In Act 1, Scene 2 of The Merchant of Venice Portia complains about her potential suitors to Nerissa. Although she admits that "In truth I know it is a sin to be a mocker"(1.2.57), that admission doesn't prevent her mocking the foibles of her suitors to great comic effect. Her suitors are all foreign-born outsiders who fail to conform to the proper etiquette and standards of Belmont (and presumably to Shakespeare's audience as well). One way Shakespeare's comedy operates seems to be to expose and satirize the outsider (not unlike some television sitcoms like The Big Bang Theory that satirizes geeks, another outside group)
What about the other outsiders in this play such as Morocco, Shylock and perhaps even Portia herself? Are they too held up to ridicule for refusing to conform to conventional norms? Are they merely stereotypical figures (the Black African, the Jew, the Single Woman) that serve as the butt of the play's jokes? Or is there something else going on? Do these characters have a different role in the play? Do they rise above being a stereotype?
Though both Shylock and Portia in The Merchant of Venice are outsiders who both have money when compared to the other characters, they differ in how they use that money. While Shylock uses his to become even more of an outsider, Portia uses hers to become more accepted.
ReplyDeleteShylock is very clearly an outsider from the first time we met him. When Bassanio ventures, “if it pleases you to dine with us,” Shylock throws the invitation back into his face and says, “yes, to smell pork! To eat of the habitation/ which your prophet the Nazarite conjured the/ devil into!” (1.iii.32-35). Though the reader cannot know in what timber Bassanio offers his invitation, Shylock’s response is clearly not a kind one. Even if Bassanio does offer his invitation mockingly, that would only serve to prove Shylock as an outsider and not a recently made outsider at that. He has been suffering this displacement from the beginning.
Portia is also a very clearly an outsider in The Merchant of Venice. She even lives outside of Venice. Her location is physically and literally outside of the place where the main action of the play happens. Portia also emphasizes how her suitors provide no company. She describes one as, “a dumb show,” another “a weeping philosopher,” and finally another as a “drunk” (1.ii.49,73,87). Portia is very much alone in her Belmont estate.
Portia and Shylock also are both very much linked together. They both are the people with money in the play. They have the money that the other characters, especially Bassanio, need. Also, to some degree, they approve of the other. Portia follows her father’s will very closely, which is a behavior that Shylock very much would approve of after his own daughter steals away into the night. Portia even says, “so is the will of a living daughter curbed by/ the will of a dead father” (1.ii.24-25). Portia, though perhaps “approval” is too strong a term, is certainly linked to Shylock since it is Shylock she has to thank for bringing Bassanio and herself together. Without Shylock’s money, Bassanio would never have made it to Belmont.
The difference between Portia and Shylock emerges in how the two use their money differently. Portia’s wealth attracts lovers from around the world. Bassanio even comments,
“nor is the wide world ignorant of her worth,/
for the four winds blow in from every coast/
renowned suitors, and her sunny locks/
hang on her temples like a golden fleece” (1.i.174-177).
Portia’s wealth is used to get her a husband, a companion that will make her less of an outsider. Bassanio, her newly made husband, even brings her right into the center of the action, to Venice.
Shylock uses his wealth to a very different end. In lending Antonio money, he makes a bond of flesh, literally. He says, “…let the forfeit/ be nominated for an equal pond/ of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken…” (1.iii.160-162). In allowing Antonio to make such a pack, he ostracizes himself even more so. He is using his money to not make friends with others but rather to harm others. This is the place where Portia and Shylock differ. In the end, it will be Shylock who will be told by the duke, “get thee gone,” and Portia who will be praised (4.i.415). Portia has made friends using her money where Shylock has gotten himself banished using his.
I agree with everything that Sarah has pointed out in her post. SInce I do not have much to differ with her I would like to expand on the role of Morocco as an outsider and his importance in this play.
ReplyDeleteI feel that Morocco is the only true outsider in this play. I have chosen this position because like Sarah said, Portia in the end was accepted by everyone and Shylock was accepted by Portia and will soon be accepted by Venice when he turns Christian. It is only Morocco that was ridiculed and sent away; and that person was an outsider too.
When Morocco shows up to try his chances at winning Portia's hand in marriage he says to Portia, "Mislike me not for my complexion, / The shadowed livery of the burnished sun, / To whom I am a neighbor and near bred," (II.1.1-3) He pleas for Portia to not judge him by his skin color but by his character. He goes through thoughtful deliberation when he is choosing what casket he will pick. When Morocco chooses wrong and leaves Portia says, "A gentle riddance! Draw the curtains, go. / Let all of his complexion choose me so," (II.8.86-87). Portia would have never truly accepted Morocco even he had chosen the right casket. He was the definition of an outsider to her; not from Belmont, and did not have a white complexion. He would never be hers or apart of her world. Because of this inevitable end, Morocco is the only real outsider in this play.
Broadening on Courtney's and Sarah's posts, I would posit that in "The Merchant of Venice," outsiders are only to be reviled when they embrace their foreignness rather than trying and yearning to belong. Take, for example, the Prince of Morocco, a clear stereotype. When he first appears, he seems proud of how he is different, proclaiming his own virtues:
ReplyDeleteMislike me not for my complexion,
The shadowed livery of the burnished sun,
To whom I am a neighbor and near bred.
Bring me the fairest creature northward born,
…
And let us make incision for your love
To prove whose blood is reddest, his or mine. (2.1.1-7)
Despite Morocco’s pride, however, the prince is really an object of ridicule throughout the play. Although he asks not to be judged by outward appearance, he in turn chooses the gold casket based on outward beauty, proving himself a hypocrite (2.7.55-61). Finally, he leaves the play mocked by Portia, who says, “A gentle riddance! Draw the curtains, go, / Let all of his complexion choose me so” (2.7.86-87) Having entered so bombastic and proud, Morocco leaves disgraced, the butt of Portia’s jokes.
Similarly, Shylock clings to his beliefs that make him different, earning the ire of everyone else in the play. Shylock, by his own admission, “crave[s] the law / The penalty and forfeit of my bond” (4.1.212-3); that is, he believes that justice must be done. This caricature of Judaism sets Shylock apart, as the Duke judging the trial of the bond notes:
Shylock, the world thinks, and I think so too,
That thou but leadest this fashion of thy malics
To the last hour of the act, and then, ‘tis thought,
Thou’lt show thy mercy and remorse more strange
Than is thy strange apparent cruelty;
And where thou now exacts the penalty
…
Thou wilt not only loose the forfeiture,
But, touched with humane gentleness and love,
Forgive a moi’ty of the principal (4.1.18-27)
Everyone else expects Shylock to be forgiving; consequently, when he demands justice, they are surprised. Thus they view him as “A stony adversary, an inhuman wretch, / Uncapable of pity, void and empty / From any dram of mercy” (4.1.4-6). Having rejected the social norms of forgiveness, Shylock earns the wrath of the rest of the community.
In contrast to Shylock and Morocco stands Portia. Although she too is an outsider, being an unmarried woman, she strives to change her position and become an accepted member of the community. She chafes at her restrictions, complaining, “I may neither choose who I would nor refuse who I dislike. So is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father” (1.2.22-5). Unlike Morocco and Shylock, Portia wishes to change her status. She is not proud of being different and unmarried; instead, she wishes she could do something to correct it. Desiring thus, she earns the audience’s pity, becoming more than a mere stereotype.