2020-06-05 14:59:49 ¶ ●

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Hola! Merchant of Venice hits harder in the melancholy state of the world and generally what's going on around. Thoughts?

True. Any book about racism or any other form of discrimination just feels different now. Maybe because a year ago we thought “hey it’s not like people will revert back to their extremely discriminatory ways, right?”

But now we know that people can and will.

2020-06-10 14:52:58 ¶ ●

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Merchant of Venice: Is it a comedy? What do you think? In my opinion, it leans more on the side of a tragedy.

Yup. The whole play is pretty anti-Semitic and racist, so that’s a bit of an issue. It’s pretty sad how the whole story is “hey I’m gonna borrow some money from this one guy, and for some reason agree to let him take a pound of my flesh if I can’t repay him— oh look, I can’t repay him. Huh. Wow he’s so evil for trying to take a pound of my flesh (after I’ve attacked him over his religion multiple times) - but it’s ok because my best friend’s wife will save me and make him lose all his possessions. Also force him to convert. Nice!”

I mean, if someone would repeatedly attack another person over their religion or race, would you really blame the person who was attacked for maybe wanting to stab the guy who won’t stop attacking them?

We know that there have been multiple incidents of Antonio physically and verbally attacking Shylock, and Antonio outright says he won’t stop. I was partially hoping that Shylock would get to do some stabbing, but nah. The audience at that time wouldn’t be ready for something like that. If he had stabbed him though, it would have been labeled at a tragedy. It would also significantly improve the play.

2020-06-10 14:55:22 ¶ ●

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Also, Bassanio is an idiot, who asked him to go to that one moneylender in town who hates Antonio from his core of his heart? What do you think?

I agree completely- Bassanio’s an idiot. But he must be a very likable idiot if Antonio’s willing to go to Shylock for him and Portia actually wants to marry him.

2020-06-10 15:33:07 ¶ ●

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Jessica is sorta dumb. What is your opinion of her character?

Yeah I didn’t really think her side plot was so great. I don’t really have much of an opinion on her because she’s not a main character and doesn’t have a strong personality

2020-06-17 22:47:38 ¶ ●

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How would you rank the Shakespeare plays that you have read?

I’m gonna go in the order I read them-

The Tempest: 5/10. Not so into the storyline. There where some good parts but not enough of them for me to rank it higher than that

The Merchant of Venice: 6/10. Also good but the antisemitism kinda ruined it for me (I know other plays are also racist and discriminatory but the racism is either a) clearly a bad thing- you’re not supposed to root for the racist character, or b) a passing comment made by a side character that’s pretty much never brought up again.)

Macbeth: 7/10 Very good story, not funny enough. You maybe be wondering “but edette, it’s a tragedy! It’s not supposed to be funny!” To which I will respond with “oh yeah? Then what’s Hamlet doing here, being hilarious, with jokes on every other line until the last few pages where everyone dies?”

Julius Caesar: 7.5/10. Mark Antony’s parts are fantastic. He’s all like “oh yeah I’m totally on your side- I totally support you killing MY BEST FRIEND, THIS NOBLE ROMAN WHO DIDN’T DESERVE TO DIE, HOW DARE ANYONE KILL HIM” and everyone’s like “hey Antony? You still with us?” And he’s like “Oh yeah totally, what makes you think I’m not?”

King Lear: 8/10. It’s so good. Edmund’s plan isn’t even good, but it works so incredibly perfectly because everyone is very stupid.

Hamlet: 9/10 It’s hilarious. I don’t care what you say about it being deep and meaningful. Yeah it has some soliloquies, but most of it is just a huge pile of jokes. Literally the funniest thing I’ve ever read. The only people who think Hamlet isn’t hilarious are the people who’ve watched some film version of it before reading the play.

I know I haven’t read that many Shakespeare plays yet, but my local bookstore is reopening tomorrow, so I’m gonna go and see if I could find a copy of Othello and Twelfth Night

Also I just noticed that the ratings go in order of worst to best- that was unintentional but also kinda interesting

2020-06-18 15:32:41 ¶ ●

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I have an idea. We don't really get to see what happens after Antonio and all go to dinner. I wonder if SHYLOCK had a trick up his sleeve, which he used to get revenge and the last laugh. Thoughts? [10 marks]

I’m sure you wanted a cooler answer than this, but no- Shylock is all out of tricks.

2020-06-19 15:19:14 ¶ ●

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Okay, so I went searching for Merchant of Venice Fanfiction—, I found a Shylock X Antonio. I wheezed— (Tbh, I ain't surprised—)

I have no idea why anyone would ship them, but whatever. People seem to really like shipping the protagonist with the antagonist. But Antonio and Shylock just doesn’t work? I genuinely don’t get why anyone in the world would want to ship them.