‘Thinking with Shakespeare’: The Merchant of Venice – Shylock, Caliban and the dynamics of social scale

Abstract

Contemporary criticism seldom acknowledges Shakespeare’s sensitivity to longer-term historical trajectories. One such variable is social scale. If dramatic conflict in The Merchant of Venice is interpreted solely in terms of clashes between ethical character, social allegiance, and religious affiliation, at the end of the play these clashes persist as a morass of irreconcilables, unresolved and irresolvable. The audience is left in unconditioned liberty to make up its own mind. This paper argues that changing social scale provides a framework which allows the ethical dilemmas posed by The Merchant of Venice to be interpreted coherently, bringing us closer to the experience of ‘thinking with Shakespeare’. Shakespeare’s drama anticipates the rise of large-scale cosmopolitan society and, without underestimating the social tensions involved, challenges the audience to welcome an unknown new world appearing over the horizon.