A christian approach of the Merchant of Venice, by Shakespeare

1. [Digite texto]
0
The Merchant of Venice
A call to otherness
Obed Rodrigues de Souza
Pedra Azul/MG – Brasil
2016

2. The Merchant of Venice
A call to otherness
But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your
Father in heavens. (Matthew 5:45a)
The other concerns me despite myself.
(Emmanuel Levinas, Humanism of the Other)1
What is the ground on which our feelings towards the other stand? Do we really see
the other through? Do we really respect the other? To what extent is the other our mirror image?
Money, commerce and trade - How can these three elements interfere in human
affairs?
What´s the role of true love in human History? Is it just a rhetorical device or the only
way justice can be accomplished? Is there justice on earth? On what kind of social contract does
society really stand? Isn´t our ‘self-presumed-justice’ simply prejudice in disguise?
Christians are meant to love - To love God above all and their fellows. Love is the
greatest commandment. Jesus set the golden rule, but is it fully understood and practiced by the western
civilization?
Justice is meant to set the rules that hold steady relationships. Justice is meant to
build a sense of respect toward the other, but does this really take place within the walls of earthly
courts of law?
Can stereotypes hide true identities and distort the true value of a human being?
What´s the role of language and rhetoric to carry justice out in earthly courts of law?
These are some of the themes raised on this Shakespearean play I will venture to
address on this essay.
More than being a portrait of Christians and Jews, I assume that Antônio and Shylock
represent the human being and his misconducts. They are the two sides of a coin: the human heart.
Venice, at that time, the marketplace of the world, a melting pot of different cultures2
is the setting for this drama/comedy that looks into the issue of justice as a means to ease differences
and conflicts.
1. Emmanuel Levinas, Humanism of the Other (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2006), 57
2. www.shakespearesglobe.com/uploads/files/2014/11/venice_in_shakespeare_s_time.pdf. Accessed: August 20, 2016.

3. Original sin – Human Condition and Bond to a Heavenly Debt
The first aspect of the play that takes our attention is how human beings are
connected to one another, regardless of the differences. Failure is a driving force that runs through the
heart of human achievements that disqualifies them to run for perfection. Failure is a kind of bond to
bind humankind to a common set of mistakes. Despite this striking feature, however, most people
claim to be better than others, mainly those who are different.
Furthermore, as stated by John Donne “No man is an island” 2
(1.1). We relate to
others in various ways. The level of respect we deserve to these relationships shape our society and can
bring about many conflicts.
“All human beings are created equal” rings in the ears of post-modern society. That´s
true, biologically all of us are flesh and blood. Therefore, each of us is unique. Justice then, tries to
make equal the unequal. Likewise, justice stands that “Each man and woman is equal before the law”3
.
Notwithstanding the beauty of these statements, sometimes earthly courts of law have just proved the
contrary.
What is it that makes us so insensitive to the other? Would that be the case that we
are products of our culture and beliefs? Culture helps us understand the world that surrounds us.
Culture shapes our lives and our self. But culture, can also cover our very essence, thus, setting us
apart. Most of us see the world through the lenses of our feelings, the community we are involved
with, and the way we perceive things. Furthermore, culture sets the ground on which we build our
identity. Behind the stereotype built upon cultural patterns, lies the real person, most of us cannot see,
so, stereotyping is the worst way to refer to someone. Stereotypes attached to a context and intention
can deprive the person of his/her very essence, as stereotypes rise out from culture backgrounds we
take for granted.
According to Soellner “Even generally sympathetic figures like Antonio and
Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice reveal tendencies that make us think of them at least on occasion
as less than ideal when, for instance, the former spits at Jews and the latter mentions Portia´s legacy
before her beauty and virtues” (29).
The web of hate seizes one off from mercy; as we can see, the Christian as well as the
Jew just carried on prejudices - a view of life, that doesn´t take into account the other´s feelings.
2 Meditations XVII https://web.cs.dal.ca/~johnston/poetry/island.html https://web.cs.dal.ca/~johnston/poetry/island.html
3 http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/Article 1. Accessed Sep. 26, 2016.

4. Labeling people
The two main characters are “a Christian and a Jew”. Many times in the play Shylock
is addressed as “Jew”, and Antônio as “Christian” by Shylock, not by their names.
When Antonio tries to solve his friend´s problem by accepting the bond, a connection
is set, in the web of life, a thread between the Christian and the Jew is woven. Though he hates the
Jew, he accepts his ‘dirty’money. As Shylock says, ‘... I´ll buy with you, sell with you, talk with you,
walk with you, and so on, but I won´t eat with you, drink with you, or pray with you’ (I.III.30-33).
Both men make a living from trading. Money is a common good in either hands.
There is a codependence, there´s no trade without money. As Shylock says, “And thrift is blessing if
men steal it not” (I.III.85).
Throughout the centuries Western History events have displayed hypocrisy hand to
hand with religion. Greed and profits have played major roles in the development of the civilized
world. The east, on the other hand, has been a fertile ground where we can see bigotry and violence on
the rampage. ‘Profetically’, Shakespeare was able to envisage the clash of cultures that has originated
so many social conflicts in our post-modern society and the modern concept of alterity.
Bloom, (1998 cited Saphiro, 1996)1
:
I have tried to show that much of the play´s vitality can be attributed to the
ways in which it scrapes against a bedrock of beliefs about the racial, national,
sexual, and religious difference of others. To avert our gaze from what the play
reveals about the relationship between cultural myths and peoples´ identities
will not make irrational and exclusionary attitudes disappear. Indeed, these
darker impulses remain so elusive, so hard to identify in the normal course of
the things, that only in the instances like productions of this play do we get to
glimpse these cultural faultlines.
The text emphasizes the acts of people labeled with a tag of “Jew” and “Christian”.
A tag of “religious” people who act as if they did not depend on the God they claim to know. A society
that preaches the gospel but lives without depending on its very message. Christians who hold their
fellow as slaves; a Christian who spit in the face of a Jew. This discrepancy is stated by Portia:
If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do,
chapels had been churches and poor men´s
cottages princes´palaces. It is good divine that
follows his own instructions. I can easier teach
twenty what were good to be done than one
of the twenty to follow my own teaching. (I.II. l2-17)

5. All the way through the text, we are confronted with the Christian merchant´s and the
money lender´s faults. This fatal condition is described in the Bible: “… Jews and Gentiles alike are all
under sin” (New International Version, Rom. 3:9).
Shylock, who represents the Jews, holders of the law would not accept to be merciful,
because he wanted revenge, as his daughter eloped with a Christian. Antonio, the Christian, who is due
to live by grace, on the other hand, built a wall between sinners and saints, giving free course to
prejudice and misconducts. They are the two faces of a coin: the portrait of the human heart.
According to Bloom “Antônio, as so many critics observe, is Shylock´s mirror image,
bonded with him in mutual hatred, and no more cheerful than Shylock is” (177)1
. Nevertheless, the
need for money makes both hands dirty – the Christian´s and Jew´s alike. At the beginning, Antonio
spits in Shylock´s face and call him dog, but money makes him ask for the Jew´s favor.
Shakespeare describes human beings behind the masks of stereotypes. More than
depicting a ‘Christian” or a “Jew”, he portrays people who make the same kind of mistakes, despite the
“good intentions” of their religious beliefs. In other words, he is talking about people who fail, who are
imperfect, people who are apart from God, despite their good deeds. People who live in the same
community as enemies but united by a common good: MONEY. In the thread of life in Venice,
money, not love is what creates the bond among citizens.
To Professor Cantor, this play “mentions a new notion of community based on low
things… The language of commerce saturates everything in the text. Friendship is a ‘bond’1
. Love and
marriage depends on money.
The Christian and the Jew resemble each other. If we look beyond the stereotype, we
find prejudice hidden beneath the surface of both Shylock´s and Antônio´s acts.
They are alike because they live on the surface, as pounds of flesh only, disguising themselves
under certain biased behavior learned from the society they live in. They are incapable of seeing
beyond the label imposed by the appearance society embraces as social behavior.
A deeper layer of meaning rises out from Shylock ´s and Antonio´s acts, as being portraits of
the human condition. Shakespeare, as the master of literary devices, is not for Antônio or against
Shylock, both are emblems of the misery of the human heart. By juxtaposing the character defects of
two ‘apparently’ different people, he reveals the fatal flaw under which all humans live under.
Hitler and the Nazi loved this play. They couldn´t realize the irony behind the words.
After all, this text is also a comedy, originally. The Nazi were people as described by Lorenzo:
The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils;

6. The motions of his spirit are dull as night
And his affections dark as Erebus:
Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music (V.I.83-88).
Religious people who do not know Grace is incapable of true love. The ability to
love the other and respect what seems to be different, is not found in hollow Christianity.
“Dark affections” made the way for the gloomy night of the holocaust… A crime
perpetrated by intelectuals, engineers, doctors, and politicians of a highly civilized Christian society.
1. Harold Bloom, “Shakespeare: the invention of the human.” (New York. Riverhead Books, 1998), 177.
2. Paul Cantor. “Shakespeare and Politics. The Merchant of Venice.” thegreatthinkers.org.shwww.youtube.com/watch?V=62-vFxa7kyA
Accessed: June 29, 2016.
Rhetorical Devices and Justice
Portia stood her case by rhetoric devices and assumes that Grace is justice carried out
in the full meaning of its purpose. ‘But mercy is above this sceptred sway/ It is enthroned in the hearts
of kings an attribute to God himself’ (IV.I.191-193).
The law which would lead the Jews to inherit the kingdom of God, made them
crucify Jesus; they stumbled over the law. It was under Roman law that the Jews sentenced Jesus to
death; though Shylock had the opportunity to choose grace.
Earthly justice lies in the realm of ‘language’. Those whose discourse convinces the
audience, stand their case. Rhetoric has always had his part as a means to accomplish justice and to
promote humanism. According to Lourenço, “How every fool can play upon the word! I think the best
grace of wit shortly turn into silence, and discourse grow commendable in none only but parrots” (III.V.
38-40).
Portia was able to solve the riddle of the pound of flesh, as she “played upon the
word” and justice was achieved, nonetheless, the force of the law was demonstrated by the content of
the words expressed in the contract.
According to Thomas Hobbes “It is not wisdom, but authority that makes a law”1
.
Portia was very wise, indeed. But the force of the law was demonstrated by the
content of the words expressed in the contract. Thus, the interpretation of the text was responsible for
carrying out justice. We can infer that logic and reason are the scaffolding that supports justice on
earthly courts of justice. But would justice be just a question of Hermeneutics? If Portia wasn´t

7. able to reason on the meaning of the missing element - the “shedding of blood” Antonio would have
died.
The expression “shedding of blood” made all the difference. So, justice is subjected to
one´s interpretation, which can lead to many sorts of conflicts. In a society where everybody claims a
kind of ‘truth’ and “interpretation” of facts, what is justice for someone can be condemnation for
others. Today, when every person has power to voice his/her point of view, justice will be more and
more complex and difficult to achieve, if not rooted in a greater truth. Justice claims to make justice
available for every person, but each person is unique, thus claiming a ‘particular’ kind of justice.
That´s why Shylock was shattered, the unpredictable turns and twists brought upon
him by Portia´s discourse, made him prey on the logic of the argument.
Portia´s wit symbolizes reason and its role in the unfolding of Human History events.
Secular courts of justice will never attain justice but subject “interpretation” of case studies.
As it dominated the trade with the East, back in those days, Venice represents the
link between the East and the West, in this way, in court both the East/the Jews and the West/the
Christians stand for the judgment of civilization.
Portia disguised as a man is an emblem of how human justice looks like, it tell us
that, somehow, all earthly courts of law are ‘make believe”, because earthly judges will never resemble
the greater Legislator – God.
God showed his holiness through the law and mankind have proved itself disqualified
to obey it, then God provided a substitute for our sins: Jesus Christ. That´s why Grace is the only way
justice can be achieved. The same way Portia disguised as a man, all of us, according to the biblical
account, will stand before the Father, “… and have put on the new self which is being renewed in
knowledge in the image of its creator. Here there is no Greek or Jew…but Christ is all, and is in all.”
(Col. 3: 10-11).
Portia talks about a greater light, under which dimmer lights shine:
Portia. That light we see is burning in my hall.
How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
Nerissa. When the moon shone, we did not see the candle.
Portia. So doth the greater glory dim the less.
A substitutes shines brightly as a king
Until a king be by, and then his state
Empties itself, as doth an island brook
Into the main of waters. Music! Hark! (V.I.89-97)

8. Reason is a dim light, compared to what humankind does not really know yet. This
reminds us that “self-knowledge, for Calvin as for Saint Augustine, was merely God´s light shining
upon man” (Soellner, 18).
Good deeds, the wisdom of the educated, science, fine arts, all these great
achievements of humanity pale before a “greater glory” yet to come, revealed by love.
The blood of the Christian Antonio could not be shed, since human beings cannot
provide justice by themselves; Christ alone is Savior. No acts of justice on the part of the sinner can
promote God´s justice. ‘In the course of justice none of us should see salvation’. ( IV.I.188)
Bassanio and Antonio have a bond of love, so does God loves humanity. This play is
a parallel of God´s perfect convenant and human´s imperfect love. Antônio, as a father, loved Bassânio,
the way God loved us and sent Jesus to die in our place. According to Smith:
Antonio is an older relative of Bassanio who has taken him under his wing. He
loves Bassanio in the way a father loves his son. In the original Italian story that
Shakespeare borrowed, the character corresponding to Antonio is the grandfather of the
character corresponding to Bassanio. Bassanio has been orphaned and his kind
grandfather takes him in and provides for him. Shakespeare has simply incorporated in
his play the relationship from the original story though without explaining it. (49)2
God´s greater act of justice is love. Contrary to rhetoric devices used by earthly
justice, God´s justice is action: Jesus in flesh died for us. God chose to save us by Grace, because He
knew we would never be able to achieve justice; intellectual assent is not enough, but ‘revelation’ that
comes from eternity can reveal Grace .
In our post-modern society, as Philosophy and Science are not worried about truth,
chaos is likely to set in; theses and anti-theses will abound, but no syntheses will be available, because
there´s no truth to stand on. As the rights are based on human desires and demands, not on God´s will,
post-modern society is surfing on the waves of man´s philosophy, sailing adrift, in the ocean of “free
thinking’.
God´s justice stands on his own person; the truth in the Bible is a person, not a rethroric device.
1. Thomas Hobbes. Leviathan or the Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and civill. Prepared for the McMaster University
Archive of the History of Economic Thought, by Rod Ray.socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/hobbes/Leviathan.pdf. Accessed Sep. 20,
2016.
2. Ralph Allan Smith. Shakespeare the Christian – The Bible in Shakespeare´s Plays, 2011. pdf.www.berith.org. accessed spet.2015, 49.

9. When Reason Is Not Enough
Shakespeare describes the truth that rises out from the human heart, be it a Christian´s
or a Jew´s. He depicts persons whose acts may differ deeply from what they should do. The ideal and
the real are unbridgeable in Shakespeare´s texts. All the dramatist´s efforts to building images that can
bring this ambiguity out from the scenes are what made him great and timeless.
“Conventional forms of thought about man and the universe were being challenged in
Shakespeare´s time” (Soellner,44).
The conflict between the Christian humanist philosophy and the new skepticism
brought by the Renaissance is blatant in Shakespeare´s view of humanity.
According to Cantor “Shakespeare always sees two sides of any question. That´s
what makes him such a great dramatist.”
Shakespeare would not live to see the enlightenment, but he lived in a time that set
forth the principles that gave birth to modern man. Shakespeare grasped the spirit of his time. A time
full of contradictions and paradox - the renaissance of Reason: the conflict between faith and reason,
the questioning of the authority of the church, and the freedom brought by free thinking.
Today, through the internet we can voice our opinion, in the 16th
century the printing
press allowed the citizen to have their own interpretation of the scriptures, made available, printed
and handed down to everyone who could have access to it. Books then, were available; this was a great
revolution. The printing press helped spread knowledge, it helped empower the citizen, as in our days
the Internet does.
Plato´s analogy of man as a monarch, with reason, as the head, controlling all his bad
instincts (the lower members) so that he could succeed, reminds us of Portia, as a woman of wisdom,
trying to bridge the gap between the law and the grace. Portia´s speech in the play represents the role
of human intellect and wisdom.
Erasmus, as a humanist described the self as an enemy, which had to be suppressed.
For Renaissance humanists, though, self-knowledge makes one capable of controlling his instincts by
reason, God´s grace assisting, as Soellner says:
Calvinism was a major ingredient in the religious climate of Shakespeare´s time and must not
be neglected in this review of the theological implications of nosce teipsum. ( … ) For Calvin, we
might say, man had already lost the warfare of life, which Erasmus thought he could win. His
hope for regeneration lay only in the grace of God. But it was fortunate in this respect that God
had put man in a turbulent, unquiet, and uncertain world. Thus man could realize that heaven and
not earth was his real home… Luther considered reason a whore(18).

10. According to Soellner, Shakespeare was also influenced by Montaignes´s criticism of
the Christian humanists; his approach on how to know man differs from the Christian humanists.
Montaigne saw the peculiar nature of the self, emerging in the subjective,
unpredictable, and even irrational moments that Erasmus disregarded. ( …) he was
motivated more by nostalgia than belief. He felt at odds with the picture, and he found
men in general too diverse to be classified satisfactorily. In viewing the whole human
scene, he was struck by the discrepancies between act and effect and by events shaping
themselves without, and counter to, human agencies. ( …) he took a skeptical view of
the received portrait of man (29).
Later in the 18th
century with the French Revolution, reason was seen as the great
platform on which freedom would build his kingdom. Reason promised man paradise on Earth, with an
altar enthroned in his mind. Guided by the light of reason, civilization would jump to a higher
condition; dark instincts would be burned down in the same bonfire with all the gods he once
worshipped. However, The French Revolution that promised unleash man off from the ties of
oppression, by the hands of reason, produced the guillotine. The unfolding of the events ended up with
Napoleon risen to power.
Now, at post-modern times, once more reason has proved incapable of setting
humankind free from prejudice and violence, as well. More than ever, despite all social media
apparatus, men cannot live peacefully. The world is a place where someone who holds a different
opinion on social media can be considered an enemy. East and West, Muslins and Christians,
Europeans and immigrants, blacks and whites in America, throughout the world man is divided – no
one seems to understand one another. Society claims for tolerance, love and respect.
Shakespeare doesn´t believe human efforts can bring redemption to earth. According
to Soellner, Shakespeare “gives us no comforting belief that man can perfect himself if he only uses his
reason” (28).
Portia´s handled language to release Antônio from death, showing that language can
be a tool for survival in a universe of ambiguities. Reason sometimes works for the purpose of logic
only, not salvation from death.
The Cartesian presuppositions were that to apprehend the true vision of an object, you
should have a method. However, more important than a method, it is the “standpoint”, the closeness or
the distance from the object that can make all the difference. The longings and unpredictability of one´s
feelings will, somewhat, at some point, blurs one´s vision. According to Portia: “the brain may devise
laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps o´er a cold decree” (I.II.17-18).

11. When Good Turns Bad
We feel pity for Shylock, though we know he deserved it. As he denied mercy to
Antônio, the law denied him Grace, thus leaving the court humiliated.
In court both the Jew and the Christian stand for the judgment of the human heart.
The civilized Venice Court destituted Shylock of everything, including his own
identity; the merciless voice of the law was capable of stripping Shylock of his selfhood and ‘force’
him to become a “Christian”.
As stated in Romans 7:7-8 “… Is the Law sin? Certainly not ... But sin, seizing the
opportunity afforded by the commandment produced in me every kind of covetous desire”.
The Law could not provide salvation for the Jew Shylock. Likewise, the Law was the
hindrance for the Jewish people to know God. Law without love is revenge… Law based in cerebral
arguments only cannot lead one to Heaven.
The law is perfect, it is sharp and precise; as a surgeon it removes the wounded organ
from the body, the law points to the crime and punishes it. The written text is the tool the ruler manages
to exercise authority over those whom they rule.
God chose not to judge us, because a fallen humanity is incapable of perfecting its
ways by obedience to the Law. Later on, with Christ, a new law was prescribed, love could set new
rules and standards on which we would organize our society. Love is the ideal of the ideals, “But mercy
is above the sceptred sway” (IV.I.191). Through grace, people would be better equipped to ease
tensions more easily, as Grace empowers us not to follow our basic instincts; Grace is a decision of
willingly to choose love and forgiveness over hate; neither reason nor feelings can save man, love can,
Jesus in flesh the perfect argument reason can´t figure out, he is Grace in action. The empty grave
teaches us that a new man risen out from the spirit can love.
In the 19th
century, the nation that prided itself as the cradle of modern philosophy
killed more than five million people. Why? Because reason without love is madness. Reason alone
cannot attain satisfaction of the soul. Ruling power based upon rhetorical devices only cannot produce
happiness and self -fulfillment.
Science brought forth only by reason without ethics can lead man to mass destruction.
Reason and rhetoric alone are not enough to bring perfection to this weary world.
Portia: Good sentences and well pronounced
Nerissa: They would be better, if well followed.” (I.II.10-11)
Bloom states “In Shakespearean ambivalence, there can be no victories.”
(190)

12. In the end, it is proved that ‘in the course of justice none of us should see salvation’. (IV.I.197-
198)
Shylock misunderstood the essence of justice. When he proposed the pound of flesh
as the forfeit, it was just an expedient. Through the law, he thought Antonio would respect him and he
would have the opportunity to hold Antonio´s life in his hands. He would have never imagined ending
up prey on the law. Shylock was humiliated by the law.
The Emblematic “pound of flesh”
Shakespeare´s attitude in these matters owed as much to observation as to theory. He had the
advantage of seeing aristocrats at close range, and he knew that some of them thought that what in mean men
was entitled patience was cowardice in noble hearts. But his humanistic education had also prepared him to
understand deeply and sympathetically the democratic equality of all flesh. Clay and clay may differ in dignity,
but their dust was all alike.
(Rolff Soellner, Shakespeare´s Pattern of Self-Knowledge)1
The pound of flesh reveals Shylock´s desire to be loved, as he lived in a ghetto
imposed by a Christian society. He wanted a little from Antonio; he did not want all his body, because
he didn´t want to be other person, he just wanted Antonio to share of his own person with him, the Jew.
Shylock didn´t want to be seen just as the “other”, he wanted to take part in a society that denied him
the right to be himself. As he says, ‘a pound of man's flesh taken from a man is not so estimable,
profitable neither… I say, to buy his favor, I extend this friendship…’ (I.III. 161-164)
Why a pound of flesh? The pound of flesh is common to all creatures, it is the mortal
element, the bond that ties all of us in a single destiny: death. It is the bell ringing in, visible to all that
are flesh and blood that someday our body will rot away. If we could paraphrase, we would say ‘All
humankind is created flesh, therefore all of us are equal’. The flesh is the common element among all,
as stated by shylock:
I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions,
senses, affections, passions, fed with the same food, hurt with the same
weapons, subjected to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed
and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? ( III.I.51- 56).
Shylock wanted to be accepted in a society that made him a marginal, a society who
would trade with him, but not welcome him into its heart. A Christian society which would enslave
men and buy them as objects, and even more, a society that would not feel ashamed of calling him
‘dog’. Christian lords held slaves while preaching the justice of the Gospel.
Under the cross of Christ, Kings and countries have perpetrated human injustice in
the name of God. Kings and queens constructed skillfully designed cathedrals as representations of

13. their own ego in the name of God, leaving behind them a stray of blood and hatred – all in the name of
Christ. Warriors of God have forged entrance to the Kingdom of God by the power of money and the
blood of innocents.
This is a bill to pay. “I am not well; send the deed after me/And I will sign it” (IV. I.
393-4). How will man pay it some day? The Bible says God will judge all men: great and small alike,
but before this can happen, Grace is offered freely. Meanwhile, humanity lives as if there were no
accounts to settle; this oldfashioned law still applies, although it doesn´t suit post- modern patterns of
thinking.
The pound of flesh demanded by Shylock at the beginning, (it seems he was more or
less sure that Antonio would succeed in paying the debt), was meant to create a bond of love between
Antonio and Shylock. By means of the law, Shylock wanted Antonio come closer to his nature and his
person.
Job once asked God “Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see as a mortal sees? ( Job
10:4)
Thus God dwelt among us, in “Jewish flesh” as an answer to all hopelessness of
those who suffer; Jesus, the son of God and son of man, our brother, is the highest form of respect for
the other possible; the Divine turned to flesh, walked among us wrapped in a mortal body, as a human
being.
However, Jesus was found guilty of a criminal offense for claiming to be the ‘Son of
God. Jesus was a complete ‘other’ for the Jewish people. The law made him a stranger to his fellows.
Shylock´s speech is the voice of the other, the other who has hands, but who is no
one, the other who has eyes, but who is not seen as a human being, as next of kin. He is the voice of
the Ghetto. He is the voice of ‘otherness’.
Shylock is also the one, whose sins, turned God, the father into “the other”. He is
also the voice of men and women destituted from God´s grace, who made themselves strangers to the
father. Since the fall in Eden, fleshly feelings and desires built a wall of separation between humanity
and his creator. The most important relationship ever, was broken. Luckily, this wall was restored with
Christ, in flesh.
There´s a call to relationships deep in the human heart. It´s the longing for a paradise
lost. It´s the longing for the father departed from the heart. Bassânio´s love for Antônio represents this.
Love, as the greatest commandment to restore peace among men, is the perfect Law that can set
humans free.
Shylock as a pharisee, as many critics claim he is, is the face of religion without
mercy. He is the portrait of those who obey the rituals of the law without knowing the essence of it.

14. For centuries Christian lords have held their fellows under captivity – black people
were despised and still are till these days. Bigotry has become a kind of political element in some
countries around the world.
A truly Christian or a truly Jew should see the ‘other’ beyond the guise of their
cultures and stereotypes.
In a time of great technological advancements, most of us still don´t know how to
communicate with the “other”. By hating one another, men forfeited their right to become God´s
image.
Shakespeare´s text makes us think of the ‘other” as our mirror image; the way I treat
the other builds up my character and my real self.
The uniqueness of the gospel is that if we are not able to symphatize and emphatyze
with others, we won´t resemble God, as Jesus explained: “Therefore, if you are offering your gift to the
altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of
the altar; First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” (Mat. 5:23-24)
There´s no difference between Shylock´s false convertion and the Christian
Merchant´s decision, of imposing his faith over the Jew: both are indebted to the God of love. The
absence of mercy on a men´s worldly business made all men debtors of God.
Only mercy itself, if ‘enthroned’ in the heart of men, the missing element in the soul
of all earthly justice, ‘a quality of God himself ’, would turn mere pounds of flesh into truly sons of
God. Antonio could never do that. Humans cannot conceive justice out of self-sacrifice. Eternity made
us all strangers when sin set in.
The Jewish Philosopher, Emmanuel Levinas, mentions the human condition as:
Echo of the permanent saying of the Bible: the condition – or – incondition – of
strangers and slaves in the land of Egypt brings man closer to his fellow man. Men seek
one another in their incondition of strangers. No one is at home. The memory of that
servitude assembles humanity (66).
Our highest hope lies in the promise that God will judge great and small alike. One
day, we will stand before God, having Jesus as our defense lawyer, the only who shed his blood to pay
for our debt. The One who suffered in his own flesh the cost of sin, is the Only One capable of paying
our debt.
Reason found a way out of death for Antônio, there was no way out for Christ.
According to Ralph:
Only Christianity offers a worldview in which tragedy makes sense and
tragedy as a literally genre is edifying … the fact that salvation can only
come through suffering is part of the theology of tragedy. In a fallen

15. world in a world of suffering there are no simple solutions.
The problems of sin cannot be solved by comic means. It takes death to
remove death (49)2
.
The cross is the ultimate truth no human argument can resist. There´s no weapon
against eternity, love in the heart of man is paradise on earth. Those who truly love are already dead for
fleshly feelings and deeds; those who live in Christ do not feel the pain of death.
Love is the only possible justice to save man. Only by Jesus’ blood, we will be able,
to stand shameless before the heavenly father, and see justice carried out forever over all evil.
Human history, after the fall, is the history told by survivors of wars, whose earthly
thrones are stained by the blood of innocents. All earthly thrones are held accountable for the defeat of
the enemy. Yet, Christians believe in a heavenly kingdom that is built not upon the death of the other,
but upon the life of the only one capable of loving the enemy. Jesus is the only one who defeated death.
1 Rolf Soellner, Shakespeare´s Patterns of Self-Knowleged ( Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 1972), 21.
2 Ralph Allan Smith, Shakespeare the Christian - The Bible in Shakespeare´s Plays, 2011. Pdf.www.berith.org accessed sept. 20l5. 49.
I Can Get No Satisfaction … Sleeping Pills can´t keep up with eternity
According to Soellner, while at Grammar School, Shakespeare must have got in
touch with Christian humanist philosophy of man and the Nosce Teipsum,(“Know thyself”). “Several
of these stressed the difficulty of knowing oneself, the obligation to improve oneself, and the need to
observe others in order to understand oneself” (3).
The Renaissance however, questioned the humanist approach of “self-knowledge” –
Nosce Teipsun. This conflict can be seen in his characters, as Shakespeare portrays the unpredictability
rather than the received portrait the humanists left, they are just human beings, not heroes.
The final scenes, at Belmont are loaded with a feeling of nostalgia and silence, to
prove the vulnerability of our state of being, she is not feeling victorious. With daybreak pouring
through Portia´s house, her words are impregnated with an existential void. ‘Nothing is good”
(V.I.99).“This night methinks is but the daylight sick” / “It look a little paler”/“Tis a day” /”such as the
day is when the sun is hid” (V.I.124-6). “Let me give light but let me not be light” (V.I.137). ‘‘it is
almost morning”/And yet I am sure you are not satisfied/ of these events at full. Let us go in” (V. I.
311-13). Jessica: “I´m never merry when I hear sweet music”(V.I.75).
Silence is loaded with words not pronounced by Portia´s wit. Human History stands
in owe before this silence. How can we explain the world that surrounds us, if we do not even know our

16. own feelings? “… I think the best grace of wit shortly turn into silence, and discourse grow
commendable in none only but parrots” (III.V.38-40).
In the face of tragedies, we stand speechless before the great contradiction of our
existence; reason is not enough, how could reason explain words not uttered, but felt deep in the heart?
Portia and Nerissa should be rejoicing because justice was achieved, but why aren´t
they feeling victorious? It seems that Portia had missed something; she is not ‘satisfied of these events
at full’. Portia supposed to have all the events under control. Suddenly, she realizes she doesn´t know
either her husband and herself in depth. When addressing Bassanio and Antonio Portia´s words are
wrapped in subtle irony.
The play starts with Antonio feeling sad… and ends with all characters feeling
incomplete. What emerges out of the trial scene teaches us that good intentions, logic and wisdom is
not sufficient to promote satisfaction, because when we look into ourselves, there´s a void no words
can fill.
The wives took their husband´s love for granted. But Bassanio introduces Portia to
Antônio as “This is the man, this is Antônio, to whom I´m so infinitely bound”(V.I.134-5). Just then,
Portia realizes there´s someone else between them. She comes across with this unexpected guest: a
greater love Bassanio cherishes. Eternity with its prying eyes on us, is an alien to spoil one´s natural
expectations, but, at the same time, it can lift one up to the level where the veil is uncovered and he or
she can penetrate the true nature of things, beyond social appearances and worldly perception.
Belmont, as the place of the educated and well intentioned people is also the place of
nostalgia, and self-examination. There´s a longing for a true relationship in man´s heart, a longing for
the father´s presence. There´s a discomfort in our existence. Shylock says “I´m not feeling well;/
“send the deed after me/ And I will sign it” (IV.I.393-4). We write this bill with our acts, Jesus paid it
with the utmost act of justice ever demonstrated.
Existence may be a painful experience. As Ross states, “Existence is a standing out
and in this “being out” there is implied something “out” of which the standing itself is (45)1
. As
Christians, we believe the moment Adam and Eve hid from God, they fell prey on their own arguments,
standing out there, as strangers. Since then, heart and reason have been crying out for meaning, in a
strange world, far from home.
Arthur Schopenhauer once said “It would be better if there were nothing. Since there
is more pain than pleasure on earth, every satisfaction is only transitory, creating new desires and new
distresses, and the agony of the devoured animal is always far greater than the pleasure of the
devourer”
Eternity can be either a devourer of man´s pleasure on earth or it can bring all this
pleasure back into the heart of the humanity.

17. Human History is a story of great and extraordinary achievements, nevertheless,
humans haven´t found answers for simple questions in life. The void in the heart of our civilization
cannot be fulfilled by fine arts, science, and technology only. As science denies the blatant words of
silence in the human heart, the only thing it can conceive is “sleeping pills’ for those days when ‘logic’
is not enough.
What to say about hate, bigotry, hunger, illnesses, and people who still kill others in
the name of a god? Some claim God has left us alone, but wouldn´t this be that human beings decided
to slam the door on the Father and lock Him out of their world?
As Christians we believe we mirror our maker´s image, looking for the beauty of his
face. The more we seek our Creator´s image in his creation, the more we love the face of the other,
bridging the gap between heaven and earth. And when the creator becomes father, then, we can see
others as brothers, not strangers.
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed de wall of
hostility by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations.
His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace,
and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he
put to death their hostility (Eph. 2:14-16).
After four hundred years of Shakespeare´s death, East and West are still facing each
other as strangers. But differently from Portia´s ideal Belmont, where they are sensitive to a greater
beauty that surrounds life, post-modern times have tried to cast away the father´s presence, as if it were
possible to erase the poignant law of the Divine in our hearts, to whom our self and History are
eternally bound.
1. David A. Ross. The Poetics of Phylosophy [a reading of Plato] Newcastle – UK. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009. Web. 45.

18. Bibliography
Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare: the invention of the human. New York. Riverhead Books, 1998.
Print. 175, 190
Cantor, Paul. “Shakespeare and Politics. The Merchant of Venice.” thegreatthinkers.org.sh
www.youtube.com/watch?V=62-vFxa7kyA Accessed June 29, 2016.
Donne, John. Meditations XVII https://web.cs.dal.ca/~johnston/poetry/island.html
https://web.cs.dal.ca/~johnston/poetry/island.html
Hamlin, Hannibal. The Bible in Shakespeare. Oxford, UK. Oxford University Press, 2013.
Print.
Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan or the Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common Wealth
Ecclesiasticall and civill. Prepared for the McMaster University Archive of the History of
Economic Thought, by Rod Ray.
socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/hobbes/Leviathan.pdf. Accessed Sep. 20,
2016.
Leithart, Peter J. Brightest heaven of invention: a Christian guide to six Shakespeare plays.
Moscow, ID. Canonpress, 1996. Print.
Levinas, Emmanuel. Humanism of the Other. Urbana and Chicago. University of Illinois
Press, 2006. Print.
Marx, Steven. Shakespeare and the Bible. New York. Oxford University Press, 2000. Print.
Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. London. HarperCollinsPublishers, 2011.Print.
Shaphiro, James. 1599: Um ano na vida de William Shakespeare. São Paulo. Ed. Planeta do
Brasil LTDA, 2011. Print.
Smith, Ralph A. Shakespeare the Christian - The Bible in Shakespeare´s Plays, 2011.
Pdf.www.berith.org accessed sept. 20l5. 49-104.
Soellner, Rolf. Shakespeare´s Patterns of Self-Knowledge. Ohio State University Press, 1972.
Print. 3, 18, 29-28, 44
Ross, David A. The Poetics of Phylosophy [a reading of Plato] Newcastle – UK. Cambridge
Scholars Publishing, 2009. Web. 45
The Holy Bible. New International Version. Michigan, USA. Zondervan Publishing House, 1989.
www.shakespearesglobe.com/uploads/files/2014/11/venice_in_shakespeare_s_time.pdf.
Accessed 20 August, 2016.