Today’s Totally Random Line(s)
I would not have my father
See me in talk with thee.
-Jessica
The Merchant of
Venice Act
III, Scene iii, Line 9
It’s
a short scene, only seventeen lines with Jessica and Launcelot Gobbo. Jessica
is leaving home to run away with Lorenzo, and Launcelot is leaving this same
home to take a new job with Bassanio. They are both leaving Shylock, and they
both paint him as a bit of a devil. But is that really fair?
I’ve
said before that this is a complicated play, and that it presents and lot of things
and characters as something that they are not. Is Shylock a bad guy? Is he bad because
he’s a Jew? It’s easy to argue that this play would answer both those questions
with yes. But does it really? Does the play really say that about him? I
don’t think it’s nearly as simple as all that. In fact, I’m quite sure it’s
not.
But
I’ve got to check out of this room in forty-four minutes. I too am leaving (not
Shylock’s house, but I am leaving), and forty-four minutes is not nearly enough
time to properly get into a discussion of what this play says about Shylock. I
think I would need about a week for that. .
How
about you?
1 comment:
One of the few lines I understand without much explanation.
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