auden's dystopia - the merchant of venice is far from perfect
Auden, W.H. "Brothers and Others." "The Dyer's Hand" and Other Essays. New York: Random House, 1948. In a casual but seminal essay on the play, Auden calls The Merchant of Venice one of Shakespeare's "Unpleasant Plays." The presence of Antonio and Shylock disrupts the unambiguous fairy-tale world of romantic comedy, reminding us that the utopian qualities of Belmont are illusory: "in the real world, no hatred is totally without justification, no love totally innocent."The Merchant of Venice is Far from Perfect In a perfect world, hatred would be without justice; love would be totally innocent. However, utopias like that are nonexistent; thus, one can easily look around, like Auden, and exclaim, "No hatred is totally without justification, no love is totally innocent." In The Merchant of Venice, there is an imperfect world, as well as a perfect world. The flawed world is the materialistic and bustling city of Venice. The impeccable world is the fairy-tale city of Belmont. Despite Belmont's perfection, a bit of justified hatred from Venice would ruin its innocence. (Paradise lost.) Alas, as Auden suggests, there are no utopias. In Venice, time is of the essence. If one were to momentarily forget the real
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Shylock Antonio, Jessica Salerio, Laws Shylock, Belmont Timeless, Christians Nor, Bassanio Bassanio, Shylock Consequently, Dear Portia, Lorenzo Jessica, Antonio Shylock, real world, merchant venice, 3 scene 2, act 1 scene, scene 2, scene 3, 1 scene, 3 scene, love totally, totally innocent, love totally innocent, 4 scene 1, act 3, act 1, act 4 scene,
Approximate Word count = 1473
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
