Political SocioEconomics in The Merchant of Venice, or, I DRESSED UP LIKE A MAN!

Yes, it is as crazy as it sounds. I wish I had pictures. This morning in my Shakespeare class, my research group (there are four of us) did an interpretative performance of the courtroom scene in The Merchant of Venice and then led the discussion for the rest of the class period. It was AWESOME! I got to be Portia, which if you know the play means I got to play the most awesome feminist character in all of literature! She's so cool! 

For those of you who don't know the play (most people know Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, but not so much Merchant of Venice) the basic idea is that Bassanio (A Nobleman) borrows money from his buddy Antonio (The Merchant) who has to borrow it from Shylock (The Jew).  B and A aren't too worried about it, but Shylock very slyly gets Antonio to agree to a loan which, if it is not repaid with interest on time, requires a pound of Antonio's flesh. I know, gruesome. But Shylock had been kicked and spit on for being a Jew just one too many times, I guess. 

Meanwhile, Bassanio uses this money to go woo Portia, winning her hand through a test with three caskets which her father set up before he died. She had been mistress of her own estate and wealth, but gave it all (supposedly) to Bassanio when she married him. Bassanio, however, then gets a letter saying that Antonio's ships all crashed, so he wasn't able to pay Shylock back, and Portia sends her husband off to try to defent his friend's life, saying she'll wait for him. Portia, then, however, dresses up as Balthazar, a young lawyer, and meets him in Venice at the court. 

The courtroom scene is kind of awesome because all the men are on the edge of their emotions, but then Portia [as Balthazar] at first expounds the idea of Christian mercy, but when Shylock won't budge, she claims that it is impossible for Shylock to get his due without killing Antonio, which is not in the contract. Even worse, however, is when Shylock gives up and is ready to stomp off in a huff, and Portia finds an even more obscure Elizabethan anti-Semitic law saying that if an alien even conspire agaisnt the life of a citizen (Jews were not citizens to Anglican England, even though this was set in Venice) then his life and all his goods were forfeit, half to the victim, half to the state. They give Shylock his life, but then make him promise to be a Christian and give all his goods to his daughter, who has run off with a Christian. It's pretty brutal. 

What I love is that Portia mostly keeps to her role as wife and daughter, obeying her father's wishes even though technically she could do whatever she wanted, and is a good wife to Bassanio, but she is assertive--she holds her own when he tries to defend the fact that he doesn't have his wedding ring (he has given it to "Balthazar" for payment) and defends her relationship to her husband as more important than his relationship with Antonio. She saves the day and TOTALLY wears the pants. She is just AWESOME! And I got to BE her!

For the discussion, we talked about how script and performance are related to scripture versus practice for both the Jews and the Christians, and how our interpretation emphasized that both sides only were true to their "beliefs" when it worked to their advantage. It was fun!

Want to know what's even better? We got a perfect score on our presentation! HOORAY!

I think I'm having a good day. :)

Oh, and 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!