The Caskets
Nowhere in the play is the issue of SHARED CHRISTIAN VALUES seen so clearly as in the caskets. The right suitor will choose correctly and thus win Portia because he will have the shared understanding of what is important in life.
The gold casket, of course, carries a message that still resonates today: the exterior is deceptive and outer appearance can hide the worst of vices.
The silver casket, on the other hand, carries a message about deserving, reflecting the Christian message of MERCY and GRACE. The mercy of God is, as Portia explains later, 'unstrain'd' - it is given freely, and is utterly unmerited. This is a strangely Protestant Venice, but Shakespeare's audience would understand that you are saved 'Sola Gratia' - by Grace alone. Only a foreigner - a Muslim or Jew, perhaps - would believe they DESERVED blessings and choose the silver casket.
The lead casket, then, represents a sober awareness of one's own mortality. Lead is the element associated with death...dull, cold and grey, and used to line coffins. Only the lead casket asks that the suitor should 'give and hazard,' with no guarantee of what lies ahead; the gold entices with 'gain' and the silver with 'get.'
This term 'hazard' suggests gambling and risking - hardly the most reputable activity for a Christian, one might think. Bassanio refers to Antonio's 'latter hazard' of lost money; Morocco is invited to make 'your hazard.'
However, the invitation to 'hazard' may also carry connotations of trust and faith: the person who has faith cannot see the outcome, but trusts and believes. The suitor is invited to sacrifice and offer everything for a hope - just as the CHRISTIAN lives a life of hope; as the letter to the Hebrews says in the Bible, 'Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.'
Hazarding, in many ways, is exactly what merchants do - investing hopefully, in the expectation of return. Antonio's love is therefore all the greater - he invests in Bassanio without hope or expectation of return. Shylock, on the other hand, is uninterested in - despises, even - this combination of RELATIONSHIP and MONEY. Holding them separately, he only lends money where he has a contractual guarantee that can be upheld by law. He can always seek JUSTICE and recompense if necessary.
1. ACTIVITY: Work carefully through the reasoning of Morocco and Aragon. What evidence can you see of their flawed reasoning?
2. QUESTION: Antonio is rather unlikable in the film version 2004 and in the Globe 2016, because of his spitting and deeply unpleasant anti-Semitic fervour. If you consider that one way of showing piety in the 16th century was to spit at a Jew, is it possible that Antonio was, in fact, intended as a model of love - generous, respected and admired by his peers, and ready to lay down his life for Bassanio?
The gold casket, of course, carries a message that still resonates today: the exterior is deceptive and outer appearance can hide the worst of vices.
The silver casket, on the other hand, carries a message about deserving, reflecting the Christian message of MERCY and GRACE. The mercy of God is, as Portia explains later, 'unstrain'd' - it is given freely, and is utterly unmerited. This is a strangely Protestant Venice, but Shakespeare's audience would understand that you are saved 'Sola Gratia' - by Grace alone. Only a foreigner - a Muslim or Jew, perhaps - would believe they DESERVED blessings and choose the silver casket.
The lead casket, then, represents a sober awareness of one's own mortality. Lead is the element associated with death...dull, cold and grey, and used to line coffins. Only the lead casket asks that the suitor should 'give and hazard,' with no guarantee of what lies ahead; the gold entices with 'gain' and the silver with 'get.'
This term 'hazard' suggests gambling and risking - hardly the most reputable activity for a Christian, one might think. Bassanio refers to Antonio's 'latter hazard' of lost money; Morocco is invited to make 'your hazard.'
However, the invitation to 'hazard' may also carry connotations of trust and faith: the person who has faith cannot see the outcome, but trusts and believes. The suitor is invited to sacrifice and offer everything for a hope - just as the CHRISTIAN lives a life of hope; as the letter to the Hebrews says in the Bible, 'Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.'
Hazarding, in many ways, is exactly what merchants do - investing hopefully, in the expectation of return. Antonio's love is therefore all the greater - he invests in Bassanio without hope or expectation of return. Shylock, on the other hand, is uninterested in - despises, even - this combination of RELATIONSHIP and MONEY. Holding them separately, he only lends money where he has a contractual guarantee that can be upheld by law. He can always seek JUSTICE and recompense if necessary.
1. ACTIVITY: Work carefully through the reasoning of Morocco and Aragon. What evidence can you see of their flawed reasoning?
2. QUESTION: Antonio is rather unlikable in the film version 2004 and in the Globe 2016, because of his spitting and deeply unpleasant anti-Semitic fervour. If you consider that one way of showing piety in the 16th century was to spit at a Jew, is it possible that Antonio was, in fact, intended as a model of love - generous, respected and admired by his peers, and ready to lay down his life for Bassanio?
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