Common Mod Topic Sentences

Introduction

Powerful dramatic texts represent the tensions between individual and collective human experiences to illuminate compelling insights into anomalies, paradoxes and inconsistencies in human behaviour and motivation. William Shakespeare's tragi-comedy The Merchant of Venice satirises the cultural “othering” of Jews, specifically the usurer Shylock in the transactional world of Venice, alongside the sub-plot of challenging “young lovers” where Portia and Jessica must overcome their fathers’ patriarchal obstacle in order to prioritise their own personal happiness.

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Shakespeare represents the collective experience of cultural othering, reflecting 16th-century England's anti-Semitism which had officially expelled Jewish people in 1290, leaving virtually no legally practicing Jews in Shakespearean London and their perceptions to be shaped by medieval stereotypes, folklore, and religious prejudices.

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Shakespeare's drama corporealises a misogynism that treated women as male possessions, legal minors, and objects of exchange. Both reflecting the rigid patriarchal norms of Elizabethan England that mandated women's obedience and submission to fathers and husbands, and celebrating Renaissance Humanism's emphasis on individual agency, Shakespeare advocates for female empowerment, granting women subjective consciousness and wit.

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Shakespeare offers an insightful delineation between mercy and justice, mirroring the late 16th century rivalry between the English Common Law Courts who strictly enforced the exact letter of contracts and the Courts of Equity to review cases based on fairness, conscience, and mitigating circumstances when the common law was too harsh.