Italy and the Jew (merchant of Venice)

It has been said that Shakespeare set many of his plays out side of England where he lived and where the plays were preformed. But for what reason would he do that? One could take on many points of views. One point of view would be that he wanted to distance the play from the audience, since the plays were pref

ormed in England. Another view would be because in Venice, they have to get around by ships/boats, it's a big trading center because of most every merchant was docking in Venice to trade at the time. This idea is based on, maybe Antono can't make a living as anything else but a Merchant and since he's a merchant and borrows money from Shylock for Bassanio, the only way he can repay Shylock is to keep trading to make money. A third thought perhaps it was because of the lack of Jews in England. To center his play around anti-Semitic themes, Shakespeare needed the play to take place in an area where Jews were allowed to live, and where they made their living through usury. One last reason why Shakespeare would base the setting in Venice is because of the romance in Italy, the play is a romantic comed

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