Similarities Between A Midsummer Night's Dream And The Merchant Of Venice
When analyzing William Shakespeare’s plays, critics often crave categorizing each play into a specific genre. Many of Shakespeare’s plays fit into a genre, but some, such as The Merchant of Venice, fail to conform to one genre. One of Shakespeare’s early plays that is a festive comedy is A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which is a great parallel to The Merchant of Venice because both revolve around romantic relationships but each leaves the reader with different feelings at the end. The play staring Shylock the Jew carries dark undertones that eliminate it from being a festive comedy, but it also lack the tragic nature of a traditional tragedy, leaving is as a problem play or tragicomedy. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a fun adventure for the
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In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the character that gets the ball rolling is Puck. Puck is a fairy who likes to stir up trouble, and instead of pouring the love potion into Demetrius’ eyes like he is supposed to, he accidentally pours it into Lysander’s eyes while he is sleeping. This sets off a chain reaction of people being in love with the wrong person due to this love potion. Near the end of the play, Puck fixes everything, which leaves everyone happy and ready to get married. In The Merchant of Venice, the character Shylock is very influential and important to the story. Unlike Puck, he does not add festivity to the play, but rather intensity. Puck loves to stir up trouble for the fun of it, but Shylock is filled with hate because he is a Jew in a Christian world. The reader can see this early in the play when he says “I hate him for he is a Christian” (1.3.42) while talking about Antonio. This hatred that Shylock adds to the play is one of the main reasons that it is considered a problem play or tragicomedy. Throughout the play the darkness increases, specifically when Shylock labels Antonio’s debt as a pound of his own flesh. At the end of play during the trial scene, Shylock goes to the extent of sharpening his knife to carry out cutting off a pound of Antonio’s flesh. Because the play is not a tragedy, Shylock is not allowed by the law to carry out this action, which further blurs the lines of which genre The Merchant of Venice belongs
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the character that gets the ball rolling is Puck. Puck is a fairy who likes to stir up trouble, and instead of pouring the love potion into Demetrius’ eyes like he is supposed to, he accidentally pours it into Lysander’s eyes while he is sleeping. This sets off a chain reaction of people being in love with the wrong person due to this love potion. Near the end of the play, Puck fixes everything, which leaves everyone happy and ready to get married. In The Merchant of Venice, the character Shylock is very influential and important to the story. Unlike Puck, he does not add festivity to the play, but rather intensity. Puck loves to stir up trouble for the fun of it, but Shylock is filled with hate because he is a Jew in a Christian world. The reader can see this early in the play when he says “I hate him for he is a Christian” (1.3.42) while talking about Antonio. This hatred that Shylock adds to the play is one of the main reasons that it is considered a problem play or tragicomedy. Throughout the play the darkness increases, specifically when Shylock labels Antonio’s debt as a pound of his own flesh. At the end of play during the trial scene, Shylock goes to the extent of sharpening his knife to carry out cutting off a pound of Antonio’s flesh. Because the play is not a tragedy, Shylock is not allowed by the law to carry out this action, which further blurs the lines of which genre The Merchant of Venice belongs