Biography William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was a play write in England. The Merchant of Venice is one of his many “comedies.” Some scholars however, have made the argument that the play is one of his tragedies. Other tragedies of Shakespeare include Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare lived in a time when Jews had been expelled from England for over three centuries.
However, as a play write, Shakespeare also probably faced much prejudice and hatred-theater was banned from his home town of London during his lifetime and so the theaters had to move outside of the city walls. This situation may have made him sympathetic to the plight of Jews, hence the play as a work of tragedy. Shakespeare married a woman named Anne What eley, but he may have also had a male lover during his lifetime-a practice not uncommon for men of his era. Many of his sonnets suggest the possibility of this. Shakespeare’s comedies, performed at the Globe theater, were played to an audience which included as many peasants as it did nobles and loyalty, and so the comedy appeals to this lower class as well.
Shakespeare’s works are full of political humor, but also run rampant with sexual and scatological humor. Shakespeare lived during the reign of Queen Elizabeth who had a man in her service who she cared for deeply (she never married during her reign, but was rumored to have lovers) and who was rumored to be a Jew. If this had been the case, Shakespeare’s play would have to have been sensitive to her favor. Hence, more evidence of the play as a tragedy. In Shakespeare’s time, it was the common practice for men to play the parts of women in most productions.
The Essay on Tragedy in Comedy
Tragedy in Comedy is only a bad dream. This statement ironically captures the fable created by Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. While in the play, the night spent by the three couples and the performers in the woods outside Athens is felt by them to be a wild dream, for the audience viewing this comedy, the tragic elements at the beginning of the play seem less like the reality in ...
For this reason, there is a double joke in the gender switch which Portia and Neri ssa undergo. They would have been men dressed up as women who then “disguise” themselves as men. Such humor would not have been lost on contemporary audiences and was probably the reason behind the inclusion of the disguises.
