Analysis of William Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice.
In William Shakespeare's play, Merchant of Venice, the players tell a story about an old Jewish man who is shunned from society, a Jewish daughter who betrays and steals from her father to run off with a Christian man and convert to Christianity, a merchant who promises a "pound of flesh" in return for a loan, a man who travels to Belmont to pick between three casket to win a wealthy wife, and a countess who is under the control of her deceases father. Through the disarray of this complicated plot, there are reoccurring themes that present themselves throughout the text. Two of these themes are wealth vs. worth and religion. .
One of the main themes in this play is wealth vs. worth. This theme points directly to Bassanio and Portia. Bassanio is the poor friend of Antonio. Bassanio takes out a loan from Antonio to go to Belmont and court the countess, Portia who is wealthy and can pay off his debts. Unfortunately, the only way Bassanio can marry Portia is to choose between three caskets and find the casket with Portia's portrait. The caskets are made of three metals, gold, silver and lead. Because Bassanio is poor himself, he does not think himself to be worth as much as gold or silver and, instead, opts for the lead casket where he finds Portia's portrait. This proves that even though Bassanio is not as wealthy as Portia, he still is still a good, kind hearted and caring person, and therefore, worthy of loving Portia. An example of his worthiness can be seen in (Shakespeare) Act III, scene ii, page 48, when Bassanio says: .
"The seeming truth wish cunning times put on to entrap the wisest/ Therefore, thou gaudy gold/ hard food for Midas, I will have none of thee/ Nor none of thee, thou pale and common drudge t"ween man and man/ but thou, thou meager lead, which rather threathenest than dost promise aught/ Thy paleness moves me more the eloquence/ and here choose I: joy be the consequence!" .