Merchant of Venice

The Mayor of Casterbridge Measure for Measure The Merchant of Venice Middlemarch... 

The number three, common in fairy tales, is often associated with the figure of the fool or dwarf who tells his lord three truths or pays him three compliments (Tietze-Conrat 13). Moreover, the tale could be linked with the three fates, or three spinners, that Freud discusses in his essay The Theme of the Three Caskets. Freud notes that the choice between three ineluctably ends with the third element—death lead (the third casket of The Merchant of Venice), or here, Rumpelstiltskin s name or the girl s spinning. Silas Marner is also organized around threes. I have already invoked Kofman s compelling discussion of the apparent choice in Shakespeare s comedy as masking the fact that metals are, materially, ambivalent—that is, they are all subject to potential reverse transformation. 

Kofman discusses Freud s interpretation of The Merchant of Venice in his essay The Theme of the Three Caskets. Whereas the first two suitors in Shakespeare s play allow themselves to be fooled by appearances—that is, they choose the gold and silver caskets—Freud s error is precisely the opposite. He only cares about the casket of lead. Kofman writes ... 

Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice in Great Books of the Western World. Volume 26. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., Chicago. 1952. 

We have an able demonstration of the Zohar s expression of Liberality in Shakespeare s Merchant of Venice (1596). Portia, the white maiden of Mercury discovered in lead, impersonates the civil doctor of law, Balthasar, to argue the famous message of Mercy in Judgment to Shylock the Jew " ... 

In Chapter 8, we saw that in Harran the Temple of Saturn was hexagonal and built of blaek stone. The cult image was of lead. Its throne was on the highest dais, which had nine steps. The mineral of lead is certainly appropriate for the Saturn Regime or Dry method. Chapter 7 mentioned that Shakespeare eoncealed Portia, the Virgin of Merchant of Venice, in lead. Isis eolumn at Nysa in Arabia also recorded ... 

A canon of Renaissance dramatists was beginning to be formed, one in which rebelliousness - contrasted with Shakespeare s image as law-abiding citizen - was an important criterion for revival. However much biographical criticism has been decried, it is clear from the case of Marlowe that being able to associate dramatic works with a distinctive personality - especially one with a criminal record - helps to ensure a place in the theatrical repertory. Marlowe is often slotted into a Shakespeare season for comparison purposes The Jew of Malta with The Merchant of Venice, Edward II with Richard... 

A parody on William Shakespeare s The Merchant of Venice (Act IV, Scene I), by H. N. Cheng... 

Paul Shakespeare s epistles include two letters to the Venetians concerning circumcision Merchant of Venice and Othello), a very early letterto the Ephesians on marriage Comedy of Errors, set in Ephesus), and a pair of later, deeper, and more Corinthian commentaries on marriage, liberty, and the law Measure for... 

WiUiam Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, edited by M. Moelwyn Merchant (Harmondsworth Penguin, 1967), 3.1.35-6. AU further quotations from the play wUl be taken from this edition and reference wUl be given in the text. 

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