Critics often applaud works that can produce in a reader a “healthy confusion of pleasure and disquietude.” Select a work from your readings that produces this healthy confusion. Be sure to show how readers can be entertained and troubled be the particular literary work.
Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice produces in the reader a confusion of pleasure and disquietude due largely to the characters of the play. Many of these characters have traits that contradict their other traits. For example, the protagonists have unfavorable traits, such as prejudice and greed, while sympathy can be felt for the antagonist. This creates mixed feelings for characters because, whether the character is “good” or “bad,” they can display characteristic common of both archetypes. The play focuses on friends Antonio and Bassanio. Antonio agrees to borrow from the Jewish money-lender Shylock for Bassanio so that Bassanio can court wealthy heiress Portia.
Antonio has many admirable characteristics. Some of his most prominent ones are his generosity and selflessness. After Bassanio wastes all his money by living too extravagantly, Antonio agrees to lend him money: “My purse, my, person, my extremest, means/ Lie all unlocked to your occasions” (Act I, scene i). However, as a merchant, all his income is overseas on his trading ships. He is therefore forced to enter an agreement with his rival Shylock, a Jewish money-lender, in order to obtain the money Bassanio needs. This agreement states that if Antonio cannot repay Shylock on the set date, Shylock can cut off a pound of Antonio’s flesh from his chest. Regardless of the risk of physical injury and possibly even death, Antonio agrees to these conditions. As the play progresses, it is rumored that all of Antonio’s ships have crashed, leaving him broke and unable to repay Shylock. As Shylock is about to take Antonio’s flesh, Antonio stresses to Bassanio that “all debts are cleared between/ You and I” (Act III, scene ii). Antonio does not want Bassanio to feel guilty about his death because Antonio always knew the risk and agreed to the deal anyway because he wanted to help his friend. Despite his generosity and selflessness, Antonio also posses the terrible characteristic of prejudice. Throughout the play, Antonio’s verbal and physical abuse of Shylock for being Jewish is emphasized repeatedly. When Shylock states that Antonio has called him a dog and spat on him, Antonio says, “I am like to call thee so again,/ To spit on thee again, to spurn thee too” (Act I, scene iii). Despite the fact that Shylock is willing to lend Antonio money, Antonio does not apologize for his past actions and even states that he will continue to abuse Shylock. Antonio have many admirable traits, but he also has terrible ones that cause him problems with other people.
Bassanio’s main characteristics are greed but also his caring nature. Most of Bassanio’s role in the play revolves around money. In the first scene, he states that he has gone broke due to his extravagant lifestyle, he wants to marry a wealthy heiress, and he needs money from Antonio to do so. Antonio agrees to help his friend, and Bassanio allows him to enter a dangerous deal with Shylock, though he is reluctant do to his feelings of friendship for Antonio: “You shall not seal to such a bond for me!/ I’ll rather dwell in my necessity” (Act I, scene iii). Later, he marries the heiress and obtains her money. However, he soon learns that Antonio has gone broke and cannot repay Shylock, resulting in Shylock taking Antonio’s flesh. Fearing his death, Antonio asks to see Bassanio before he dies, and Bassanio immediately leaves his wife to be with Antonio. He offers to pay multiple times the debt, but Shylock will not allow it. Bassanio then offers to trade places with Antonio, but Shylock still will not allow it. Powerless to stop Shylock, Bassanio begins to mourn for Antonio by telling him how treaty he cares for his friend: “Antonio, I am married to a wife/ Which is as dear to me as life itself;/ But life, my wife, and all the world/ Are not with me esteemed above thy life” (Act IV, scene i). Antonio is then saved by a gentleman, who is actually Bassanio’s disguised wife, in court and urges Bassanio to give his wedding ring to the gentleman. Bassanio resists at first but eventually hands over the ring because he is truly grateful to the man who saved his friend’s life. Bassanio can often be seen as greedy but is also selfless at times due to his deep feelings for his friend.
Shylock is shown mostly as a greedy and malicious character. As a money-lender, his career revolves around money, leading him to become a greedy man. When his daughter leaves him to elope, one of his first concerns is the money and jewels she has stolen from him. He even states that he would rather her dead: “I would my daughter were dead/ At my foot, and the jewels in her ear. Would she were/ Hearsed at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin!” (Act III, scene i). In addition to him being greedy, he is also malicious. In his deal with Antonio, they decide that if Antonio does not repay Shylock, Shylock can take his flesh. Shylock admits that the flesh is basically worthless, but he wants it anyway. As the time to take the flesh approaches, he is clearly eager to cut Antonio: “Why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly?” (Act IV, scene i). Despite these terrible words and actions, the reader can feel pity and sympathy for him because every other character, especially Antonio, abuses him greatly for merely being Jewish. He is often insulted and mocked about this. At one point, Shylock states that he was spat upon by Antonio, who unapologetically states that he would do it again. Although Shylock has some horrible traits, the reader can understand them to a certain degree due to Shylock’s career and treatment by the others, making him a character that one has mixed feelings about.
Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice produces in the reader a confusion of pleasure and disquietude due largely to the characters of the play. Many of these characters have traits that contradict their other traits. Antonio is selfless yet prejudice, Bassanio is greedy yet caring, and Shylock is greedy and malicious yet pitiable. These contrasting traits within characters creates mixed feelings for the characters because, whether the character is “good” or “bad,” they can display characteristic common of both archetypes. These mixed feelings for characters causes the reader to experience a confusion of pleasure and disquietude.
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