The Importance of Money
The Merchant of Venice is a play that is fundamentally about the exchange and value of money as compared to other things, like love and relationships. The play initially posits Shylock as a character who only cares about his money, while portraying the Christian characters as more dedicated to their families, love interests, and filial relationships. However, these paradigms are challenged throughout the play and are eventually upended by the fact that Shylock demands the pound of flesh over any amount of money – suggesting that he is more committed to justice and vengeance than he is to wealth. While critics are right to point out how extensively the play presents its Jewish characters as stereotypes, there are multiple instances in the play that call that complicate Shylock's character and call that reading into question.
Cycles of Antagonism
Throughout the play, Shylock argues that his vengeful behavior was essentially inherited from the way Antonio treated him in the past, suggesting that he learned how to be hateful and ruthless from the very people over whom he currently has power. While one cannot necessarily absolve Shylock of his behavior, his insistence that he is simply acting in accordance with what he has experienced raises larger questions about villainy, culpability, and the cyclical nature of hatred. That Antonio demands nothing more of Shylock than a conversion to Christianity at the end of the play suggests that this vicious cycle might finally end through mercy and understanding.
Friendship
There are a number of close friendships portrayed throughout the play: between Bassanio and Antonio, Gratiano and Bassanio, and Portia and Nerissa. These friendships hold great power over individual characters' decisions, and are in many ways valued above romantic entanglements. Antonio, for example, willingly indebts himself to Shylock on Bassanio's behalf, even after having financially supported his friend many times before. Portia and Nerissa act as accomplices in their own, separate scheme to free Antonio from Shylock's demands, and Gratiano remains loyal to Bassanio throughout the play. These relationships, the play suggests, are stronger than the appeal of money or fortune – a philosophy that Shylock, the play's "villain," frequently appears to reject.
Financial Precariousness
The central conflict of the play revolves around money, and a number of characters are presented as wealthy or financially successful (Antonio, Portia, and Shylock, most notably). However, as the events of the play unfold, wealth starts to become more of an abstract idea and is eventually portrayed as rather fickle and unpredictable. Antonio, for example, begins the play as a wealthy merchant but ends the play unable to pay back his loan to Shylock. Furthermore, nearly every wealthy character in the play is plagued by a sense of sadness or lack of fulfillment. As such, the play takes on a skeptical tone toward money and the pursuit of wealth above all else, suggesting that things like friendship are more certain and long-lasting.
Prejudice
Prejudice is perhaps the single most significant motivation behind many characters' actions throughout the play. The most obvious form of prejudice in the play is Anti-Semitism, or prejudice against Jewish people. Antonio refers to Shylock as a "dog" multiple times in the play, and some characters equate Shylock's ruthlessness and miserly attitude with his Jewish identity (a common stereotype). Shylock, too, maintains prejudices about Christians and is appalled to learn that his daughter Jessica has chosen to marry a Christian man. That Shylock is forced to convert to Christianity at the end of the play, then, is a significant punishment despite its relatively minor consequences: the Christian characters seem to "prevail" in the end of by stripping Shylock of his Jewishness. Though contemporary readers with undoubtedly perceive the entire play as Anti-Semitic, The Merchant of Venice also interrogates the phenomenon of prejudice more generally, suggesting that prejudice functions in a perpetual cycle that must be broken. Whether the characters in the play actually break this cycle remains a debate among readers and scholars alike.
Revenge
Revenge was a popular theme on the early modern stage. It appeared most frequently in tragedies, and in the early days of the theater was even granted its own character (Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, for example, features Revenge as a choral character who comments on the action of the play). The Merchant of Venice is a comedy, but it still features a character who is hellbent on seeking vengeance for the wrongs done against him. While readers might sympathize with Shylock initially after learning of the abuses he has suffered at the hands of Christians, he soon becomes blinded by his desire of revenge above all else. Indeed, it is his pursuit of revenge rather than justice that eventually leads to his loss when Portia discovers the loophole in his contract with Antonio.
Christianity and Judaism
While prejudice between Christians and Jews plays a central role in the play, Shakespeare actually provides Biblical precedent as an explanation for why these characters cannot see eye to eye. During the trial, many of the Christian characters expect Shylock to be merciful toward Antonio – a philosophy embodied by Jesus Christ in the New Testament. As a Jewish person, however, Shylock abides by the Old Testament, which features a markedly less merciful God keen on exacting punishment for man's disobedience. While the play ultimately celebrates the merciful (and therefore Christian) approach through Antonio, the fact that Portia must explain mercy to Shylock showcases how his ruthlessness is due, in part, to his own religious beliefs and not simply to his prejudice against Christians.
