Essay on Merchant of venice

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William Shakespeare displays many themes throughout his plays, but there is usually one central theme that controls the play. In The Merchant of Venice, there are two different father- daughter relationships, Shylock and his daughter Jessica, as well as Portia and her dead father. Though both relationships ended in favor of the daughters and the bonds displayed was that of control and rebellion, the two daughters and fathers were not the same.
Portia, a beautiful and rich young woman, has found her fate to be doomed by her fathers will, she is to marry the man who correctly chooses the casket with her picture in it. While her fathers death has left her in charge of everything, Portia still remains loyal to her father’s dying wishes and allow men to take their chances though she wises she didn’t have to at all saying, “ I may neither choose who I would nor refuse who I dislike, so is the will of a living daughter curbed of the will of a dead father” (I.2.22-24). Portia disapproves of every man who came to her house, looking down at them and calling them names to her friend and maid Nerissa because her heart is already with another man, Bassiano, whom she does eventually marry.
While Portia conforms to her father’s dominance, Jessica defies hers, marrying a man of Christianity. Jessica, the young daughter of a Jew is deeply in love with a Christian, Lorenzo, and makes the decision to run off and marry him. Jessica’s father, Shylock, is not merely outraged that his daughter has run off to marry a Christian but that she has done so with his money and jewels. Shylock was heard yelling in the streets “My daughter, oh my ducats, oh my daughter! Ran off with a Christian! Oh my Christian ducats! Justice, the law, my ducats, and my daughter, a sealed bag, two sealed bags of ducats, of double ducats, stolen from me by my daughter, and jewels—two stones, two rich and precious stones—stolen by my daughter! Justice, find the girl! She has the stones on her, and the ducats.” (II.8.15-19).
Both Shylock and Portia’s deceased father still dominated their daughter’s lives, which caused them to be disobedient in order to marry the man they loved. While Jessica’s defiance was plain and outright,
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