The Merchant Of Venice As A Romantic Comedy - Critical Analysis :: Free Merchant of Venice Essays

We can trace the origin of funniness to Dionysis- the Greek God of Wine who was hilarious, satirical and irreverent in life story. Ben Jonson in Volpone (1605) that is considered to be the greatest comedy in English epitomized the classical spirit of comedy. Shakespeare was aware of the classical impost by the chose to follow the Roman tradition of Petrarch and Boccacio. Shakespeares early comedies were classical in spirit merely the posterior ones were more emotional, fanciful and humorous. The merchant of Venice falls between there twain categories. It leads the list of mature comedies has more romanticist characteristics than classical. It is also one of the earliest productions of the middle period. In this play Shakespeare seems to have obtained the highest use of his powers as a playwright, his faculties as a poet and philosopher seem to be approaching their grand maturity date without losing the ardor and hopefulness of youth. There is loftiness of thought and expres sion. Romance was an old tradition and Romantic ideas were common during Shakespeares time. Romantic Comedy in the sixteenth C was meant for the Aristocracy and the comic relief in the plays was meant for the groundlings. There were many a(prenominal) differences between the Romantic Comedies and classical comedies. In the classical tradition, the characters were presented with ruth slight propel and the plays were realistic, spiritual and critical. But in Romantic comedies that Shakespeare wrote there was plenty of with but there was also an appeal to the emotions rather than the intellect and they were also less critical in purpose. Like Meredith said, they are thunders of laughter clearing the appearance and heart. It is a comedy of emotions, which wins the audiences sympathy with the woes and exhalations of the characters. The various characteristics of Romantic comedies are present in The Merchant of Venice. The leading themes of most of these plays were spot and Friendship . These comedies were an exposition of Love and its manifold modifications. And on one level The Merchant of Venice is also a play about friendship and love. In the startle scene itself Antonio displays the nature of love and friendship that he feels for Bassanio,My purse, my person, my extremest means breathe all unlocked to your occasions.The love of friendship seems to dictate most of Antonios actions. He signs the Flesh Bond and it can be seen as the last gesture that he can make for the sake of friendship.