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Post by Fassbender Fan on Mar 16, 2005 19:37:21 GMT
I've always wanted to read that...sorry I can't help you though! Them shortening down tasks are rubbish! I had to re-write a scene from twelth night in under 50 words-was sooo hard!!
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Post by DreamDangerously on Mar 16, 2005 19:52:29 GMT
I can give you a quick plot summary of the most important bits.  ------- The merchant of Venice is basically about a man Bassano who wants to marry a welthy heiress Portia, to do so he has to show that he is a man of wealth and worth. He borrows money from his friend Antonio who is a merchant, but Antonio's money is all tied up in his business. So he borrows money from Shylock the Jew who makes Antonio sign a contract that says if he can't pay back the money then Shylock can cut a pound of flesh from his body. He does this because Antonio and Bassano had always publicly despised him. Once he has the money, in order to marry Portia, Bassano has to pick out a casket containing Portia's portrait, Portia falls in love with Bassano instantly and helps Bassano pick the right one. Meanwhile, Shylock's daughter has fallen in love with Lorenzo, a christian and a friend of Bassano and Antonio and she runs away with him and gets married which makes Shylock hate Antonio even more. Portia and Bassano are about to get married when it turns out that all Antonio's ships are lost at sea and he looses all his money, Antonio accepts that he's going to have to pay Shylock in flesh. However Portia saves the day by dressing as a man and pretending to be a lawyer Balthasar. She tries to get Shylock to be merciful but he wont be and he insists on the law so she says that as the contract says a pound of flesh, he can have it so long as he doesn't spill any blood. Shylock is defeated and humiliated and ends up loosing all his lands and is forced to become a Christian and everyone else lives happily ever after. ------ There, is that a quick enough summary of the play...hehe. It's a very interesting play but it's considered by some people to be very Anti-semetic. |
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Post by Jimjamz on Mar 16, 2005 22:25:14 GMT
Thanks a lot for that  Oooh so its all anti-jew. When I first heard the title I imagined a man with the whole masquerade thing going on running round in a cape for some reason  I see its nothing like that. |
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Post by DreamDangerously on Mar 17, 2005 17:31:11 GMT
hehe it should be! It's a very controvercial play these days though. I think there are some passages where shakespeare actually highlights how badly Jews were treated in tudor times, but then Shylok is a kind of charicature of the evil money grabbing jew, which is the image the Nazi's used.
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Feorh
Hexen
blue handed bird
Posts: 77
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Post by Feorh on Mar 17, 2005 17:37:44 GMT
Sounds interesting, I've never heard of that playwrite. I like reading plays though, one of the more interesting ones I've read is We Bombed in New Haven, which is by Joseph Hellier who wrote Catch 22, it's a really interesting play about a play about the Vietnam war but it's very quirky and gets the Audience involved and plays lots of tricks on the audience. It could probably be revived now about Iraq. I unfortunately haven´t read anything by Heller so far (he somewhat looks like Jacques Derrida, haha), but I might take a look at those works you mentioned (if they are available here). Kane is really recommendable (whereas Heller didn´t happen to commit suicide, did he? *whistle*). |
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Post by DreamDangerously on Mar 17, 2005 17:45:02 GMT
I have to admit I haven't read Catch 22 myself. It's on my "must read" list which seems to get longer by the day. |
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Post by Fassbender Fan on Mar 17, 2005 17:55:33 GMT
I have one of those!! It gets longer and longer-I'm never gonna reach the end |
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Post by Jimjamz on Mar 17, 2005 17:57:01 GMT
Do you think it will be easy to shorten it down into half an hour? I heard its three hours long. Eek  |
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Post by DreamDangerously on Mar 17, 2005 19:25:24 GMT
yes just get rid of some of the sub-plots, like shyloks daughter.
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Post by matt on Mar 17, 2005 20:39:59 GMT
The Merchant of Venice is Shakesspeare's best play. No doubt.
It's most cleverest piece of work. I personally feel he was attacking the persecution of the Jews...
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Post by Jimjamz on Mar 17, 2005 21:12:07 GMT
I actually did enjoy Hamlet when we did it earlier this year, but I didnt really like Macbeth, the merchant of venice is alright so far, im up to the bit where bassanio is going to venice or something like that  |
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Post by Fassbender Fan on Mar 17, 2005 21:42:49 GMT
I love 'fear & loathing..' too ;D I have the Iliad and Virgil's Odyssey still to read plus loadsa others  I started Crime and Punishment ages ago and I can't remember why/when or how but I think I got distracted partway through and forgot about it.hmmm... |
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Post by DreamDangerously on Mar 18, 2005 17:25:47 GMT
I need to read another classic next really, possibly I'll read The Outsider by Camus as Ive been told I'd like it.
One of my favourite Shakespeare plays is Henry V, stirring stuff!
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Post by Jimjamz on Mar 18, 2005 17:50:43 GMT
I've only actually read two in detail  |
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Post by DreamDangerously on Mar 18, 2005 18:42:19 GMT
I haven't read nearly as much Shakespeare as I would like. I've read Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, A Winters Tale, Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V, Twelth Night, Hamlet, Othello and A Midsummers Nights Dream. I've read quite a few of his sonnets too. I've seen quite a lot of Shakespeare on stage too. Henry V was the best but The Comedy of Errors was the funniest. I really want to read Titus Andronicus and Coriolanus.
Personally I prefer the tragedies and plays of the Jacobean writers. A bit of Ford or Webster, very nice. All bloody and bitter and twisted. The Duchess of Malfi, The Revengers Tragedy and 'Tis a Pity She's a Whore are brilliant!
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