Is “The Merchant of Venice” a humanist play?

Is “The Merchant of Venice” a humanist play?

Humanist plays put the light on human needs and values instead of, for instance, religion. Many authors of the Renaissance era reflected their humanistic beliefs through their literary works including Shakespeare who can be considered the pinnacle of Renaissance humanism. This begs the question: does “The Merchant of Venice,” one of his works, fall into that category as well? A couple reasons lead us to believe that this play is indeed a humanist play.

While Shylock requested Antonio to mortgage one pound of his own flesh, he can easily be understood as a cruel and irrational being. Therefore, his implicit demand for an equal treatment is likely marginalized. Despite the fact that at era, Catholics stood on a oppressive position toward the Jewish community, Shylock, Jewish himself, is given the play’s most upstanding speech to deliver. Indeed, if the play’s objective was to draw attention on Jew’s immorality and dishonourable behaviours, these wise words would’ve been given to a Christian character of the play. Though it is not the case. Not only emphasizing on human feelings, Shylock also implies that all citizens should be regarded equally, regardless each other’s different beliefs. Indeed, Shylock defend his opinion not as a Jew, but as a human that feels emotions and pain.

Not only does humanism stresses the importance of human needs and values, but it also suggests that people can settle their issues with the use of science and reason which is exactly what happens in “The Merchant of Venice” when Portia stopped Shylock from claiming his debt towards Antonio with her logical reasoning. Indeed, as the contract stated, Shylock was to be entitled to a pound of Antonio’s flesh if he failed to pay his debt (his ships were confirmed to have been wrecked at sea, therefore, he wouldn’t have been able to reimburse the money lender). Fortunately for Antonio, Portia who was disguised as a law clerk found a loophole in the contract: sure, Shylock may have been legally allowed to claim the merchant’s flesh as per the contract, but he would have to do so without spilling any of his blood since it wasn’t stated in the bond which proved to be an impossible thing. If it wasn’t for Portia’s logic, Antonio’s life may not have been spared. If this play did not support humanism, chances are the writer would’ve resolved the problem through religious beliefs such as praying to God.

We can conclude that “The Merchant of Venice” is in fact a humanist play due to the elements previously stated: Shylock’s humanist behaviour as well as the logic used in the play to solve a problem.Of course, we’ve now confirmed that this literary work is humanist, but could it be following more than this single principle? It could be more than a humanist play. It may be an antisemitic play or even a feminist one.

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