Day 36: New Play Tuesday! Othello, the Moor of Venice

Laurence Fishburne as Othello (1995)

I'm excited to read this one for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it'll give me an excuse to finally see Othello (1995) and O (2001). I've never read this one, but it looks complex and sexy and scary. Yay!

Plus, my partner Mike is very excited to read this because he did not like The Merchant of Venice very much, so he's planning to imagine all of the action of Othello happening in a different, less whiny region of Venice.

Day 35: What I Learned: The Merchant of Venice

Sock Monkey Merchant of Venice, by David Jones (fineartamerica.com)

The Merchant of Venice is a complicated play, made particularly complex by the fact that the cultural values of its original audience (and, one can assume, its author) are (hopefully) very different from those of modern audiences. The character of Shylock, and all Jewish characters in the play, are treated as godless outcasts and reviled villains. True, Shakespeare gives Shylock some good lines and plenty of cause to be sympathetic, but he also makes him obsessed with money and sometimes just plain evil. So Shakespeare isn't doing much to dissuade his audience from their anti-Semitism. Plus in the end, all of the Christian characters live happily ever after and all of the Jewish characters are forced to convert to Christianity and give up their personal fortunes. And those Christian characters were REALLY mean throughout the whole play, so I wasn't cheering for them to be fine in the end.

But Shakespeare's audiences would have been because his audience would have regarded Jews as villainous characters who should be reviled and, if possible, converted. So it's a difficult play to read becuase that core concept is so abhorrent. I just wished that Antonio and his friends, who had been mean anti-Semites the whole play could have gotten a little comeuppance. I wasn't rooting for Antonio to actually have to give up his "pound of flesh" (well, not really) but I didn't expect him to get to have all of Shylock's money AND his not have to pay his debt AND have his lost ships returned AND get to ride off in the sunset with his best friend (his VERY best friend, *wink wink* *nudge nudge*) his new rich wife. It's just too much reward for a character who acted like such an ass. 

I also think it's interesting that the very last scene of the play (I'm sorry if I'm ruining it for you...but it has been out for, like, 400 years now) involves Portia and Nerissa obsessing over the rings they gave Bassanio and Gratiano, until both men agree that they will treasure the rings with their lives from now on. Except that Shylock was given no end of grief for valuing too highly the ring that Jessica stole--the one that was his gift from his dead wife, no less--and was accused of being a greedy miser for it. But it's the same damn thing! Argggghhh! That part made me crazy.

Day 32: Shakespeare Lego!

I'm still slogging through The Merchant of Venice. "Slogging" is a terrible word. I'm actually enjoying it quite a bit, I'm just having trouble staying as motivated to read quickly as I had been. Maybe it's because Mike is a play behind and I can't talk about Shylock with him. Or maybe I'm just like the hare in that parable, lounging around because I feel I'm so far ahead in the race.

Either way, here, enjoy some Shakespeare lego, courtesy of mocpages.com:

Macbeth Act V, Scene 8

Day 31: The Merchant of Venice--Some Facts

The Merchant of Venice

Full Title: The Comical History of the Merchant of Venice, or Otherwise Called the Jew of Venice

Category: Comedy (but a tragic comedy)

Date Written: 1598

Most Famous Lines: The "Hath not a Jew eyes" speech by Shylock:

Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs,dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed withthe same food, hurt with the same weapons, subjectto the same diseases, heal'd by the same means,warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summeras a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us,do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility?Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should hissufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge.The villainy you teach me, I will execute,and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.(Act III, scene I)

Title Character: Antonio, a merchant in Venice

Villain: Shylock, a rich Jew and money lender who demands from Antonio "a pound of flesh." Since the mid 19th century, Shylock has typically been portrayed sympathetically but prior to that he was almost always portrayed as a cartoonish villain, a reflection of the anti-Semitism of Elizabethan England. Though some would argue that the complexity Shakespeare gives to the character of Shylock is in contrast to the "judeophobia" of his society, in that he explains that the character's evil choices are a reaction to being ostracized by Christian society.

Day 30: The Merchant of Venice Word Cloud

Oooh! This wordle is so pretty! I love the colours!

Day 29: New Play Tuesday! The Merchant of Venice

Al Pacino as Shylock in 2004's Merchant of Venice

After reading Macbeth, considered an unlucky play, it's probably good luck to read The Merchant of Venice, which is considered a lucky one. In fact, some superstitious actors even believe that the so-called curse of Macbeth (bad luck befalling anyone who says the name "Macbeth" out loud when referring to the play) can be undone by immediately reciting some lines from The Merchant of Venice.

Day 26: The Scottish Play

via

Everyone knows the superstition. Don't say "Macbeth," when referring to the play, especially when in the theatre in which it is being performed. Call it instead "The Scottish Play," or possibly "MacBee" or the play about "Mr. and Mrs. M." The so-called curse has been blamed for all manner of misfortunes over the years, particularly the Astor Place Riot of 1849.

Some claim that there are ways to reverse the curse, such as running around the theatre three times, or reciting various silly chants (see the scene from Black Adder above) or my personal favourite, reciting lines from The Merchant of Venice, considered to be a lucky play. And it just so happens, The Merchant of Venice is the play I'm reading right after Macbeth The Scottish Play, so I'm covered!