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Sunday, November 6, 2011

The Merchant Of Venice


The Merchant Of Venice
Antonio,his friend bassanio,& His enemy Sylock
The city of Venice was once rich and powerful.Its riches came from trade with other countries near and far.The chief citizens of Venice were rich merchants.Among the richest of these was Antonio,a merchant well known for his honesty and kindness.
        Antonio had a close friend named Bassanio.Bassanio was a handsomeyoung man of noble birth,But he was always in need of money.This was because he liked to live in  a grand style.Antonio,who was very fond of Bassanio,often lent him money or gave it to him willingly.
It happened that Bassanio fell in love with a lady of great beauty,wisdom and wealth.Her name was Portia and She lived just outside Venice at Belmont.Portia had shown some liking for Bassanio and bassanio hoped to win her for his wife.In order to impress her,Bassanio  decided to visit her in Belmont grandly dressed and attended by many servants.having no money to do so,he asked Antonio to lend him three thousands ducats.
   At the moment Antonio did not have such a green sum.All his ships were at sea.When they came back with rich cargoes,he would have plenty of money,but till then, he was short of money.therefore he said that he would borrow the money from a money lender,offering his ships as a security for the loan.
                    

Antonio and Bassanio went to Shylock in fact,was Antonios enemy.Antonio was a kind man,it is true but he had always treated Shylock most unkindly.The reason for this was that  Shylock was a Jew.Antonio was a Christian and  Jews.Besides this,Shylock lent money for profit and asked for a high interest on his loans.Antonio,on the other hand lent money out of kindness and asked for no interest on it.When a debtor could not pay his debt,Shylock showed no mercy towards him and would send him to prison.Antonio,on the contary showed  much  kindness to his debtors and would never send them to prison.Antonio had spat upon him.Shylock had good reason to hate Antonio and he hated him with all his heart.He waited patiently to have his revenge on him.



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