Is the play a comedy?

Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice

In this course, Dr Christie Carson (Royal Holloway, London) explores Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. We begin in the first module by thinking of the play's status as a comedy: is it enough for the play to end with a marriage for us to consider it a comedy? In the second module, we focus on the relationship between the four key characters in the play – Bassanio, Antonio, Portia and Shylock – before moving on in the third module to think about what the play values, focusing in particular on the scenes featuring Portia's chests. In the fourth module, we think about the various kinds of love that are demonstrated in the play, before moving on in the fifth module to consider the treatment of outsiders in the play – the princes of Morocco and Arragon, Lancelot, and Shylock.

Is the play a comedy?

In this module, we think about the extent to which the Merchant of Venice is comedy, focusing in particular on the presentation of Shylock in the play.