The Merchant of Venice

Much of Act II fits into the form of the Shakespearean romantic comedy. These scenes merely hint at the broader conflict between Shylock and Antonio, as Salarino hears rumors that one of the merchant’s ships may have gone aground in the English Channel. The action focuses on Portia’s failed suitors and Jessica’s plot to rob her father and run off with Lorenzo.

Even in these scenes, however, the play’s more serious themes emerge. It is notable, for example, that the only reason Launcelot and Jessica provide for wanting to escape Shylock is his Jewish heritage. They do not attribute any specific acts of cruelty to Shylock. Rather, Launcelot’s desire to flee is largely rooted in Christian piety and his fear of holy retribution for serving “the Devil.” Meanwhile, Jessica’s attitude is that of a rebellious teen, bored of the tedium of living with her father. Although Elizabethan audiences would have welcomed Jessica’s conversion to Christianity, she appears far more animated by the excitement of running off with Lorenzo than about Jesus. This is underscored by the greedy relish with which she robs Shylock—hardly a Christian attribute. After dropping more than enough riches out the window to pay for safe passage out of Venice, Jessica lingers to steal even greater sums from her father, telling Lorenzo, “I will make fast the doors and gild myself / With some more ducats, and be with you straight” (2.6.51-52).

This hypocrisy of Christians and Christian converts is another major theme of the play, one that is hinted at by its frequent references to false appearances. The entire casket scheme in Belmont is based around looking past appearances, for it is the ugly lead casket that is the key to winning Portia’s hand. The princes of Arragon and Morocco both fail to see past the glimmering surfaces of the gold and silver caskets, yet it is the latter’s failure that holds greater thematic resonance. Aware of Europe’s racist attitudes toward North Africans, the prince of Morocco tells Portia, “Mislike me not for my complexion [...] 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). The prince specifically entreats her to look past his dark skin to see that his blood runs as red as any White man’s, if not redder. Yet he is unable to follow his own advice, choosing the gold casket only to find a skull inside.

For Portia’s part, she too cannot look past appearances, sighing in relief after his incorrect selection, “Let all of his complexion choose me so” (2.7.87). While Portia’s racism is as common to 16th-century Europe as anti-Semitism, it is worth pointing out that Portia is herself oppressed, deprived of agency by her deceased father’s ludicrous plan for determining her husband. Women are afforded so few rights in her society that “the will of a living daughter [is] curbed by the will of a dead father” (1.2.24-25). Trapped in her father’s patriarchal schemes, Portia exercises her will against other marginalized individuals, including the prince of Morocco and later Shylock. This cycle of dehumanization emerges throughout the play, particularly in Acts III and IV.

Finally, the prince of Morocco’s reference to his blood is the first of many references to this motif. In the following act, it will become central to Shylock’s famous “If you prick us, do we not bleed?” speech. For both the prince and Shylock, their blood is evidence of the humanity they share with White Christian in-groups and an assertion of their personhood in a society that does everything in its power to marginalize them. Blood is also alluded to when Shylock, on his way to meet Bassanio for dinner, tells Jessica, “But yet I’ll go in hate, to feed upon / The prodigal Christian” (2.5.15-16). This may be a joking reference to one of the most hateful and grotesque anti-Semitic conspiracies in Western history: the blood libel. Rumors that Jews engaged in the ritualized murder of Christian children for the purpose of drinking their blood thrived in Europe, at least since the Crusades of the 12th century. The rumor led to frequent attacks against Jews, including the notorious Clifford’s Tower massacre in York in the year 1190 which left 150 Jews dead. By making a flippant reference to this anti-Semitic canard, Shylock relishes in jokingly embracing the stigma foisted upon him by society, a dynamic that reemerges later in the play.