For one, the play IS 'the Merchants of Venice', referring to all the central characters: Shylock, Antonio and Bassanio, therefore plural.

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by JayJay
Again, intent doesn't change content. Whether Shakespeare meant to 'undermine his heroes' is conjecture. It may be true, but doesn't change the content.

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Um... no Totally wrong, to invlove the topic of racism, which I admit, Shakespear does, doesn't make the play racist. American History X starring Edward Norton is obviously about racism, but it isn't pro-racism, it's using the topic to show how it is wrong. The play also has three love stories running through it, but it isn't a love story, it's a comedy. By your logic, to discuss racism is racist, WRONG!

Sorry Kieran, but I own two copies of the play, both have the title 'The Merchant of Venice', Singular.

And no, neither my argument nor its logical conclusion would lead to the conclusion that to discuss racism is racist. A story where the heroes are clearly racist, the protagonist a racist caricature, and to have a happy ending where the 'outsider' is mocked and defeated, this makes the story racist.

Shylock's speech about his humanity and a right to equal treatment is in stark contrast to almost all of the rest of the story. Yes, this could be a sign of Shakespeare's subterfuge and hidden intent. I hope so. But this is again conjecture, with no guarantee that even that piece had the same importance, meaning and impact at the time of writing as it does today. It is too easy to make the mistake of forcing our moral values on a society that existed almost half a millennia ago.

Also, to call the play a comedy is too simplistic. Hamlet is loaded with humour - is that a comedy? Much Ado About Nothing with tragedy - and so forth. It's one of the beauties of the complexity of his work. What it is is entertaining, and beautifully written. It contains a subject matter that is even more emotive than it was at the time of study. Handled by the right director it is a gloriously stunning study of human relationships across cultures. Handled incorrectly and it is a horrible attack on a people who have suffered for most of written history. It is both entertainment and worthy of study for the ideas - both racist and anti-racist - that it can be seen to contain.

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by White Hart
Sadly, studying Shakespeare as poetry without ever seeing a performance can easily ruin it, which is what so often happens.

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For English Lit A-Level i did Hamlet and A Midsummer Nights Dream. Hamlet was fascinating to study as well as watch, but the other one really lacked the meat to get into for the sort of essay's we were supposed to be producing (though discovering i couldn't write Lit essays to save my life at this point didn't help).

I got very bored of the play, but then we saw a fantastic production of it at Stratford, which was a magical, stunning couple of hours... and suddenly i could see the point of it clearly. Great stuff.

Recently saw a play called Elizabeth Rex, where the Queen and Shakespeare and his company end up passing the night before her former lover is to be beheaded for treason. Very interesting, and some great performances in the version i saw including Stephanie Beacham as a brilliant Elizabeth.

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by JayJay
A story where the heroes are clearly racist, the protagonist a racist caricature, and to have a happy ending where the 'outsider' is mocked and defeated, this makes the story racist.

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I will truimph The protagonist isn't, as I outlined earlier, racists. He doesn't insult Shylock until he has cause. Antonio, the second focal character isn't racists either, he only insults Shylock for his usuage, not his religion, which Shylock is the first to point out, not Bassanio or Antonio. Also, a play can be anti-racism, without having a happy ending for the injured party.

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by JayJay
Also, to call the play a comedy is too simplistic

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Oh, I agree, I was just summerising, over-all it is a comedy. Romeo and Juliet starts off with all the 'classic' Shakespearian comedy elements: a ball, a fool (who isn't wise, unlike tragedies, where he is often the wisest character), love against hardship and turmoil, but as we all know, it's a tragedy.

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by JayJay
It is both entertainment and worthy of study

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Exactly, which is why I object when people refuse to teach it, based on 'racists' elements.

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by White Hart
I got very bored of the play, but then we saw a fantastic production of it at Stratford, which was a magical, stunning couple of hours...

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Clearly we saw different productions, the one I saw had me nearly in tears it was so bad.

Can't remember who directed it, but it must have been about 8 years ago that i saw it. Feeling old now

Watcher Girl: did the production you saw have loads of umbrellas in it? Because if so, it was Adrian Noble's version, which I saw in October 1994 (final year at uni), and I thought it was absolutely stunning!

I do think it takes that to realise the point of a lot of Shakespeare though, and it was only at university that there really was that focus on the text as the bare bones of a play to be elaborated on in the staging.

Thank you, White Hart, that was the one. Really should have remembered it was Adrian Noble.