The Merchant of Venice Program Prologue

The Merchant of Venice, often labeled by scholars as a “problem play,” is a tragedy. Yes, the dramatic structure of the piece aligns more cleanly with Shakespeare’s comedies, but the message of the piece is, ultimately, tragic. Shylock lives in a Venice scarred with antisemitism, racism, xenophobia, classism, and misogyny. Living openly as Jewish, Shylock is constantly reminded of his otherness, his proposed inferiority to the majority, and the threat of his existence to the rest of the community. While the barbs thrown at him may have been considered comical 400 years ago, they are sickening reminders of the way so many Jews have (and still are) treated throughout the world.

What the characters don’t understand is that Judaism is more than a religion; it is a culture, a race, an ethnicity, and a nationality. As Yair Rosenberg writes for a recent piece in Deep Shtetl, Judaism is a blending of identities that “doesn’t conform to Western categories, despite centuries of attempts by society to shoehorn it in” (much like the structure of The Merchant of Venice itself). Unfortunately, as we have no doubt learned from distant and recent history, there is a part of the population that hates what they do not understand. By refusing to play by the rules of simple definitions, Judaism is sometimes seen as a threat—it defies definition, and that defiance is terrifying to those who do not wish to understand the complex, intersectional identities encapsulated in being Jewish.

To present this play in our modern moment is a double-edged sword. A production’s success lies within the telling of the story itself—in the actors and the creative team doing the hard work behind the scenes to shape the way audiences understand, critique, and connect with the necessary conversations happening on the stage. In this play, Shakespeare painfully creates a world of hypocrisy, assumptions, and judgment—a world where no characters are intrinsically good (even if they believe that they are). Between the jokes at the expense of the outsiders and the speeches on piety and faith, the audience is forced to bear witness as characters twist words like knives to serve their own selfish needs and prejudiced beliefs. There is no justice in this play, and there is certainly no true peace either. Despite Shylock’s famous final lines, it is highly doubtful that he is truly “content” with the way he has been treated – and we shouldn’t be either.