Assalamualaikum again nice to have you here
despite the rain and the thunderstorm outside We
continue our journey into Shakespeare and
Shakespeare's world. Last time we had a discussion
about some Shakespearean ideas. We mentioned how
Shakespeare, for example, wants to be careful when
he depicts the English kings. He doesn't want to
offend them. He doesn't want to be punished in a
way or another like many people were punished at
that time. However, that's not the whole story
because sometimes Shakespeare implicitly,
indirectly, he criticizes kings. He presents them
as weak, as sometimes as strong, sometimes as
weak, sometimes as clever, sometimes as not so
clever, sometimes as villains, sometimes as evil.
In a way, he presents the king to us as human
beings with flaws, with weaknesses, and also with
strengths. The king is no longer the figure, the
godlike figure to be feared. Shakespeare changed
this image and introduced us to someone who, a
person, a king who is a person like us, who has,
again, flaws, hopes, wishes, and fears. Let's see,
before we begin today, talking about Shakespeare
tragedies and some of his comedies, let's see two
students here performing something from
Shakespeare.
Yeah, yeah, please.
All the walls are staged, and all the men and
women merely players. They have their exits and
their entrances. And one man his time plays many
parts, his acts being seven ages. At first, the
infant, mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then, the whiny schoolboy, with his statues
and shiny morning face, creeping like a snail,
unwillingly to school. And then, the lover,
signing like fairness, with a wolf of paddock made
to his Mistress's eyeglass. And then the soldier,
full of strange oaths and bearded like the bard,
jealous and honored, sudden and quick and curled,
seeking the bubble, reputation, even in the cone
of his mouth. And then the justice. In fair and
billy with good cable lines, with eyes severe and
beard of formal cut, full of wise souls and modern
instances. And so he plays his part. The sixth age
shifts into the lean and slippery pantaloon with
spectacles on nose and pouch on side. His youthful
holes will save the world too wild for his
charming child. And his big manly voice turning
again towards childish children pipes and whistles
in his sound. Last scene of all, the end that ends
this Strange, eventfully history, in sound
childishness and mere oblivion. Sense teeth, sense
eyes, sense taste, sense everything.
Very good. I love this dissertation of all the
world's stage. We mentioned this probably briefly
before but Shakespeare was one of the most
important poets and playwrights to present life as
a stage. So this is all the world's stage. The
whole world is a stage. And in Macbeth, we'll see
how he talks about life being a tale told by an
idiot. So very good. Probably you can do something
like this, the rest of you. We have one more
reading of For God's Sake. Go on. Do you want to
stand on the chair? OK. For God's sake. Can you
speak up? For God's sake, let us sit upon the
ground until sad stories of the different kings,
how some have been deposed, some slain in war,
some hunted by the ghosts they have deposed, some
poisoned by their wives, some sleeping killed or
murdered. That's for within the hollow crown that
rounds the mortal temples of a king, keeps dead
his court. And their auntie said, scuffing his
state and greening at his palm, allowing him to
breathe, a little seen, to moralize, to be free,
brave, and kill with lux, infusing him with self
and vain conceit. As if this flesh, which walls
about our life, we embrace impregnable and humored
thus. Comes at the last and with a little pain.
Bros throw his castle, castle wall, and for will
kings and very well king. Cover your heads and
mock not flesh and blood with solemn reverence.
Throw away respect, tradition, firm and
ceremonies, duty. For you have ought to stop me
all this while. I love good friend like you. Feel
want, taste free, need friends, subjective
thoughts. How can you say to Very good. Very
beautiful. Thank you. No, I'll keep it. Thank you.
So again, we have this king portrayed by
Shakespeare as weak, someone begging people to sit
up on the ground and tell sad stories of the death
of kings. We said that this is one of the kings
that Shakespeare presents as maybe humble, maybe
honest, maybe modest in a way. But remember when
we discussed the text, the portrait itself, We
said there could be something hiding behind where
the king is not genuine, is not truthful in his
begging because the language reveals someone who
is still arrogant, someone who is still a king,
someone who's distancing himself from the people,
someone pointing the finger of accusation at the
people themselves rather than at his own
shortcomings. We have one more recitation. Come
here please. For God's sake, go on. On your
mobile, okay. Can you speak up? For God's sake,
let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of
the death of kings, how some have been exposed,
some slain more. Some hunted by the ghosts they
have deposed. Some poisoned by their wives. Some
sleeping count. All murders for within the whole
crown that round the mortal temples of a king.
Keep this his court and the antique sites.
Scoffing his state and grinning and running at his
palm, allowing him a breath, a little sense, to
marchize, be afraid, and kill with locks, infusing
hell with self and vain consent, as if this flesh
which walls about our life were breath,
impregnable, and hammered thus, comes at the last
of with a little pen, Portray through his castle,
wall, and frail-willed king. Cover your head and
muck nutty flesh and blood with salmon reverence.
Throw away respect, tradition, throne, and
salmon's beauty. For you have but mistook me all
this while. I live with a pride like you. Feel
want. Taste grief. Need a friend subjected thus.
How can you say to me I am a king? Thank you,
really thank you. So we go back to Shakespeare
today in class three. Remember we spoke about
Shakespeare and his tragedies and comedies and
hysteries. Generally again, a tragedy is a play in
which the main character or major characters die
at the end. The themes are serious themes of
death, of destruction, of hope, of ambition. And
the comedies, on the other hand, are plays where
nobody dies. And then they live happily ever
after. However, it doesn't mean the comedies are
less important than the tragedies. Because the
themes entered in comedies too can also be about
love, about death, about power, about jealousy,
about important themes, about identity, especially
mistaken. identity. So sometimes Shakespeare would
use a comedy because comedy generally makes people
laugh at their own shortcomings with no one
bleeding or getting hurt during the like really
seriously getting hurt because sometimes there
could be some chaos in the play but then things go
back to normal. Shakespeare's four great tragedies
are Hamlet, we already mentioned Hamlet, King
Lear, Othello, and Macbeth. They're called the
four great tragedies because they're the most
famous of all tragedies. Now, the themes again are
about identity, asking what it means to be a man,
what it means to be a king, what it means to be a
human being, questions about jealousy, family,
ambition, and revenge. I can't basically say, for
example, Hamlet is about revenge, because Hamlet
is about many things, but revenge is there. The
same with Othello. There is jealousy, but there's
also revenge, and there's also racism, and there's
also a family here. King Lear is family and
revenge and many things about identity. So these
issues that the tragedies discuss in Shakespeare
are serious themes. are very important themes,
usually including the king and the queen and the
royal family.
When we speak about the tragedies, we also speak
about how in the play, man, the character, the
king or the prince usually tries to go beyond the
limits of what it means to be a human being.
Remember when we spoke about Renaissance, we said
in the Renaissance,
The issue of what it means to be a man, humanism,
was something important. And this is what it means
to be a man. Nobody can, by the way, answer this,
give a satisfactory answer to this question.
Shakespeare asks this question so many times. Now
in these plays, man tries to go beyond, not to be
a human being, but to be a superman. And because
man is not perfect, is anybody perfect here? Is
anybody perfect there? No. For example, Macbeth
kills the king so he can be the good king, right?
Or Hamlet's uncle. But everybody fails because no
one is perfect. Nobody succeeds in going beyond
the limits of a human being. So mankind itself is
not perfect. So what happens? Failure. Failure. In
Macbeth, for example, in brief, I don't want to go
in much detail here. Shakespeare's Macbeth is a
play in which three witches, three witches like
magicians or wizards come face to face with
Macbeth and tell him three prophecies. They tell
him the future. From these prophecies, Macbeth is
told that he is going to be a king. He's not a
king now. He's not a king. He will be a king. What
does he do? He tells his wife, Lady Macbeth, he
goes back and then, maybe I should kill the king.
His wife was like, yeah, kill the king. And he
kills the king. Now, does it end there? Again,
remember how serious it is to hurt the king, to
question the king, to kill the king at that time.
He kills the king and everything goes upside down.
And the king, he kills more people and more
people, even his friends, even his kids and women
are slaughtered because of Macbeth. Now, Macbeth,
at some time, is told that his wife, Lady Macbeth,
who supported him, dies. But he is at a moment
when he has given up on life. He is just hopeless.
Yes, he wants power. He's ambitious. But when his
wife dies, he doesn't care that much. Maybe
because, again, he has given up on hope. Or maybe
because she pushed him to do this murder. And we
come to this amazing part from Macbeth, when he
again realizes that all his murders, all his
crimes were useless. They're not going to make him
a superman. And that's tomorrow and tomorrow and
tomorrow. Very famous quote from Akbar. Creeps in
this petty pace from day to day to the last
syllable of recorded time out, out brief candle.
Even light, even a candle, even the light of a
candle is now something negative for him because
he wants to live in darkness. Because he brought
darkness upon himself. Because he killed the king
and he destroyed the harmony. in the world. Out,
out, brief candle. Life's but a walking shadow.
Remember just now we said Shakespeare uses the
metaphor of life as a stage? All the world's a
stage. And here, life is a shadow. What's life?
What's man? What do we want? It's a shadow. You
kill and kill and kill and you lose people. But
what do you achieve? Nothing. Except the cold
grave. Lives but a walking shadow, a poor player.
We go back to the metaphor of the stage. Poor
player means... What does player mean here in this
context? Exactly, an actor. Not a football player.
It means an actor here. A poor player that struts
and frets his hour up on the stage, going back to
the stage. So how long do we live? It's only one
hour. No matter what you do, how powerful, how
strong, no matter how many crimes you commit, it's
all one hour. That's life. That's life upon the
stage. And then Nizhad, no more. It's a tale. It's
a story. Tale. Again, a tale. Who's the narrator
of the tale? An idiot. Imagine a story told to you
by a crazy person, an insane person. Is it going
to be? Probably you wouldn't believe it. Probably
you're going to just be shocked, confused because
things are not connected, are not related because
the storyteller is incoherent, doesn't understand.
told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying
nothing. What does it mean? Nothing. You kill and
you kill and kill. And at the end of the day, you
don't achieve anything. And this is, again, a
concern by Shakespeare at that time. People were
asking these questions. What does it mean to be a
man? What does it mean to go beyond the limit of
man? It means nothing. Because it's a tale told by
an idiot. because we have a poor player that
spends one hour and then is heard no more. You've
gone forever. Okay, beautiful story, beautiful
play, Macbeth, one of the most beautifully written
plays by Shakespeare. Probably you can go to
YouTube and watch some productions of this. I'll
leave the story here. I'm not going to spoil it
for you.
Now, generally, what happens in tragedies at the
end is again death and destruction and chaos. So
what does it mean here? It means that there is
darkness, there's pessimism, there's hopelessness
and helplessness, there's despair, there's
sadness. Now, generally, even in tragedy,
Shakespeare gives us some hope for the future.
Remember Hamlet? How many people died in Hamlet?
Almost everyone. Except his friend, Horatio, to
tell the story. Remember? Shakespeare loves
stories and storytelling. Horatio wanted to drink
the poison. He said, no, don't tell my story. And
then there is a new king. So even in tragedies
where almost everybody dies, There is hope for the
future. Someone to tell the story. Or there is
usually a young person, a young king in
particular, or young people. We have this in
Macbeth, new king. We have this in Hamlet. We have
this like in many other plays. However, there's
one very dark, very bleak, very, very, very gloomy
play by Shakespeare. One described by some critics
as the most pessimistic, and the darkest. And this
play is King Lear.
There are many things to say here, but let's just
focus on what we have to say in the book. King
Lear, at the beginning of the play, he decides to
give up his kingdom and his power to his
daughters. But he says, OK, if you love me, Tell
me how much you love me and I'll give you that
much you share. And to the daughters, General and
Reagan, they say we love you the most, more than
the waves and the stars and bigger than the sea
and the oceans and we love you because you are the
best in the world. But Cordelia, the honest, He
says the truth. He says, I love you as much as any
ordinary daughter loves her father. You're good to
me and I love you. And he was like, go. He disowns
her. He kicks her out. Long story short, at the
end of the play, fast forward, we have King Lear
in one of the last scenes. with his misunderstood
daughter Cordelia dead, lifeless in his arms.
That's how it ends. When he realizes he has been a
fool all along. Remember in the play there is a
fool character, a gesture. He's wiser than the
king. That's again Shakespeare trying to say that
sometimes a fool can be better than, wiser,
smarter than the king. And this is one of the last
scenes, very heartbreaking, very sad in so many
ways. No, no, no, no life. Why should a dog, a
horse, a rat have life? And thou, no breath at
all, thou will come no more. Never, never, never,
never.
Can someone read? Try to depict the sadness here,
please. No, no, no life. Why should a dog, a
horse, a rat have life? And dog, no brain at all.
There's cow, no horn. Never, never, never, never,
never. You forgot one never, I guess. You
shouldn't be laughing. This is, this is sad. I
shouldn't be cracking jokes even. Speak up,
please. No, no, no. Like, why? Okay, no, no, no.
Can we get the sadness and the frustration and the
pessimism and the hopelessness? Like, no, no. No
life. Why should a rat, why should a dog, a horse,
a rat have life and thou no breath at all thou
will come no more? Never, never, never, never.
You shouldn't be laughing. I'm not gonna act it
that good, but okay. Try. No, no, no life. Why
should a dog, a horse, a rat have a life? And
thou, and thou, no breath at all. Thou come no
more. Never, never, never, never, never. Please.
No, no, no life. Why should a dog, a horse, a rat
have life? And thou, no breath at all. You forgot
one never.
You forgot two nevers? It's lesson. Now this is a
king who committed a foolish mistake. Why would
you give up your... Why wouldn't you understand if
a king doesn't understand his daughters? In a way
he deserves this but we feel sad, we feel sorry
for him because again of the lifeless body of
Cordelia. See the emphasis on no, no, no, never,
never, never. How dark. Regression. The ending is
very depressing, very sad. The pessimism is
overwhelming there. Why should it unfair? Life is
unfair because you, the king, you are unfair. You
were unfair. You didn't treat your daughter
justly. Again, what does thou mean? Thou? The.
Thou? That. Thou means? You. Thou. Thou. What does
it mean? You. That. Thou means you. Thou, here
thou well. You well. So far we had thou in Middle
English meaning you. And thee meaning also you but
for object. So shall I compare thee to a summer's
day? Shall I compare thee? And the second line
says thou art, you are. You are. You are. Yes
please. I can't understand. He said that I'll give
you how much you love me and I'll give you an
equal amount. She said that I love you like a
normal daughter that loves her father. He should
have gave her what he sees that is fair not to get
her out. And now he's being punished? But the
punishment is like when you take candy from
somebody when you just don't give them extra
marks. But this is the punishment he has, so
heartbreaking, because it includes death. Now,
when we move from King Lear to Othello, again,
remember, King Lear is said to be one of the
darkest, most pessimistic, because there's no
hope. Everybody dies. Heartbreaking. Now, Othello,
in brief, is one of the major black characters in
Shakespeare. In all English literature, by the
way. He isn't the first. Black. He's originally
from Africa. And when we say he is a black
character here, it brings issues of race. Listen,
we believe wholeheartedly that all people are
equal regardless of their color, of their origin,
of their race, of anything. We treat people as
human beings. The worst thing It's for anybody to
be racist, to hate somebody, to dislike somebody
because of their color, sometimes how they speak,
where they are from, or their religion. And this
is what literature teaches us. We learn about
these experiences from literature. Now, Othello is
a Christian. He becomes a Christian. And he's a
leader in the army in Venice. And he marries the
most beautiful white lady in Venice. He deserves
this because he works hard for it. He's a strong
fighter. But Iago, the villain, the antagonist,
hates him mainly because of his color. And again,
this is Shakespeare 400 years ago discussing
racism.
And because you treat somebody unfairly, unjustly,
because of his color, We have one of the, again,
really darkest tragedies of all. In Othello,
again, harmony is lost. And that's why harmony,
you know, because we should be treating each other
equally. But because someone is mistreated only
because of the color of his skin, and this causes
a lot of destruction and death. He kills his wife,
his Demona, Othello. Because he was jealous.
Because Iago made him think that she was cheating
on him. And then Iago kills his wife. And then
he's killed himself. And then Othello dies at the
end. So he says, chaos has come again. You know
chaos? Chaos, destruction. It is said that there's
the Big Bang theory. I'm not sure if you studied
this in school, Big Bang theory, how the world
created by a Big Bang. And before the Big Bang,
there was chaos. There was nothing. And the theory
says that the world is going to end in a Big Bang.
So chaos has come again. Life has no meaning when
someone is mistreated because of his religion or
something. So why does Iago hate Othello? Because
only because, yes, he took up the position, but he
deserves it because he is a black man who married
the white beautiful lady, Desdemona. And Iago is
said to be the scariest character in Shakespeare.
Now, we move from Othello to The Merchant of
Venice. Now, listen, The Merchant of Venice is not
a tragedy. I'll tell you in brief what it is
about. But when I speak about Othello and speak
about race, because Othello is an outsider, you
know outsider? We speak about Europe, all white,
all Christian, all European, right? Now Othello is
an intruder, is an outsider. Now in the merchant
of Venice, there is also an outsider and his name
is Shylock.
The Merchant of Venice. I'll briefly tell you what
what goes on in The Merchant of Venice and
probably read this and stop and comment next
class. Now The Merchant of Venice is a story about
Antonio and his friend Bassanio. Bassanio wants to
marry Portia. Bassanio doesn't have the money. He
goes to the merchant of Venice, Antonio, to give
him money. But he doesn't have much money now
because all his money is at sea doing, you know,
abroad business and trade. So where does he go?
Where does he go to lend, to borrow money? He goes
to Shylock. Who's Shylock? A Jewish money lender,
a Jewish guy, again an outsider. So there is also
another issue, theme of humanity and race here.
And then Shylock says okay okay Antonio you want
me to give you money Antonio you always insult me
you always spit on my face you always tell people
not to take money from me Antonio now you want the
money I will give you the money Antonio because I
am good now Shylock is a money lender he gives you
money and you return the money with extra this is
called interest you know extra money when you
borrow money from from like a bank now and he says
okay let's sign a contract in the contract he says
I want to give you the money if you don't pay it
back in some time I think two months I will take a
pound of flesh A pound of flesh, a piece of your
body, of your flesh. Pound is like half a kilo.
That's a lot, right? And then Anthony was like,
what? He said, don't worry. This is Mary's fault.
It's just for fun. It's just for fun. And then he
signs. And then when the time comes, give me my
money back. He says, my ships were destroyed. I
lost all my money. Okay, give you my money. Let's
go to court." And now everyone was like, Oh,
Shiloh, you shouldn't wait for him. Forgive him,
Shiloh. He said, why should I forgive him? He has
always treated me like crap. He's always
mistreated me. He insults me. He spits in me only
because I am a Jew. And now that I have the right,
the time to take revenge. Now he's saying no, and
they go to the court. At this time, Bassanio and
his wife Portia know about the story, and Portia
dresses up as a man, as a lawyer. Remember, in
Shakespeare, women were not allowed to be on
stage. Only men. Because they didn't have a big
role at that time. Women didn't have many rights.
So who plays women characters? A man, a beardless
man with a soft voice. So imagine this, how
Shakespeare is doing this. So who's playing
Portia? A man dressed up as Portia for the play.
And now Portia dresses up as a man, as a lawyer.
Not only a man, but a lawyer. Women were not
allowed to be lawyers at that time, because many
believed that women are less intelligent, less
intellectual than men. And Shakespeare is changing
this, is making fun of this concept. Because she
comes to the court and she says, OK, wait. Oh,
this contract is valid. It's correct. Is this your
signature? Yeah. So yeah, give him the money. I
don't have the money. And then she tries to beg
Shylock. Shylock, please forgive him. We'll give
you your money. He says, no, I'll give you double
the amount, triple the amount. And Shylock says,
no, I want a pound of flesh. She says, OK, go on,
go on. And he starts sharpening the knife. And in
a very ugly scene, he doesn't use probably a brick
or the wall. He uses his shoe to sharpen the
knife. Disgusting, ugly act of revenge. And when
he approaches Anthony just to take probably from
near his heart, Portia says, wait. Take the pound
of flesh, not less, not more. And when you do,
don't drop any blood, not even one tiny drop of
blood. Is it possible? No, no. So he feels that,
oh, I can't. And then he says, OK, OK, give me the
triple amount. You just said no. Give me the
double amount of money. He says no. OK, give me my
money. You just said no. He says OK. God forgive
you Anthony and peace be upon you. They say wait a
minute, wait a minute, come back. In Venice, if
someone, if an outsider tries to kill a Venetian,
his money has to be taken away and he has to
convert to Christianity. So at the end, Shylock,
like earlier, lost his daughter. She became a
Christian. Now he lost all his money. And of
course the good white Christian Antonio says,
okay, I don't want my half. take it back and he
loses most of his money he loses his right to take
revenge and he becomes a christian he is forced to
become a christian but for portia bassani and
antonio they live happily ever after now in the
past this was considered a comedy because the
european white people are victorious but is it a
comedy for shylock no Is it a comedy of a child?
It's not. He lost his daughter. He lost his
religion. He lost most of his money. That's why
now people consider this a dark comedy, tragic
comedy, serious comedy, trouble comedy, whatever,
because there are issues of race and anti-Semitism
here. Now, in the middle of the play, when they
were begging Shylock not to take the pound of
flesh, He says this, one of the most beautiful
things in Shakespeare. Maybe some of you can read
it next time. They tell him, what do you want to
do with a pound of flesh for God's sake? What do
you want to do with the flesh? You can't eat it.
And he says, I don't care. I want to feed it to
the fish. I don't care. When he insulted me, when
he spat on my face, when he told people not to
take money from me, nobody interfered, nobody told
him no. Don't do that, Antonio. Now that I have
the chance to take revenge, you're telling me
don't? So to bait fish with it, if it will feed
nothing, it will feed my revenge. He hath
disgraced me and hindered me half a million,
laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned
my nation, my nation because he's a Jew, thwarted
my bargains, cooled my friends, heated my enemies.
And what's his reason? I am a Jew. There's no
reason. It's not because I'm bad. It's because of
my religion. Like Othello, it's because of his I
am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes. What's had? Has.
Has not as you see how beautiful it is. Has not as
you eyes. Has not as you hands, organs,
dimensions, senses, affections, passions, fit with
the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, healed by the same means,
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer.
As a Christian, the answer is yes. The second
part, if you prick us, if you injure us, do we not
bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? You tell
jokes, crack jokes, do we not laugh? If you poison
us, do we not die? We're humans. Again, shared
humanity as a theme, Shakespeare. And if you wrong
us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in
the rest, we will resemble you in that if a Jew
wronged a Christian, what is the humility?
Revenge. If a Christian wronged a Jew, what should
his sufferance be by a Christian example? Why
revenge? The villainy The villainy, you teach me,
I will execute and execute, and it shall go hard,
but I will better the instruction. I learned this
bad deed, this bad deed. I learned this villainy
from you, from Antonio. I will treat you the same.
You made me the man I am. But I will better the
instruction. I will better the instruction.
Wonderful. Yes. In a way, many people accuse
Shakespeare of being anti-Semitic. Did I write
anti-Semitism here? Can you see the term, this
term? Anti-Semitism. Semitic from Sam. The Jews
and many Muslims are originally the son of Sam,
son of Noah. So we are sematic, sematic, sematic,
sematic, sematic, sematic, sematic, sematic,
sematic, semiatic, semiatic, semiatic, semiatic,
semiatic, semiatic, semiatic, semiatic, semiatic,
semiatic I would say many Jews support Israeli
occupation and the disposition of Palestinians,
but not all Jews are supportive of Israel. That's
why we speak about the Zionist regime, the Zionist
project, the Zionists, the Israelis. As
Palestinians, we don't hate Jews because they are
Jews. We hate those people because they occupy us,
kill us, humiliate us, deprive us of our rights.
Even if the occupiers of Palestine are Muslims, we
will fight them and resist them the same. So it's
not a matter of Jews and Muslims. This is not a
war between Jews and Muslims. It's, again, a
legitimate fight. Palestinians occupied,
oppressed, colonized against the colonizers who
happen to be Jews. Okay? So in this play, is
Shakespeare depicting Shylock as evil? As ugly?
Probably yes. Some people say yes. Some people
hate Shakespeare because he is anti-semitic. Or he
is anti-feminist. Remember feminism? Feminism?
Anti-feminist. Or because he's a racist. But some
critics say no, no, no, no. Shakespeare wasn't
being racist or anti-semitic. Or anti-feminist. He
was reflecting a society that was racist, anti
-feminist, and probably anti-semitic. So we can
find solutions. We can find answers for this. We
can look for answers. The Merchant of Venice is a
play about shared humanity. about what it means to
be a human being, about racism, about anti
-Semitism. And Shakespeare, now these are
important questions now here in the 20th, 21st
centuries. But Shakespeare discussed this over 40,
100 years ago. And this is how beautiful, how
amazing Shakespeare is. If you have any question,
please ask and we can continue the discussion next
class. You want to say something? You want to add
something? Do you want to read some of this? for
next time can you prepare two or three of you can
you prepare doing this reading this here okay so
we'll start next class from again Shylock and his
speech but before we do this do you notice
anything about the text okay
look at this this is tomorrow and tomorrow and
tomorrow okay and then there is No, no, no life.
And then there is this. Do you notice something
different between the anything?
Oh, thank you very much. This is poetry. In
poetry, we capitalize every line, the beginning of
every line, the first letter from every line,
capital, capital, capital. This is a rule in
poetry. But here, this is what? It's a paragraph,
it's prose, thank you. Remember Shakespeare's
plays were mostly written in verse. But sometimes
there are prose characters, characters who only
speak prose. Shylock is one of them. Unimportant
characters, messengers, you know, bad people
usually speak prose. Not verse. We can talk
probably more about this. Thank you very much. If
you have a question, please do ask.