Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Shylock Land ... !!

He is one of my all time favorite fictional characters ... for some reason I like the villains who have this aura about themselves and didnt Shylock have that? A mean guy who was mostly correct in expressing his views ... but not necessarily in the correct way ... and I am going to Shylock land for Easter ... along with another childhood-dream place ... Roma ...

Shylock happens to be the evil twist in one of the very few comic plays by Shakespeare called The Merchant of Venice ... a legendary play that takes me back to school everytime I remember it ...

We were spared the nuisance of Julius Caesar coz our batch was the first to start off with The Merchant of Venice after most of our senior batches went through that ordeal called Julius Caesar ... and we had Mr. Guzder to teach us Literature at school ... who better than Mr. Guzder I say :P

The Merchant of Venice is a play set in Venice and is a story about 2 friends ... Antonio and Bassanio ... where Antonio is a ship merchant while Bassanio is his spend thrift friend ... and Antonio always helps him out in all his endeavors ... Bassanio is in love with Portia who lives in Belmont ... Shylock is also a merchant but he is a Jew and his angst against non-Jews has been portrayed so amazingly ... Shylock and Antonio never get along ... Shylock has a beautiful daughter in Jessica who is in love with one of Antonio's close buddies Lorenzo ... and there is the clown Launcelot Gobbo ... all in all its a twisted plot with Shylock always trying to gain on Antonio in some way or the other ...

Bassanio needs some money from Antonio to go to Belmont and woo Portia ... Antonio's ships have still not returned and he is a bit short on cash so he decides to borrow money to help Bassanio ... and surprise surprise ... only Shylock is ready to lend him money in Venice ... but he has a shrewd condition if Antonio doesnt pay him the money on time ... he will cut a pound of flesh from Antonio's body ... :P

The play can be divided into 2 parts ... the first part is all about introducing all characters and there is more of Antonio and Shylock ... but the 2nd part is more about Bassanio and Portia and how they come to Venice to help out Antonio ... Portia steals the show in the last quarter of the play ... but its a gripping play and makes you chuckle a lot ...

I remember that Biwi and I spent a lot of time discussing Venice for our honeymoon ... but since we got married in December ... we were a bit wary of the snow ...

But it looks like we are pretty close to realizing our dream ... we will be in Rome on April 1,4 and 5 while we will by roaming in the gondolas at Venice on April 2 and 3 ...

I hope we come across Shylock ... Bon Voyage ... Cheers ... !!

1 comment:

Vikash Kumar said...

Awesome.. 2nd honeymoon in Europe.. cudn't get ne better than that?? have a great time mate.. Bon Voyage!!