"We find in Shakespeare's rendering of Shylock the most realized expression of the repeated pattern in which he tries to recall, outdo, and the reject Marlow. Perhaps the most decisive revisionary strategy was Shakespeare's repositioning of the trial scene-in which the Jew is required to render up his good and is threatened with conversion- from the opening act of Marlow's own play to the climax of Shakespeare's play. In doing so he takes what in Marlow's play provided a barely plausible justification for Barabas" desire for revenge and transforms it into a harrowing and nearly tragic confrontation, reversing the movement in Marlow's play from potential tragedy to farce and steering the play towards the verge of tragedy. Indeed, productions that have ended the play at that point, or have Shylock stab himself as he exists, are really only pushing the tragic potential of this scene a small step farther that Shakespeare allows.".
Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice is an example of how the playwright uses his mentor's influence and makes it his own. Shakespeare differentiates his Merchant of Venice from Marlow's Jew of Malta by repositioning the trial scene, which is also the climax of the play, to the end. Marlow has his "trial" at the beginning. The trials also have two different endings, Shylock is forced to convert to Christianity and he does, while Barabas states "I will be no convertile" (Bloom 176). Shakespeare's play also has subplots involving the lovers, and the city of Belmont. Which symbolizes a place that is untouched by the Jew. Marlow has one plot Barabas" scheme for revenge. .
One theory about Shakespeare's motivation for writing The Merchant of Venice is that he intended to use to his advantage public opinion on anti-Semitic aroused by the well-publicized trial in 1594 of Roderigo Lopez, the queen's Jewish doctor (Stirling, par.5). Lopez, a Portuguese Jew who had converted to Christianity, had been the personal physician of the very popular queen, Elizabeth I.
