Cambridge Student Guide to The Merchant of Venice

Cambridge Student Guide to The Merchant of Venice

Author: Rob Smith

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2002-08-15

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 9780521008167

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The Cambridge Student Guide to The Merchant of Venice provides explanatory notes and guidance to help form the basis for the understanding of the play. It is part of a new series aimed at students from 16 years upwards in schools and colleges throughout the English-speaking world. Background information provides support and prompts inquiry for advanced level study by drawing out issues and themes related to the text. The content of each book in the series follows the pattern of an introduction; detailed running commentary on the text; insight into historical, social and cultural contexts; analysis of the language; an overview of critical approaches and different interpretations; essay-writing tips and lists of recommended resources.


Study Guide for Decoding The Merchant of Venice

Study Guide for Decoding The Merchant of Venice

Author: Steven Smith

Publisher: Sherwood Press

Published: 2023-07-19

Total Pages: 139

ISBN-13: 1964189306

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"Decoding The Merchant of Venice," offers insights into its plot, characters, relationships, and moral lessons. It highlights the central conflict between Antonio and Shylock, underpinned by themes of justice, mercy, and prejudice, setting the stage for the pivotal courtroom scene. Key character analyses include Shylock, depicted as both villain and victim, showcasing the play's complex portrayal of religious intolerance and justice. Antonio's deep bond with Bassanio introduces themes of friendship and sacrifice, while Portia’s wit and intelligence challenge gender norms and societal expectations. The study guide also explores significant relationships, such as Portia and Bassanio’s love, and the strained father-daughter dynamic between Shylock and Jessica, reflecting cultural and religious divides. Famous lines like “All that glitters is not gold” and “The quality of mercy is not strained” are examined for thematic significance. Central themes include the dichotomy between justice and mercy, prejudice's destructive nature, and love and friendship's complexities. The climax and resolution, centered around the courtroom scene, conclude the narrative arcs, prompting reflection on justice, mercy, and human nature. This comprehensive examination encourages a deeper understanding of the play’s relevance and commentary on the human condition.


Study Guide to The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare

Study Guide to The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare

Author: Intelligent Education

Publisher: Influence Publishers

Published: 2020-03-27

Total Pages: 179

ISBN-13: 1645425851

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A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, which raises questions about antisemitism and the cultural stereotypes of the Jewish people during the sixteenth-century. As a dramatic comedy, The Merchant of Venice displays themes like friendship and unrequited love, as well as religious persecution. Moreover, the text conveys the perspective of Renaissance Christians, particularly the obligation they felt to convert those who did not believe in Jesus as Christ. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Shakespeare’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains: - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.


The Tempest Study Guide

The Tempest Study Guide

Author: William Shakespeare

Publisher: Saddleback Educational Publ

Published: 2004-01-01

Total Pages: 52

ISBN-13: 9781562546397

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35 reproducible exercises in each guide reinforce basic reading and comprehension skills as they teach higher order critical thinking skills and literary appreciation. Teaching suggestions, background notes, act-by-act summaries, and answer keys included.


The Jew of Malta

The Jew of Malta

Author: Christopher Marlowe

Publisher: Broadview Press

Published: 2011-12-02

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 1770483039

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First performed by Shakespeare’s rivals in the 1590s, Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta was a trend-setting, innovative play whose black comedy and final tragic irony illuminate the darker regions of the Elizabethan cultural imagination. Although Jews were banished from England in 1291, the Jew in the form of Barabas, the play’s protagonist, returns on the stage to embody and to challenge the dramatic and cultural anti-Semitic stereotypes out of which he is constructed. The result is a theatrically sophisticated but deeply unsettling play whose rich cultural significance extends beyond the early modern period to the present day. The introduction and historical documents in this edition provide a rich context for the world of the play’s composition and production, including materials on Jewishness and anti-Semitism, the political struggles over Malta, and Christopher Marlowe’s personal and political reputation.


The Merry Devil

The Merry Devil

Author: William Shakespeare

Publisher: Library of Alexandria

Published: 2020-09-28

Total Pages: 103

ISBN-13: 146558739X

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Your silence and attention, worthy friends, That your free spirits may with more pleasing sense Relish the life of this our active scene: To which intent, to calm this murmuring breath, We ring this round with our invoking spells; If that your listning ears be yet prepard To entertain the subject of our play, Lend us your patience. Tis Peter Fabell, a renowned Scholler, Whose fame hath still been hitherto forgot By all the writers of this latter age. In Middle-sex his birth and his abode, Not full seven mile from this great famous City, That, for his fame in sleights and magicke won, Was calde the merry Friend of Emonton. If any here make doubt of such a name, In Edmonton yet fresh unto this day, Fixt in the wall of that old antient Church, His monument remayneth to be seen; His memory yet in the mouths of men, That whilst he lived he could deceive the Devill. Imagine now that whilst he is retirde From Cambridge back unto his native home, Suppose the silent, sable visagde night Casts her black curtain over all the World; And whilst he sleeps within his silent bed, Toiled with the studies of the passed day, The very time and hour wherein that spirit That many years attended his command, And often times twixt Cambridge and that town Had in a minute borne him through the air, By composition twixt the fiend and him, Comes now to claim the Scholler for his due.