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A review by evilchocho
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
challenging
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
This wasn’t very good. Anything that was good in this play was unfortunately undercut by the massive doses of antisemitism which was pretty grim.
I guess
God why was this so antisemitic. It sucks because good things like the powerful position of women in the text were totally undermined by the fact that they came into for instance, the trial, just to basically Fuck over the Jew. Like dude, leave my guy alone. Cause I get it, he sucks as a person, but that’s only because he’s characterised by horrible racist stereotypes and made to be like an irredeemable piece of trash just because he’s Jewish and god they really love to drive that home every other page.
Irrespective to that shit, it just wasn’t funny and the plot wasn’t good. Like the only bit I found remotely kind of entertaining was the first bit with the clown and his dad but even then that was ruined because of, you guessed it, antisemitism. And you can’t tell me that it’s just harder to distinguish the humour because of how old it is, because not only have I read other Shakespeare and found that funny, but I’m also reading Don Quixote, a text from a similar period, and that shit is hilarious!
Also there were too many characters that I didn’t care about and that didn’t matter at all to the plot.
Oh and what the fuck was the bit about the rings like that was completely pointless.
Now I think about it too, if Antonio’s ships were not lost, then the whole trial never needed to happen, which basically means that the whole idea was just to Fucking decimate Shylock for no reason…
Thanks Shakespeare, not very cash money of you.
I guess
God why was this so antisemitic. It sucks because good things like the powerful position of women in the text were totally undermined by the fact that they came into for instance, the trial, just to basically Fuck over the Jew. Like dude, leave my guy alone. Cause I get it, he sucks as a person, but that’s only because he’s characterised by horrible racist stereotypes and made to be like an irredeemable piece of trash just because he’s Jewish and god they really love to drive that home every other page.
Irrespective to that shit, it just wasn’t funny and the plot wasn’t good. Like the only bit I found remotely kind of entertaining was the first bit with the clown and his dad but even then that was ruined because of, you guessed it, antisemitism. And you can’t tell me that it’s just harder to distinguish the humour because of how old it is, because not only have I read other Shakespeare and found that funny, but I’m also reading Don Quixote, a text from a similar period, and that shit is hilarious!
Also there were too many characters that I didn’t care about and that didn’t matter at all to the plot.
Oh and what the fuck was the bit about the rings like that was completely pointless.
Now I think about it too, if Antonio’s ships were not lost, then the whole trial never needed to happen, which basically means that the whole idea was just to Fucking decimate Shylock for no reason…
Thanks Shakespeare, not very cash money of you.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism