Page 132 - William_Shakespeare_-_The_Merchant_of_Venice_191

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ACT THREE - Scene Five

_______________________________________ [Optional Scene—replaces 3.5 in the original]

Venice. Shylock’s House.

Shylock is alone in his house, feeling an oppressive emptiness from his daughter’s flight and
betrayal. He also feels isolated (from the merchant and Jewish communities) due to his strange
course of action against Antonio (one which is going to bode badly for every Jew in Venice).
Here he is getting ready for the trial; and with no object upon which to express his anger (such
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as the presence of Antonio), he is starkly confronted by his own sadness. He picks up the bond
and safely places it his breast pocket, perhaps knowing too well that exacting the cruel terms of
his bond will do little to appease this own emptiness. He readies his bag, selecting it with some
reluctance. This is one of the bags he uses to transport money. He goes to the scale, takes it
apart, and places it into the bag. He picks up a one-pound weight, gauges its weight by lifting it
up and down in his hand, and places it in the bag. He goes to his knife collection and ponders
which knife to use; he selects the most ominous-looking one, which is thick and pointed. He
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places the knife in his bag.

1. Act 3, Scene 5, as found in the original, is a ‘filler’ scene which provides a light-hearted distraction and some
psychological time which allows the main characters to reach Venice. Nothing is advanced in the scene. (As it now
stands, the dynamic court scene is sandwiched between two, more playful scenes, involving the two lovers and the
fool.) The quality of this scene (especially the first half), moreover, is tiresome and lacking. At the onset of the
scene, Launcelet is oddly confronting and harsh; it is unlikely that he would address Jessica in such a cruel manner
(as they were friends and allies during his term with Shylock) though some have argued that Jessica, now a Christian,
is ‘fair game for Launcelet’s foolery.’ Moreover, Launcelet’s fluency with Homer’s The Odyssey is questionable; his
banter with Lorenzo is dull; and the later conversation between Lorenzo and Jessica is uninspired. Due to the
weakness of the scene, some scholars have doubted its authenticity and most productions simply delete it.
In sum, the scene is lacking and anomalous though a scene is needed here to provide time for the main
characters to reach Venice. Thus, the original 3.5 should be included with trepidation, deleted altogether, or wholly
replaced with another scene. In this emendation, 3.5 is replaced with one involving Shylock. One way to keep a
short scene here would be to import the early portions the 5.1 involving Lorenzo and Jessica. (Specifically, 5.1.1-21
and 5.1.54-109, or some portion thereof, could be included). This importation would help to reduce the length of Act
Five and accomplish the aim of bringing the story to a swift conclusion after its crescendo at the end of the trial
scene. As it now stands, the concluding Act Five is much too long and most productions seek ways to reduce it. It
was a common practice, before 1800, to simply omit Act Five altogether, rather than tax the audience with the tie up
of loose ends after the dramatic close of the court scene. However, such convenient editing is wholly unacceptable.
The filler scene provided here—which replaces the original—can be staged in one of three ways: a) Shylock
appears alone, without any spoken lines, b) Shylock appears alone, then Tubal enters, then a short dialogue between
the two—one which does not reveal Shylock’s motivation, or c) Shylock appears alone, then Tubal enters, then a
dialogue between the two—one which reveals Shylock’s motivation (which is that he does not intend to actually kill
Antonio but to teach him a lesson, to psychologically torture him). Explicitly revealing Shylock’s motivation (i.e.,
not to kill Antonio) tenuously redeems his character: as such, he is not solely motivated by misplaced hatred and self-
defeating rage but by a more skillful and ‘elevated’ stratagem—that of ‘teaching Antonio a lesson.’ Revealing such a
motivation (which is contrary to the assumed motivation found in the original) holds the risk of changing the vector
(and tension) of the court scene. In the original, the audience is led to believe that Shylock fully intends to kill
Antonio (if he gets the chance). With the introduction of Shylock’s motivation, the audience may not feel any real
threat to Antonio life (which Antonio and everyone else in the play is made to feel it). In addition, when Shylock is
finally defeated, he is defeated before he has a chance to make known his true motivations, and everyone is left with
the false impression that he truly intended to kill Antonio (and would have done it if he were not stopped by Portia’s
wit). This, then, would add another dimension to the defeat of Shylock’s character—his never being able to redeem
himself in the eyes of others. In this scenario, Shylock could not come back and claim he had no intention of killing
Antonio, for in such a position of defeat, no one would believe him. [See Additional Notes, 3.5.0]
2. Previously, when there was an object for its expression, we see Shylock able to express his anger and rage; here,
in isolation, only sadness penetrates, and, for the first time, he feels a deep and alien sense of loss: “The curse never
fell upon our nation till now; I never felt it till now.”
3. To include an element of black humor, Shylock could be made to test the sharpness of his blade on a tomato
(which may or may not be a symbol for the heart). In his first try, he finds the blade to be hopelessly dull and