Biblical Allusion and Allegory in "The Merchant of Venice"

ERHAPS no other play in the Shakespeare canon has provoked greater controversy regarding its fundamental moral and religious attitudes than has The Merchant of Venice. As everyone knows, acrimonious critical debates have long been waged concerning whether Shakespeare's attitude in the play is humanitarian or antisemitic, whether Shylock is presented as the persecuted hero or as a crude monster and comic butt, whether Antonio and Bassanio are portrayed as worthy Christians or as crass hypocrites. Recently, however, some critics have in part transcended the controversies arising out of the literal story by concentrating upon certain allegorical and symbolic aspects of the play, reflecting in this approach the modern critical emphasis upon Shakespeare's use of Christian themes and imagery and his debt to the medieval tradition. In a most illuminating essay, Nevill Coghill' discusses several of Shakespeare's comedies, including MV, in terms of the medieval comic form described by Dante-a beginning in troubles and a resolution in joy, reflecting the fundamental pattern of human existence in this world. Moreover, he traces in MV the direct influence of the medieval allegorical theme of the "Parliament of Heaven", in which Mercy and Justice, two of the four "daughters of God", argue over the fate of mankind after his fall. In somewhat similar vein, Sir Israel Gollancz2 sees the play as Shakespeare's largely unconscious development of certain myths implicit in the original sources-the myth of the Parliament of Heaven, and the related Redemption myth in which Antonio represents Christ, Shylock, Evil, and Portia, Mercy and Grace. These suggestions shed considerable light upon the trial scene, but they hardly provide a comprehensive account of the entire play.3 The question of the extent and manner in which allegory may organize the total work has yet to be investigated, and constitutes the subject of the present inquiry. The overingenuity and the religious special pleading that has marred some "Christian" criticism of Shakespeare make manifest the need for rigorous standards of evidence and argument in such investigations. The present study does not claim that all of Shakespeare's plays approach as closely as MV appears to