The Merchant of Venice

What kind of place was Venice?

Venice was (and still is) covered in canals – manmade rivers

Because boats were very useful for carrying lots of heavy

things, Venice was very good at trading. In some ways, it
was similar to Hong Kong now.
The Merchant of Venice
The story of the Merchant of Venice is about a man called Shylock who does
business by lending people money. People then have to pay the money back to
him.

Another man, Antonio is a

friendly, popular man who has to
borrow money from Shylock.

The problem is that Shylock

hates Antonio because Antonio
says that lending money is a
dirty business.

Shylock has a clever idea and

lends Antonio the money but
makes Antonio sign a contract
that says if he cannot pay the
money back, Shylock can take a
pound of Antonio’s flesh instead.
The Merchant of Venice
Of course, Antonio finds it difficult to pay back the money and Shylock tells
the judge at court that he wants to take the pound of flesh that Antonio
owes him.
The pound of flesh that Shylock
chooses is Antonio’s heart. All
along, it has been Shylock’s plan
to kill Antonio this way.

To find out what

If Antonio can’t be saved, then he
will have to let Shylock cut out
his heart! happens…
You’ll have to
read the play!
The Merchant of Venice
So what is the difference between reading The Merchant of Venice
nowadays and reading it in Shakespeare’s time, 500 years ago?

Answer: the attitude towards lending

money.
The Merchant of Venice
Nowadays lending money is
normal. Almost every day
nearly everyone borrows
money or lends money (or
both!)

But in Shakespeare’s time,

lending money for profit was
not normal and in many Why?
countries was not even legal!
 The Merchant of Venice

One reason is that Another reason is

there were few laws that the church did
to protect people not approve of
when they were money lending and
treated badly by a told people they
money lender. shouldn’t do it.

A money lender
could charge any
amount of interest
they liked, even
100%!
 The Merchant of Venice

This is why in the story Shylock is actually the bad character and
everyone hates him.

Can you imagine if people now thought lending money was evil?

15th century Shylock 2012 Shylock

Questions to ponder:
• Do you think it’s reasonable that
everyone hates Shylock?
• Do you think that Shakespeare
was at all sympathetic to
Shylock?
• Do you feel sorry at all for
Shylock?