I believe that some form of justice was achieved; however, it might not have been true justice. Shylock was vengeful and had obvious intentions to harm and even kill Antonio, but he disguised it as a form of justice. Shylock wanted to harm another human being and must be punished. He was punished by the Venetian law which results in all of his goods being confiscated. I feel that this is justice for Shylock. However, what about Antonio, what is his punishment for breaking the bond? If a pound of flesh cannot be taken then at least Antonio must give back Shylock’s principal but that was not the case.
I believe that Portia and Antonio did try to offer some form of mercy to Shylock. They allowed Shylock to live, retain half of his property and convert to Christianity which was considered higher rank than the Jews. However, whether this could be considered as true mercy is debatable. Could their so called mercy be a way to humiliate Shylock as a form of revenge? By converting Shylock to Christianity, Shylock would be mocked by the other Jews and Christians. By allowing Shylock to live, they could embarrass Shylock even more. Whether Portia and Antonio really meant mercy we do not know for sure, but at least they tried to show it.
3. Justice and Law can be manipulated by people in power. Comment on this with reference to the text and other real-life cases and examples.
Justice and law are about fairness. The law is supposed to unmovable and fair to all, however, it can be manipulated by people in power. In Merchant of Venice, we see that the Duke asked Shylock to give mercy to Antonio. However, he did not ask Antonio to give mercy to Shylock in the end. Was the Duke bias? The Duke is supposed to represent the fairness of the law, yet here he is showing his prejudice. Shylock tries to use to law to harm someone when the law actually forbids people from harming one another. Portia uses the law against Shylock by claiming that the law only allows the nothing but the pound of flesh to be claimed without the lost of blood. Obviously, these three people are playing around with the law to their own advantage. In real life, we also see such situations. One such case would be people bribing the judge to be lenient. A man named Odih Juanda, a manager at PT Onamba Indonesia, was found to have bribed the Judge with Rp 200 million (US$23,400) in order to influence the appellate court to reject a lawsuit against the company filed by a trade union over the firm’s decision to fire striking workers. Justice and law obviously can be manipulated by people with power and money. There is a saying: the golden rule is the one with the gold sets the rule.
Yo Bram, long time no see. Last I really talked to you was when you were P5 and I S3 :) Glad you came HC!
ReplyDeleteWell, I did this in S2, too. If memory serves:
1) Good response, however: is the intent to harm sufficient to warrant punishment?
If your justice refers to divine justice, then the answer might be "yes" (depending on the deity). If your justice refers to human justice, then normally it is "no", because intent is very difficult to prove.
Furthermore, consider that Antonio and Bassanio have no love nor even respect of Shylock, borrow from him out of need and willingly sign Antonio's flesh away to him. It is Shylock's right to take Antonio's flesh under human law. (You rightly point out that Antonio does not even return Shylock's principal - instead, they take half of his remaining properties, after his daughter has run off with his money.)
2) Again, aptly phrased response.
However, you might want to consider that by converting Shylock to a Christian, they might be doing him far more harm than mere "mocking" or "embarrassment". Recall that Shylock refuses to eat, pray or sleep? with Antonio and Bassanio. Religion runs deep right down to the construct of the character, and belief may sometimes be so central to the person that they could not live without it. Depriving Shylock of his religion and forcing that of his enemy's down his throat is a poor, twisted ironic use of the word "mercy" - all the more so because of the importance of mercy to Christianity. (Recall the Crusades and how the Christians tried to gift the Muslims with their religion.)
3) Good job.
Haha frankly, it's written well and clearly - and I'm saying this in the capacity of a J2 Humanities Programme student. Think your teacher should like it, too!
Yz
I think you can further elaborate on the mercy part. Whatever Portia gave to Shylock as "mercy", might as well should not been given. Converting SHylock is enough to let him live like a living dead.
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