| The thesis offers an alternative reading of MV to the "Majority" and "Minority" reports in twentieth-century criticism. It speculates that Shakespeare changed his original plan to resolve the I, iii traditional "pound of flesh" legal contract through a radical reconciliation between Shylock and Antonio, directed by an unprejudiced Portia-Balthazar. Stage directions for a radical blocking of the climax of the bond plot, lines 300-390, are offered, without changing any words in Shakespeare's text. Instead of this resolution, it is argued, Shakespeare left the trial scene as a literary blueprint for a "final solution" to Venice's Jewish problem. The thesis focuses on the "Alien Statute" of Venice as the prime source of offensiveness and polarized controversy which the play continues to generate. To illuminate the complex trial scene it is compared and contrasted with similar full-scale trials of successful reconciliation in Measure for Measure, The Winter's Tale, and "The Case of the Woman Caught in Adultery," (John 8:1-11). The thesis explores Shakespeare's creation of bold Christ-like counteroffensives, which ask for changes of heart from vulnerable trial adversaries--and thus from the audience--and not merely judgments of "guilty" or "not guilty."... |
