Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice Study Guide

The Merchant of Venice has become perhaps the most contentious of all Shakespeare’s plays. This is because it deals with the dangerous issue of race, and deals with it even more controversially than Othello. Critics have always argued over whether or not the play is anti-semitic, and the extent to which its central character, Shylock, is a hero or a shamefully treated victim. In this short, brilliant analysis, the leading Shakespearean scholar Michael Neil looks at the arguments about the play, analyses its power and shows why, ultimately, it refuses the comfort of any single “view of the world”.