Скачать или смотреть Consider the Merchant of Venice as a Tragi-Comedy / Is Merchant of Venice a tragi-comedy? Lecture

Discuss the tragic and comic elements in the play the Marchant of Venice.

The Merchant of Venice as a Tragi-Comedy

The Merchant of Venice has generally been classified as a romantic comedy which means a play containing a number of romantic elements and a number of comic elements, skillfully and artistically mixed together. But almost every romantic comedy of Shakespeare has a number of serious elements too, and some of these serious elements come very close to becoming tragic which makes the play a tragi comedy.

As a tragedy, The Merchant of Venice focuses on the collapse of a Jewish moneylender, Shylock, who exits the stage a wrecked man and is unavoidable at the conclusion of the play to become a Christian and to surrender his assets. In this play, Shylock is the tragic hero because he has a tragic flaw. His fault is fairly obvious, all the way through the play, which is that his material prosperity depletes his judgments on a daily basis.