Cities of Contrast in “The Merchant of Venice” Banu Altay College

In “The Merchant of Venice”, William Shakespeare explores the cities of contrast which are Venice and Belmont. These two locations in Italy are so antithetic to each other that even characters’ behaviours fluctuate from city to city because of this disparity between them. This Shakespeare play commences in Venice which is the world of reality. Therefore, the scenes played in the real world focus on wealth, trade, history and urban life. And so, the use of language is more formal in terms of decorum and they use a lot of conceits. Besides, Venice is predominantly male society in opposition to female dominated Belmont. Furthermore, Belmont which is a fantasy place represents ideality. Here, love outweighs other rational stuff such as money. Thus, people use simpler and humorous language, which is more proper for there than trading town, Venice; altogether, there are two locations introduced to the reader in stark opposition by Shakespeare in this play.

To begin with, the play writer uses parallel scenes between Venice and Belmont in “The Merchant of Venice”. One of the biggest differences between these two locations is crash of money and love. Venice is a city which is the centre of trade in Italy. Everything is financial there...