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Gambling, Stella. "Iconology in The Merchant of Venice." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 1990. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.325295.
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Conte, Carolina Siqueira. "Bond; a theory of appropriation for Shakespeare's The merchant of Venice realized in film." Ohio : Ohio University, 2005. http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?ohiou1113337877.
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Stehr, Claudia. "Shakespeare as transcultural narrative : Te tangata Whai rawa o Weniti = The Māori Merchant of Venice /." e-Book (PDF), 2006. http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/eproducts/ebooks/Shakespeareastransculturalnarrative.pdf.
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Thesis (MA)--Technischen Universität Carolo-Wilhelmina zu Braunschweig, 2006.Title from PDF cover (viewed on 5 October, 2007 ). "Magisterarbeit zur Erlangung des Magistergrades (M.A.) am Fachbereich für Geistes- und Erziehungswissenschaften".
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Petherbridge, Steven. "Usury as a Human Problem in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice." Thesis, North Dakota State University, 2017. https://hdl.handle.net/10365/28450.
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Shakespeare?s Shylock from the Merchant of Venice is a complex character who not only defies simple definition but also takes over a play in which he is not the titular character. How Shakespeare arrived at Shylock in the absence of a Jewish presence in early modern England, as well as what caused the playwright to humanize his villain when other playwrights had not is the subject of much debate. This thesis shows Shakespeare?s humanizing of Shylock as a blurring of the lines between Jews and Christians, and as such, a shift of usury from a uniquely Jewish problem to a human problem. This shift is then explicated in terms of a changing England in a time where economic necessity challenged religious authority and creating compassion for a Jew on the stage created compassion symbolically for Christian usurers as well.
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Van, Niekerk Marthinus Christoffel. "Shakespearian play deconstructive readings of The merchant of Venice, the tempest, Measure for measure and Hamlet /." Diss., Pretoria : [s.n.], 2003. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-11092004-115656/.
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Green, Bryony Rose Humphries. "A book history study of Michael Radford's filmic production William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2008. http://eprints.ru.ac.za/1710/.
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Ludwig, Carlos Roberto. "Mimesis of inwardeness in Shakespeare's drama : The Merchant of Venice." reponame:Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da UFRGS, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10183/71936.
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Esta Tese de Doutorado tem por objetivo discutir a questão da mimesis da interioridade no Mercador de Veneza, de William Shakespeare. A pesquisa está embasada na obra Inwardness and Theater in the English Renaissance, de Maus (1995), e na obra Shakespeare Philosophy, de McGinn (2007), na crítica literária da peça. Maus apresenta a interioridade como um constructo social e cultural da Renascença Inglesa. Ela analisa a interioridade tomando como base a oposição entre aparências, consideradas falsas e enganosas na época, e interioridade, que era tida como manifestações sinceras e verdadeiras das dimensões interiores do indivíduo. Contudo, McGinn vai além da discussão de Maus sobre interioridade, ao perceber que Shakespeare representou as dimensões obscuras incontroláveis do indivíduo. Ele apresenta as forças misteriosas que controlam os pendores interiores das personagens. Além disso, a tese busca analisar a constelação de motivos e a retórica da interioridade que representam sentimentos interiores na peça de Shakespeare. Parte da hipótese de que a mimesis shakespeariana da interioridade é representada em sinais, sutis tais como os silêncios, os não-ditos, as rupturas de linguagem, gestos corporais, pathos, contradições de ideias e pensamentos, a consciência, vergonha e atos falhos. Ademais, a mimesis shakespeariana da interioridade é construída através do artifício do espelhamento que é a representação das dimensões interiores e os pendores da mente nos sentimentos, ideias, gestos, pensamentos, comportamento e atitude de outras personagens. Na verdade, Shakespeare não inventou a interioridade, mas aprofundou a representação da interioridade introduzindo traços inovadores na linguagem do drama. Este trabalho também discute o estranho desenvolvimento da crítica sobre a peça, apresentando que a crítica dos séculos XVIII e XIX lia Shylock como um herói trágico, ao passo que a crítica do século XX lia Shylock como um vilão cômico, provavelmente influenciada pelo antissemitismo da primeira metade do século. Essa pesquisa foca sobre a estranha relação entre Antonio e Bassanio, assim como sua relação com Shylock. Sua relação é representada como homoerótica e o desejo de um frívolo sacrifício de Antonio por Bassanio sugere a interioridade de Antonio. Shylock é também representado como o pai primordial da peça e esse detalhe sugere a causa da tristeza de Antonio no começo da peça. Analisa também o teste dos escrínios de Portia e demonstra seu desejo de defraudar o testamento de seu pai, tão logo ela pede que se toque uma canção que sugere em suas rimas o verdadeiro escrínio. Discute os problemas da consciência de Launcelot e da interioridade de Jessica. Analisa também a relação distante entre Jessica e Shylock, como também sua partida da casa de seu pai e roubo de seu dinheiro, como uma forma de afrontar o poder patriarcal. Centra-se também na cegueira de Shylock para com as intenções reais de sua filha. Interpreta a cena do julgamento de Shylock e como Portia forja um julgamento fraudulento, anulando o contrato de Shylock a tomando sua propriedade. Apresenta uma discussão sobre a mimesis shakespeariana de interioridade, com base nas considerações de Auerbach e Dubois, assim como discute o problema do gênero da peça, sugerindo que a peça não é uma mera comédia, mas uma tragicomédia.This Doctorate thesis aims at discussing the issue of mimesis of inwardness in The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare. This survey is based on Maus‘ Inwardness and Theater in the English Renaissance (1995), McGinn‘s work Shakespeare Philosophy (2007) and the literary criticism on the play. Maus presents inwardness as social and cultural construct of the English Renaissance. She analyses inwardness based on the opposition between appearances, considered false and deceitful in the age, and inwardness, which was taken as true and sincere manifestations of the inward dimensions of the self. However, McGinn goes beyond Maus‘ discussion on inwardness, perceiving that Shakespeare represented the uncontrolled obscure inward dimensions of the self. He presents the mysterious forces which control the characters‘ inward dispositions. Moreover, the thesis aims at analysing the constellation of motifs and the rhetoric of inwardness which represent inward feelings in Shakespeare‘s play. It parts from the hypothesis that Shakespearean mimesis of inwardness is represented in subtle signs such as silences, non-said, breaks in language, bodily gestures, pathos, contradictions in ideas and thoughts, conscience, shame, and verbal slips. Furthermore, Shakespeare‘s mimesis of inwardness is contructed through the mirroring device which is the representation of a character‘s inward dimensions and dispositions of the mind in other character‘s feelings, ideas, thoughts, gestures, behaviour and attitude. Actually, Shakespeare did not invent inwardness, but he deepened the representation of inwardness introducing innovating traits in language in the drama. This work also discusses the awkward development of the criticism on the play, presenting that the 18th and 19th century criticism read Shylock as a tragic hero, whereas 20th century criticism read Shylock as a comic villain probably influenced by anti-Semitism of the first half of the century. This research focuses on the awkward relationship between Antonio and Bassanio, as well as their relationship with Shylock. Their relation is depicted as homoerotic and Antonio‘s desire of a frivolous sacrifice for Bassanio suggests Antonio‘s inwardness. Shylock is also depicted as the primordial father of the play and such detail hints at the cause of Antonio‘s sadness in the beginning of the play. It analyses Portia‘s casket trial and demonstrates her desire of outwitting her father‘s will, as soon as she demands to play a song which suggests in its rhyme the true casket. It discusses the problems of conscience in Launcelot‘s and Jessica‘s inwardness. It also analyses the distant relationship between Jessica and Shylock, as well as her leaving her father‘s house and taking his wealth, as a way of affronting the patriarchal power. It focuses on Shylock‘s blindness towards his daughter‘s real intentions. It analyses the trial scene and how Portia forges a fraudulent trial, undoing Shylock‘s bond and taking his property. It presents a discussion on Shakespeare‘s mimesis of inwardness, based on Auerbach‘s and Dubois‘ assumptions, as well as discusses the problem of the genre of the play, suggesting that the play is not a mere comedy, but a tragicomedy.
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Lindner, Jakob. "“When shall we laugh?”: Gratiano and the two faces of comedy in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Engelska institutionen, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-170753.
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Comedy is an inherently pleasurable phenomenon with beneficial psychological functions, but its potential to bring on undesirable and socially destabilizing consequences is less intuitively obvious. In this essay, I argue that one of the hitherto under-recognized features of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice is its covert problematization of the phenomenon of comedy itself, and that the play invites its audience to become more aware of in what situations laughter is constructive and appropriate. I apply psychological and cultural-historical theories of humor— specifically, Freudian relief theory and Bakhtinian thought on laughter and festivity—as a framework for interpreting the play, with a particular emphasis on the secondary protagonist called Gratiano. I argue that Gratiano serves as a personification of comedy, whose function is to problematize it and demonstrate its positive as well as negative attributes in relation to seriousness and restraint. Gratiano’s laughter-inducing antics compel audience members to sympathize with him in the dialectic which Shakespeare sets up between him and other characters, but the play also portrays his jovial behavior as concomitant with less desirable traits which his comedy successfully obscures. While the character presents comedy as attractive and instinctively preferable to propriety and decorum, he also shows how the allure of laughter and comedy may be used by disingenuous actors to provide an attractive veneer for immoral or abhorrent behavior.
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Burtin, Tatiana. "Figures de l’avarice et de l’usure dans les comédies : The Merchant of Venice de Shakespeare, Volpone de Jonson et L’Avare de Molière." Thesis, Paris 10, 2011. http://www.theses.fr/2011PA100136/document.
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L’émergence d’un « ‘esprit’ capitaliste » (Weber) en Angleterre et en France au tournant des XVIe-XVIIe siècles a favorisé la reconfiguration des rapports entre avaritia et cupiditas, qui déterminent tout le champ sémantique de l’usure et de l’intérêt. Cette thèse postule que cette évolution est sensible dans la comédie française et anglaise de l’époque, et plus particulièrement chez les grands dramaturges qui ont marqué l’imaginaire collectif en mettant en scène des personnages avares. À partir d’un type comique issu à la fois du théâtre antique et du canon religieux bien établi dans l’Occident chrétien, l’appréhension nouvelle de l’argent comme objet et comme signe permet de construire une véritable figure moderne de l’avarice. Shylock, Volpone et Harpagon sont suspendus entre un or quasi divin, et l’univers plus ou moins connu de l’argent, qu’ils pensent maîtriser grâce à leur trésor. S’ils s’intègrent parfaitement à la fluidité moderne des échanges économiques, culturels et sociaux, ils participent aussi à leur dévalorisation, par une activité et un discours proprement usuraires. Leur entourage tente de soumettre cette « labilité » (Simmel) suscitée par l’économie de l’usurier-avare à un nouvel ordre, cosmique, éthique ou politique. Le conflit se résout devant la justice, instance discriminatoire externe et prétexte à la mise en abyme du jugement social. L’analyse finale de ces dénouements permet de comprendre le travail de chaque auteur sur la forme et la fonction du comique, à travers le texte, les genres, ou une esthétique de l’espace. Elle montre que chacun s’attache à valoriser l’apport de son art au public dans une période de crise socio-économiqueThe emergence of a capitalist ‘spirit’ (Weber) in England and France at the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries played a leading role in reconfiguring the relation between avaritia and cupiditas which determine the whole semantic field of usury and interest. This thesis postulates that this evolution is perceptible in French and British comedy at that time, in particular for some of the playwrights who staged miserly characters imprinted in our collective imagination. Starting from a comic type as common in Greek and Roman drama as it was in the well-established religious canon in the Christian West, a new understanding of money as object and as sign leads to the construction of a truly modern figure of avarice.Shylock, Volpone (Mosca) and Harpagon, hang on to a almost divine idea of gold and the more or less known world of money, medium they think they control through their treasure, and which is about to become the universal equivalent of any good. Those characters fit perfectly into this modern dynamic of economic, cultural and social exchanges, but they also contribute, with their strictly usurious speech, to its depreciation. Their entourage tries to tame this « lability » of values (Simmel) generated by the economy of the usurer-miser to a new order – a cosmic, ethical or political order. Conflicts are resolved by a court of law, external discriminatory authority and pretext for the mise-en-abyme of social judgment. The analysis of these denouements allows one to understand the work of each author in the comic form and function, through the text, the genres, or an aesthetic of space. It shows how much each author strived to value the contribution of his art to the public, in a time of socio-economic crisis
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Major, Rafael M. "Wisdom and Law: Political Thought in Shakespeare's Comedies." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2002. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3277/.
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In this study of A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, and Measure for Measure I argue that the surface plots of these comedies point us to a philosophic understanding seldom discussed in either contemporary public discourse or in Shakespearean scholarship. The comedies usually involve questions arising from the conflict between the enforcement of law (whether just or not) and the private longings (whether noble or base) of citizens whose yearnings for happiness tend to be sub- or even supra-political. No regime, it appears, is able to respond to the whole variety of circumstances that it may be called upon to judge. Even the best written laws meet with occasional exceptions and these ulterior instances must be judged by something other than a legal code. When these extra-legal instances do arise, political communities become aware of their reliance on a kind of political judgment that is usually unnoticed in the day-to-day affairs of public life. Further, it is evident that the characters who are able to exercise this political judgment, are the very characters whose presence averts a potentially tragic situation and makes a comedy possible. By presenting examples of how moral and political problems are dealt with by the prudent use of wisdom, Shakespeare is pointing the reader to a standard of judgment that transcends any particular (or actual) political arrangement. Once we see the importance of the prudent use of such a standard, we are in a position to judge what this philosophic wisdom consists of and where it is to be acquired. It is just such an education with which Shakespeare intends to aid his readers.
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Criswell, Christopher C. "Networks of Social Debt in Early Modern Literature and Culture." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2014. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc799514/.
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This thesis argues that social debt profoundly transformed the environment in which literature was produced and experienced in the early modern period. In each chapter, I examine the various ways in which social debt affected Renaissance writers and the literature they produced. While considering the cultural changes regarding patronage, love, friendship, and debt, I will analyze the poetry and drama of Ben Jonson, Lady Mary Wroth, William Shakespeare, and Thomas Middleton. Each of these writers experiences social debt in a unique and revealing way. Ben Jonson's participation in networks of social debt via poetry allowed him to secure both a livelihood and a place in the Jacobean court through exchanges of poetry and patronage. The issue of social debt pervades both Wroth's life and her writing. Love and debt are intertwined in the actions of her father, the death of her husband, and the themes of her sonnets and pastoral tragicomedy. In Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (c. 1596), Antonio and Bassanio’s friendship is tested by a burdensome interpersonal debt, which can only be alleviated by an outsider. This indicated the transition from honor-based credit system to an impersonal system of commercial exchange. Middleton’s A Trick to Catch the Old One (1608) examines how those heavily in debt dealt with both the social and legal consequences of defaulting on loans.
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Rozmovits, Linda. "Private revenge, public punishment : the Merchant of Venice in England, 1870-1929." Thesis, University of Sussex, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.283108.
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Peters, Jeri Lynn. "The trouble with gender in Othello a Butlerian reading of William Shakespeare's The tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice /." Auburn, Ala., 2007. http://repo.lib.auburn.edu/2007%20Spring%20Theses/PETERS_JERI_4.pdf.
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Bazzell, Jennifer Diane. "The Role of Women in The Merchant of Venice: Wives and Daughters Ahead of Their Time." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/193464.
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This thesis explores the role of the female characters in Williams Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice. Through contextualizing the characters of Portia, Nerissa and Jessica within the world of early modern England, this study explores the ways in which these characters do not conform to traditional Renaissance values regarding the role of women as daughters and wives. By using historical documents such as behavioral manuals, sermons, and "defenses" of women from the late sixteenth and seventeenth century, this thesis explores the ways in which Shakespeare's female characters challenge traditional social norms. Through the comparison of the female characters with Queen Elizabeth and Patient Griselda, this study discusses the implications of the rebellious behavior of the women in The Merchant of Venice. This thesis concludes that Shakespeare purposely challenges strict social views put forward on women by creating female characters who challenge male authority and are celebrated for their behavior.
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Conte, Carolina Siqueira. "Bonds: A Theory Of Appropriation For Shakespeare’s The Merchant Of Venice Realized In Film." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2005. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1113337877.
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Mngomezulu, Thulisile Fortunate. "Central women characters and their influence in Shakespeare, with particular reference to the Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra." Thesis, University of Zululand, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10530/1114.
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A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of English at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2009.Shakespeare portrayed women in his plays as people who should be valued. This is an opinion I held in the past, and one I still hold after intense reading of his works and that of authors such as Marlowe, Webster, Thomas Kyd and others. Shakespeare created his female characters out of a mixture of good and evil. When they interact with others, either the best or the worst in them is brought out: extreme evil in some cases and perfect goodness in others. I hope the reader will enjoy this study as much as I did, and that it will enhance their reading of Shakespeare‟s works and cultivate their interest in him. This study is intended to motivate other people to change their view that Shakespeare‟s works are inaccessible. Those who hold this view will come to know that anyone anywhere can read, understand and appreciate the works of this the greatest writer of all times. In his study Shakespeare’s World, Johanyak says, “I wrote [it] to help students appreciate the depth and breadth of Shakespeare‟s global awareness. Shakespeare was not only a London playwright, but a man of the world who dramatized his perceptions to create a lasting legacy of his times” (2004: ix).
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Battell, Sophie. "Hospitality in Shakespeare : the case of the Merchant of Venice, Troilus and Cressida and Timon of Athens." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2017. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/108599/.
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This thesis analyses hospitality in three of Shakespeare’s plays: The Merchant of Venice (c.1596-7), Troilus and Cressida (c. 1601-2) and Timon of Athens (c. 1606-7). It draws on ideas from Derrida and other recent theorists to argue that Shakespeare treats hospitality as the site of urgent ethical inquiry. Far more than a mechanical part of the stage business that brings characters on and off the performance space and into contact with one another, hospitality is allied to the darker visions of these troubling plays. Hospitality is a means by which Shakespeare confronts ideas about death and mourning, betrayal, and the problem of time and transience, encouraging us to reconsider what it means to be truly welcoming. That the three plays studied are not traditionally linked is important. The intention is not to shape the plays into a new group, but rather to demonstrate that Shakespeare’s staging of hospitality is far-reaching in its openness. Again, while the thesis is informed by Derrida’s writings, its approach is through close readings of the texts. Throughout, the thesis is careful not to prioritise big moments of spectacle over more subtle explorations of the subject. Thus, the chapter on ‘The Merchant of Venice’ explores the sounds that fill the play and its concern with our senses. Other chapters similarly approach the plays not as exemplars of hospitality but as illuminating problems posed by the complex nature of what it means to be welcoming. The second chapter on ‘Troilus and Cressida’ explores the vulnerability of guests and hosts to one another on and off the battlefield, while the last chapter on ‘Timon of Athens’ argues that the emphasis Shakespeare places on death and mourning problematises the play’s gift economy and its representation of hospitality. Finally, the conclusion glances briefly ahead to ‘The Winter’s Tale’ (c. 1610-11) and the relationship between hospitality and forgiveness. But there are no easy answers to the problem of hospitality in the late plays either, since they, too, remain caught in the dilemma of what it means to be welcoming.
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Beskin, Anna. "Good Girl, Bad Girl: The Role of Abigail and Jessica in The Jew of Malta and The Merchant of Venice." [Tampa, Fla] : University of South Florida, 2007. http://purl.fcla.edu/usf/dc/et/SFE0001900.
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Miyasaki, Maren H. "The Covenant: How the Tension and Interpretation Within Puritan Covenant Doctrine Pushes Toward More Equality in English Marriage." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2009. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/1962.
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The Puritans constituted a very vocal influential minority during the time of Shakespeare. One of their more interesting ideas was the doctrine of the covenant, which explained why a transcendent God would care for fallen human beings. God, for Puritans, voluntarily bound himself in a covenant to man. The interrelations of elements of grace and works make it difficult to interpret what a covenant should be like: more like a modern contract or more like a feudalistic promise system? Unlike a contract, God never ends the covenant even when humans disregard their commitment, but instead helps humans fulfill their obligations by means of mercy. The covenant also sets out specific limitations that each party is required to fulfill like a contract. Puritans applied this pattern of the covenant not only to their relationship with God, but to other relationships like business, government, and most interestingly marriage. I will focus on how Shakespeare sets out this same covenantal pattern between man and God in his depiction in Portia's and in Helena's marriages respectively. I use sixteenth and seventeenth century Puritan treatises and sermons as well as secondary experts to illustrate Shakespeare's invocation of a Puritan marriage. This Puritan interpretation of the marriage covenant points toward equality by making the couple equally obligated in the contract, yet requiring more than mere obligation. These authors believed that the marriage covenant should not just be for procreation, but cohabitation and communion of the mind.
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Harelik, Elizabeth A. "Shrews, Moneylenders, Soldiers, and Moors: Tackling Challenging Issues in Shakespeare for Young Audiences." The Ohio State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1461187189.
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Wong, Yan Jenny. "The translatability of the religious dimension in Shakespeare from page to stage, from West to East : with reference to The Merchant of Venice in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2015. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/6240/.
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The research is a hermeneutic-cum-semiotic approach to the study of the translatability of religious language in a secular play, using The Merchant of Venice in China as a reference. Under the ”power turn” or “political turn” in translation studies, omissions and untranslatability of religious material are often seen as the product of censorship or self-censorship in the prevalent socio-political context. But the theology of each individual translating agent is often neglected as an important contributing factor to such untranslatability. This thesis offers a comprehensive approach in tracing the hermeneutical process of the translators/directors as a reader and the situational process and semiotics of theatre translation, which altogether gives rise to the image of translated literature which in turn influences audience reception. This interdisciplinary study thus traverses the disciplines of translation studies, hermeneutics, theatre studies, and sociology. In this thesis I argue that while translation theorists under the current “sociological turn” view social factors as the overarching factors in determining translation activities and strategies, I will show how the interaction between the translator’s or the dramatist’s theology and religious values interact with the socio-cultural milieu to carve out a unique drama production. Often, as one can see from my case studies, it is the religious values of the translating agents that become the overarching factor in determining the translation product, rather than social factors. This thesis further argues that the translatability of religious discourse should be understood in a broader sense according to the seven dimensions proposed by Ninian Smart, rather than merely focusing on untranslatability as a result of semantic and linguistic differences.
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Alsaai, Hayan Jomah. "A critical assessment of the translations of Shakespeare into Arabic : a close examination of the translations of three tragedies; Othello, Julius Caesar and Macbeth - and one Comedy; The Merchant of Venice." Thesis, SOAS, University of London, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.298787.
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Basso, Ann Mccauley. "The Portia Project: The Heiress of Belmont on Stage and Screen." Scholar Commons, 2011. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/3000.
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Until now, there has not been a performance history of The Merchant of Venice that focuses on Portia, the main character of the play. Although she has the most lines, the most stage time, and represents the nexus of the action, Portia has often been hidden in Shylock's shadow, and this dissertation seeks to bring her into the spotlight. The Portia Project is a contribution to literary and theatrical history; its primary goal is to provide a tool for scholars and teachers. Moreover, because of Merchant's notoriously problematic nature, the play invites different perspectives. By presenting the diverse ways that actors and directors have approached the play and resolved the cruxes associated with Portia, I aim to demonstrate that there are multiple valid ways in which to interpret the text.
Chapter one explores the literary criticism of The Merchant of Venice, centering on the treatment of the play's female protagonist. The early twentieth century produced wide-ranging interpretations of Portia, and the last fifty years have seen her analyzed through the lenses of feminism, cultural materialism, psychoanalytic criticism, and queer theory. Having analyzed the literary criticism, I next concentrate on the performance history of The Merchant of Venice, with particular attention to Portia.
I then turn to those who have performed the role in a wide-range of theatrical venues. Chapter three features the input of Seana McKenna--star of the Canadian stage and a mainstay of the Stratford Festival in Ontario--who played Portia in a 1989 production. Michael Langham directed in an atmosphere of trepidation over the play's reception and its portrayal of Shylock's forced conversion. For chapter four I interviewed Marni Penning, a veteran of the smaller repertory companies that are sprinkled about the United States. For chapter five I talked to Edward Hall, artistic director of the all-male Propeller Theatre Company, and Kelsey Brookfield, a young black actor who played Portia for the group's 2009 production. By dressing all of the "male" characters alike, Hall de-emphasized the differences between the Christians and the Jews, while Portia, Nerissa, and Jessica were presented not as women, but as men, who have feminized themselves to survive in their harsh environment. Lily Rabe played Portia for the 2010 production of Merchant in Central Park, opposite Al Pacino's Shylock. The production was so successful that it moved to Broadway in October of that year, and Rabe's intelligent portrayal won universal accolades.
The Portia Project explores the perceptions of literary critics, theatrical reviewers, actors, and directors, in order to ascertain how representations and expectations of Shakespeare's most learned heroine have changed over the years and to rescue her from Shylock's shadow. By combining the disciplines of literary criticism, theatre, and film, an evolving picture of Portia emerges, revealing Portia's complexity and her centrality to The Merchant of Venice.
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Pettengill, Richard. "Mediatization and reception in Peter Sellars' The Merchant of Venice /." 2003. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3097149.
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吳靜芳. "Monetary Practice and Community-Making in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice." Thesis, 2015. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/23325132478693694704.
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碩士國立清華大學
外國語文學系
103
Abstract This thesis argues that the formation of community in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice is based on economic exchange and examines how economic exchange entangles characters in legal, national and interpersonal relations. The Merchant of Venice dramatizes a confrontation between two religiously demarcated bourgeois groups in Venice, which in turn, allegorizes the changing socio-economic situation in Tudor England. This thesis aims to employ the economic and exchange perspectives and argues the formation of community in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice is based on economic exchange and how human relations through exchange are reified in a nascent capitalistic society. This thesis contains two main chapters. Chapter One examines how the shift of wealth and social power--from possession of land to accumulation of money--had greatly impacted the social order, and given rise to anxiety between social classes. I take into account the historical context of a developing capitalist economy in early modern England--a context for which Shakespeare uses Venice as a foreign and substitute site to reflect on his contemporary England. Chapter Two argues that the formation of community in The Merchant of Venice is based on economic exchange. I draw on C. L. Barber's “The Merchant and the Jew of Venice: Wealth’s Communion and an Intruder” and W. H. Auden's "Brothers and Others" to examine how the formation of community is dictated by economic relations. I also examine how the characters enact and embody the economic conceptions in Tudor England and how the reified value system influences the social relations of the characters, such as commodified father/daughter relations, master/servant relations, love relations, and marriage relations.
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Mesquita, Maria Filomena Trilho y. Blanco. ""My daughter! O my ducats!..." : as mulheres e a economia em The Merchant of Venice." Doctoral thesis, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/10316/748.
Full textAbstract:
Tese de doutoramento em Letras (Literatura Inglesa) apresentada à Fac. de Letras da Univ. de CoimbraAdoptando uma perspectiva crítica que se pretende materialista feminista, este trabalho é dedicado ao estudo dos diversos papéis representados pelas três personagens femininas no contexto político-económico da obra The Merchant of Venice de William Shakespeare, tanto a nível dramático como a nível estilístico e retórico. A tese parte de uma discussão e revisão sistemáticas da crítica shakespeariana mais recente — neo- historicista, materialista cultural e feminista — e inclui informação de áreas em desenvolvimento na investigação feminista como a história da família, a antropologia, as mulheres e o direito, bem como a história do sistema jurídico britânicos, a literatura e o direito e a história económica. Neste sentido, o principal objecto de análise são os papéis ambíguos que a comédia shakespeariana destina às mulheres na estrutura económica familiar e na rede homossocial de funcionamento do estado. Através dos motivos do disfarce e do travestimento, estas personagens são investidas do desestabilizador poder carnavalesco que as conota com modelos coevos de inversão e desordem que, nos textos e contextos da Renascença inglesa, são apresentados como indícios da ansiedade da época relativamente à emergência de um sistema de mercado e às mudanças no tecido social, e evidenciada na preocupação do patriarcado com noções de ordem e de hierarquia, social e sexual. Desenvolve-se um estudo dos discursos contemporâneos dominantes sobre a natureza e representação do dinheiro, da riqueza e do valor, a reprodução do capital e a usura, de modo a definir a intersecção do discurso biológico e económico na literatura da época, e a historicizar não só a dimensão de Portia como deusa Fortuna mas também a resolução cómica, em termos das transformações coevas do conceito de casamento e do sistema de economia doméstica no espaço urbano do capitalismo emergente.
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Blagys, Michael. "A Lighting Design Concept for the Lighting for William Shakespeare's: The Merchant of Venice." 2015. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/181.
Full textAbstract:
I designed the lighting for William Shakespeare's complex piece, The Merchant of Venice, which was produced by the UMass Amherst Theater Department. In this thesis paper, I will discuss the creative process from start to finish, including relevant lighting paperwork and production photographs.
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Moodley, Derosha. "Creative Shakespeare : exploring a creative pedagogy for teaching The Merchant of Venice at Grove End Secondary school within their English home language learning area." Thesis, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/9821.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation is an investigation of a creative pedagogical approach
formulated to teach the Shakespearean play in a KwaZulu-Natal public high
school, namely Grove End Secondary in Phoenix, Durban. The study
explores how my formulated creative pedagogy for teaching The Merchant
of Venice (1980) functions as an alternate creative teaching methodology to
the current pedagogical approach, namely the text-based approach, which
appears not to acknowledge the performative element inherent within
Shakespearean plays. This study argues that through creative learning processes such as drama in education, creative drama, experiential learning, group dynamics and playmaking, learners can engage the performative aspect within the plays.
The study also argues that creative learning processes can diminish the
apprehension with which learners currently approach Shakespearean play
study, since creative processes stimulate the learners’ imaginative ideas, as
opposed to the educator-centered text-based approach, which requires little or no input from the learners during the learning process.
Through the implementation of the creative pedagogy with eighteen learners from Grove End Secondary, the research aimed firstly, to evoke a
positive attitude change from learners towards Shakespearean play study
and secondly, to guide the learners towards a better understanding of the
Shakespearean play narrative and Shakespearean language.
The research was conducted through classroom action research. Research
methods included data collection of journals, surveys, and questionnaires
that were analysed throughout the course of the case study. Outcomes of
the continuous data analysis reflected upon during the case study resulted in the adaptation of the creative pedagogy to suit the learners’ needs.
The qualitative nature of this research led to findings which reveal that the
creative pedagogy is an effective methodology for teaching Shakespearean
plays, but is problematic when trying to integrate the educational aims of
the creative pedagogy, with the constraints and structures of the current
curriculum and public school system. The research also produces data
which can benefit future inquiry into the creative teaching of Shakespearean plays in KwaZulu-Natal public high schools.Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.
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Blair, Bradley Michael. "A paradox of self-image William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and King Richard II in Hitler's Germany /." 2008. http://etd.utk.edu/August2008MastersTheses/BlairBradleyMichael.pdf.
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Kruger, Alet. "Lexical cohesion register variation in transition : "The merchants of Venice" in afrikaans." Thesis, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/2988.
Full textAbstract:
On the assumption that different registers of translated drama have different functions and that
they therefore present information differently, the aim of the present study is to identify textual
features that distinguish an Afrikaans stage translation from a page translation of Shakespeare's
The Merchant of Venice. The first issue addressed concerns the nature and extent of lexical
cohesion in these two registers. The second issue concerns my contention that the dialogue of a
stage translation is more "involved". (Biber 1988) than that of a page translation. The research was
conducted within the overall Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS) paradigm but the analytical
frameworks by means of which these aims were accomplished were derived from text linguistics
and register variation studies, making this an interdisciplinary study. Aspects of Hoey's ( 1991)
bonding model, in particular, the classification of repetition links, were adapted so as to quantify
lexical cohesion in the translations. Similarly, aspects of Biber's (1988) multi-dimensional
approach to register variation were used to quantify linguistic features that signal involvement.
The main finding of the study is that drama translation register (page or stage translation) does
have a constraining effect on lexical cohesion and involved production. For Act IV of the play an
overall higher density of lexical cohesion strategies was generated by the stage translation. In the
case of the involved production features analysed, the overall finding was that the stage translation
displayed more involvement than the page translation, to a statistically highly significant extent.
The features analysed here cluster together sufficiently to reveal that in comparison with an
Afrikaans page translation of a Shakespeare play, a recent stage translation displays a definite
tendency towards a more oral, more involved and more situated style, reflecting no doubt a
general modern trend towards creating more appropriate and accessible textsLinguistics
D. Litt. et Phil. (Translation Studies)
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Melo, Sergio N. "Deconstructing the Transhistorical in Contemporary Productions of The Merchant of Venice." Thesis, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/1807/24368.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation critiques four stagings of The Merchant of Venice observed in three theatrical cultures of the Anglophone world and argues that engaging productions of this script take into account its self-deconstructive character as one of its most decisive ordering principles. The dissertation draws on Derrida's Deconstruction, stressing that, according to the acknowledged father of the movement, texts do have transcendental traces. It discusses themes such as anti-Semitism versus ethnic intolerance,homosexuality verus somody, carnivalization, and the representation of emotions.
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Chen, Hui-Wen, and 陳惠雯. "The Question of Anti-Semitismin Marlowe''s The Jew of Malta and Shakespeare''s The Merchant of Venice." Thesis, 2002. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/34720088546301367120.
Full textAbstract:
碩士國立成功大學
外國語文學系碩博士班
90
Since the Roman times, anti-Semitism has been part of the western culture. Having stirred up in many westerners almost irrational hatred of Jews, it has done a great harm to the Jewish tribe. In literature, related prejudices can also be found. For example, Marlowe''s The Jew of Malta and Shakespeare''s The Merchant of Venice reflect the ineradicable bias against Jews in Christian societies. Although both of these works deal with the longstanding Christian-Jewish opposition, they not only focus on the Christian anti-Jewish prejudices but also touch upon the question of Christian morality. In other words, they lead us to examine the principles and practices of Christianity when its believers are propagators of Jew-baiting. This thesis, therefore, will mainly be an attempt to examine whether or not Marlowe and Shakespeare were anti-Semitic. In The Jew of Malta, Marlowe appears to be more anti-Christian than anti-Semitic, for he employs the historically-stigmatized Jews only as a means to satirize Christians. Portraying Ferneze and the Christian Knights of Malta as avaricious and hypocritical as the Jew Barabas, Marlowe obviously is not a writer in favor of Christianity. What is more significant, the Christians'' final triumph over Barabas reveals them to be better manipulators of "policy." In The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare appears to take sides with the Christian teaching concerning "mercy." He condemns Shylock, the Jewish money-lender, not because of his Jewish ancestry but because of his excessive thirst for money and refusal to render mercy in the court. Whereas Marlowe''s Barabas is an embodiment of almost all the vile crimes that have been related to Jews, Shakespeare nevertheless distinguishes himself from Marlowe by portraying Shylock as a victim in the Christian Venice and endowing the Jew with humanity.
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Lamb, Jonathan Paul. "Shakespeare's writing practice : literary' Shakespeare and the work of form." Thesis, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/2152/ETD-UT-2011-05-2732.
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In its introduction and four chapters, this project demonstrates that Shakespeare responded to—and powerfully shaped—the early modern English literary marketplace. Against the longstanding critical limitation of the category “Literature” that restricts it to the printed book, this dissertation argues that the literary is not so much a quality of texts as a mode of exchange encompassing not merely printed books but many other forms of representation. Whether writing for the stage, the page, or both, Shakespeare borrowed from and influenced other writers, and it is these specifically formal transactions that make his works literary. Thus, we can understand Shakespeare’s literariness only by scrutinizing the formal features of his works and showing how they circulated in an economy of imaginative writing. Shakespeare self-consciously refashioned words, styles, metrical forms, and figures of speech even as he traded in them, quickly cornering the literary market between 1595 and 1600. Shakespeare’s practice as a writer thus preceded and made possible his reputation both in the theater and in print.text
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Jang, Seon Young. "Psychoanalysis, race, and sexual difference in Renaissance literature the case of three Shakespeare plays, "Othello", "The Merchant of Venice", and "The Tempest" /." 2008. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1500071871&sid=12&Fmt=2&clientId=39334&RQT=309&VName=PQD.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--State University of New York at Buffalo, 2008.Title from PDF title page (viewed on Aug. 22, 2008) Available through UMI ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Thesis adviser: Bono, Barbara. Includes bibliographical references.
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Burtin, Tatiana. "Figures de l'avarice et de l'usure dans les comédies : The Merchant of Venice de Shakespeare, Volpone de Jonson et L'Avare de Molière." Thèse, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1866/6178.
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L'émergence d'un « 'esprit' capitaliste » (Weber) en Angleterre et en France au tournant des XVIe-XVIIe siècles a favorisé la reconfiguration des rapports entre avaritia et cupiditas, qui déterminent tout le champ sémantique de l'usure et de l'intérêt. Cette thèse postule que cette évolution est sensible dans la comédie française et anglaise de l'époque, plus particulièrement chez les dramaturges qui ont marqué l'imaginaire collectif en mettant en scène des personnages avares. À partir d'un type comique issu à la fois du théâtre antique et du canon religieux bien établi dans l'Occident chrétien, l'appréhension nouvelle de l'argent comme objet et comme signe permet de construire une véritable figure moderne de l'avarice.
Les protagonistes de chaque pièce, Shylock, Volpone (Mosca) et Harpagon, sont suspendus entre un or quasi divin, et l'univers plus ou moins connu de l'argent, medium en passe de devenir l'équivalent universel de tout bien, qu'ils pensent maîtriser grâce à leur trésor. S'ils s'intègrent parfaitement à la fluidité moderne des échanges économiques, culturels et sociaux, ils participent aussi à leur dévalorisation, par une activité et un discours proprement usuraires. Leur entourage tente de soumettre cette « labilité » des valeurs (Simmel) suscitée par l'économie de l'usurier-avare à un nouvel ordre, cosmique, éthique ou politique. Le conflit se résout devant la justice, instance discriminatoire externe et prétexte à la mise en abyme du jugement social. L'analyse des dénouements permet dès lors de comprendre le travail de chaque auteur sur la forme et la fonction de la comédie, à travers le texte, les genres, ou une esthétique de l'espace. Elle montre que chacun s'attache à valoriser l'apport de son art au public, dans une période de crise socio-économique.The emergence of a capitalist ‘spirit’ (Weber) in England and France at the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries played a leading role in reconfiguring the relation between avaritia and cupiditas which determine the whole semantic field of usury and interest. This thesis postulates that this evolution is perceptible in French and British comedy at that time, in particular for some of the playwrights who staged miserly characters imprinted in our collective imagination. Starting from a comic type as common in Greek and Roman drama as it was in the well-established religious canon in the Christian West, a new understanding of money as object and as sign leads to the construction of a truly modern figure of avarice. Shylock, Volpone (Mosca) and Harpagon, hang on to a almost divine idea of gold and the more or less known world of money, medium they think they control through their treasure, and which is about to become the universal equivalent of any good. Those characters fit perfectly into this modern dynamic of economic, cultural and social exchanges, but they also contribute, with their strictly usurious speech, to its depreciation. Their entourage tries to tame this « lability » of values (Simmel) generated by the economy of the usurer-miser to a new order – a cosmic, ethical or political order. Conflicts are resolved by a court of law, external discriminatory authority and pretext for the mise-en-abyme of social judgment. The analysis of these denouements allows one to understand the work of each author in the comic form and function, through the text, the genres, or an aesthetic of space. It shows how much each author strived to value the contribution of his art to the public, in a time of socio-economic crisis.
Réalisé en cotutelle avec l'Université de Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense
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Anonby, David. "Shakespeare and soteriology: crossing the Reformation divide." Thesis, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/1828/12439.
Full textAbstract:
My dissertation explores Shakespeare’s negotiation of Reformation controversy about theories of salvation. While twentieth century literary criticism tended to regard Shakespeare as a harbinger of secularism, the so-called “turn to religion” in early modern studies has given renewed attention to the religious elements in Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Yet in spite of the current popularity of early modern religion studies, there remains an aura of uncertainty regarding some of the doctrinal or liturgical specificities of the period. This historical gap is especially felt with respect to theories of salvation, or soteriology. Such ambiguity, however, calls for further inquiry into historical theology. As one of the “hot-button” issues of the Reformation, salvation was fiercely contested in Shakespeare’s day, making it essential for scholarship to differentiate between conformist (Church of England), godly (puritan), and recusant (Catholic) strains of soteriology in Shakespearean plays. I explore how the language and concepts of faith, grace, charity, the sacraments, election, free will, justification, sanctification, and atonement find expression in Shakespeare’s plays. In doing so, I contribute to the recovery of a greater understanding of the relationship between early modern religion and Shakespearean drama. While I share Kastan’s reluctance to attribute particular religious convictions to Shakespeare (A Will to Believe 143), in some cases such critical guardedness has diverted attention from the religious topography of Shakespeare’s plays.
My first chapter explores the tension in The Merchant of Venice between Protestant notions of justification by faith and a Catholic insistence upon works of mercy. The infamous trial scene, in particular, deconstructs cherished Protestant ideology by refuting the efficacy of faith when it is divorced from ethical behaviour. The second chapter situates Hamlet in the stream of Lancelot Andrewes’s “avant-garde conformity” (to use Peter Lake’s coinage), thereby explaining why Claudius’s prayer in the definitive text of the second quarto has intimations of soteriological agency that are lacking in the first quarto. The third chapter argues that Hamlet undermines the ghost’s association of violence and religion, thus implicitly critiquing the proliferation of religious violence on both sides of the Reformation divide. The fourth chapter argues that Calvin’s theory of the vicarious atonement of Christ, expounded so eloquently by Isabella in Measure for Measure, meets substantial resistance, especially when the Duke and others attempt to apply the soteriological principle of substitution to the domains of sexuality and law. The ethical failures that result from an over-realized soteriology indicate that the play corroborates Luther’s idea that a distinction must be maintained between the sacred and secular realms. The fifth chapter examines controversies in the English church about the (il)legitimacy of exorcising demons, a practice favoured by Jesuits but generally frowned upon by Calvinists. Shakespeare cleverly negotiates satirical source material by metaphorizing exorcisms in King Lear in a way that seems to acknowledge Calvinist scepticism, yet honour Jesuit compassion. Throughout this study, my hermeneutic is to read Shakespeare through the lens of contemporary theological controversy and to read contemporary theology through the lens of Shakespeare.Graduate
2021-11-20
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Smith, Tamara Leanne. "Too foul and dishonoring to be overlooked : newspaper responses to controversial English stars in the Northeastern United States, 1820-1870." Thesis, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/2152/ETD-UT-2010-05-921.
Full textAbstract:
In the nineteenth century, theatre and newspapers were the dominant expressions of popular culture in the northeastern United States, and together formed a crucial discursive node in the ongoing negotiation of American national identity. Focusing on the five decades between 1820 and 1870, during which touring stars from Great Britain enjoyed their most lucrative years of popularity on United States stages, this dissertation examines three instances in which English performers entered into this nationalizing forum and became flashpoints for journalists seeking to define the nature and bounds of American citizenship and culture. In 1821, Edmund Kean’s refusal to perform in Boston caused a scandal that revealed a widespread fixation among social elites with delineating the ethnic and economic limits of citizenship in a republican nation. In 1849, an ongoing rivalry between the English tragedian William Charles Macready and his American competitor Edwin Forrest culminated in the deadly Astor Place riot. By configuring the actors as champions in a struggle between bourgeois authority and working-class populism, the New York press inserted these local events into international patterns of economic conflict and revolutionary violence. Nearly twenty years later, the arrival of the Lydia Thompson Burlesque Troupe in 1868 drew rhetoric that reflected the popular press’ growing preoccupation with gender, particularly the question of woman suffrage and the preservation of the United States’ international reputation as a powerfully masculine nation in the wake of the Civil War.
Three distinct cultural currents pervade each of these case studies: the new nation’s anxieties about its former colonizer’s cultural influence, competing political and cultural ideologies within the United States, and the changing perspectives and agendas of the ascendant popular press. Exploring the points where these forces intersect, this dissertation aims to contribute to an understanding of how popular culture helped shape an emerging sense of American national identity. Ultimately, this dissertation argues that in the mid-nineteenth century northeastern United States, popular theatre, newspapers, and audiences all contributed to a single media formation in which controversial English performers became a rhetorical antipode against which “American” identity could be defined.text