The Merchant of Venice 1936 / 2024

 

I was first introduced to Shakespeare by my English teacher Mrs Grocott. This was at Cwmcarn Comprehensive back in the late 1970s and for “O” level English literature we studied the Merchant of Venice. I had a difficult relationship with English Literature as a subject. I enjoyed the plays (we also studied An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestly and She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith). But the novels didn’t do much for me (one was The Pearl by John Steinbeck) and as for the poetry. It left me cold. So much so that I failed my O level.

But as I’ve said Mrs Grocott introduced me to Shakespeare and for that I’m grateful.

If you’ve never seen the Merchant of Venice, what follows contains spoilers.

Compared to some Shakespeare plays on the face of it the Merchant is an easy one. The story, or should that be stories, are straightforward. Bassanio, a young Venetian of noble rank, wishes to woo the beautiful and wealthy heiress Portia of Belmont. But he’s squandered all his money. So, he asks his friend Antonio – the Merchant of the title – for a loan. Antonio’s assets are all tidied up in various trading ships. He’s asset rich and cash poor. Nonetheless he agrees to help Bassanio and Antonio goes a to a Jewish money lender – Shylock – for a loan.

But the loan comes with a heavy price. If Antonio defaults Shylock wants from Antonio

an equal pound
Of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken
In what part of your body pleaseth me.

Antonio agrees thinking all will be well when his ships come back to port. But they don’t, and Shylock calls in the loan. Antonio and Shylock go to court for Shylock to have his penalty clause enforced. Shylock wants his “pound of flesh” which in reality means Antonio will be killed.

At this point in the play Shakespeare uses one of his tried and tested plot devices – women disguised as men. In this instance Portia, who is now Bassanio’s wife, disguises herself as a lawyer brought in to advise on the law. She concludes that the contract is valid and yes Shylock  is entitled to his pound of flesh. However, she points out that there is nothing in he contract about any of Antonio's blood being shed. Therefore, Shylock can only have his pound of flesh if no blood is spilled in the taking of the pound of flesh.

Bassanio offers Shylock the money for the loan which Shylock reluctantly agrees to (having previously refused and insisted on the pound of flesh.) But Portia also prevents Shylock from doing this, on the ground that he has already refused it "in the open court". She cites a law under which Shylock, as a Jew and therefore an "alien", having attempted to take the life of a citizen, has forfeited his property, half to the government and half to Antonio, leaving his life at the mercy of the Judge. 

Shylock is bankrupted and the play ends happily ever after with Bassanio and Portia happily married and Antonio alive. (OK, there’s more to it than this. DO NOT rely on this blog as an aid to revision.)

For many years the play has come under scrutiny for antisemitism. Certainly, it can be interpreted that way from the way Shylock is treated and referred to. And in some productions Shylock has become a caricature of a Jew. (In Nazi Germany the Merchant of Venice was staged this way.)

However, Shylock can be portrayed in other ways. He can be portrayed as a sympathetic character. A Jew who is persecuted for his faith and is pushed to breaking point by anti-semites because of his faith.

Early on in the play Shylock is challenged about why he wants a pound of flesh from Antonio. Shylock says:

“… it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and
hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses,
mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my
bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine
enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew.”

And this brings me to a production of the Merchant of Venice by the Roal Shakespeare Company at Stratford on Avon. It was entitled “The Mercnat of Venice 1936” and the actor and writer Tracy Ann Oberman appeared as Shylock. It was set in the East End of London in 1936 at the time of the rise of Oswald Mosely’s fascist Black Shirts.

Shylock was portrayed as a hard businesswoman. But one who has been pushed to demand his pound of flesh, as revenge for the way Antonio and his Black Shirt wearing friends had treated him and other Jewish people.  (And let’s not forget, was Shylock really expecting he’d get his revenge? What were the chances of all of Antonio’s fortunes being lost at sea?)

Even “fair Portia” was portrayed as antisemitic. Initially, in the way Portia treated Shylock’s daughter Jessica (who had eloped with the Christian Lorenzo taking some of Shylock’s wealth with her.) Then at court. (Portia was portrayed as someone like Lady Diana Mitford - wife of Moseley, and in her own right a fascist and Hitler sympathiser.) In this production by what might be termed “the establishment” joins forces to even deny Shylock justice in a court of law. No separation of powers here. (As an aside, just a few days after seeing this production, the Conservative MP Jacob Rees – Mogg demanded that courts no longer be separate but should be subject to Parliament. https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/popular-conservatives-rees-mogg-attacks-lady-hale-and-calls-for-neutering-of-supreme-court/5118671.article)

I am writing this not a review of the play (which was excellent by the way with Ms Oberman on top form.) But because I was affected by words of Shakespeare said by Shylock.

It is a continuation of the speech I’ve quoted earlier:

Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,
dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with
the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, healed by the same means,
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as
a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison
us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not
revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will
resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian,
what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian
wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by
Christian example? Why, revenge.

Words reminding us that all people are the same regardless of their race, their faith, their gender or sexuality. Whether Israeli or Palestinian.

As a sixteen year old this was one of the many quotes from the play we had to memorise and regurgitate. It is one that stuck – though at the time I’m not sure I realised the importance of it. I do now.

This production will transfer to the West End on 15^th February. If you can go and see it.