The Merchant of Venice: "My purse, my person"; Or, Personal Value

1
The Merchant of Venice"My purse, my
person"Or, Personal Value
2
The Four Plot Strands of Merchant

• Wooing and winning of Portia by Bassanio (and of
  Nerissa by Gratiano)
• B. "Pound of flesh" Antonio becomes bound to
  Shylock
• C. Jessica steals away from Shylock to marry
  Lorenzo
• D. Launcelot Gobbo leaves Shylock to become
  Bassanio's servant

Does everyone understand whats going on in these
four plots?
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The Four Plot Strands of Merchant

• Wooing and winning of Portia by Bassanio (and of
  Nerissa by Gratiano)
• B. "Pound of flesh" Antonio becomes bound to
  Shylock
• C. Jessica steals away from Shylock to marry
  Lorenzo
• D. Launcelot Gobbo leaves Shylock to become
  Bassanio's servant

What is the relationship between Plot A and Plot
B?
4
The Four Plot Strands of Merchant

• Wooing and winning of Portia by Bassanio (and of
  Nerissa by Gratiano)
• B. "Pound of flesh" Antonio becomes bound to
  Shylock
• C. Jessica steals away from Shylock to marry
  Lorenzo
• D. Launcelot Gobbo leaves Shylock to become
  Bassanio's servant

What is the effect of adding Plots C and D to
Plots A and B?
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Money and Love

• De Beers' "A diamond is forever" campaign

What is the argument of the De Beers ad?
Are money and love related in a similar way to
the De Beers ad in The Merchant of Venice? A)
Absolutely ? E) Not at all
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Why does Bassanio need money to woo Portia?

1. So they can be equal partners in marriage, since
   shes rich
2. Because he always wants more money
3. So he can fund the cost of his travel to Belmont
4. So he can maintain the trappings of his social
   status of gentleman and thus rival the other
   suitors
5. To pay off his debts before he goes wooing

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Antonios investment in Bassanio (pp. 8-9
1.1.147-52, 167-72)

• Bassanio explains why he needs to borrow money
  from Antonio, and Antonio responds,
• My purse, my person, my extremest means
• Lie all unlocked to your occasions (1.1.138-39)

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Why is Antonio so generous to Bassanio, even to
the point of entering into an unusual bond that
puts his physical body and life on the line?

1. He wants Bassanio to gain his lady love because
   he wants Bassanio to be happy
2. He wants to prove his own love for Bassanio
3. He is extremely generous to everyone
4. He enjoys thwarting Shylock
5. He doesnt think he is really risking anything in
   entering into the bond

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Love Triangle
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Money also triangulates desire
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Moreover, in Merchant, these two triangles become
linked, so we in fact end up with a diamond
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Treasured Women, Bound Men Love and Money
(Diamonds)

• The total relationship of exchange which
  constitutes marriage is not established between a
  man and a woman, but between two groups of men,
  and the woman figures only as one of the objects
  in the exchange, not as one of the partners.
• - Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Elementary Structures
  of Kinship

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Where does Shylock fit into such a social system
of exchange between men?

1. No where
2. He occupies the position of woman/object/money,
   like Portia
3. He occupies the position of Antonio, since he
   forms a male exchange with Bassanio which places
   Antonio into the position of woman/object/money,
   like Portia

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Bassanio's relationship to Shylock
This structure gives us another connection
between the wooing of Portia plot (A) and the
Antonio-Shylock bond plot (B), or between the
ostensible hero and villain of the play.
15
Bassanio's Worthinessand the Three Caskets

• Even before Bassanio arrives in Belmont in all
  his finery to take the casket test, Lord Love
  (2.9.100) has gained the notice of Portia and
  Nerissa see pp, 13-14 1.2.111-120.
• But how worthy a lover is Bassanio?
• A) Most worthy ? E) Worthless

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• How valid a test for the "right" husband is the
  casket test which Bassanio wins?
• Morocco sees it as governed merely by chance or
  Fortune (p. 22 2.1.32-28).
• But the caskets have inscriptions that aid in
  their interpretation
• Gold "Who chooseth me shall gain what many men
  desire"(2.7.5)
• Silver "Who chooseth me shall get as much as he
  deserves"(2.7.7)
• Lead "Who chooseth me must give and hazard all
  he hath"(2.7.9)

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• Most importantly, the casket test is a
  deliberation on different systems of value
• intrinsic values and just prices, which are
  absolute
• ascribed or inscribed values, which are socially
  determined

Advocating the newer concept of ascribed value is
Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan (1651) The Value, or
WORTH of a man, is as of all other things, his
Price that is to say, so much as would be given
for the use of his Power and therefore is not
absolute but a thing dependant on the need and
judgement of another.
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Communicating Value

• Portia covertly subverts the casket test rules
  made by her father which state that she not
  reveal which casket contains her picture.
• she tells Bassanio, I could teach you / How to
  choose right, but then I am forsworn. / So will I
  never be. (pp. 51-52 3.2.10-12)
• She laments, O these naughty times / Puts bars
  between the owners and their rights (p. 52,
  3.2.18-19)
• But she then uses her song to subvert "these
  naughty times (pp. 53-54 3.2.63-70).

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Bassanios own Language of Subversion

• Bassanio understands the song's message, yet his
  own comments undercut his position and critique
  Portia (pp. 54-55 3.2.73-107).
• Denounces Outward show (l. 73) but he embraces
  gentlemanly show
• crisped snaky golden locks (l. 92) see
  description of Portias golden fleece of hair
  (p. 9 1.1.169-70)
• common drudge (l. 103) of silver/money one of
  his primary needs/desires
• "Lightest (l. 91)- immoral. Question of adultery
  permeates throughout e.g. reference to treason
  (p. 52 3.2.25-27)
• Such tension over adultery may explain the ring
  test Portia sets up (p. 57 3.2.166-74)

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With all these hints of anxiety why then would
Portia even want to marry Bassanio?

1. Hes the best out of a poor lot of suitors
2. She loves him despite his faults
3. Even though the play is supposedly set in Italy,
   Bassanio is the most English seeming of the
   lovers
4. Shes sick of playing her fathers casket game
5. She figures hell be the easiest to control

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Or is it Love?

• There seems to be a natural affection between
  Portia and Bassanio despite Bassanio's faults.
• And in fact it is Portia's affection for Bassanio
  that makes him worthy of her. Otherwise he is, as
  he says of himself, "nothing" (see his speech, p.
  60 3.2.253-66).

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• Of course, such love does not mean Portia
  necessarily trusts Bassanio.
• And with good reason Bassanio gives up her ring
  to Balthasar (Portia in disguise).
• Ultimately, Antonio has to bind himself yet again
  for Bassanio in a mock contract promising
  Bassanios faithfulness to Portia (pp. 98-99
  5.1.249-55).

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So the marriage relation in Belmont in the end
mirrors the commercial relation in Venice, giving
us Shylock's "jewels and allowing Portia to
occupy the empowering male subject position in a
social exchange
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Epilogue "Which is the merchant here? And which
the Jew?" (4.1.173)

• Is Shylock a sentimentalist? When Tubal tells him
  that one of Antonio's creditors showed him a ring
  "that he had of Shylock's daughter for a
  monkey," Shylock responds, "Thou torturest me,
  Tubal. It was my turquoise I had it of Leah his
  now deceased wife when I was a bachelor. I would
  not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys"
  (3.1.111-16).
• Who is the most "worthy" character in the play?