In William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare shows the contrast of the two worlds, Belmont and Venice, by representing Venice as a masculine world of commerce and competition, which is dominated by the language of money, and representing Belmont by a feminine world of marriage and love, and also by Portia. The fact that both the worlds are given gender roles does indicate that perhaps Shakespeare was trying to communicate his observations of both sexes and the way they conduct themselves.

An obvious way in which the two cities contrast is in their reality. Venice is a very realistic place. The people living and working in the town have real problems, such as debt and hostility from others. Belmont is a city that one would see in a fairytale. Everything is happy and nobody has any real problems. The most upsetting occurrence in Belmont was that Portia did not like the method in which her husband was going to be picked. However, depending on how you read the play, Portia may have "rigged" the process by telling Bassanio which casket to pick anyway, therefore leaving her contented in the end. In Belmont, everything always seems to work out

There are several contrasts in the play, The Merchant of Venice, between Belmont and Venice. It is obvious that, through the contrasts, Shakespeare was making some sort of statement about the way in which different sexes live their lives. By creating such different worlds, Shakespeare indicated that perhaps Venice symbolised the male population and Belmont symbolised the female population - two very contrasting groups. By using Bassanio and Portia as the main characters, Shakespeare was also perhaps relating to one of his own long-distance love affairs.

It is possible, by the manner in which Shakespeare associates money with the male sex that he is indicating his inclination to overspend.

for the better; in Venice it is entirely the opposite.

The other important contrast between Venice and Belmont is that they are far apart. Belmont is an island, which means that in order for Bassanio to see Portia, he had to travel a great distance over the ocean. Portia, the main character in the play, is portrayed as a god-like woman who is perfect in almost every way. Portia is intelligent, witty, and very beautiful. She has many suitors coming to ask of her hand in marriage. Bassanio, one of the other more important characters in the play is from Venice. Bassanio is a foolish young man who spends more than he can afford. The plot of The

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