Antonio vs. Shylock
In the play Merchants of Venice, the two characters Antonio and shylock prove to be two men who are different in many ways but at the same time, one in the same. Antonio and shylock both struggle with the theme of mercy for others. Near the beginning of the story Antonio needs a loan for some money and he goes to shylock for some help. Shylock isn’t very happy with Antonio because he disrespects him for being Jewish, so he says “You call me misbeliever, cut throat dog, and spit upon my Jewish gabardine” (pg 6.) Antonio responds, “I am like to call thee so again, to spit on thee again, to spurn thee too” (pg 6.) Antonio is portrayed as very disrespectful and Shylock seems innocent and friendly because he agrees to lend him the money. After we find out he agrees to lend the money we discover that Shylock also demands a pound of Antonio’s flesh if he fails to pay back the loan on the given date.
Antonio misses the date and without any mercy Shylock demands his rightful trade. “The pound of flesh, which I demand of him, is dearly bought, ‘tis mine and I will have it” (pg 26.) Shylock with the upper hand wants revenge on Antonio and believes taking a pound of his flesh will satisfy him, Antonio on the other hand does show mercy when he gets the upper hand. “To quit the fine for one half of his goods, I am content” (pg 30.) Antonio lets him keep his things and lets him leave the court room.
Both men are not merciful when they speak to each other. They share no respect for each other but when it comes down to life or death, they both showed mercy. The only reason I believe shylock did do this, was because he was held under such harsh circumstances. But Antonio gave mercy for his things and his life out of the goodness of his heart.
I’ve just finished act three in Merchants of Venice and I’m still really enjoying the book. I read through the part where Bassanio comes to see Portia and he want to choose the casket. I learned the three things that each man has to commit to if they wish to pick a casket;
1. They must never reveal to anyone which casket they have chosen
2. They can never get married to anyone
3. They must leave at once and never return
When Bassanio came to choose a casket Portia wanted him to take his time because she wanted him to choose wisely and stick around because she liked him. He ended up picking the lead casket and won Portia’s hand in marriage. Bassanio found out after him and Portia had decided to marry that Antonio, his best friend, was in trouble in Venice with the Jew who lent him money, Shylock. Shylock wanted a pound of Antonio’s flesh because he had not paid him back on the written and documented due date. Bassanio, with Portia’s money, offered two to three times the amount of money that Antonio owed him but shylock was only interested in Antonio’s flesh, mainly for reasons of revenge. Portia and Nerissa came dressed as men. Portia was dressed as the clerk of a lawyer and gave shylock the permission to take the pound of flesh under two conditions, he had to take exactly one pound, no more no less, and he couldn’t spill a drop of blood or his life would ne taken. Shylock found this task impossible and decided to just take the money instead. Portia, as the lawyer’s clerk explained that shylock now needed to beg for mercy that his life be spared. He needed to convert to Christianity, half of his riches would be taken from him and he must write a will which entitles everything he owns to Jessica and Lorenzo after his death.
I actually really am liking this book so far. I didn’t think I would be enjoying it this much but the fact that it is a comedy is really making the matters a little easier. My favorite character in merchants of venice so far would have to be Portia. I like her alot because she seems so snotty eaven though she really has no idea what she wants. The way shakespeare has written her role is supposed to make it seem like all of these men are just not worthy and i puts her on a pedestal. The fact which most people miss when reading MOV is Portia is actually picky and she should be greatful that things were set up the way they were for her. If her father had not created the system for men to cvhoose the correct casket Portia might have already been married to someone she disliked. It’s not like he would have allowed her to choose by matters of love anyways. Because things were set up with the caskets, portia had been able to hold off the many men for evem longer until she matured up a little bit and realized that there is actually good men out there and they aren’t all useless.
A. The four of them work hard to get rid of any of the evidence of ice nine. Jonah asks the story about the dog on Christmas eve and the three decided it was okay to tell about it. It seems that Dr. Hoenikker was creating ice nine and meting it over and over in the pots in the kitchen and he was taking temperatures of things and then he went for a rest in his chair and ended up dying. The two boys brought the dog that found on the beach in the cottage and they tried to feed it something to eat. He got a hold of the ice nine and froze up in an instant. Later on the show of the martyrs went on and one of the planes caught fire and crashed. This created a huge rock slide and everyone but two people were saved when the building broke apart. The Minton’s went down with it. All of a sudden “papa” fell off of the edge as well and the whole sea turned in to ice nine. Jonah finds a bomb shelter that “papa” had built and him and Mona go and stay in it. When they went outside they found many dead bodies of people who had killed themselves and a note signed by Bokonon himself. Mona did the same as the rest of the people and she killed herself right in front on Jonah by putting the frost to her mouth.
B.Tableau - picture, as of a scenePyre - a pile or heap of wood or other combustible material.Parapet - a defensive wall or elevation, as of earth or stone, in a fortification.
C.Why does Mona kill herself?Why was the thought of reproduction so bad to her?Why did he keep saying the sky was wormy?
Jonah and mona declared their love for eachother but mona ended up declining the marriage because jonah did not want her love anyone esle even though that was against her religion.Jonah decided to accept it and to take her religion and let her love eveyone.they went to the place were papa was dying and before his death they found out he was a bokononist as well. Jonah decides on his speech and outlaws bokonon like before. There is a festval that happens in san lorenzo and this is where jonah would be introduce as the new president. Papa was found woth the open bottle of ice 9 and jonah then realizes what it was. Then the doctor died form the contact as well. all of the children used ice nine to get things on life tht they wanted.
cetacean - belonging to the Cetacea, an order of aquatic, chiefly marine mammals, including the whales and dolphins.
crenels - An open space or notch between two merlons in a battlement or crenelated wall.
precipice - a cliff with a vertical, nearly vertical, or overhanging face.
1. will mona ever love jonah equally?
2. Is ice 9 going to infect everyone?
3. Does jonah still want to be president?
A. Jonah speaks to Castle and he explains to him that he os very disliked by “papa” so he does not know how he is doing in the hospital.b He learns from castle that every person on the island is a faithful Bokononist despit the fear of the hook. The wierd thing that i realized while reading in that Bokonon made the religion banned himself. He did this to give the believers more zest. If it was a forbidden thing then more people would want to do it and be more faithful. Castle turned out to be a Bokononist and he said with time jonah would realize he was too. we found out as the conversation goes on, that angela and her husband do not have a good marriage at all. He comes home drunk all the time with lipstick all over him. When angela is upset while talking about her father newt asks her to get her clarinet and play a song for them. swhe finally agreed after a little more pleading and a few more drinks. Jonha was mesmorized when he heard the melodic sould that escaped the clarinet.”papa” had cancer at the hospital and frank ws staying by his bedside an waiting with him. Jonah recieved a phone call for frank and he said the words zah-mah-ki-bo which meant inevitable destiny. soldiers were sent to franks house an said they were there to protect him and then the power went out. frank came home with mona and said he needed to speak with jonah right away. frank asked jonah to be the president of san lorenzo. He said he would make one hundred thousand dollars a year. Jonah accepts and then he is told that he has to marry mona. She comes down in to the den where the two men were talking and jonh and mona performe boko-maru.
B.
- vied - to strive in competition or rivalry with another; contend for superiority
- brazeness - shameless or impudent
- ithyphallic - of or pertaining to the phallus carried in ancient festivals of Bacchus.
C.
- Why does Frank not want to marry mona?
- Does Jonah more pursueded by the fact that now he must marry mona?
- Does he think she will she stay faithful to him even though he saw her rubbing another mans foot while she was supposedly with frank at that time?
A. In these chapters Jonah starts out on the plane heading toward san lorenzo still. He talks to the couple sitting next to him Felix and a few other people at the bar. He learns more about Felix and his love affair with the russian dancer Zinka while they are at the bar. Jonah lands at the Monzano airport and sees that the city is very popluated. Jonah noticed as he walked in that a sign was hanging that said, “Anyone caught practicing bokononism in san lorenzo will die on the hook.”He also came to find that the country was strictly christian. after “papa” introdiced himself to the people he made it clear that his country was good friends with america and their were no communists there. “papa” seemed to be on some kind of grotesque pain that he was trying to ignore but after a while he ended up collapsing because of it. Jonah looked over and he spotted mona who should have been very upset about “papa” collapsing and looking like he was near death, but she was actually rubbing a flyers boot but she thought no one saw.later on jonah walks on a building and meets a very sarcastic man and realizes he is the man who wrote the book he had been introduced to on the plane. After visiting his hotel jonah is urged to go to franks home and wait for him. When he gets there he finds newt asleep outside and realizes he has painted a picture of a cats cradle. Castle also showed up at the house and jonah thought it was going to be exceptionally hard to write a peice on him that wold be popular.
B.
- martyrs- a person who is put to death or endures great suffering on behalf of any belief, principle, or cause
- pissant - someone who always thinks they are right.
- beatnik - a person who rejects or avoids conventional behavior, dress, etc.
C.
- Why do both of the Castle men seem so bitter?
- why is it such a bad idea for someone to create the index for their own book?
- Is mona not as innocent as she seems to be?
A. These chapters are about jonah speaking to newton hoenikker a pre med student who’s father was working on the atomic bomb for the manhatten project.
B. karass- is a spontaneously forming group, joined by unpredictable links
tendrils- A twisting, threadlike structure by which a twining plant, such as a grape or cucumber, grasps an object or a plant for support.
anecdotes- A short account of an interesting or humorous incident.
C.
Why does he only want to learn about what people were doing on the day of the bomb?
Why would a childs point of view be interesting to him?
The online podcast about the soldier who did things he could not handle later on directly connected to both heart of darkness and apocolypse now. The military man Adam suffered from post traumatic stress syndrome much like colonial Kurtz or Marlow. Adan describes to someone back home about how his soldiers and himself shot down an iraqui family on accident. He felt shame and couldn’t get this out of him mind. He spoke also about how him and his men were given direct orders to torture specific people in order to get information out of them. If the people disobeyed the soldiers they would do things such as hang them from things and not let them eat, sleep, or drink for days at a time until thwey told them what they wanted. In the book and movie the Colonial suffered from the same type of thing. At the end of the story Kurtz is dying and the last words that comes out of his mouth were, “The horror, The horror!” The sigificance of these words were that kurtz was haunted by his past. All of the horrible things colonial Kurtz had done in his life were coming back to haunt him. Much like the soldiers in Iraq, PTSD was present in both situations.
In the book Heart if Darkness Conrad describes only two women besides the Marlow’s aunt, Both whom “belong” to Kurtz. The first woman that is brought up in the Novella is Kurtz’s African Mistress. She was the best looking woman around. Her body is completely loaded with jewelry and she looks like she is a very valuable person. She seems to have some kind of power over kurtz and that is why she is a valuable factor in his life. She is one of few people who influence his decisions. Kurtz’s intended on the other hand was looked at as naiive, not powerful. Even though Kurtz was so far away from her and had been gone for a long time, she still believed that he loved her unconditionally. This is where marlow got the idea that “women live in a dream world, well insulated from reality.” Was tha African woman not seen as a real woman then because she was not as naiive as the intended? Maybe she knew Kurtz was not going to stay with her always and she was perfectly content with that.
