"Merchant of Venice" Partner Work

Partners: Bradson Serikawa, Kylan Tomita, Brianne Hoggan

1.)   The play opens with Antonio, the merchant, admitting that he is sad, but not knowing why.  Think of times when you’ve been sad.  Have you always understood exactly why, or has your sadness sometimes seemed strange to you?  Explain.

Yes sadness has seemed strange to all of us before and we don’t always understand why.  One possibility is that say your best friend is depressed and whenever you talk to them they talk back to you in a dismal or heavy-hearted tone. With them having that kind of attitude,  their negative feelings will eventually rub off on you.  Another situation is if you live in an area where the weather is always gloomy and you just automatically feel this wave of sadness wash over you whenever you look outside.  There isn’t really any reason for your sadness it is just kind of like an instinct.

2.)   In Shakespeare’s time, lending money for interest was called “usury” and was generally considered immoral.  How have attitudes changed since then?

Since Shakespeare’s time attitudes have changed drastically.  One reason being that

money back then was scarce and hard to come by. So it only makes sense to try and get

more when given the chance.  Doing this was considered immoral, but back then you did

what needed to be done, and getting more money from less was one way to do it.  But, in the present day money is so abundant that if you decide to allow money to be borrowed only for an outrageous interest rate then the person interested would probably go to a much more convenient place to get money or would just find someone else.  Also, nowadays people’s point of view of money has changed and so coming across a person who would do the same as Shakespeare would be less common, and just shows how people’s attitudes toward this has changed a ton since Shakespeare's time.

3.)   Think of the recent banking crisis and the state of today’s economy.  Do you think it’s all right to lend someone a large amount of money based on their word and reputation even though they may not have any concrete evidence of being able to pay you back?

I think in todays economy it all depends on how well you trust that person, and your relationship with he or she. In today’s economy money is pretty tight, things are a lot more expensive and in most cases the amount of money you earn isn’t the best. If you are going to lend out money you should make sure that you can still make a living based on what you have left. Therefore you should only lend out money if you trust the persons word and what they are going to do with the money. Personally if someone didn’t have concrete proof that they can pay me back I would be pretty iffy about whether I will or won’t lend out the money, because in this economy things can go downhill very quickly.

4.)   This play includes romantic love stories and also ethnic and religious conflict.  How well do you expect these elements to blend?

We expect these three topics to blend although not necessarily smoothly at all times. The fact is these topics are seen in our everyday life.  Whether it involves people falling in love, or religious wars in the Middle East, to ethnic conflicts here in the United States, these three topics blend  and make up the news of our daily lives.  These topics are relatable because we experience each everyday.