The Power Triangle of The Merchant of Venice and its Feminine Encroachment

Abstract

Modern criticism of The Merchant of Venice, as of Shakespeare’s other plays, has dealt extensively with aspects of its involvement in the political discourse of its time. The contemporary social context is seen in the crises that affect the characters in the play, and their patterns of behaviour. Such studies tend to construct their arguments on the interplay of opposites or contrasts. They posit a causal framework in which one thing is distinguished by its exclusive relationship with another thing, and interpretations of the text are therefore based on a dichotomous reciprocity between dissimilar elements. The present study is similarly concerned with contemporaneous social issues. One is the advent of merchant capitalism and its impingement on the feudal order. Another is the struggle for self-determination among individuals and groups who, for different reasons, find themselves outside the sphere of central power. But it conceptualizes a more inclusive or circular dynamic, principally between three central characters who represent this state of disadvantage, or repression, in relation to the dominant social group. This three-cornered dynamic rotates around a fourth character, more firmly connected to the political power base. The fourth figure, Bassiano, is the agency through which the collisions or contracts between the others — Antonio, Shylock and Portia — come about, since he is contracted to each of them variously on the basis of friendship, business or matrimony. These three characters pursue distinct needs: assimilation with the social hierarchy, revenge for racial abuse, and the usurpation of patriarchal tyranny. As these needs draw them into each other’s affairs, the triangular dynamic comes into effect. But the fortunes of each character are determined by the interchange of power between the other two. Ultimately, all is resolved to the advantage of the female protagonist appropriating diverse linguistic authorities, and what happens to the rest is determined by her objectives rather than theirs.