer, and suggests
that he could change if he wanted to. Not being a usurer is connected to
being a kind, friendly person, part of a community of people who lend
money out of good will. This is hardly realistic, of course, but when it
looks like Shylock is lending money free, Antonio is willing to say
there is much kindness in the Jew. Antonio's "anti-Semitism" is
anti-usury and anti-unkindness. He may go a little overboard in cruelly
promoting kindness, but Shylock is not a very sympathetic victim, no one
is closing down his business, and Antonio is ready to change his
attitude when Shylock changes his.
The anti-Semitism of the others is not given much more positive content
than this, at least until the trial scene. Are they against him because
he's Jewish or because he's a miser, a usurer, and mistreats his
servants and his daughter? The rightness of Christianity and the
wrongness of believing in another religion is assumed, and given
positive content more subtly. The mercy Portia calls for is not
specifically called Christian, but presented as human. The underlying
feeling communicated is how frightening it is to encounter someone who
does not believe that God has commanded him to be merciful. Whether this
truly depicts actual Judaism is not the point. The audience is being
instructed in true Christianity by being shown a horrible example of an
unChristian. Religiously speaking, a Jew is simply an infidel: someone
who does not believe in Christianity and is therefore not, in his view,
obliged to be merciful. Gratiano's reveling in revenge shows he fails to
get the message. He provides an instructive contrast to the restrained
behavior of the others.
As for the "unmerciful" Portia, she could have cut to the chase at the
outset. But she pointedly gives Shylock a chance to do the reasonable
Christian (and, the play implies, human) thing. We must feel his
conversion as hard in a way Elizabethans did not, though possibly a few
of them could have felt a twinge of sympathy for the defeated Shylock--a
twinge mitigated by his receiving, apparently, half his fortune, even if
under Antonio's management. Looking through an Elizabethan lens, it's an
odd punishment that saves a man's soul and brings him into the community
from which he was formerly an alien.
Finally, Jessica simply converts to Christianity and marries the man she
truly loves, and who loves her. We root for her because of her father's
meanness and miserliness. Her conversion, as far as we can see, seems to
oppose generosity--even a hint of profligacy--to the miserly father from
whom she escapes. Where Hitler would have sent her to the camps anyway,
in this society she's welcomed with open arms. Her regret, her guilt at
betraying her father, the hints that she and Lorenzo will break up, as
far as I can tell, do not exist in the play.
Best wishes,
David Bishop
_______________________________________________________________
S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List
Hardy M. Cook,
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net>
DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the
opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the
editor assumes no responsibility for them.
|
