Themes in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice

The Merchant of Venice is a play by William Shakespeare that tells the story of a merchant called Antonio and a moneylender called Shylock.

Themes are the main ideas that appear repeatedly in a play. Some of the important themes in The Merchant of Venice are:

• Money - the significance of wealth and how it can affect people and relationships.

• Justice - the idea of what is fair and how this can differ from person to person.

• Love - romantic love, family relationships and the love between friends feature in the play.

• Prejudice - many characters are prejudiced against Shylock because of his Jewish faith.

Shakespeare often uses similar themes across his plays. For example, the theme of love is also important in Romeo and Juliet as well as in Much Ado About Nothing.

Money plays an important role in the play and causes lots of issues. Even the title, which refers to Antonio being a merchant, tells the audience that he makes money by trading.

At the start of the play, Antonio’s friend Bassanio does not have enough money to visit Portia as a potential suitor. He asks Antonio for help, which leads Antonio to take his ill-fated loan from Shylock.

Shylock is presented as greedy and obsessed with money because he charges high interest rates on his loans. This is an antisemitic view of Jewish people. On the other hand, when Jessica steals his ring he is more upset because it was given to him by his wife before she died rather than because of how much money it is worth.

The play makes the audience consider what is right and what is wrong. Antonio thinks that Shylock is wrong and greedy to charge such high rates of interest on loans. On the other hand, Shylock believes that Antonio only charges low interest rates to take business away from him. Shylock believes that Antonio does this because he is antisemitic.

Shylock is given the chance to have his loan repaid, twice the original amount, but he still wants Antonio’s flesh. Shylock thinks this is just because it honours the contract that Antonio signed, although Shylock is also motivated by a hatred for Antonio.

Antonio is resigned to his fate because he willingly signed the contract, and agrees to give Shylock a pound of his flesh.

Portia and Antonio punish Shylock by taking away his money and pressuring him to convert to Christianity. They see this as just and fair because Shylock wanted to kill Antonio. Shylock sees this as unjust and thinks it is enough that he is being denied the money owed to him under the contract. He sees the pressure to convert to Christianity as an unfair attack on his Jewish faith.

There are lots of different types of love in the play. Love between friends is shown between Portia and Nerissa, as they talk about everything together. Antonio and Bassanio are also good friends. Antonio is even willing to risk his life to help Bassanio marry Portia.

Bassanio and Portia are in love with each other, and Portia is thrilled when Bassanio chooses the correct casket and can propose to her.

Lorenzo and Jessica, Shylock’s daughter, also fall in love - he helps her to run away from her father, and the two get married.

All of this love creates a clear contrast with the hatred in the play, mainly that between Antonio and Shylock.

There is prejudice towards Shylock because of his Jewish identity. This is antisemitism. It is strongly implied that Antonio dislikes Shylock because he is Jewish. He often refers to Shylock as “the Jew” and pressures him to convert to Christianity at the end of the play.

Antisemitism was common in Shakespeare’s time. It was often based on misguided religious beliefs such as Jewish people being held responsible for the death of Jesus. Hurtful and false ideas around Jews being obsessed with money and having an evil influence on society were also common. Sometimes, antisemitism resulted in Jewish people facing restrictions, being banished or murdered.

Another example of prejudice is the way women are treated differently to men. Portia has her life controlled by her late father and cannot choose who she marries. This was common in Shakespeare’s time when women did not have the same rights as men. Read more about women in Shakespeare’s England.