Protagonist Debate

For my response project Destiny and I debated against Zoey and Dua’a about who was the protagonist in The Merchant of Venice, Antonio or Shylock. Our position was that Antonio is the protagonist and Shylock is the antagonist. I am very glad that I chose this topic because I found it very interesting and wanted delve deeper into it. The only problem Destiny and I had was after we wrote our rough draft we realized that we were arguing the wrong topic. Once we straightened that out it was smooth sailing from there. I had never done a debate with the format we used, so that was a new and very fun experience. I am very glad with the results of our paper and the debate. This is definitely a project I recommend and would do again.

Shylocks Hate For Antonio

Was Shylock justified in wanting to kill Antonio?

Shylock has been through a lot in his life and has many reasons to dislike Christians. He was constantly ridiculed by Christians for being a Jew and charging interest on his loans. His only daughter and closest loved one ran off to marry a Christian and friend of Antonio. He is not even shown kindness when he loans money to Antonio who has beaten him and treated him with disrespect. This warrants him to feel a certain amount of disdain for Antonio because of his actions towards him. However, killing Antonio is still a harsh punishment for what he has done to Shylock. It would have been understandable if Shylock had wanted Antonio to go through what he did, and eventually change his ways.

Woman's World

At the end of the play, social order should be restored. One facet of this in the 16th century is men having dominance over women. Is this true in this play? Who has the upper-hand, and why? Provide textual evidence.

Shakespeare plays usually take place in two different places the normal world and the magical world. The normal world is ruled by men and women are subject to their husbands. Whereas in the magical world women are usually in charge. In the play The Merchant of Venice the normal world is in Venice. In Venice, the men ruled and controlled what happened in the story. Once the story shifted to Belmont, Portia and Nerissa started playing a more important role in the plot. When the trial took place in Belmont if it was not for Portia’s and Nerissa’s quick thinking Antonio would have died at the hands of Shylock. Even after Antonio’s trial the women still hold the power in the play. You can see this by the way they trick their husbands once back at the palace in Belmont (Act 5.1). The reason the power stays with the women at the end of the play is because they are still in the magical world where the women rule.

Conflict

According to the 5-act play structure, the climax or turning point of the play should have happened in the third act. Did it happen? If so, what was it and what central conflict was addressed? If not, discuss the central conflict that has not yet been resolved.

The central conflict is between Shylock and Antonio. This is over the loan Shylock gave to Antonio in act 1. It followed the 5-act play structure through act 2 when Antonio’s ships started to sink one-by-one causing the rising action. The ordeal came a head when Antonio’s entire argosy sunk at sea, forcing him to default on the loan. When Shylock found out about this he had Antonio locked up and awaiting trial. This left the readers on a cliffhanger waiting for the resolution of the conflict. I feel that this is the climax of the story because it had built up and it happens right after the rising action.