"Don't judge a book by it's
cover"... When first meeting someone for the first time it takes the
brain less than 1/10th of a second to judge them. Even though some people
seem cruel at first it's all for a reason good or bad, either it's because they
had a rough past or had a bad experience. Merchant of Venice by William
Shakespeare is about judgement, greed and racism and how although you think you
may understand someone, there is always more too it.
Things aren't always how they seem, just like how
you may think that someone is nice but really they aren't.
"Appearances can be deceptive. The world is always taken in by
ornament." Shylock a rich moneylender is portrayed as a devious
bloodthirsty man, but as the story goes on it reveals that he is this way
because he was always treated with hatred and just wanted revenge. He
suffered this whole time but all that was seen was the times of him being
cruel. "All that glitters is not gold." Just because
something looks like it's the truth and seems like it is, there is always that
chance that it isn't. Shlock always seemed like a very powerful man
because of the money, and everyone knows that if you have money you have power
but there was that small chance that the money and power wouldn't be enough...
and it wasn't. So you next time you find yourself judging someone, stop
because you probably don't even know much about that person.
Racism; it means prejudice, discrimination, or
antagonism directed against someone of a
different race. "I am a Jew. Hath
not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions,
senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the
same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed
and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick
us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you
poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not
revenge?" What’s on the inside counts, not the person’s race or
the way they look on the outside, Antonio
and Shylock always judge each other based off of each other’s
race. Just because Shylock is Jewish Antonio thinks he is hastier and greedy
and vise versa. But to many times people discriminate others because of
their type of race, if their black or white or what cultures they believe
in. "Which one is the merchant and which one is the Jew?"
In the real world calling someone by his or her race is racist, but it is exactly what Portia does. She refers to Shylock as a Jew
instead of the prosecutor or another more professional term instead of the
race of the person. Even though this is the repetitive theme it goes
to show that you can't be quick to come to conclusions and can't
judge people by something as little as their race.
Money like said before is
power, and back then power was everything. "When I say
"a good man," you must understand that I mean he is financially
sound." The only thing that mattered was money which led to power and so,
it caused everyone to become greedy. Everyone only wanted more
and more money just like Shylock; he was a moneylender and the bond that
he wrote would give him more money then he lent out, making him a
profit. "When you remove my source of income.
You take my life when you take away the means whereby I earn my
living." In Shylock's life all that mattered was his money, if
he had a lot of money he was happy, and so when he lost the
court case which made him give up his money and belongings he was
powerless and had no point in life. Even though Shylock started out
looking like devious person in the end he came out looking a little more
promising. Things ended like they should've started, Shylock
humbled and everyone else more successful (financially
and spiritually).
In the end it showed the theme of Merchant
of Venice that it was about greed, judgments, and racism and that no
matter how a person looks or what they are that you should never judge them
because you may not know everything about them. Also that
just because you may be rich you should never just want more and more
money because then you are going to end up like Shylock... a broken man.
You can't ever tell what a book holds on the inside just like you
can't tell what a person holds on the inside and so, don't ever
make pre-judgments before you know what the person is like; because
who knows that person you thought was cruel and ruthless may have
just lost their loved one...
