The Merchant of Venice is an odd play.\u00a0 The romance plot line with Portia and Bassanio is decidedly comic but the Shylock story is a revenge story that verges on the bizarre.\u00a0 Olivier is Shylock, a Jewish moneylender in Venice.\u00a0 The story revolves around Antonio, a prosperous merchant whose friend Bassanio is in love with the rich heiress Portia.\u00a0 Bassanio begs a loan of 3,000 ducats to woo Portia as a nobleman.\u00a0 Shylock gives Bassanio the money but because of his hatred of Antonio he demands that if the money is not repaid on time Shylock will remove a pound of flesh from Antonio\u2019s breast closest to his heart.\u00a0 Antonio treats this lightly because he has many merchant ships in route for home that should enrich him many times the 3,000 ducats in cargo value.\u00a0 But when all his ships are reported lost then the default clause is no longer a joke but a promise of torture and death.<\/p>\n
Another subplot has Shylock\u2019s daughter run away from her father and elope with one of Bassanio\u2019s friends, Lorenzo and also convert to Christianity.\u00a0 It is this insult from his daughter that unhinges Shylock and turns him into a merciless fiend dead set on exacting his pound of flesh.\u00a0 Luckily for Antonio, Bassanio\u2019s courtship of Portia is successful and when she hears of Antonio\u2019s peril, she tells her new husband that all the funds needed will be available to pay off Antonio\u2019s debt.\u00a0 But Shylock refuses even thrice the delinquent 3,000 ducats, standing on his contract to extract the pound of flesh he is owed.\u00a0 Finally, a trial before the Duke of Venice is scheduled.\u00a0 Portia comes disguised as a learned doctor of the law from Padua with a recommendation to the Duke from Bellario, her lawyer cousin in Padua.\u00a0 Acting as the judge Portia concedes that the letter of the law allows Shylock to demand his pound of flesh but in a stirring speech she expounds on the \u201cquality of mercy.\u201d\u00a0 But none of this phases Shylock in the least.\u00a0 Over and over he refuses the 9,000 ducats and demands his barbaric payment.\u00a0 Then Portia plays her trump card.\u00a0 She declares that Shylock can have his pound of flesh.\u00a0 But not a hair\u2019s weight more or less and without spilling a drop of Antonio\u2019s blood lest Shylock be put to death for it.\u00a0 Knowing that he is beaten Shylock then asks for the 9,000 ducats but Portia tells him he has already refused that.\u00a0 Then he asks for his principal back and is equally denied that.\u00a0 And finally, he is informed that his attempt on the life of a Venetian citizen forfeits his own life and all his fortune.\u00a0 By an act of mercy, the Duke spares his life and half his fortune with the proviso that Shylock must convert to Christianity and leave his remaining fortune to his daughter and her husband upon Shylock\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
After this happy ending there is the usual sexual politics with the disguised Portia demanding as payment from Bassanio for her legal help a ring that she had given him earlier as herself and which he had sworn never to remove.\u00a0 And when back in her normal appearance she demands to see Bassanio\u2019s ring.\u00a0 He sadly admits to having given it away.\u00a0 She produces it and teases him with having spent the night with the doctor of law.\u00a0 And then there\u2019s a tiff about it that is quickly straightened out when she reveals that she was the doctor of law.\u00a0 And hilarity ensues.<\/p>\n
This is a good production.\u00a0 It is a good cast and the production values are equally good.\u00a0 The scenery and costumes are of a Victorian England.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think this was a particularly good idea but it certainly didn\u2019t harm the story much.\u00a0 Joan Plowright looked a little too old to be Portia but her acting was everything you\u2019d want for the part.\u00a0 Jeremy Brett was a good Bassanio and the rest of the supporting cast was very able.\u00a0 Olivier was very good.\u00a0 But I was a little let down.\u00a0 Shylock just isn\u2019t that great a character.\u00a0 He\u2019s certainly not Hamlet or even Henry V.\u00a0 He\u2019s doesn\u2019t even have the great villainous lines like Richard III.\u00a0 A lot of his dialog is odd and melodramatic.\u00a0 So, for once Olivier is not the main reason for watching this recording.<\/p>\n
Plowright has the shining moment.\u00a0 She gets to recite the quality of mercy speech.\u00a0 And that alone is worth watching this play.\u00a0 It is one of the best things Shakespeare ever wrote.\u00a0 It\u2019s uplifting even for an old deplorable like me.\u00a0 It almost makes me want to show mercy to my political enemies.\u00a0 Almost, but not quite.\u00a0 My conclusion, this is a good version of The Merchant of Venice.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll end with the text of that wonderful speech.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The quality of mercy is not strain’d,<\/em><\/p>\n It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven<\/em><\/p>\n Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;<\/em><\/p>\n It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:<\/em><\/p>\n ‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes<\/em><\/p>\n The throned monarch better than his crown;<\/em><\/p>\n His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,<\/em><\/p>\n The attribute to awe and majesty,<\/em><\/p>\n Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;<\/em><\/p>\n But mercy is above this sceptred sway;<\/em><\/p>\n It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,<\/em><\/p>\n It is an attribute to God himself;<\/em><\/p>\n And earthly power doth then show likest God’s<\/em><\/p>\n When mercy seasons justice.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Merchant of Venice is an odd play.\u00a0 The romance plot line with Portia and Bassanio is decidedly comic but the Shylock story is a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,237],"tags":[747,2598,2597,890,43,38,1355,295,2363,2599,2596,2600],"class_list":["post-11620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-reviews","tag-england","tag-jeremy-brett","tag-joan-plowright","tag-laurence-olivier","tag-movie-review","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-shakespeare","tag-shakespeare-in-film","tag-shylock","tag-the-merchant-of-venice","tag-the-quality-of-mercy"],"yoast_head":"\n