Honors Theses
Date of Award
2010
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
English
First Advisor
Ivo Kamps
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
This thesis studies The Merchant of Venice with particular regards to the role of social bonds in the community of the play and in the actions of the characters. These bonds serve as ties that connect the characters to each other and also to the dominant social structure of their world—a structure that is patriarchal, class-based, and ostensibly Christian. The following chapters focus on four types of bonds that are especially vital to the play: those relating to law, gender, classes, and religion. These bonds manifest themselves in different areas of life, but they are all rooted in the workings of a social structure that uses the bonds of expectations to reinforce its ideology and perpetuate its power. The central argument of this thesis relates to how the characters are confined within the framework of this structure, and how their choices, while still their own, cannot undermine it. In every instance in which a conflict arises between different social bonds, the characters choose to honor their allegiances to the bonds that happens to be most integral to their society. This pattern arises from the expectations of commitment that the society places upon its members. They are already trained to value certain relationships over others, and when the time comes to choose, they act the pattern of social hierarchy that they are already subject to. In this way the community portrayed in The Merchant of Venice ensures its survival and continued power.
Recommended Citation
Rogers, Lillian Nicole, "The Ties that Bind: Social Bonds in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice" (2010). Honors Theses. 2409.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/2409
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