In William Shakespeare’s play, Merchant of Venice, the players tell a story about an old Jewish man who is shunned from society, a Jewish daughter who betrays and steals from her father to run off with a Christian man and convert to Christianity, a merchant who promises a “pound of flesh” in return for a loan, a man who travels to Belmont to pick between three casket to win a wealthy wife, and a countess who is under the control of her deceases father. Through the disarray of this complicated plot, there are reoccurring themes that present themselves throughout the text. Two of these themes are wealth vs. worth and religion.

One of the main themes in this play is wealth vs. worth. This theme points directly to Bassanio and Portia. Bassanio is the poor friend of Antonio. Bassanio takes out a loan from Antonio to go to Belmont and court the countess, Portia who is wealthy and can pay off his debts. Unfortunately, the only way Bassanio can marry Portia is to choose between three caskets and find the casket with Portia’s portrait. The caskets are made of three metals, gold, silver and lead. Because Bassanio is poor himself, he does not think himself to be

Some topics in this essay:
Act III, Merchant Venice, Prince Morocco, Unfortunately Bassanio, Act II, Jewish Shylock, Shylock’s Jessica’s, Revenge/ Christian, Hath Jew, Shylock Antonio’s, merchant venice, wealth vs, wealth vs worth, vs worth, vs worth religion, convert christianity, act iii, iii scene, prince morocco, gold silver, act iii scene, william shakespeare’s, worth religion, themes wealth vs, lorenzo convert christianity,