There is no true justice. Shylock has been bullied, despised all the Christians including Antonio. Shylock has suffered a lot and in the end he has to lose his dignity, money and his property. I am not trying to say taking Antonio's life is correct but is that really true justice when Portia has caused Shylock lost everything he owns which was as good as taking his life away. Is it fair to Shylock? No, it is so UNFAIR. The Christians might see true justice when Antonio was saved by Portia but the Christians did not even suffered in the first place. They lost nothing but still gained something! Shylock suffered and yet in the end he still had to lose his possessions and dignity. So I FIRMLY BELIEVE that there is NO true justice.
2) Is there true mercy expounded by Portia? Why?
I could not sense any mercy by Portia. Although she gave Shylock 3 opportunities to show mercy to Antonio but however, in the end she still played with words and caused Shylock to not only forfeit the pound of flesh yet at the same time, Shylock had to give up his possessions. She used "mercy" to get revenge on Shylock. If she really expounded true mercy on Shylock, she would not hold grudges against Shylock and let Shylock go without taking his possessions.
3) Justice and Law can be manipulated by people in power. Comment on this with reference to the text and other real-life cases and examples.
In the text, Law and Justice is manipulated by Portia. She uphold justice when she saves Antonio's life. She prosecuted the law using her status when she was dealing with Shylock and Shylock was punished. This shows that Law and Justice can be manipulated by people in power.
Back to reality, there are many examples that prove that Justice and Law can be manipulated by people in power. One example would be OJ Simpson - Everyone knew this guy would be on the list. OJ Simpson was the running back for the Buffalo Bills and the San Francisco 49ers who was the first person to run for 2000 yards in a single season. On June 12, 1994, Simpson’s wife, Nicole, and her friend Ron Goldman were found murdered on his property. Simpson ran from the police in his famous Ford Bronco but was eventually caught and brought to trial. The trial featured some of the most predominant defense and prosecuting attorneys of the 1990s including: Johnnie Cochran, F. Lee Bailey, Marcia Clark, and Christopher Darden. The criminal trial found Simpson not guilty, but he was later found responsible for murder in the civil court hearing. In 2007, Simpson was responsible for breaking and entering a Las Vegas hotel room and robbing the occupants of what he claimed were his things. He is currently serving a prison term.
7 comments:
I like your insight into Shylocks character. History has highlighted him a a cruel villain but no one realise how justified his actions are. It is sad that in this world there is discrimination and the victims are not expected to react.
I do agree with you that there is no true justice but there is justice. It is wrong of you to say that what Portia did to Shylock was unfair to him. Portia gave Shylock 3 times to show mercy to Antonio. However, Shylock insists on having his bond because he is vengeful. Therefore, Portia grants his wish for having the bond. At the last minute, she points out that there was no mention of blood in the bond, so if Shylock spills any blood while cutting a pound of flesh from Antonio, his act is illegal. Portia, in thins context, has manipulated the words in the bond. She knew that blood and flesh are inseparable. Therefore, I agree with you that there is no true justice.
2o302
-Chua Wen Feng
Yep william! There is indeed no true justice in MOV especially the trial scene, where Shylock, at the end of the day, did not even receive his original sum of money lent to Bassanio and have to suffer the punishment for breaking the bond. hence, it is no doubt unjustified towards shylock as though it is lawful, it is not righteous
Hi William! I totally agree that there is no mercy at all. This is because, as readers, we all understand that Antonio rightfully deserves to die and Shylock being the victim because of a play of words is definitely not justified, let alone mercy. Portia had set the trap which ultimately made Shylock a christian, making things worse.
I like your analysis and your point of view on this topic. Though there is justice, there is no true justice as justice is according to the values of the society.
Though you say that Portia is not merciful, you cannot run away from he fact that Portia gave Shylock 3 chances before turning the tables of the battle around. You must see that Portia is desperate to save Antonio, but the chances to Shylock given by her show that she does not want Shylock to be forced into a corner. Therefore, it is hard to tell if Portia is merciful.
There are many rich people who get away with crimes. It is not the high-profile cases, where the court is under public scrutiny, but normal cases of the poor against the rich, when the richer people can just hire eloquent lawyers to debate the case in favour of the defendant's side (in this case, the richer is the defendant).
Technically, i feel that the argument between whether true justice appears or does not appear is a paradox by itself. Shakespeare created Shylock as a 3D character, which means that his actions and motives are motivated by multiple things rather than one, making it impossible to define whether shylock's demans were merciful or not. WIth regards to whether true justice really appears or not, justice itself is a ideal not something you can define by using a dictionary but is instead defined by the person's own sense of justice which in turn is affected by factors such as his point of view. However i do agree that in the text, there is to a certain extent true justice.
Can you please define what is true justice in your own opinion and how it differs from "justice"? Then you could give examples of both in the novel. And regarding your example on OJ Simpson, you did not mention how he manipulates the law and thus this example can be said to be invalid.
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