Merchant Of Venice by Shakespeare - Book Report/Review Example

The element f a princess who is imprisoned in a tower is added when Portia is not able to choose her own suitor due to her deceased father's wishes, as the suitor must choose from one f three caskets, and if he chooses the correct one he will be able to marry Portia. However, Portia's ideal suitor, Bassanio, choosing the correct casket, completes this element and they are able to fall in love and live 'happily ever after'. Although 'The Merchant f Venice' displays a few characteristics from fairytales, there are very obvious elements missing such as magic and a moral to all that has happened.

There is normally an obvious villain as well; although Shylock is the 'villain' in this play, there are parts where we do feel sorry for him. (Buckley 20-22) The main characteristic that 'The Merchant f Venice' contains is that f the number three being used throughout the duration f the play. This characteristic occurs several times and plays a significant part in the storyline. A very popular fairytale that contains this element f the three is 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears'. Throughout this story, the number three is used many times; the three bears, the three bowls f porridge and the three beds.

There are a lot f examples f '"three" in the Merchant f Venice, similar to that f the aforementioned fairytale. . Money is also f great importance and is shown using the element f three as well. This part f the play involves three f the main characters (Shylock, Antonio and Bassanio). The bond made between Shylock and Antonio is worth three thousand ducats and Antonio has three months to pay it back. When Antonio is not able to pay back the debt on time, he offers Shylock three times the original bond.

(London 85-87)Often in fairytales, characters hide their true identities to help achieve something. There are several examples f this. In 'Little Red Riding Hood', the wolf disguises himself as Red Riding Hood's grandmother to be able to eat her. In 'Snow White', the evil queen disguises herself as an old woman to sell a poisoned apple to Snow White in order to kill her. 'Sleeping Beauty' is another example f disguise and deception as the witch coaxes Sleeping Beauty to use the spinning wheel so that she will prick her finger and die.

An example f disguise and deception in 'The Merchant f Venice' is Jessica disguising herself as a man and running away to elope with Lorenzo. She betrays her father and her religion by doing this. Portia and Nerissa disguise themselves as male lawyers because Bassanio was so worried about what would happen to Antonio as a result f the bond. At the time, women were no considered able enough to have such a profession. These points are extremely important because if Jessica had no run away, Shylock may have been more willing to accept Antonio's offer and have been more merciful to him.

Portia and Nerissa have also deceived their Bassanio and Graziano by making them think that they had given their rings away when they had really given them to their wives. (Julius 41-43)Some fairytales have an