Merchant Of Venice Love Vs Hate

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. Love is depicted to be a more powerful force that hate in the Merchant of Venice. Discuss the truth of the statement. Make close reference to the text. Throughout the course of the Merchant of Venice, there are two forces that are shown to motivate the characters, namely that of love and of hate. Yet, throughout the book, it can be seen that hate is a stronger force than love and it can be said that there is little truth in the statement. Love, in the merchant of Venice, is shown in two main forms, brotherly love and romantic love and also slightly in the form of parental love. Scene one of the Merchant of Venice gives us insight into the brotherly love that the Christian Venetian merchants share. Through their vain efforts of trying to comfort the melancholic Antonio, we can see that the Christian merchants show brotherly love with each other. The even more obvious expression of brotherly love is when Antonio willingly gives up all his wealth for Antonio, in his claim “my extremest means / Lie all unlocked to your occasions” and ”That shall be racked even to the uttermost/ To furnish thee to3 Belmont to fair Portia” and even though he meets with misfortune because this gift of brotherly love, he still says “al debts are cleared between you and I if I might but see you at my death”. This selflessness bespeaks the power of power of the brotherly love present in the play. Romantic love is also shown to be a strong force in the play. Characters like Portia and Bassanio, and Jessica and Lorenzo are shown to be madly in love with each other. This romantic love that they share helps them tide of crisis like choosing the right casket and escaping from Shylock respectively. Also, this love is shown to be able to cause characters to be self sacrificial and able to overlook their partners small mistakes, for example to overlook the

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