- William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice (New York: Bantam, 1988), I,iii, 98–102 [hereinafter cited directly in text].
- See Norman Rabkin, Shakespeare and the Problem of Meaning (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981), p.32 (arguing that The Merchant of Venice is ultimately about “ambiguity”); Lawrence Danson, The Harmonies of “The Merchant of Venice” (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978), p. 135 (“The Merchant of Venice abounds in provocative confusions”).
- Danson, Harmonies, supra note 2, at 135.
- Matthew 7:1.
- Luke 15:11–32. Not only does Lancelot evince the prodigal theme, but also Bassanio is prodigal in nature. See Sylvan Barnet, Introduction, Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Merchant of Venice (New Jersey: (Prentice-Hall 1970), p.8. Moreover, the play repeatedly uses the term “prodigal” to describe the Christians. See II,v,15; II,vi,14,17; III,i, 44.
- Luke 15:32.
- Danson, Harmonies, supra note 2 at 164.
- H.J. Schoeps, Paul: The Theology of the Apostle in the Light of Jewish Religious History (London: Lutterworth, 1961), p. 219.
- Id., at 274.
- Romans 10:4.
- Compare Leo Baeck, “Romantic Religion,” in Judaism and Christianity, Walter Kaufmann, ed. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1958) (arguing that Paul stands for an extreme form of antinomianism) with W.D. Davies, Jewish and Pauline Studies (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984), p. 121 (“Paul was no antinomian”).
- Thus, Jay Halio is correct when he argues that the opposition of the law to mercy (or love) is not a juxtaposition of the Old and New Testaments. Jay L Halio, “Portia: Shakespeare's Matlock,” 5 Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature 57 (1993). Both Judaism and Christianity envision a certain mix of obligation and faith.
- Rudolf Bultmann, Theology of the New Testament (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1951), p. 321; see also Martin Luther, Commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians (1535) in The Protestant Reformation 91–92 (Hans J. Hillerbrand ed. 1968) (“no one may suppose that we reject or prohibit good works”).
- Bultmann, Theology, supra note 13 at 320 (“The unbeliever insists upon living out of his own resources and so is anxious about his own future in the illusion of being able to dispose over it.”).
- Søren Kierkegaard, Works of Love, Howard Hong & Edna Hong, trans. (New York: Harper & Row, 1962), p.105 (discussing Romans 13:10, authored by Paul).
- H.J. Schoeps, Paul, supra note 8 at 176.
- Galatians 2:16 (“[B]y the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.”).
- Bultmann, Theology, supra note 12 at 265.
- C.E.B. Cranfield, 1 A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans 339–340 (1975); H.J. Schoeps, Paul, supra note 8, at 175.
- Søren Kierkegaard, Sickness Unto Death, Walter Lowrie, trans., (New York: Doubleday, 1954).
- Mark 10:23–31; Luke 18:22–32; Luke 12:32.
- Bultmann, Theology, supra note 12 at 314. 23. Id., at 321.
- Id. at 324.
- Romans 13:10 (“Love is the fulfilling of the law”); Romans 8:2 (referring to “the Law of the Spirit of Life”); Galatians 6:2 (referring to the “law of Christ”).
- There is a pervasive notion that Shylock's conversion is false or unacceptable because it is commanded. For example, Sylvan Barnet writes that Shylock's “forced conversion…is surely distasteful to us.” Barnet, Introduction, supra note 5, at 7. This is a serious misreading of Christian doctrine, however. As Bultmann has so cogently put it, faith is an “act of obedience” to the call of God. See supra note 18. There is freedom to heed or not to heed it but the call itself is a command.
- Several scholars have argued that Shylock bears a number of striking characteristics shared by the Puritans of Shakespeare's day and that Shakespeare intended to ridicule Puritanism through Shylock. See Leo Kirschbaum, Character and Characterization in Shakespeare (New Orleans: Loyola University Press, 1962); Peter Milward, Shakespeare's Religious Background (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1973), pp. 158–61.
- Peter J. Alscher, “‘I would be friends with you…’ Staging Directions For a Balanced Resolution to The Merchant of Venice Trial Scene,” 5 Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature 1 (1993).
- Charles Spinosa argues that flesh has always included within its meaning blood, except for Christian blood. “Shylock and Debt and Contract in The Merchant of Venice,” 5 Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature 65 (1993). He says “[t]he law all along has distinguished Christian blood from other blood.” Id. Perhaps so. But certainly Christ's blood was spilt and necessarily so according to Christian doctrine.
- John 3:16 (“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”).
- See generally Barbara Lewalski, “Biblical Allusion and Allegory in The Merchant of Venice,” 8 Shakespeare Quarterly 327, 334 (1962).
- Id, at 329, 331.
- Matthew 16:21–23 (Peter attempts to deny Jesus' saying that he would be killed); Luke 23:27 (“And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him.”).
- Matthew 26:45, 53–54.
- See Mark 10:45 (“the Son of man came…to give his life a ransom for many”).
- Luke 24:36–53; Mark 16; Matthew 28; John 20–21.
- Lewalski, supra note 31 at 339.
- There is more than one hint that Antonio's promise will not be binding upon him. Salerio tells Shylock that “if [Antonio] forfeit, thou wilt not take his flesh.” (III,i, 50–51) Jessica intimates that law might relieve him of his obligation. (III,ii, 291)
- John 18:5. The appellation is evoked in the play when Shylock refers to “your prophet the Nazarite.” (I,iii, 34)
- Matt 10:16 (“I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves”).
- See II,iii, 181 (what others would see as faults, appear “in such eyes as ours [as] not faults”); (II,vi, 36–37) (“Lovers cannot see the pretty follies that themselves commit”).
- This statement also has another, darker meaning in that if Gratiano did know all there was to know about his faith and his community, he would wish he did not.
- Those thinkers that automatically come to mind are Milton, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche.
- As discussed above, conversion is the event which transforms a life of sin and death under the law into the life of Christian charity.
- The latter theme hearkens back to the central Christian concept that temptation may appear in any guise; the more attractive the temptation appears, the more careful must the Christian be. Matthew 4:1–11.
- A.D. Moody, An Ironic Comedy in Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Merchant of Venice (Engelwood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1970), p. 101 (“The special quality of the play is that it refuses to endorse any…simple judgements”).
- I Sam 16:7; see also Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling, Walter Lowrie trans. (New York: Doubleday, 1954), pp.49–50 (describing difficulty in identifying the “knight of faith”).
Law & Literature
Volume 5, 1993 - Issue 1: A Symposium Issue on The Merchant of Venice