Conflict

Story Conflicts

MoV's main conflicts

The main conflicts in The Merchant of Venice can be broken down into the following: Shylock vs Antonio and Law vs Mercy. I’ve identified these as the main points of clash/ conflict for the following reasons, starting with Antonio and Shylock. They’re the two main characters with the most tension built between them, they’re in a constant rivalry with each other that includes mutual bullying at different points, and they very very obviously just detest each other. In a way this conflict is portrayed as a good guy vs bad guy situation, heavily swayed by the main religious beliefs at the time of the play's writing and made to better cater to Queen Elizabeth I and the christian people.

Now, in terms of the Law vs Mercy conflict, that one is once again heavily weighed by the religions of the time and how they were seen outside of the play. This conflict also shows us some of the more emotionally driven wrath and the backed up rules of the law, showing how those conflict with one another in a court of law. We see shylock saying it’s a punishment agreed upon, they legally swore to it and he’s facing an injustice by not being able to receive his pension of Antonio's flesh. On the other side, Portia, obviously disguised as balthazar, fights using the stern word of the law, fighting and ending up winning the mercy side of that conflict.

Deeper+Social Conflict

social conflicts and implied conflicts within MoV

Speaking on deeper conflicts and social conflicts within the play, there are many that seem more implied or just scathed on rather than brought to the front to shine as a main conflict, and I’d still like to discuss these. The first one is a semi-obvious christians and jews conflict, this is because we see the whole conflict of Antonio and shylock, but there's that underlying, constant religious conflict that happened during Elizabethan times. It’s the conflicting religious beliefs that build prejudice, injustice, unfairness and a toxic world for the jews, this makes our representation of Jewish people at the time, Shylock in a constant battle with the world around him. The laws are bent to better christians, the world has disdain towards him and all of their opinions are swayed by what the majority believe. Stereotyping was major for Jewish people back then, which is represented in all of the scenes when we see the almost entirely christian cast interact with him, the christians all have some sort of a hierarchy, where they put themselves above Shylock because of his Jewish beliefs, this creates that religious conflict. This is also a fuel for Shylock's constant and lower-key rivalry with most of the people around him, since it's a mutual disliking based off of beliefs that create this conflict.

Another more seemingly more implied or resolved are: Shylock and Jessica's religious conflict. Jessica was swooned by Lorenzo, a christian man, who she ends up eloping with. Her leaving and taking a portion of Shylocks ducats and jewels along with her creates a more interpersonal, relationship based conflict between father and daughter, having seen his daughter rebel against the religion he raised her with, Shylock and Jessica's relationship is strained and a slight sense of tension mixed with conflict is created between the two.