When Bassanio is in need of money to court his lady love, Portia, he approaches his friend Antonio, a prominent Venetian merchant. Unable to help him financially, Antonio offers to become a guarantor to Bassanio’s moneylender.

Together they go to Shylock, a miserly Jewish moneylender, who agrees to lend him the sum of money on one condition:

If you repay me not on such a day,

In such a place, such sum or sums as are

Express’d in the condition, let the forfeit

Be nominated for an equal pound

Of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken

In what part of your body pleaseth me.

What happens when Antonio is unable to repay Shylock?

With memorable and true-to-life characters, Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice explores bigotry, prejudice, humanity, and justice. Regarded among his great comedies, this bittersweet drama with surprising twists and turns is an anti-Semitic work. Having undergone several adaptations, the play continues to be staged around the world.

About the Author

William Shakespeare began his career as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, later known as King’s Men, in London. Often regarded as the ‘Bard of Avon’ he is one of the world’s pre-eminent dramatists.

Most of his known works have been produced between 1589 and 1613. His plays demonstrate the expansiveness of his imagination and the extent of his learning.

Shakespeare introduced prose comedy in the histories of the late 1590s—Henry IV, Part I and Part II, and Henry V—after the lyrical Richard II. Julius Caesar introduced a new kind of drama.

Shakespeare’s sequence of great comedies continue with Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, and Twelfth Night. Until about 1608, he mainly wrote tragedies including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth. Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus—his last major tragedies, contain some of his finest poetry.

A true genius, Shakespeare’s popular characters and plots are studied, performed, reinterpreted, and discussed till today.