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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)

809 statements
160 feature instances
143 referencing feature instances

The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	type	TVTItem
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	label	The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	page	TheMerchantOfVenice
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	comment	As the play is Older Than Steam and most twists in Shakespeare's plots are now widely known, all spoilers on this page are unmarked.The most excellent Historie of the Merchant of Venice. With the extreame crueltie of Shylocke the Iewe towards the sayd Merchant, in cutting a iust pound of his flesh: and the obtayning of Portia by the choyse of three chests is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to be written between 1596 and 1598. It is one of his most controversial, owing to its treatment of Judaism and antisemitism in Venetian society.Bassanio is of noble blood, but has spent all his money and is deeply in debt. His solution is to marry wealthy heiress Portia, whom he has visited before and wooed successfully. But his suit itself will require substantial funds, so he approaches his close friend Antonio, the eponymous merchant, who has lent him money in the past.Antonio's wares are out at sea, and he has no money on hand. But he's devoted to Bassanio and is eager to lend him anything he can get, and plans to use his reliable reputation to borrow money somewhere else. Bassanio finds Shylock, a wealthy Jewish moneylender.Shylock hates Antonio, partly for being a Christian, but mainly because Antonio publicly insults him and spits on him for being a usurer. So he agrees to the loan, and won't even charge interest—but if the debt isn't repaid by the specified date, he gets a pound of Antonio's flesh. Antonio's ships are set to return a full month before the money is due, so, despite Bassanio's entreaties not to, he signs the bond in a combination of antagonism, suicidal bravado, and desire to prove his devotion to Bassanio.Bassanio returns to Belmont to woo Portia, but he's got to get in line; half the single men in Europe want to marry her. Her father's will decrees that her suitors must choose from three caskets: one silver, one gold and one lead, as a test of character. The princes of Morocco and Aragon choose the first two and are sent away unhappy. Bassanio chooses the lead one, which is of course right. All is happiness as Portia agrees to marry him right away.But during the celebrations, Bassanio receives a letter from Antonio: all his ships have been wrecked, leaving him unable to repay the loan. To make matters worse, Shylock's daughter Jessica has eloped with Bassanio's (Christian) friend Lorenzo, and taken most of her father's money with her—so Shylock is royally pissed off and out for revenge. Antonio has been arrested and awaits his trial.Seeing Bassanio's grief at Antonio's plight, and impressed by the deep love between the two, Portia insists that her new husband return to Venice with three times the value of the bond (from Portia's inheritance) in the hope of dissuading Shylock. Unbeknownst to Bassanio, she follows him to Venice and disguises herself as a young male lawyer to aid in Antonio's trial...The Merchant of Venice is officially classed as a comedy. While during its original production it would have been seen as pretty funny (with a pantomime Jew as a villain who gets his comeuppance in the end), it was a comedy in the classic sense of having a happy ending, rather than the more modern humourous one. These days, it tends to be played and interpreted more as a straight drama, focusing on the antisemitic prejudices against Shylock.
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	fetched	2024-02-15T04:15:25Z
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_11187387	type	Gentile Jew-Chaser
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_11187387	comment	Gentile Jew-Chaser: Lorenzo has it bad for the Jewish Jessica, although he (and all the other guys) seem to regard Jessica's lovable qualities as existing in spite of her Jewishness.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_111f14e	type	Proverbial Wisdom
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_111f14e	comment	Proverbial Wisdom: Portia really likes speaking in proverbs, a habit which seemingly passed on to her servant Nerissa. In contrast to modern views, in Elizabethan era the abundant usage of proverbs was considered a sign of wisdom and sharp wit; besides, it is widely believed that the character of Portia was based on Queen Elizabeth, who was very much fond of proverbs herself.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_121b3725	type	Age Lift
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_121b3725	comment	Age Lift: Some productions attempt to flesh out the Prince of Aragon by portraying him as an adolescent schoolboy who is accompanied by his mother and his tutors when he arrives at Portia's home to attempt her Engagement Challenge.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_1282bf4f	type	No Celebrities Were Harmed
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_1282bf4f	comment	No Celebrities Were Harmed: Some scholars argue that Shylock was inspired by Roderigo Lopez, the Portuguese "New Christian" (converted Jew) who served as Royal Physician to Queen Elizabeth, and whose trial and execution were tinged with anti-semitism despite Lopez's insistence that he was innocent and a Christian.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_12dc4d97	type	Greedy Jew
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_12dc4d97	comment	Greedy Jew: Shylock is a Trope Codifier in the western tradition, but in hindsight is actually a subversion. Within the play, Shylock is framed as a grudge-holding Loan Shark by other characters, but it's clear that he hates Antonio because the latter is an open anti-semite who abused him even when Shylock did nothing to him. Throughout the story he's motivated by vengeance, not greed, offering the initial loan to Antonio without interest to entice him to risk his life, and even demanding Antonio's flesh instead of accepting an offer of three times his money back! The only time he's really treated like a stereotypical greedy Jew is when Jessica robs him to elope with Lorenzo and he bemoans the loss of his ducats as much as the loss of his daughter.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_12e2a068	type	Alone Among the Couples
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_12e2a068	comment	Alone Among the Couples: Antonio's eventual fate, with Bassanio/Portia, Gratiano/Nerissa, and Lorenzo/Jessica happily(?) paired off. This is the presumed fate of the Prince of Morocco and the Prince of Aragon. By failing the Engagement Challenge they have doomed themselves to a life of celibacy.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_141a6acb	type	Madness Mantra
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_141a6acb	comment	Madness Mantra:
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_14ed6ab7	type	Does This Remind You of Anything?
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_14ed6ab7	comment	The rings Portia and Nerissa use to entrap their new husbands, like rings in general in Shakespeare's time, are symbolic of female genitalia, in addition to their more obvious function as symbols of marital loyalty.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_15b2cab3	type	Tempting Fate
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_15b2cab3	comment	Tempting Fate Antonio's general attitude while signing the flesh-bond. Bassanio at the beginning of the ring plot: During the trial scene: of course Shylock's impassioned declaration, "My deeds upon my head! I crave the law," comes back to bite him.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_1649e053	type	Your Mom
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_1649e053	comment	Your Mom: Launcelot comes up with a whole bunch of these when he and Jessica discuss her parentage.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_177a6464	type	Genre Shift
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_177a6464	comment	Genre Shift: The first three acts are a mix of drama and comedy split almost evenly between the Portia and Shylock plots, while the fourth act is straight drama (despite some snarking from Portia and Nerissa) and the fifth act is almost farcical.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_1a3a91dd	type	Say My Name
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_1a3a91dd	comment	Say My Name: Shylock says his daughter Jessica's name a lot in their first scene. One gets the feeling that he cares for her, but he's somewhat overprotective and possessive. "What, Jessica!" â€” "What, Jessica!" â€” "Why, Jessica, I say!" â€” "Jessica, my girl." â€” "Hear you me, Jessica."
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_1bf0adc6	type	Did You Think I Can't Feel?
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_1bf0adc6	comment	Did You Think I Can't Feel?: One of the most famous examples:
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_1c79ae8c	type	Those Two Guys
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_1c79ae8c	comment	Those Two Guys: Antonio and Bassanio's two friends Salerino and Solanio, who are always together.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_1dfbbf31	type	Heterosexual Life-Partners
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_1dfbbf31	comment	Heterosexual Life-Partners: Antonio and Bassanio... Possibly. These days the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon itself portrays them as being in a romantic relationship, with Portia's full consent and approval.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_1e7487cd	type	Breaking the Fourth Wall
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_1e7487cd	comment	Breaking the Fourth Wall: Launcelot does this pretty shamelessly, actually asking the audience to pay attention while he plays this awesome prank on his dad!
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_1e98a5bc	type	Upper-Class Equestrian
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_1e98a5bc	comment	Upper-Class Equestrian: One of Portia's unseen suitors, a Neapolitan prince, does nothing but talk about his horse and he is exceptionally proud of the fact that he can shoe it himself. Portia opines that this skill set may be the result of the prince's mother having an affair with a blacksmith.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_237404cc	type	Ironic Echo
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_237404cc	comment	Ironic Echo: Gratiano starts jubilantly quoting Shylock after the tables turn in the court scene. Since he's the Audience Surrogate and not really playing by the rules of drama, this quickly turns into an Overly Long Gag.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_266a9dd6	type	Heel–Faith Turn
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_266a9dd6	comment	Heelâ€“Faith Turn: Equivocally. Part of Shylock's punishment is a forced conversion to Christianity, but it's hard to take his apparent compliance at face value.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_26ac510e	type	Mythology Gag
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_26ac510e	comment	Mythology Gag: Lorenzo and Jessica's plotline approaches a downright parody of Shakespeare's earlier Romeo and Juliet. They even have a balcony scene.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_26f924ef	type	Court Jester
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_26f924ef	comment	Court Jester: Launcelot Gobbo, who may become a literal jester during the course of the play.note After he's given his special "guarded" livery, his punning becomes more deliberate and he's repeatedly referred to as "the fool". Either way, he tells Jessica that she's "damned" and complains that converting Jews will raise the price of pork. Nobody seems to him too seriously.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_29d26001	type	Spoiled Sweet
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_29d26001	comment	Spoiled Sweet: Portia is the richest woman in the area (see Arbitrarily Large Bank Account), but she's also as kind as she is wealthy. When she hears that Antonio—who she's never even met—is in financial trouble, she offers triple what he owes to get him off the hook; later, she dons the guise of a male lawyer to save him.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_2a090d00	type	Lampshade Hanging
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_2a090d00	comment	You'll find that the Christian protagonists do not act with any of the Christian values they so preach. This is lampshaded by Shylock in his famous monologue.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_2c1f1138	type	He Who Fights Monsters
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_2c1f1138	comment	He Who Fights Monsters: In the narrative, Shylock is shown to have legitimate reasons to hate Antonio but it also portrays him as an antagonist for demanding "A pound of flesh" as penance for not paying back the loan. Shylock explains how his actions are merely a response to persecution and abuse and not of genuine malice like everyone believes. It's understandable why he goes to such extreme methods to prove his point, even though it's far from justifying Antonio's death.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_319e4a2f	type	Even Evil Has Standards
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_319e4a2f	comment	Even Evil Has Standards: Even Shylock is taken aback in the courtroom when Bassanio and Gratiano declare that they would sacrifice their wives to save Antonio.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_31ae6183	type	Got Me Doing It
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_31ae6183	comment	Got Me Doing It: Portia's servant and friend Nerissa adopts many of her mistress' traits, including her sharp wit, her adventurousness... and her love for proverbs, which was considered a sign of wisdom in Elizabethan era.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_31fbee81	type	Money Dumb
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_31fbee81	comment	Money Dumb: The formerly wealthy Bassanio's absolute inability to manage his own money is what kick-starts the plot. He has frittered away all of his inheritance and is forced to take out a loan.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_326a44a1	type	Create Your Own Villain
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_326a44a1	comment	Create Your Own Villain: Antonio and Shylock have been at loggerheads because Antonio made repeated anti-semitic remarks to him and mocked him for being greedy simply because he accrues interest on his loans (something forbidden by Christian law). This makes what should have been a mild grudge into a psychopathic obsession for Shylock:
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_3283f169	type	Coming and Going
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_3283f169	comment	Coming and Going: It's subtle, but the correlation between sex and death is an important underlying theme. Look carefully at the language in Antonio's Final Speech—and remember, Shakespeare often used die as an Unusual Euphemism.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_3322dd48	type	Hollywood Law
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_3322dd48	comment	Hollywood Law: A contract that gives you the right to murder another person is not enforceable by law. This was true in Elizabethan times as well—though of course, the play is set in Venice (the codes of theater forbade representation of the Elizabethan court system and other institutions).
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_373e2b9f	type	Murder the Hypotenuse
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_373e2b9f	comment	Murder the Hypotenuse: Inverted. Instead of letting Antonio die, thus clearing Bassanio of all his outstanding debts (both fiscal and romantic), Portia saves his life. As sacrificing himself for Bassanio seems to be all Antonio truly wants, this salvation is Portia's way of establishing control over Antonio and Bassanio's relationship—effectively neutering the hypotenuse.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_396e1c2a	type	Face Death with Dignity
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_396e1c2a	comment	Face Death with Dignity: Starting from the line, "I'll follow him no more with bootless prayers," Antonio is bent on doing this. Unless, of course, he secretly wants to pay the bond.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_3d455888	type	Then Let Me Be Evil
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_3d455888	comment	Then Let Me Be Evil: Summed up with a memorable line, spoken in response to Antonio's pleading:
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_3d5c5deb	type	Flat Character
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_3d5c5deb	comment	Flat Character: Apart from being a haughty nobleman, the Prince of Aragon doesn't have much in the way of a backstory or other characterization.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_3f7a958b	type	Secret Test of Character
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_3f7a958b	comment	Secret Test of Character Sure, you can have the ring that my wife (to whom you bear absolutely no resemblance) made me swear to never take off! Bassanio nearly passed until Antonio persuaded him, which (alongside his earlier remark that he'd give everything of hers to save Antonio) shows Portia that she is not as important to Bassanio as he'd like her to think. The caskets are a test of character too, though you would have to be as dense as mud (or, apparently, as dense as a prince) to not spot that. Launcelot pretends to be somebody else and reporting that "Master Launcelot" is dead when conversing with his nearly-blind father Old Gobbo, to detect if his father can still recognize him with the little sight he still has, and tells him that Margery is his wife and Launcelot's mother, and he is alive and well.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_3fca462c	type	Deus ex Machina
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_3fca462c	comment	Deus ex Machina In-universe: When the laws of Venice are at a loss to save Antonio, a mysterious young lawyer suddenly appears and saves the day. The audience knows it's Portia, but to the court it seems like a miracle. In the final scene, Portia suddenly announces to Antonio that three of his supposedly lost merchant ships have returned and he is no longer bankrupt. No justification is given for how she found this out when he doesn't even know yet.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_3fe2b13f	type	Ungrateful Bastard
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_3fe2b13f	comment	Ungrateful Bastard: Jessica not only runs away from home and abandons her father to a solitary life, she also robs him of much of his money and to twist the knife further, allegedly sells a ring he gave her that belonged to his wife—her mother—for a monkey. It's implied that Shylock might be an Abusive Parent, but that's still a pretty heartless list of crimes to commit against anyone, let alone your own father.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_407d3e6d	type	Morton's Fork
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_407d3e6d	comment	Morton's Fork: Launcelot describes being tempted by the devil to run away from Shylock. He then reasons that Shylock is "the very devil incarnation", so whether he runs or not, he'll be getting bossed around by the devil. Later, he breaks it down for Jessica: she's either going to hell because her father is a Jew, or else she's not really his daughter, in which case she's going to hell because her mother was unfaithful.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_40cc0c7e	type	Bittersweet Ending
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_40cc0c7e	comment	Bittersweet Ending: In many adaptations, including the Al Pacino film version. Almost everyone is married and happy, but Shylock has lost everything, both material and spiritual, and Antonio is alone, with his best friend (whom he seems to have spent years pining for) married and living his own life. The film goes one step further and suggests that Shylock and Antonio are not so different. Jessica often gets one of these, where it's hinted that she misses her father.note The 2017 Bell Shakespeare performance in particular actually ends the play with her breaking down in hysterical tears of grief in Lorenzo's arms when she realises what she has brought on her father and Lorenzo remorsefully tearing up the deed that entitles him to inherit all of Shylock's estate on his death. Shylock's own ending is somewhat improved when you consider the Values Dissonance (the play was written in the Elizabethan era, after all) and realize that Antonio was actually trying to save Shylock's soul when he asked the court to force Shylock to convert to Christianity.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_4192763e	type	Malaproper
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_4192763e	comment	Malaproper: Both the Gobbos constantly use the wrong words.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_434d893c	type	Funny Foreigner
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_434d893c	comment	Funny Foreigner: All of Portia's suitors, the Italian Bassanio excepted. She and Nerissa spend most of their first scene mocking the suitors with stereotypical criticisms of their nationalities.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_453871ec	type	What Could Have Been
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_453871ec	comment	In a comic-relief scene, Lorenzo and Launcelot are bantering and it turns out that Launcelot got a Moorish woman pregnant. Launcelot makes a joke about it, and it's never mentioned again. A few scholars have suspected that the line is the final remnant of a lost subplot.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_48c99e19	type	Death by Adaptation
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_48c99e19	comment	Death by Adaptation: Shylock sometimes falls victim to this when directors want to turn him into an all-out tragic figure; one notable production had him stab himself upon exit from the court scene.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_4b1afa0d	type	Spiteful Spit
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_4b1afa0d	comment	Spiteful Spit: Shylock notes that Antonio would literally spit on him as a way of showing contempt.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_4d044580	type	Motive Rant
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_4d044580	comment	Motive Rant: Shylock's famous "Hath not a Jew eyes?" speech.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_4d395e81	type	Harem Seeker
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_4d395e81	comment	Harem Seeker: At one point Launcelot reads his palm and discovers that he's going to have fifteen wives. He feels cheated; he wanted at least twenty.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_4e20ce40	type	Returning the Wedding Ring
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_4e20ce40	comment	Returning the Wedding Ring: Inverted. Portia and Nerissa give rings to their new husbands as symbols of their love and fidelity, then disguise themselves as young men and trick their husbands into giving them the rings. Later, they confront their husbands and revel in their stammering excuses before revealing that they were the young men all along. Portia then returns her ring to Bassanio (through Antonio, oddly) as a symbol for their renewed commitment to each other—though it's also a deliberate power play.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_50b05d30	type	Disproportionate Retribution
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_50b05d30	comment	Disproportionate Retribution: Shylock decides to enforce the terms of the loan in the most gruesome way possible because of Jessica's elopement with Lorenzo, which he wrongly assumes Antonio had a hand in. Antonio is a douchebag to Shylock, there's no denying, but that's hardly a capital crime.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_51561f43	type	Hurricane of Euphemisms
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_51561f43	comment	Hurricane of Euphemisms:
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_517f8d71	type	Delusions of Eloquence
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_517f8d71	comment	Delusions of Eloquence: Launcelot Gobbo and his father, Old Gobbo try to use vocabulary that's beyond their level of education:
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_54bbe8ae	type	Blind Mistake
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_54bbe8ae	comment	Blind Mistake: Old Gobbo is half blind. As a result, he fails to recognize his own son and then mistakes his son's hair for his beard.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_5941d75	type	Beta Couple
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_5941d75	comment	Beta Couples: Nerissa and Gratiano and Lorenzo and Jessica, to Official Couple Portia and Bassanio.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_59e5940e	type	AnimalMotif
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_59e5940e	comment	Animal Motif: Shylock has been frequently compared to a dog as an insult and he even calls himself a dog to threaten Antonio and his friends.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_5fcedca	type	Big Eater
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_5fcedca	comment	Big Eater: Launcelot, according to Shylock, is noted for gormandizing, and being a huge feeder.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_603f1a80	type	Pragmatic Adaptation
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_603f1a80	comment	Pragmatic Adaptation: The film version starring Al Pacino as Shylock opens with a montage to illustrate how the Jewish community is appallingly mistreated enough for Shylock to want revenge.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_605cf3f	type	Something Only They Would Say
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_605cf3f	comment	Something Only They Would Say: Launcelot identifies himself to his father when he mentions that Old Gobbo's wife and Launcelot's mother is Margery. Old Gobbo promptly recognizes Launcelot as his son.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_6106d967	type	Off the Table
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_6106d967	comment	Off the Table: Both Shylock's refusal to take three times the value of the bond after it has defaulted and Balthazar's refusal to let him take the money once he's been refused the pound of flesh.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_619bc34b	type	High-Class Gloves
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_619bc34b	comment	Gloves in Shakespeare's time held a manifold significance. Like rings, they carried sexual connotations. They were status symbols; and as such a pair of gloves was a common courtship gift, so came to symbolize romantic initiative. And, of course, gloves and gauntlets were used to issue challenges. So it's very interesting that disguised Portia, directly after preventing Antonio from sacrificing himself for Bassanio, commands:
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_62df92d4	type	Involuntary Charity Donation
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_62df92d4	comment	Involuntary Charity Donation: After the trial gets underway, Shylock refuses reimbursement from Bassanio, reminding Venice of its unchangeable laws of precedent. Judge Balthasar (Portia in disguise) decides that Shylock is entitled to the one pound of flesh, but no blood can be shed and it cannot be even the smallest part higher or lower than exactly one pound or he forfeits his lands and goods. Afterwards, the court finds that because he sought Antonio's life, one half of Shylock's money will be awarded to Antonio and the other half will go to pay the Venetian treasury. Antonio urges the court to allow Shylock to keep half of his fortune, with the other half to be granted to Lorenzo and Jessica as a trust fund. In addition, Shylock must convert from Judaism to Christianity.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_680bb6b1	type	Hot-Blooded
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_680bb6b1	comment	Hot-Blooded: Gratiano is sometimes portrayed this way. At any rate, he's the most animated of the male cast. The Prince of Morocco is a very passionate man who seemingly lives for conquest and battle.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_6849cc47	type	Where da White Women At?
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_6849cc47	comment	Where da White Women At?: One of the noblemen who tries to win Portia is the Prince of Morocco. She's relieved when he chooses the wrong casket and gets sent home, not least because of his dark skin. Later in the play, it turns out that Launcelot's been having some kind of offscreen affair with a "Moor" (and gotten her pregnant).
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_69c5fb9e	type	Recursive Crossdressing
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_69c5fb9e	comment	Recursive Crossdressing: Shakespeare was very fond of this trope. Male actors play women—Portia, Nerissa, and Jessica—who disguise themselves as men.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_69f8d6a0	type	Older Than Steam
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_69f8d6a0	comment	Older Than Steam: This play is the first recorded instance of the name "Jessica."
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_6bda9a30	type	Meaningful Name
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_6bda9a30	comment	Meaningful Name Portia is the "port" towards which many merchant-like princes venture in an attempt to claim the "goods", her money and herself. It also implies a "portal" or means to an end, which her riches ultimately render her. She may also have been named after Portia, the beautiful and clever wife of Brutus, to whom Bassanio compares her. The name "Shylock" is possibly derived from shallach, a Hebrew word for "cormorant" which was also used to describe usurers. Regardless of original uses, his constant torment has made him shy, with a tendency to lock his true feelings and opinions away. "Gratiano" means grace, and can also be taken to mean "gratuitous"—his very existence is in excess. "Launcelot" means servant, which is, well, exactly what he is. In some productions his last name, "Gobbo" (Italian for hunchback) is taken as an indication that he has curvature of the spine. His name in the quartos and folios is spelled as "Launcelet" or "little lance", possibly referring to his sharp tongue or his sharp wit . . . or to exactly what you'd imagine. "Nerissa" is Italian for black-haired. Shakespeare may have intended to contrast her, a more traditional Italian beauty, with the exotic, golden-haired Portia. "Jessica," a name Shakespeare coined, is likely meant to invoke the "jesses," or ties, by which captive hawks are secured. "Belmont" means Beautiful Mountain and is viewed as an earthly paradise, the place where the characters are happiest and (literally and figuratively) closest to Heaven. Some of Antonio's ships, according to Salarino, were wrecked on "the Goodwins," which means good friends. "Aragon" sounds similar to the word "arrogant", which is the Prince of Aragon's defining characteristic.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_6f0fd7b8	type	Everyone Loves Blondes
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_6f0fd7b8	comment	Everyone Loves Blondes: Many lines are devoted to describing Portia's beautiful long blonde hair, which makes her seem exotic and desirable contrasted with the black-haired Italian beauties around her. She is however too cunning and sharp to qualify for Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_6fb5cb83	type	I Gave My Word
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_6fb5cb83	comment	I Gave My Word: Shylock claims he swore a solemn oath that he'd have Antonio's heart in revenge for the wrongs done him as his justification for refusing even several times the money he is owed. As they leave her house after failing to win her hand, both the Prince of Morocco and the Prince of Aragon take time to assure Portia that they will keep the oaths that they swore to as a condition of entering the Engagement Challenge.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_72cc2b00	type	The Dividual
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_72cc2b00	comment	The Dividual: Salerio and Solanio. Although their existence as two separate characters is justified (it further isolates Antonio), they are virtually interchangeable.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_7464705c	type	Arc Words
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_7464705c	comment	Arc Words: Content and satisfied recur throughout the play . . . always in situations that make the content itself somewhat doubtful.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_7503483d	type	Original Position Fallacy
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_7503483d	comment	Original Position Fallacy: Portia pulls the gambit variation on Shylock. She pleads for him to choose mercy, but he insists on the Exact Words of the contract, thinking it will bind Antonio to suffer having a hunk of flesh carved out of his chest. Portia then reminds him that it binds him to take a pound, and only a pound, and without taking any blood... which of course is impossible.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_772e049b	type	Maid and Maiden
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_772e049b	comment	Maid and Maiden: Nerissa is the Maid to Portia's Maiden. They both even go undercover together as men and keep the same dynamic. Nerissa is also officially Portia's waiting maid.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_7921ad77	type	Actually, I Am Him
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_7921ad77	comment	Actually, I Am Him: Launcelot approaches his nearly-blind father Old Gobbo, claiming to be a stranger, and eventually telling his father that he's his son, who is alive and well.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_7a0374eb	type	Impoverished Patrician
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_7a0374eb	comment	Impoverished Patrician: Bassanio comes from a noble family, but he has frittered away all his money (and quite a bit more borrowed from Antonio) and now needs to borrow more money to woo Portia, so that he can marry her and use his fortune to pay his debts.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_7aba8180	type	Job Title
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_7aba8180	comment	Job Title: Spoiler: it's about a merchant in Venice.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_7ac5c1de	type	Unishment
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_7ac5c1de	comment	Unishment: It starts to seem that paying the flesh-bond (sacrificing himself for Bassanio) is exactly what Antonio wants. His extreme eagerness to hasten the trial and give Shylock his forfeit goes beyond Face Death with Dignity or Get It Over With.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_7e676cdf	type	Engagement Challenge
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_7e676cdf	comment	Engagement Challenge: Portia's suitors must choose between three caskets to win her hand. If they choose incorrectly, they must leave Belmont, swearing to never again court a woman.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_7fe29ba6	type	Symbolism
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_7fe29ba6	comment	Symbolism: Since this is Shakespeare, any object or motif is pretty much guaranteed to carry plenty of connotations. The rings Portia and Nerissa use to entrap their new husbands, like rings in general in Shakespeare's time, are symbolic of female genitalia, in addition to their more obvious function as symbols of marital loyalty. Gloves in Shakespeare's time held a manifold significance. Like rings, they carried sexual connotations. They were status symbols; and as such a pair of gloves was a common courtship gift, so came to symbolize romantic initiative. And, of course, gloves and gauntlets were used to issue challenges. So it's very interesting that disguised Portia, directly after preventing Antonio from sacrificing himself for Bassanio, commands:
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_805deb6e	type	Small Role, Big Impact
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_805deb6e	comment	Small Role, Big Impact: Lorenzo and Jessica's elopement is what arguably pushes Shylock over the edge.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_8409a385	type	Exactly What It Says on the Tin
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_8409a385	comment	"Launcelot" means servant, which is, well, exactly what he is. In some productions his last name, "Gobbo" (Italian for hunchback) is taken as an indication that he has curvature of the spine. His name in the quartos and folios is spelled as "Launcelet" or "little lance", possibly referring to his sharp tongue or his sharp wit . . . or to exactly what you'd imagine.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_863fa679	type	What Happened to the Mouse?
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_863fa679	comment	What Happened to the Mouse? In a comic-relief scene, Lorenzo and Launcelot are bantering and it turns out that Launcelot got a Moorish woman pregnant. Launcelot makes a joke about it, and it's never mentioned again. A few scholars have suspected that the line is the final remnant of a lost subplot. Solanio disappears completely after Act III (and so does Salarino if he isn't Salerio), with both of them displaced as Antonio's companions once Bassiano and the others return to Venice.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_87e4c9a2	type	Used to Be More Social
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_87e4c9a2	comment	Used to Be More Social: According to Gratiano, Antonio was not always this melancholy. Indeed, he has a loyal following of friends and acquaintances who are just now beginning to get sick of his gloom.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_88fd6847	type	Converting for Love
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_88fd6847	comment	Converting for Love: Jewish Jessica turns to Christianity for Lorenzo.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_890d4ef2	type	Humiliation Conga
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_890d4ef2	comment	Humiliation Conga: At the play's end Shylock has lost, in short order, his daughter, his fortune, his property, and his religion.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_89a17726	type	Spell My Name with an S
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_89a17726	comment	Solanio disappears completely after Act III (and so does Salarino if he isn't Salerio), with both of them displaced as Antonio's companions once Bassiano and the others return to Venice.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_8ace85ef	type	Audience Surrogate
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_8ace85ef	comment	Since he's the Audience Surrogate and not really playing by the rules of drama, this quickly turns into an Overly Long Gag.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_8cbd311b	type	Good Angel, Bad Angel
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_8cbd311b	comment	Good Angel, Bad Angel: Launcelot's comedic moral struggle, in which he parodies morality plays of the time. In the end, he sides with the devil.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_8ed5c6e4	type	Asshole Victim
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_8ed5c6e4	comment	Asshole Victim: Traditionally, Shylock. To modern audiences, often Antonio.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_8ff8d545	type	Kissing Cousins
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_8ff8d545	comment	Kissing Cousins: Debated. Bassanio is referred to once as Antonio's "kinsman" (which could denote any distant family relationship) in the first scene. Such a relationship is never mentioned again, and some scholars believe it to have been a mistake, especially since Bassanio and Antonio are necessarily of different classes.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_8ffd5bdc	type	The Penance
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_8ffd5bdc	comment	The Penance: If Antonio is indeed homosexual, his eagerness for death could be due to guilt, either conscious or subconscious.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_916c72b3	type	Rule of Symbolism
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_916c72b3	comment	There are three significant rings (the two from Portia's ring plot and the one Jessica supposedly exchanges for a monkey), one for each of the three female characters.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_9203bf6	type	Arc Number
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_9203bf6	comment	In the final scene, Portia suddenly announces to Antonio that three of his supposedly lost merchant ships have returned and he is no longer bankrupt. No justification is given for how she found this out when he doesn't even know yet.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_950bbfa7	type	Take a Third Option
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_950bbfa7	comment	Take a Third Option: Instead of running away (thereby committing a sin) or continuing to serve his hated master, Launcelot enlists his father to help him switch jobs.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_97d97c28	type	Revenge Before Reason
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_97d97c28	comment	Revenge Before Reason: In the courtroom scene, Shylock turns down the complete value of the bond—even doubled and doubled again—in favor of his revenge on Antonio. Can be played as a Villainous Breakdown, where the injuries Shylock has suffered are driving him to irrationality.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_97ee273	type	Momma's Boy
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_97ee273	comment	Momma's Boy: In some productions the Prince of Aragon is accompanied by his mother when he arrives at Portia's house to attempt the Engagement Challenge.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_9843be73	type	As You Know
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_9843be73	comment	As You Know:
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_98d3f973	type	Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_98d3f973	comment	Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Launcelot argues that Jessica might not be her father's child (but that, hey, she's damned either way).
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_9bcd82c0	type	Took a Level in Badass
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_9bcd82c0	comment	Took a Level in Badass: Portia, at first the typical love interest, goes on to save the day as the smartest lawyer in Venice.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_9ed90b36	type	Elopement
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_9ed90b36	comment	Elopement: Jessica runs away from her father to marry Lorenzo.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_9f9b5a20	type	Arbitrarily Large Bank Account
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_9f9b5a20	comment	Arbitrarily Large Bank Account: Portia's inheritance. While the rest of the cast is falling over themselves trying to pay back Antonio's bond to Shylock, when Bassanio tells Portia about it, her reaction is "Three thousand ducats? Is that all? Here, give Antonio the money. No, have twice as much. You know what? Just to be on the safe side, let's triple it."
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_a0d9c2f3	type	Final Speech
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_a0d9c2f3	comment	Final Speech: Antonio gets an epic one, directly after Portia asks, "You, merchant, have you anything to say?" Subverted when he doesn't end up dying at all.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_a63fd70f	type	The Promise
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_a63fd70f	comment	The Promise: Antonio swears he will "be racked even to the uttermost" to finance Bassanio's pursuit of Portia. Needless to say, he is.note with a special pun on "racked," as a string of shipwrecks, or wracks, is what undoes him.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_a7c91a10	type	Meaningless Villain Victory
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_a7c91a10	comment	Meaningless Villain Victory: The court finds that Shylock's contract with Antonio is legally binding, so he is entitled to a pound of Antonio's flesh. The court goes on to say that Shylock is not, however, entitled to any of Antonio's blood. Since he couldn't take any flesh without also spilling blood, Shylock's "win" is rendered moot.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_a8217606	type	Sweet Polly Oliver
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_a8217606	comment	Sweet Polly Oliver Jessica dresses as a boy to elope with Lorenzo, with much chagrin. Portia and Nerissa later dress as young men to aid in Antonio's trial, with less.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_ab5eea65	type	Dramatic Irony
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_ab5eea65	comment	Dramatic Irony: Rampant in the courtroom scene, when the audience knows that the mysterious young lawyer Balthazar and his clerk are in fact Portia and Nerissa in disguise. When Antonio implores Bassanio to tell his story to Portia: "And when the tale is told, bid her be judge . . . " She is in fact judging. Slightly later, after Bassanio swears he would sacrifice his wife to save Antonio:
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_acecb17d	type	Chekhov's Skill
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_acecb17d	comment	Portia's skill in doing this is combined with Chekhov's Skill, as she proves clever enough to find an Exact Words loophole in her father's challenge earlier in the play. The rules state that she isn't allowed to tell her would-be suitors which of the three chests contains her portrait...but there's nothing stopping her from getting some local musicians to give him a hint. She orders them to play a song that gives away the trick of the Secret Test of Character; Bassanio quickly figures out the clue and chooses correctly.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_b53077b3	type	Take That!
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_b53077b3	comment	Take That!: Portia makes snarky comments about various contemporary European nationalities as personified by her suitors . . . including her English suitor, who borrows fashions from other countries but has none of his own (a common caricature of the English at the time).
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_b5bd58a3	type	Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_b5bd58a3	comment	Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: "Rich Suitors, Poor Suitor" in this case; the whole plot is catalyzed by Bassanio, a nobleman who has blown through his inheritance, needing to borrow money in order to woo Portia.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_b707726f	type	Hypocritical Humor
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_b707726f	comment	Hypocritical Humor: Solario and Salarino are all over this: Whenever Launcelot says something like "To be brief ... " or "I have ne'er a tongue in my head," you can bet that he's about to go off on a tangent. Not to mention that he criticizes his dad for not being "honest"—which means both "honest" in the modern sense of the word (and the line happens right before he runs into his dad and starts lying to him) or "honest" in the secondary Elizabethan sense of "chaste" (which he clearly isn't, either—he later criticizes the girl he got pregnant for not being honest). At one point the Prince of Aragon opines that the world would be a better place if titles and wealth were earned through merit rather than by being bestowed through birth. Aragon himself only has his title and wealth because he was born to noble parents.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_b9c3de84	type	Bumbling Dad
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_b9c3de84	comment	Bumbling Dad: Old Gobbo, who comes on, makes a few Blind Mistakes, gets a few cheap laughs for his malapropisms, and leaves without doing much.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_ba26aa0d	type	Teeny Weenie
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_ba26aa0d	comment	His name in the quartos and folios is spelled as "Launcelet" or "little lance", possibly referring to his sharp tongue or his sharp wit . . . or to exactly what you'd imagine.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_ba5bbda5	type	Mirror Character
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_ba5bbda5	comment	Mirror Character: There's a lot of literary theory on Antonio and Shylock as this. The play presents them as twin outsiders—Shylock as a Jew to Venetian society, Antonio as a "tainted wether of the flock" to the world of love and marriage.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_ba907fe2	type	Entitled to Have You
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_ba907fe2	comment	Entitled to Have You: Morocco and Aragon both feel this way about Portia, mostly because they're princes and on her social level. This is why they're both tempted to chose the silver casket, labeled "Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves". Morocco doesn't, but Aragon does—they both get sent home, and Portia marries the far poorer Bassanio instead.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_bacf8e98	type	Preserve Your Gays
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_bacf8e98	comment	Preserve Your Gays: Antonio, the titular merchant, is pretty clearly in love with his only friend, the dashing young nobleman Bassanio — so much so that he is eager to enter into a contract on Bassanio's behalf by which the penalty for defaulting on a loan is having a pound of his flesh removed, nearest the heart. Inevitably, he defaults on the loan and is bound to a chair in court to have the flesh removed, which will most certainly kill him — but at the literal last second, Bassanio's new wife (in disguise as a young judge) announces an Exact Words loophole in the contract and saves his life.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_bcbf7aef	type	Plucky Comic Relief
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_bcbf7aef	comment	Plucky Comic Relief: Gratiano, Nerissa, and Launcelot all qualify.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_c335b9ec	type	Irony
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_c335b9ec	comment	"Gratiano" means grace, and can also be taken to mean "gratuitous"—his very existence is in excess.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_c4ea54f6	type	TheyCallMeMrTibbs
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_c4ea54f6	comment	They Call Me Mr Tibbs: A large portion of Act II, Scene 2, is devoted to comedy based on Elizabethan usage of this trope.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_c5474384	type	Vow of Celibacy
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_c5474384	comment	Vow of Celibacy: Any suitor who attempts Portia's Engagement Challenge is required to swear an oath that he will not court, or marry, any other woman for the rest of his life should he be unsuccessful.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_c75df49a	type	Shout-Out
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_c75df49a	comment	Shout-Out: Per usual for Shakespeare, there are allusions to Classical Mythology and The Bible sprinkled throughout the play. Most notable in Act V, when Lorenzo and Jessica spend several minutes comparing themselves to various mythical couples. Whether they realize the irony—all the stories to which they allude end tragically—is unclear.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_caa28b82	type	Cloudcuckoolander
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_caa28b82	comment	Cloudcuckoolander: Launcelot toes the line. He's usually detached from the action in one way or another—talking to the audience, messing with his dad, or singing strange song snippets.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_d001c42c	type	Anti-Villain
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_d001c42c	comment	Anti-Villain: When it comes down to it, Shylock is still trying to kill Antonio (with law!), but the play spends a lot of time showing the audience where he's coming from; see Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_d028e0da	type	An Arm and a Leg
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_d028e0da	comment	An Arm and a Leg: Parodied by Bassanio when Portia demands the ring he has given away.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_d397657d	type	Hoist by His Own Petard
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_d397657d	comment	Hoist by His Own Petard: It's Shylock's insistence on claiming his bond no matter what and to the letter that leads to his undoing when Portia puts impossible conditions on him claiming it—when he attempts to back down and just take his money, Portia points out that he has already repeatedly refused the money in open court and may only have his "justice". When he gives up on that, Portia then uses his plan to accuse him of attempted murder.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_d52d28b6	type	Hypocrite
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_d52d28b6	comment	Hypocrite: When Launcelot suggests that Jessica's best hope of avoiding damnation is that she was born out of wedlock, Lorenzo rebukes Launcelot for having an affair with a Moorish woman: You'll find that the Christian protagonists do not act with any of the Christian values they so preach. This is lampshaded by Shylock in his famous monologue.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_d5921e22	type	Prince Charmless
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_d5921e22	comment	Prince Charmless: The Prince of Aragon, Portia's conceited suitor. He doesn't express any love or affection for her, only that he believes that he deserves to marry her simply due to the fact that he is a wealthy prince.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_d9b43373	type	Not-So-Final Confession
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_d9b43373	comment	Not-So-Final Confession: Antonio's heckuva Final Speech is an implied if not explicit Anguished Declaration of Love for Bassanio. But then he doesn't die like he expected to.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_dca70c44	type	Reasonable Authority Figure
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_dca70c44	comment	Reasonable Authority Figure: The Duke doesn't require prompting to show mercy to Shylock, understanding that he sees the folly of his wrath against Antonio, and once the proceedings are finished, he allows Shylock to sign the deed after leaving the court, seeing how thoroughly broken the man is and not wishing further public humiliation on him.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_dd92bf66	type	Warrior Prince
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_dd92bf66	comment	Warrior Prince: The Prince of Morocco, one of Portia's suitors. In his introductory scene he boasts about his prowess as a fighter and of his conquests on the battlefield.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_df02a97f	type	City of Canals
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_df02a97f	comment	City of Canals: The better part of the play takes place in Venice.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_dfa71e43	type	Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_dfa71e43	comment	Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Shylock is very easy to portray this way, though it's not really clear if it was intentional.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e11b003d	type	Translation Convention
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e11b003d	comment	Translation Convention: Lampshaded heavily when Portia complains that she can't understand the English baron:
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e12670cd	type	Freudian Threat
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e12670cd	comment	Freudian Threat: Shylock specifies at the initial agreement that he gets to pick where the pound of flesh comes from, with this being the snide innuendo. Returns in a darker sense when he declares that he wants the piece closest to Antonio's heart—put alongside the work's thematic juxtapositions of love, sex, and business, the suggestion is that locations of literal or metaphorical proximity would suffice equally well as the "pound of flesh" that lead to Shylock losing both daughter and fortune.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e19e68	type	Cruel Mercy
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e19e68	comment	Cruel Mercy: Let Shylock live, but only if he gives up his religion and signs his worldly goods over to the daughter who betrayed him.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e34400ab	type	Ambiguously Gay
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e34400ab	comment	Ambiguously Gay: Antonio. His devotion to Bassanio is intense enough that he's willing, even eager to sacrifice his life for him, and he explicitly parallels his love for Bassanio with Portia's during the trial scene. In modern productions, it's rarely all that ambiguous.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e3d2f2	type	The Fool
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e3d2f2	comment	The Fool: Launcelot ends up playing this, despite it being nowhere in his job description. His opinion on the matter seems mixed.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e4d079c1	type	Greek Chorus
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e4d079c1	comment	Greek Chorus: A lot of the exposition falls to Salarino and Solanio, who commentate on the action and interview other characters.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e539f64f	type	Kill Him Already!
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e539f64f	comment	Kill Him Already!: Gratiano, when the tables are turned and Antonio gets to decide Shylock's fate.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e5421161	type	Expy
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e5421161	comment	Expy: Launcelot Gobbo is very similar, in name and nature, to Launce from Shakespeare's earlier play, Two Gentlemen of Verona. This could be an Actor Allusion, as the two Launces were almost certainly played by the same comic actor, Will Kemp.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e563bf09	type	Insistent Terminology
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e563bf09	comment	Insistent Terminology: Launcelot uses this a lot.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e624f0e8	type	Suspiciously Specific Denial
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e624f0e8	comment	Sure, you can have the ring that my wife (to whom you bear absolutely no resemblance) made me swear to never take off! Bassanio nearly passed until Antonio persuaded him, which (alongside his earlier remark that he'd give everything of hers to save Antonio) shows Portia that she is not as important to Bassanio as he'd like her to think.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e68b72	type	The Load
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e68b72	comment	The Load: Shylock mentions in Act II, Scene 5 how Launcelot has become this to him: Later in the same scene, he hopes that Launcelot will become such a burden, that he would end up ruining Bassanio:
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e69efe7f	type	Lysistrata Gambit
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e69efe7f	comment	Lysistrata Gambit: Portia and Nerissa vow never to go to bed with their husbands until they see the rings. Of course, they're the ones who took the rings.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e8cae797	type	Freudian Trio
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e8cae797	comment	Freudian Trio Antonio: Superego. He's the most sensible of them and a voice of reason (when he's not being an ass to Shylock). Bassanio: Ego. He drives both the plots and tends to be a little self-absorbed. Gratiano: Id. He's known for not censoring his emotions and desires.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e979656a	type	Honor Thy Parent
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e979656a	comment	Honor Thy Parent: Portia's deceased father has stipulated that only a man who has passed a test may marry her. She complains to Nerissa that "I may neither choose whom I would nor refuse whom I dislike; so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father. Is it not hard, Nerissa, that I cannot choose one nor refuse none?" It is not clear whether she is purely bound by filial obedience to her father or whether the latter stipulated in his will e.g. that she must respect the result of the test in order to keep her inheritance. Nerissa opines that "Your father was ever virtuous; and holy men at their death have good inspirations: therefore the lottery, that he hath devised in these three chests of gold, silver and lead, whereof who chooses his meaning chooses you, will, no doubt, never be chosen by any rightly but one who shall rightly love." In the end, the test works as it should, with Bassanio, who of all suitors was most pleasing to Portia, choosing the correct leaden casket (she does help him choose by having musicians play/sing him a song that hints to him not to judge by appearances). Shylock's daughter Jessica is less reverent toward her own father, having no qualms about eloping with Lorenzo, converting to Christianity for him, and taking off with some of Shylock's wealth, even buying a monkey with a ring her late mother had given her father. But even she shows some requisite piety when preparing to elope: "Alack, what heinous sin is it in me / To be ashamed to be my father's child! / But though I am a daughter to his blood, / I am not to his manners."
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e9e35e8f	type	Exact Words
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_e9e35e8f	comment	Exact Words: Shylock demanded one pound of Antonio's flesh, and compounds this trope by insisting that he is under no obligation to provide a doctor to stem Antonio's bleeding as "it is not in the bond". It is arguably this insistence on following the bond to the absolute letter that inspires Portia to, while posing as a judge, inform him that he is entitled only to that one pound, no more or less, and only to Antonio's flesh—no blood can be spilled, otherwise the deal is void. Portia's skill in doing this is combined with Chekhov's Skill, as she proves clever enough to find an Exact Words loophole in her father's challenge earlier in the play. The rules state that she isn't allowed to tell her would-be suitors which of the three chests contains her portrait...but there's nothing stopping her from getting some local musicians to give him a hint. She orders them to play a song that gives away the trick of the Secret Test of Character; Bassanio quickly figures out the clue and chooses correctly.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_ec9a5f50	type	Deconstructed Character Archetype
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_ec9a5f50	comment	Deconstructed Character Archetype: The "merchant" figure was a common stock character of Shakespeare's day. He was one-dimensional and entirely preoccupied with his wealth and the jeopardy that wealth was inevitably placed in. In the first scene, Antonio is shown to be a deconstruction of this: he is not overly concerned with his fortune (though perhaps he should be), but is melancholy for other, more complex reasons.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_ef20dac5	type	Servile Snarker
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_ef20dac5	comment	Servile Snarker: Launcelot, whose Ultimate Job Security allows him to pass snarky comments to his employers without retribution.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_f0c4ce7d	type	The Lost Lenore
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_f0c4ce7d	comment	The Lost Lenore: Shylock alludes to his dead wife Leah. It implies he still loves her.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_f0e85546	type	Unbuilt Trope
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_f0e85546	comment	Unbuilt Trope: It plays very much like one would expect a deconstruction of Panto tropes to. The villain is unpleasant and mean in all the ways you expect a panto-villain to be, but he's also the most put-upon character in the play: he begins as the underdog and ends stripped of everything, his money, his daughter, even his religion. With the exception of his murderous intent all other characters treat him far worse than he treats them, and they largely hate him simply for being a Jew.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_f2877d9e	type	IncrediblyLamePun
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_f2877d9e	comment	Incredibly Lame Pun:
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_f46fb603	type	Pungeon Master
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_f46fb603	comment	Pungeon Master: Launcelot, much to Lorenzo's annoyance.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_f6b2bfb7	type	Gold Digger
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_f6b2bfb7	comment	Gold Digger: An uncharitable reading of Bassanio, who, while he later seems genuinely besotted with Portia, initially spends a lot longer extolling her money's virtues than hers. He introduces his plan to woo her as "How to get clear of all the debts I owe."
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_f765e2d3	type	Dying Alone
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_f765e2d3	comment	Dying Alone: This is the ultimate fate that a suitor risks when he enters Portia's Engagement Challenge. If he fails then he will be bound to live by a Vow of Celibacy and so he will never be able to marry or produce an heir. Thus when he dies, his line will be extinguished and he will be forgotten.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_f8e1ddb6	type	Trickster Girlfriend
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_f8e1ddb6	comment	Trickster Girlfriend: Portia, for Bassanio: she gives him a ring, asking not to give it to anyone else. Then, disguised as a male lawyer, she tricks him into giving her the ring as gratitude. At the end of the play, she pretends to be angry and accuses him of infidelity, then gives him back the ring and implies that she slept with the doctor to get it. Eventually, she admits that she was the doctor herself.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_fb5ab090	type	Loan Shark
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_fb5ab090	comment	Loan Shark: Already an established trope that Shakespeare is riffing on. In a bit of a Memetic Mutation, the term "Shylock" is now synonymous with loan sharks.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_fbc54605	type	Riches to Rags
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_fbc54605	comment	Riches to Rags: Happens to Antonio when all his merchant ships are lost in a not-at-all contrived manner. The effect is reversed at the end when three of them unexpectedly return in an even less contrived way.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_fc151e9d	type	Department of Redundancy Department
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_fc151e9d	comment	Department of Redundancy Department: Used for drama in Shylock's speeches and comedy in Launcelot's. Portia also does this while humorously confessing that she's stalling.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_fc4f3b4f	type	Friend Versus Lover
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_fc4f3b4f	comment	Friend Versus Lover: A major theme of the main plot and in sub-plots. Exactly who is the friend and who is the lover gets a little confusing. During the trial scene, Bassanio and Gratiano swear that, if they could save Antonio's life, they would give up everything, even their new wives. Little do they know that their wives are standing right there. Later, Bassanio refuses to give away his wife's ring... until Antonio talks him into it. It's nicely tied up when Portia refuses to give Bassanio back his ring until Antonio talks her into it. In the subplot, there seems to be a bit of tension going on between Lancelot and Lorenzo as to which of them gets to spend time with Jessica.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_fd94c4ac	type	Theme Naming
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_fd94c4ac	comment	Theme Naming: Solanio, Salarino and (if he exists at all and isn't just one of the other two with his name misspelled) Salerio.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_fe793a63	type	Last-Second Chance
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_fe793a63	comment	Last-Second Chance: One interpretation of Portia's actions during the trial; while masquerading as a young judge and admitting that Shylock is on firm ground with his claim to Antonio's flesh, she repeatedly attempts to convince Shylock to show mercy on Antonio, either by taking the money (three times the original loan) or simply for goodness' sake with her famous speech about "the quality of mercy". It's only when Shylock insists that he will not be swayed by any argument, and furthermore refuses to even provide a doctor for Antonio because "it is not in the bond" that she is forced to resort to trickery to snare him with his own words.
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The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_ffad4e9f	type	Shown Their Work
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_ffad4e9f	comment	Shown Their Work: The Goodwins, where Antonio's ships are wrecked, are actually a real place where there have been over 2000 shipwrecks. British people play cricket on them when the tide is low enough.
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_ffad4e9f	featureApplicability	1.0
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_ffad4e9f	featureConfidence	1.0
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_ffad4e9f
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_name	type	ItemName
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_name	comment
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_name	featureApplicability	1.0
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_name	featureConfidence	1.0
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_name
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre) / int_name	itemName	The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

TheMerchantOfVenice	seeAlso	The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Accidental Aesop / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Age Lift / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	All That Glitters / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Alone Among the Couples / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Ambiguously Absent Parent / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	An Arm and a Leg / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Applicability / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Arbitrarily Large Bank Account / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	As You Know / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Better to Die than Be Killed / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Blind Mistake / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Bromantic Foil / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Bumbling Dad / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Character Perception Evolution / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	City of Canals / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Cloudcuckoolander / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Commedia dell'Arte / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Common Knowledge / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Converting for Love / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Crucified Hero Shot / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Cry for the Devil / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Death by Adaptation / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Delusions of Eloquence / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Designated Hero / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Despair Speech / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Detrimental Determination / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Disproportionate Retribution / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Engagement Challenge / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Enter Stage Window / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Entitled to Have You / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Esoteric Happy Ending / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Even Evil Has Loved Ones / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Everybody Lives / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Evil Redhead / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Exact Words / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Face Death with Dignity / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Fairytale Motifs / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Fan Nickname / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Final Speech / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Freudian Threat / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Friend Versus Lover / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Germanic Depressives / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Glurge / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Gold Digger / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Gossipy Hens / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Got Me Doing It / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Hands-On Approach / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Harem Seeker / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Heelâ€“Face Turn / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Heterosexual Life-Partners / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Hollywood Law / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Honor Thy Parent / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	I Have No Son! / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Iconic Character, Forgotten Title / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Impossible Task / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Inconsistent Spelling / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Informed Judaism / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Involuntary Charity Donation / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	It Amused Me / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	It Was a Gift / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Jewish American Princess / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Judaism and Jewish Culture in Media / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Kill Him Already! / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Lady-In-Waiting / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Last Request / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Latin Lover / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Literary Necrophilia / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Love Dodecahedron / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Lover and Beloved / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Lysistrata Gambit / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Mad Lib Thriller Title / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Madness Mantra / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Maid and Maiden / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Matchmaker Crush / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Meal Ticket / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Meaningless Villain Victory / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Men Don't Cry / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Mirror Character / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Mistaken Identity / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Momma's Boy / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Money Dumb / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Morally Bankrupt Banker / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Morton's Fork / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	My Rule Fu Is Stronger than Yours / int_3c38c613
NathanielParker	seeAlso	The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Odd Name Out / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Only Smart People May Pass / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Original Position Fallacy / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Parody Displacement / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Playing the Victim Card / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Plucky Comic Relief / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Posthumous Character / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Prince Charmless / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Pungeon Master / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	"Rashomon"-Style / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Rationalizing the Overkill / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Recursive Crossdressing / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Revenge Is Not Justice / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Rooting for the Empire / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Rules Lawyer / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Sad Clown / int_3c38c613
SaskiaBurmeister	seeAlso	The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Secondary Character Title / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Serenade Your Lover / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Signature Scene / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Small Role, Big Impact / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Spiteful Spit / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Spoiled Sweet / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Straight Man and Wise Guy / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Sweet on Polly Oliver / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Sweet Polly Oliver / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Take a Third Option / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	The Fool / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	The Place / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	The Prankster / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	The Scrappy / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	The Voice / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	The X of Y / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Then Let Me Be Evil / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Those Two Guys / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Threesome Subtext / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Title Confusion / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Took the Bad Film Seriously / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Trickster Girlfriend / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Unintentionally Sympathetic / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Upper-Class Equestrian / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Values Resonance / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Villain in a White Suit / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Villain Protagonist / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Warrior Prince / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Where da White Women At? / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Women Are Wiser / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Your Mom / int_3c38c613
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Your Princess Is in Another Castle! / int_3c38c613
TheMerchantofVenice	sameAs	The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)
The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)	hasFeature	Fidelity Test / int_3c38c613
themerchantofvenice	sameAs	The Merchant of Venice (Theatre)

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