Understanding Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice by Robert A. Albano - HTML preview

Charybdis. If one monster (or sinner) does not get her, then the other will.

Although the wordplay of Lancelot and Jessica does providecomic reliefin the play, the dialogue also serves to function as asocial comment. Many Christians during the Renaissance did believe that all Jews were damned to Hell. They believed that only people who believed in Jesus Christ as the son of God and who followed the teachings of Christ would enter Heaven. Shakespeare subtly gets his audience thinking about the nature of sin and guilt and salvation. Jessica is a good and positive character in the play, and the members of the audience might then start to question their belief that all Jews aredamned.

The witty Lancelot continues to display his wit throughout the scene:

1. He tells Jessica that if Lorenzo converts her to a Christian, that will raise “the price of hogs” (19). He implies that since Jews do not eat pork, the price of that meat is not expensive. But if all Jews were converted to Christians, they would then eat pork and such meat would then become more difficult toobtain.
2. He puns on the wordsMoorandmorewhen Lorenzo tells him that the Moor, a woman from northern Africa, has become pregnant by him. Lorenzo comments that such a woman is “more than reason” (34-35) or beyond reason as well as meaningbigger