Money, money, money. Money makes the world go round. Or is it Love? Or a bit of both? Or a whole lot of both? Shakespeare's comedy The Merchant of Venice, explores the role money and love play in the lives of young and old, rich and poor, broke and bankrupt, male and female.
Antonio, a trader in luxury goods, is wealthy, influential, philanthropic, lonely and depressed. Bassanio, a spendthrift party-boy, is charming, good-hearted, broke and seeking a rich wife. Shylock, a successful loans broker, is ostracized for his Jewish race, resentful, fearful and deeply wounded by the loss of his daughter's love and respect. Portia, an intelligent, beautiful, and exceedingly rich young heiress, is bound by her father's last will and testament to have no say regarding the man she may marry, depending instead on the suitor's response to three riddles posed by her dead parent. Nerissa, a friendly, fun-loving confidante, is both privileged and hindered by her employment with Portia. Gratiano, a lewd jokester, is an easy-going young man, partying on a comfortable trust fund and looking for love. Jessica and Lorenzo are caught up in a forbidden love, eloping in the night, and absconding with valuables of her repressive father.
The story begins when Bassanio wheedles yet another “loan” out of his soft-hearted god-father, Antonio, in order to court Portia in style. Antonio borrows the sum from a hated adversary and competitor, Shylock. In a perverse “merry sport”, Shylock proposes loaning the money interest-free, the forteiture being a pound of Antonio's flesh if he defaults. The bond is agreed upon and notorized, with neither party expecting the macabre “fee” to be collected.
Bassanio and Gratiano sail to Belmont the same night Jessica and Lorenzo elope, all seeking for love, away from the commerce of Venice. The young people are successful, but they leave behind two broken older men, Antonio and Shylock. Antonio is bankrupt with the reported loss of his ships at sea, and Shylock is devastated by his daughter's betrayal and theft. He lashes out in anger at the vulnerable Antonio, demanding the forfeit of his bond.
News of Antonio's plight brings Bassanio and Gratiano racing home, offering Shylock many times the loan amount, but the grief and anger have hardened his heart. Shylock will have nothing but the law and vengeance. He finally has his enemies at his mercy, and they will taste the suffering he has endured for years.
The court, seeking an escape from the unthinkable judgement, elicits the legal opinion of a wise doctor of the law. The expert replies in the person of a young lawyer and his clerk, who in truth are Portia and Nerissa in disguise; their unsuspecting husbands, caught up in the horror of Antonio's imminent death brought on by their profligate ways, do not recognize them.
Tempers flare as the tensions of the trial escalate. The law is clear: Shylock must be awarded his bond. But as Antonio bares his chest for Shylock's knife, “the learned doctor” stays his hand, pointing out the omission in the terms of the document which negate its execution – no blood may be shed. Antonio's life is spared, the court is jubilant, and Shylock is crushed. The law pronounces a harsh penalty against Shylock, barely tempered by Antonio's “mercy” as the wronged party. Shylock leaves the court a beaten, broken man.
All the rest set forth for Belmont, Antonio in tow, to celebrate their victory. Bassanio and Gratiano are eager to rejoin their new wives, unaware that it is really Portia and Nerissa, in the guise of the lawyer and his clerk, who have set them up for a practical joke by conning them out of their wedding rings.
Yet all ends well in the fairytale land of Belmont. Portia and Bassanio, Nerissa and Gratiano, and Jessica and Lorenzo walk off into the sunrise of wedded bliss, and Antonio learns his ships have turned up battered but intact. The broke and the bankrupt are now wealthy, the rich are still rich, and everyone's in love – except Antonio – and Shylock.
