The Merchant of Venice of William ShakespeareAtlantic Publishers & Dist, 1997 - 288 pages The Merchant Of Venice Bases Its Dramatic Logic On The New Testament Premise That You Get What You Give, And The Play S Consistent Enactment Of This Looking-Glass Logic Creates A World In Which Mirroring Is A Major Internal Principle Of Order. The Indian Philosophy, Distilled In Our Vedas, Puranas And Epics, Speaks In Almost The Same Vein. Shylock Is Cunning, Cruel And Implacable. For Centuries, The Shylocks Of India, In Various Garbs, Have Tried And Succeeded Partially, To Get Their Pounds Of Flesh From Their Victims. Usury Was Condemned In The Elizabethan Period But We, In India, Still Nourish It. Secondly, Shylock S Sense Of Jessica Is Anti-Human As Well As AntiĀ¬Social. He Is Aware Of Her As Of An Item Of Inventory, As Many Father, In India, Do With Their Daughters.Bassanio Must Have Learnt From Shylock S Example: A Wrong, Even A Small One, Is Always A Wrong And Calls Forth Its Own Punishment Automatically, For, As We Shall See, In Dr. Agarwalla S Interpretation Of The Play, The Law Sleeps Only Until Unoffended, When It Reacts By Reflecting The Offence In Kind. The Law Has No Power To Make Anyone Choose To Do Right, It Can Only Punish Those Who Do Wrong. The Prince Of Morocco, Like Any Prince Of Yester-Years, In India, Is Chivalrous, Amorous, Gracious And Sexually Virile. It Was Unkind Of Portia To Say Uncomplimentary Words For Him But She, Like White-Skinned Ladies, Have Always Done So In The Past And Are Doing It, At Present. Thus The Merchant Of Venice Is As Much Relevant To Indians As It Was And Is To The English And To The World, In General. Dr. Shyam S. Agarwalla Gives A New Approach, A New Presentation And A New Direction To The Reading And Critical Analysis Of The Play. At Times, His Critical Examination Of The Play Is Unconventional, Provocative But Nonetheless Educative. That Marks Him Off From Other Indian Editors Of The Merchant. |
Contents
A INTRODUCTION 159 | 1 |
Critical Estimate of William Shakespeare As a Poet and A Dramatist | 8 |
The Evolution of English Drama Upto the Days of Shakespeare | 16 |
The Elizabethan World Picture | 20 |
The Elizabethan Theatre | 23 |
The Critics of Shakespeare | 29 |
The Substance of Shakespearean Comedy | 39 |
B THE PAY 60131 | 60 |
Some Improbabilities and Absurdities in The Merchant of Venice | 81 |
Venice in The Merchant of Venice | 85 |
The Play as a Romantic Comedy | 89 |
The Merchant of Venice as a TragiComedy | 96 |
The Theme of The Merchant of Venice | 100 |
the Rings Stories | 111 |
THE CHARACTERS 132160 | 132 |
Text of Merchant of Venice 161184 | 161 |
Date of Composition | 66 |
Time and Duration of the Play | 72 |
The Combination of the Stories of the Play | 77 |
Notes 185266 | 266 |
Questions with Answers 287301 | 287 |
Common terms and phrases
Antonio Arragon Bass Bassanio beauty Bellario Belmont blood bond casket character choose Christian Colchis comic court criticism Cymbeline daughter doth Dover Wilson dramatic ducats Duke Elizabethan English Exeunt eyes fair Falstaff father fool forfeit fortune give gold Gratiano hath heart heaven humour husband Jew of Malta justice lady Laomedon Laun Launcelot lines live look Lorenzo and Jessica lover married master means Merchant of Venice mercy merry mind Morocco Nerissa night passion play plot Portia pound of flesh pray Prince quibble revenge ring Romantic Comedy Salan Salar Salerio says sense Shakespeare Shakespearian Comedy ships Shylock Solarino soul speak speech spirit stage Stopford Brooke story suitors swear sweet T.S. Eliot thee thing thou three thousand ducats tragedy tragic trial scene true Tubal usury Venetian wife William Shakespeare words young