Fate Guised As A Skapegoat In The Merchant Of Venice Essay, Research Paper

Christopher Shepard

Women and Power in Shakespeare

Prof. Garganigo

9 / 10 / 1999

Fate Guised as Scapegoat in The Merchant of Venice

Self-determined decisions made by Shakespeare’s characters not only mold the characters’ dispositions, but obviously reveal what course the remainder of the play will take. Self-determination remains a strong power for any character when compared with the alternative: fate dictating the character’s entire destiny. Fate dictates that the characters do not have a choice in their destiny, wherein lies the reason Sophoclean tragedies, such as the Oedipus Trilogy, devastate the lives of its victims. In that characters do not have free will over their future, they cannot really assume responsibility for their own actions. When characters are given the choice to choose, a new factor, risk, may determine facets of the antecedent action to the climax. The Merchant of Venice, written by William Shakespeare, contains many instances where the characters, at their own peril, have a choice to make. For the reason that choice inherently involves risk, the characters in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice exhibit fate as a scapegoat, when the consequence of their choice results in misfortune.

When Antonio’s choice in lending Bassanio the ducats initially appears to result in Antonio’s potential death, Antonio instead subrogates fate as the distributor of destiny instead of his preceding decision. During Act One, Bassanio describes to Antonio his need to win the heart of Portia, whom Antonio does not have the means to suit. In his persuasion, Antonio listens to a metaphor recited by Bassanio depicting two arrows

In my schooldays, when I had lost one shaft,/ I shot his fellow of the selfsame flight/ The selfsame way, with more advised watch/ To find the other forth;/ and by adventuring both/ I oft found both. I urge this childhood proof/ Because what follows is pure innocence./ I owe you much, and like a wilful youth/ That which I owe is lost; but if you please/ To shoot another arrow that self way/ Which you did shoot the first, I do not doubt,/ As I will watch the aim, or to find both/ Or bring your latter hazard back again/ And thankfully rest debtor for the first. (I.i.139-151)

Antonio listens wholeheartedly to this speech dealing with Bassanio’s plea, but in the same breadth, the speech introduces the issue of risk. Antonio yields and chooses to credit Bassanio with the money for which he asks. By yielding to Bassanio, Antonio fully engages himself in the action and, at the time, entirely excepts the responsibility for the outcome of this decision. Later in the play, it becomes supposed that Antonio’s ships have been lost, and consequently Antonio must follow through in the fatal bond made between him and Shylock. Antonio changes the venue about where the responsibility should fall. The scene where Antonio faults fate contains Portia, Shylock, Antonio, and Bassonio. Antonio appeals to Bassanio not to feel sad and starts purging his valediction. Antonio states, “Grieve not that I am fall’n to this for you./ For herein Fortune shows herself?” (IV.i.270-271). Antonio does not want Bassonio feeling responsibility, in that the money was for Antonio’s ends, nor does he place the responsibility on his own previous decision; Fortune renders the final responsibility in Antonio’s mind. Antonio will not accept the burden of his previous decision.

Prince Arrogon, through the negation of his own accountability, concerning the decision about which casket to choose, transforms fate into what prompted his decision. In agreeing with the terms of the oath on the subject of the caskets maintained by Portia at the beginning of Scene Nine, Arragon supports the contract about choosing any one casket totally dependent on his will. Arragon surveys each casket and the inscription on each, and he stands forced to arrive at a decision. Even before he reaches a decision, he declares to the heavens, “Fortune now/ To my heart’s hope!” (II.ix.18). By stating this, Arrogon already declares himself free of responsibility, despite his looming decision not yet even having been made. Unfortunately for him, he eventually decides on the wrong casket. Arragon survives as a weak character in that he excuses himself from liability even before his faulty decision.

Lancelot’s choice to have a relationship with Portia does not preside over the implications of the allusion he discloses, which shifts what was the determining factor from self-determination to divine providence. Lancelot’s love for Portia exists as a direct insult to Shylock, her father, because of religious complications. To complicate the matter even further, Lancelot subsists as Shylock’s servant. Act Two, Scene Two gives a picture of Lancelot debating with himself about his choice to love Jessica and leave the service of Shylock. Clearly, the dilemma puts Lancelot under a great deal of stress. His love for Portia eventually triumphs and the two lovers elope together. Prior to this comedic ending, at the point of the most strain on their relationship, Lancelot forfeits, “Yes truly for look you, the sins of the father are to be laid/ upon the children” (III.iv.1-2). This classic allusion to Sophocles’ Oedipus admits to the audience that Lancelot has abandoned his self-determination and left destiny in the hands of fate. When the amount of pressure on Lancelot becomes too great, he scapegoats fate to relieve himself from the incertitude of the situation.

A plot, which has fate dictating its course, cannot intermingle with the self-determination of its characters. There lies no gray area in the issue of destiny verses the ability to contrive one’s own future. Yet, in The Merchant of Venice, when the characters subject themselves to undo stress because of their decisions, they inevitably shift the responsibility on fate instead of accepting the consequences of their decision.