dWilliam Shakespeare (26 April 1564 (baptized) – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet,

and actor. He wrote 37 plays (with about half of them considered comedies) and two long poems in
his lifetime. He lived in Stratford-upon-Avon, in Warwickshire, England. His plays are still performed
today. He is often quoted in modern writing. By 1594 he was an actor in The Chamberlain's
Men acting company. His plays are of different kinds, or genres. There
are histories, tragedies and comedies. These plays are among the best known in English
literature and are studied in schools around the world. Shakespeare wrote his works between about
1590 and 1613. He is considered the first writer who wrote a tragicomedy. (A tragicomedy is a play
that mixes comedy and tragedy, with a happy ending.). Shakespeare's plays are written
in poetic language. Many of the plays are set in strange, distant places and times. They are still
popular today. The stories are often exciting, very funny (in the comedies), or very sad (in the
tragedies) and make people want to know what happens to his characters. He says much about
things that are still important today, like love, sadness, hope, pride, hatred, jealousy, and
foolishness.Shakespeare added new words and phrases to the English language. He also made
some words more popular.[3] He created over 1,700 English words.[4]About 150 years after
Shakespeare died, some writers began to say that the work called "Shakespeare" were not really
written by William Shakespeare. They had various reasons for saying this. For example, the person
who wrote "Shakespeare" knew a lot about other countries (especially Italy and France), but William
Shakespeare never left England. Several other writers of "Shakespeare" have been suggested, such
as Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, and Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. Most scholars
believe that William Shakespeare did write the works that bear his name. He married Anne
Hathaway, a woman eight years older than he was. He had three children, Susanna (married John
Hall), Hamnet Shakespeare (died at the age of 11 due to unknown reasons) and Judith (married
Thomas Quiney).[3] By 1592 he had become an actor and was becoming well known as a writer of
plays. At the time of his death in 1616, only some of his plays had been published in single editions.
The plays were collected and published in 1623, seven years after he died. There is proof that
people in Shakespeare's time thought highly of him. After his death, even his rival Ben Jonson said,[5]
"Triumph, my Britain, thou hast one to show,
To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe.
He was not of an age, but for all time!"
He was involved in the building of the Globe Theatre in 1599. It burned down a few
years later. His plays are performed at a new Globe built nearby in 1997.
About 150 years after Shakespeare died, some writers began to say that the work called
"Shakespeare" were not really written by William Shakespeare. They had various reasons for saying
this. For example, the person who wrote "Shakespeare" knew a lot about other countries (especially
Italy and France), but William Shakespeare never left England. Several other writers of
"Shakespeare" have been suggested, such as Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, and Edward de
Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. Most scholars believe that William Shakespeare did write the works that
bear his name. Although Shakespeare was married to a woman and fathered three children,
Susanna, Hamnet and Judith, people have debated his sexuality. Some people, such as Peter
Holland of the Shakespeare Institute at Birmingham University, have argued that Shakespeare was
possibly bisexual because of some of the sonnets he wrote that were directed towards young men.

Plot summary
Bassanio, a young Venetian of noble rank, wishes to woo the beautiful and wealthy heiress Portia of
Belmont. Having squandered his estate, he needs 3,000 ducats to subsidise his expenditures as a
suitor. Bassanio approaches his friend Antonio, a wealthy merchant of Venice who has previously
and repeatedly bailed him out. Antonio agrees, but since he is cash-poor – his ships and
merchandise are busy at sea to Tripolis, the Indies, Mexico and England – he promises to cover a
bond if Bassanio can find a lender, so Bassanio turns to the Jewish moneylender Shylock and
names Antonio as the loan's guarantor.
Antonio has already antagonized Shylock through his outspoken antisemitism, and because
Antonio's habit of lending money without interest forces Shylock to charge lower rates. Shylock is at
first reluctant to grant the loan, citing abuse he has suffered at Antonio's hand. He finally agrees to
lend the sum to Bassanio without interest upon one condition: if Antonio is unable to repay it at the
specified date, Shylock may take a pound of Antonio's flesh. Bassanio does not want Antonio to
accept such a risky condition; Antonio is surprised by what he sees as the moneylender's generosity
(no "usance" – interest – is asked for), and he signs the contract. With money at hand, Bassanio
leaves for Belmont with his friend Gratiano, who has asked to accompany him. Gratiano is a likeable
young man, but is often flippant, overly talkative, and tactless. Bassanio warns his companion to
exercise self-control, and the two leave for Belmont.
Meanwhile, in Belmont, Portia is awash with suitors. Her father left a will stipulating each of her
suitors must choose correctly from one of three caskets – one each of gold, silver and lead. If he
picks the right casket, he gets Portia. The first suitor, the Prince of Morocco, chooses the gold
casket, interpreting its slogan, "Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire", as referring to
Portia. The second suitor, the conceited Prince of Arragon, chooses the silver casket, which
proclaims, "Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves", as he believes he is full of merit.
Both suitors leave empty-handed, having rejected the lead casket because of the baseness of its
material and the uninviting nature of its slogan, "Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he
hath". The last suitor is Bassanio, whom Portia wishes to succeed, having met him before. As
Bassanio ponders his choice, members of Portia's household sing a song which says that "fancy"
(not true love) is "engend'red in the eyes, / With gazing fed";[3] Bassanio chooses the lead casket and
wins Portia's hand.
At Venice, Antonio's ships are reported lost at sea so the merchant cannot repay the bond. Shylock
has become more determined to exact revenge from Christians because his daughter Jessica
eloped with the Christian Lorenzo and converted. She took a substantial amount of Shylock's wealth
with her, as well as a turquoise ring which Shylock had been given by his late wife, Leah. Shylock
has Antonio brought before court.
At Belmont, Bassanio receives a letter telling him that Antonio has been unable to repay the loan
from Shylock. Portia and Bassanio marry, as do Gratiano and Portia's handmaid Nerissa. Bassanio
and Gratiano leave for Venice, with money from Portia, to save Antonio's life by offering the money
to Shylock. Unknown to Bassanio and Gratiano, Portia sent her servant, Balthazar, to seek the
counsel of Portia's cousin, Bellario, a lawyer, at Padua.
The climax of the play takes place in the court of the Duke of Venice. Shylock refuses Bassanio's
offer of 6,000 ducats, twice the amount of the loan. He demands his pound of flesh from Antonio.
The Duke, wishing to save Antonio but unable to nullify a contract, refers the case to a visitor. He
identifies himself as Balthazar, a young male "doctor of the law", bearing a letter of recommendation
to the Duke from the learned lawyer Bellario. The doctor is Portia in disguise, and the law clerk who
accompanies her is Nerissa, also disguised as a man. As Balthazar, Portia repeatedly asks Shylock
to show mercy in a famous speech, advising him that mercy "is twice blest: It blesseth him that gives
and him that takes" (IV, i, 185). However, Shylock adamantly refuses any compensations and insists
on the pound of flesh.
As the court grants Shylock his bond and Antonio prepares for Shylock's knife, Portia deftly
appropriates Shylock's argument for "specific performance". She says that the contract allows
Shylock only to remove the flesh, not the "blood", of Antonio (see quibble). Thus, if Shylock were to
shed any drop of Antonio's blood, his "lands and goods" would be forfeited under Venetian laws. She
tells him that he must cut precisely one pound of flesh, no more, no less; she advises him that "if the
scale do turn, But in the estimation of a hair, Thou diest and all thy goods are confiscate."
Defeated, Shylock concedes to accepting Bassanio's offer of money for the defaulted bond, first his
offer to pay "the bond thrice", which Portia rebuffs, telling him to take his bond, and then merely the
principal, which Portia also prevents him from doing 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 Duke. The Duke pardons Shylock's life. Antonio asks for
his share "in use" until Shylock's death, when the principal will be given to Lorenzo and Jessica. At
Antonio's request, the Duke grants remission of the state's half of forfeiture, but on the condition that
Shylock convert to Christianity and bequeath his entire estate to Lorenzo and Jessica (IV,i).Bassanio
does not recognise his disguised wife, but offers to give a present to the supposed lawyer. First she
declines, but after he insists, Portia requests his ring and Antonio's gloves. Antonio parts with his
gloves without a second thought, but Bassanio gives the ring only after much persuasion from
Antonio, as earlier in the play he promised his wife never to lose, sell or give it. Nerissa, as the
lawyer's clerk, succeeds in likewise retrieving her ring from Gratiano, who does not see through her
disguise.At Belmont, Portia and Nerissa taunt and pretend to accuse their husbands before
revealing they were really the lawyer and his clerk in disguise (V). After all the other characters make
amends, Antonio learns from Portia that three of his ships were not stranded and have returned
safely after all.
Gist

The Merchant of Venice is believed to be written between 1596 and 1598. Already from the very
beginning, hardly any other play has experienced so many diverse receptions after its publication. In
his essay on The Merchant of Venice, Walter Cohen comments that “no other Shakespeare comedy
before All’s Well That Ends Well (1602) and Measure for Measure (1604), perhaps no other
Shakespeare comedy at all, has excited comparable controversy.” (Cohen 1982 qtd. in Holderness
1998: 47).

Although the title page of the first edition of the play “The Most Excellent Historie of the Merchant of
Venice” (first print in 1600) suggested it to be a history play, it had initially been classified as a
comedy. In 1623, Heminges and Condell placed The Merchant of Venice among the comedies in the
First Folio of Shakespeare’s works (cf. Holderness 1998: 23).

However, many readers, actors, directors and playgoers still argue about the genre of the play. They
have difficulties in defining The Merchant of Venice as a comedy as the following quotation shows:
“Indeed, seen from any angle, The Merchant of Venice is not a very funny play, and we might gain a
lot if, for the moment, we ceased to be bullied by its inclusion in the comedies.” (Midgley 1960: 121).
Today, The Merchant of Venice is often read and played more like a problem play or even a tragedy.
(cf. Holderness 1998: 23).

The following term paper deals with the classification of the literary genre of The Merchant of
Venice. Does the play belong to the category of comedies or shall it rather be identified as a tragedy
or problem play? To assign the play to a specific category, it is necessary to shortly present the
criteria of the genres comedy, tragedy and problem play. In chapter 3, the play will be analysed in
terms of comic and tragic aspects. The focus is put on the flesh-bond and the courtship plot, the first
having its setting in Venice, the second in Belmont. The aim of this chapter is to illustrate that The
Merchant of Venice contains both comic and tragic elements. Chapter 4 deals with the complex
character Shylock whose perception has changed through the centuries. Is he still the comic villain of
the Elizabethan time or can he rather be seen as a victim of extreme anti-Semitism?

By giving an insight into comic and tragic aspects in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice,this term
paper shall try to solve the problem of assigning the play to a specific literary genre.

2 Defining the genre

As already mentioned in the introduction, it is difficult to define the genre of Shakespeare’s The
Merchant of Venice. When the play was first produced and published, it was classified as a comedy
since its “[…] main thematic and structural elements […] seem to belong to the category of romantic
comedy rather than elsewhere.” (Holderness 1998: 24).

In the 19th century, an emphasis was put on the fairy tale elements in the play. Harley Granville-
Barker is among those who characterized The Merchant of Venice as a “fairy tale”. To his mind “[…]
the play ends, pleasantly and with formality, as a fairy tale should.” (Granville-Barker 2007: 121).
Critics in this field refer to the multiple marriages at the end of the play.

However, The Merchant of Venice is perhaps more remembered for its dramatic scenes, which lead
to interpret the play as a tragedy. In 1839, the German poet Heinrich Heine classified Shakespeare’s
play as a tragedy: “I must include The Merchant of Venice among the tragedies, although the frame
of the work is a composition of laughing masks and sunny faces […] as though the poet meant to
write a comedy.” (Heine 1839, qtd. in Wilders 1969: 29).

Even in the late 19th century, in a pre-Holocaust world, The Merchant of Venice seemed to be read
and played as a tragedy. Theatre productions of that time often ended on a tragic note upon
Shylock’s departure at the end of the trial scene. Hence, many people felt that the play succeeded
better as a tragedy than a comedy.

In 1869, the critic Frederick Samuel Boas coined the term “problem play” and classified
Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice into this category. After the events of World War II, many
people could hardly see any comedy in the humiliation, mockery and forced conversion of the Jew
Shylock. The Merchant of Venice was therefore perceived as a problem play in the second half of the
20th century. (cf. Schülting 2000: 135).

Since the aim of this term paper is to classify the genre of Shakespeare’s play, it is first of all
necessary to shortly define and present the criteria of a comedy, tragedy and problem play.

2.1 Comedy
[…] the Comedy is an imitation of the common errors of our life, which he [= the Comick]
representeth in the most ridiculous and scornefull sort that may be; so as it is impossible that any
beholder can be content to be such a one. (Sir Philip Sidney qtd. in Suerbaum 1980: 214)

The above-mentioned quotation from Sir Philipp Sidney shows that a comedy is the mirror of our
life. Traditionally, comedies deal with the concerns and exploits of ordinary people. The aim of a
comedy is to leave a feeling of satisfaction at the end of the play when the reader or spectator
witnesses deserving people succeed. (Simpson 1998).

In his Speculum Maius, written in 1250, Vincent de Beauvais defines comedy as follows: “Comedy is
a kind of poem which transforms a sad beginning into a happy ending” (Beauvais 1250 qtd. in Janik
2003: 120) This definition is according to Nevill Coghill the “true basis of Shakespearean comedy.”
(ibid). It is important to mention, that in the Elizabethan time, the term “comedy” had a very
different meaning from modern comedy. Holderness assumes that the concept of comedy in the 16th
century was broader and more elastic than it is today. (cf. Holderness 1998: 24). A Shakespearean
comedy is nowadays understood as a play in which the central character is in the end saved from
death or a catastrophe. Comedies do not necessarily have to be funny or evoke laughter.
Nevertheless, it has to be considered that particular matters, such as social and moral questions,
might have been funny for the readers and spectators of that time. (cf. McEvoy 2000: 125).
Moreover, the conventions of comedy require a happy ending. A Shakespearean comedy is one that
has a happy ending, usually involving marriages between the unmarried characters.

In the introduction to the New Cambridge edition, M. M. Mahood classifies Shakespeare’s The
Merchant of Venice as a Renaissance romantic comedy, a genre that had become highly popular in
the two decades before Shakespeare wrote the play. In general, romantic comedies portray love and
virtue triumphing over evil.” (Janik 2003: 121) as it is the case in The Merchant of Venice.

In his book “Shakespeares Dramen”, Ulrich Suerbaum divides Shakespeare’s comedies into different
groups. The first group contains the early comedies such as The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of
the Shrew, The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Love’s Labour Lost. To the group of mature comedies
belong the plays A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado about Nothing, As You Like It and Twelfth
Night. Finally, there are romantic comedies like Perciles, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale and The
Tempest. (cf. Suerbaum 1980: 215ff).

What most of the above-mentioned comedies have in common are the following four criteria:

First of all, comedies often contain a multiple plot structure. They are divided into main- and
subplots which are structurally and thematically linked (cf. Muir 1979: 52). In terms of content, these
plots are intertwined and produce complexity.

Another typical element for all kinds of comedies is music. The technique of music is used to create a
harmonic atmosphere. According to Muir, music underlines romantic actions and establishes a
fictional fairy-tale atmosphere: greenworld-like and full of harmony and order (cf. ibid: 51).