Venice And Belmont Contrast

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Nicholas Barton
Mrs. Altman
English 2
4 April 2015 Venice and Belmont Contrast Venice and Belmont in the play
Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare, show many contrasting ideas, which can be found in many areas of the play. The places differed in how
Venice stood more for a greedy, power hungry area with with a lot of money and law. Belmont stood for an area full of love and relationship, with abit of a comedic twist and wedding lifestyle.
Venice was much more city like and busy, and Belmont as a suburban and slow place. Because of these differences between the two places it created contrasting ideas for the work in a whole. To start, some of the way Venice differed from Belmont were the citizens. Venice people were represented greedy. This could be viewed in any instance with Sherlock, a Jewish citizen of
Venice, who was not only greedy, but also showed how separated Jews were from the other
Christians. An example to explain both of these instances taking place in Venice is when
Sherlock is in court trying to get Antonio, a Christian merchant, killed because he hates
Christians, but also because he is being greedy and did not get his money back as soon as he wanted it. Some ways that Belmont differed from Venice were it took a much more happy go lucky perspective. In Belmont not only does Bassanio, a friend of Antonio’s, marry Portia, a


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woman with money after her fathers death looking to marry the right man. to create a romantic tone, but it also takes a comedic tone when Portia finds out Bassanio did something he had swore to never do, and finds out he did it anyways in a humorous way. This differs immensely between
Venice as it was a place for little humor and no romance, as tensions were higher their. Even though difference created a clear cut contrast between the two places, another way to show the contrast between the places could be shown through what each place represented. Now we can show what each place represents. Venice represents the city in the play. This can be clarified by a few examples found in the play. Boats sail in often because many rich merchants live here, and with the commonality of boats, you could justifiably say that it is a busy place. With any busy place that is full of ports and rich people and minorities alike, you can make the assumption of this place being a city. Also most of the lawful duties take place in
Venice. When Antonio is put on trial against Sherlock, their is a judge and many watchers among the courtroom, both Jewish and Christian. With this you can make a good assumption that a busy courtroom is most commonly found in a busy port town, with a hustle and bustle of people. Belmont represents much more of a suburb type area and this can be justified by the calmer life that take place here compared to the rumble and bumble of the port town Venice.
One way the suburb life of Belmont was shown was when Portia had people come to pick a chest for the chance to wed her. This process not only took away much time compared to the activities taking place in Venice, but also could have been used to create a stall in the play. At one point
Portia even asked Bassanio to not pick a chest and to simply hang around for awhile. If the event that Bassanio accepted such a thing, then the play could have stalled for a few “weeks” and may


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have played out a bit differently. With coverage of how the places differed and what each place represented, the last thing I would like to go over is how these contrasting areas contributed to the meaning of the work as a whole. The way Venice and Belmont being different contribute to the meaning of the play is significant. Venice, being the crowded port town it was, made the plot push further along and a quicker rate. One example would be of the boats that all of Antonio’s money was on. Every single one of these boat crashed and in doing so created a quicker plot advancement for Sherlock trying to kill Antonio. An example of Belmont increasing the progression of the plot at a quicker rate was when Portia gave Bassanio an option to pick a chest now, or wait for awhile so that to spend more time with each other, Bassanio picked a chest immediately. Even though Belmont did slightly progress the speed at this point of the end of the play, for the most part Belmont slowed down the play. It took a long time for people to pick a chest to have a chance at wedding
Portia. This point slowed the play because it took so long to progress. These contrasting areas contributed to the meaning of the work by shifting up the plot speed and how certain things took place at certain times. Because Belmont and Venice had so many contrasting ideas it created contrasting ideas for the work in a whole. Belmont was slower and more suburban, and Venice was more city like and busy. Venice wealth and law were some supporting ends that created difference between
Belmont, which was more love­fueled and happy. These two places differences showed many contrasting areas, which were found in many parts of the play.