Free Merchant of Venice Essays: Noble and Worthy Jessica? :: Merchant Venice Essays

Noble and Worthy Jessica? While researching for this paper I reviewed numerous essays, assessments, and commentaries concerning The Merchant of Venice. One essay used the terms "noble" and "worthy" in relation to Jessica. The author stated that "sometimes what they [the characters of the play] 'sell out' for is worthy and shows them to be noble (Jessica for example)." The author goes on to say that Shylock's reasons for selling out "seem ignoble." Those statements really got me thinking, so I strolled over to my trusty dictionary to look up "noble" and "worthy." Noble--1. a: possessing outstanding qualities. 2: of high birth or exalted rank. 3. a: possessing very high or excellent qualities or properties. Worthy-1. a: having worth or value. Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (10th edition) The most common connotation of "noble," in my opinion, is a combination of the first and third listings. While Jessica certainly fits the second meaning listed of "noble" and the meaning of "worthy" (financially anyway), I didn't see any proof of her being such an outstanding person or "possessing very high or excellent qualities" within the context of this play. She may very well be a wonderful person, but I didn't see anything that would lead me to that conclusion in the play itself. Let's look at the facts. Jessica robs her father of all the jewels and money she can carry to marry Lorenzo. She casts aside her religion as if it were an old hat. The only outstanding quality I see is that she can do all this without the slightest remorse. We are told by Jessica that Shylock's "house is hell," but within the play I did not see any proof of this (II.iii.2). It is true that Shylock did not know which to weep for more, his daughter or his ducats, but does that make that house a hell? Because we didn't see what life was like in the house, we can only take Jessica's word for it. I, for one, am not terribly comfortable with her word as she has proven herself to be a thief and liar already. How do we know she isn't just an incredibly ungrateful daughter blinded by love (as she herself proclaimed love to be a blinding force--II.vi.36)? Frankly, Shakespeare did not give us much to work with as far as