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Jody McGraw Professor Mark Raider Merchant of Venice 8 May 2012 Lorenzos Love: The power of love, of desire, of mind My Dearest Jessica, It pains me to be so far from you so soon after being wed, but it seems as though the horrid happenings of the universe do not take absence even when the love of two souls is so strong. Why cannot the world get along? Why cannot the lion and the lamb lie together?1 Why cannot differences be put aside? To learn to live and love one another, as we have. But is doubtful to ever happen; for peace and harmony and love to take charge against the evils of earth. You will be grateful to hear that my departure will not tarry long as for the shipment of goods are ahead of schedule and are due into port shortly. I will soon be in your arms again, my love and there is no place Id rather be. I fear that my decision to venture on this excursion was not a wise choice. Why did I leave you so soon after we began our wedded bliss? Why did I leave in the state of which you must be feeling? Why am I not there for you- to love you, soothe you, comfort you- while you are battling with the inner conflictions I know you must be facing.

The Holy Bible 1989, Isaiah 11:6

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Although I know you feel for your father, please remember you are a Christian now2 be constantly conscious of that, please my love. Please be conscious of that as you read what I am about to tell you. It has been floating around the city that your father took his own life after the verdict passed down in court that few weeks past. I hate that I have to alarm you like this, I hate that I cannot be there to share the news with you in person, I hate that I am not there weeping beside you; and I know you will say you hate him, you despise him, you claim him not as your own3- he is, was your father. We were raised in different cultures, different lands, different religions- but the bonds of blood, the ties of kinship are strong my Jessica, they go beyond the crest of ancestors and the inheritance of forefathers; they inherently become our identity, whether we approve of it or not. You have done so much for me, for us. You have changed your life, shifted your culture, abandoned your religion; it was necessary for us to be together, mandatory for our love to grow, yet we will never be the same as those who surround us. We will never be like Bassanio and Portia or Gratiano and Nerissa why? - Because we are unique, we are special; our love is so great that our differences could not stop it, that we risked everything for it. Our love has consequences. We will never be fully accepted, fully assimilated, but we will survive the scrutiny because our love is relentlessly resilient.4 I love you for who you are and who you were- Jew or Christian.

2 3

Judith Baskin William Shakespeare, Act II, Scene VI 4 Baskin

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But maybe tis not a terrible fate to be abandoned by the norm, it gives us a freedom to live independently, to think independently, to go about our life in the way we chose to. We are already different- is it a horrible thing to be even more different, to ask questions, to not be content with what those with more power tell us? You may think I have gone mad, utterly insane, but that is exactly what my friends called me when I told them I was in love with a Jew. Did not your own community, your own father think the same of you? We do not fit in the Christian community we are not accepted in the Jewish community we are strangers in both, nomads shifting from place to place- at the will of the shifting society, the changing mindsets, the opinions of our peers. Perhaps you do not see this in the same way I do, perhaps you do not want to question the way things are, and believe me these are not feelings I feel openly- my comrades and companions do not know I feel this way, but these are things I want to share with my wife. If it offends you, if it disturbs you I will keep my thoughts to myself, I will contain my ideas and hold my tongue; for my love for you and my concern for your well-being surpasses any selfish desires I may hold for myself. But I cannot deny the way I feel, I cannot not feel this way- I understand you did not sign up for this, you were not aware of my feelings but you were aware of my love for you as you were aware of the love you felt for me and the connotations that came with that love. Now I must get back to the reason I began writing you my dearest, I know that my previous statements have shocked you and I am sure you are asking questions, questions that even I may not be able to fully answer- but I do beg to you to keep this information to yourself.

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While I am not necessarily ashamed, embarrassed, confused by my thoughts and feelings I know that others will be. I know that even the most open-minded courts in Venice would not exactly look favorably on me with such a mindset; let alone the populous of Belmont and the surrounding locale. My words may seem contradictory to you, as they do to me. However, more so than thinking myself a radical thinker I know that I am an aware man; a man cognizant of his surroundings and a man who knows when to express his point of view and knows when to shut up. I shut up now about myself to inform to you the happenings of your father. As you know darling Jessica, I despised your father as a man. I hated his very being- the cobbles against which he walked, the air that he took in to breathe, the words that eeked out of his mouth. I hated it all, except for you amongst the dirty deeds and sketchy scandals in which your father took part laid a fair maiden, a heroine to be compared with the greats of romantic literature yet still forced to be the devils daughter.5 He was a snide, evil man who more so than simply denying me the thing I most desired, partook in business with my friends shrewd, unjust, unreasonable business with my friends (why they did not see this- I do not know- the pair of Antonio and Bassanio is not the most oft recommended to place financial obligations, especially when ladies are entangled with the mix).6 The dammed bet placed that has us all now in a situation of confusion and unrest, the dammed bet that has caused so much strife and wasted so much time, the dammed bet of a pound of flesh a pound of dammed flesh!7 How did the Church not stop this? Are there not rules and regulations set for interest rates and the
5 6

Salo Baron 1967 Shakespeare, Act I, Scene III 7 Ibid.,

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such?8 Worse though is what sort of man thinks of that as a fair bet to be place, an equal wager to be set? Your father was who dearest you know I mean this no reflection on your own being, your own gentle being, but I know you do not disagree with me. Your father tried to blame his fate on the war between Jews and Christians9- but it was not his religious beliefs, it was his whole person deeds, actions, behaviors- that we all hated. Your father is the type of man who makes a bad name for himself, but that name spreads, it shifts, it eventually infects not only his own person but his family, his friends, his culture, his people. Soon you have the name Jew meaning the evil in which Shylock exhibited.10You have said yourself, To be ashamed to be my fathers child/ But though I am a daughter to his blood,/ I am not to his manners. O Lorenzo, / If thou keep promise, I shall end this strife,/ Become Christian, and thy loving wife.11 While I know it is safe for me to assume that we share many of the same feelings when the topic turns to your father and his business, however I hope that I can say the same for the aftermath of his deeds as well. What do you think my dear on his sentence? I am more than aware that the relationship between you and your father has been strained for some time, that the remorse and pain you may have at one time felt for him is now gone- vanished from the weariness of your soul. But he is, was, your father. Is there not a bond that links you deeper? A trait that ties you together? The sentence given was two-fold, the first is almost an extension of the body, the second a thing of the mind.12Personally, my own issue with the judgment

8 9

Riccardo Calimani 1987, 3 Shakespeare, Act III, Scene I 10 Baron 11 Shakespeare, Act II, Scene III 12 Carlos Ginsburg 1980, 59

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that was handed down upon your father is not the financial requirements, although we had to steal your dowry, although he did not approve of the marriage it is what a couple must start off on- did he not care about your future?13 It is only right for him to have to pay it up through his own will even if it is a court-appointed will. It is the other part of his sentence that disturbs me to the core. Forced Christianity. It pains me even more because I know the man who suggested said consequence; I considered him a friend, a peer, a mentor, someone who I could look up to for advice. And while he secured our financial security and support he also suggested something so unfathomable- mandatory conversion. We must not hate or feel scorn for any people due to the difference in their law, not judge any of them. On the contrary, we must pray for them because we neither know whom God loves or whom he hates.14 Jessica, I know you went through a similar ordeal, but it was necessary for us to be together, to share our love. The force that pushed you to conversion was not that of a court mandate, but that of love. And still I thank you for that; if our roles were reversed I know that I would have a terrible time giving up all that I have known for my entire life- but you would be worth it, you are worth it. But in your fathers case no such passion of love is present; there is no positive, motivating factor. They were telling your father to give up all he had ever knownhe had already lost his daughter and his wealth and they thought it wise to demand him to give up his culture, his religion, and his people? I do not understand this mentality! Is a homogenous world really what we all desire? A world without differences, a world without opinions, a world without the option to choose what we believe and how we believe it! I do not see a problem

13 14

Baskin, 109 Ginsburg, 49

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with accepting multiple religions in a community, a country, a society. What is the problem? Am I the only one who yearns to be challenged by the ideas of others? To stretch my mind to its full capacities? I do not understand. I do not think it is right. It is true that a world composed of similar people, with similar ideas, and the same religion is easier- easier to manage, easier to live in- but is that really living. The human body, the human mind is a beautiful and miraculous thing, the extent in which it can go both physically and mentally have not even been explored yet, but I can tell you the possibilities are vast and we should be encouraging a diversity of minds not telling people what and what not they can believe, how and how not to live. If we are not allowed to hold our own beliefs, than what is life for? In that way I understand your fathers decision. I hope that this news does not shock you too much, for my love I knew no other way to tell you of it. I will be home soon and there we can discuss, comfort, and love one another until it is our time as well to leave this wondrous planet. Pray for me and my safe travels as I will pray for you and guidance through your grief, and please think of what I said, reflect on it, try to understand it. With the most endearing love, Your Lorenzo

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Works Cited Baron, Salomon Wittmayer. ""Demonic Alien"" A Social and Religious History of the Jews. New York: Columbia Univ., 1967. Print. Baskin, Judith Reesa. "Jewish Women in the Middle Ages." Jewish Women in Historical Perspective. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1991. Print. Calimani, Riccardo. "The Jews, Christians and Moneylending." The Ghetto of Venice. New York: M. Evans, 1987. Print. Ginzburg, Carlo. The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-century Miller. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1980. Print. The Holy Bible. Glasgow [Scotland: Collins, 1989. Print. Shakespeare, William, and William Lyon Phelps. The Merchant of Venice. New Haven: Yale UP, 1923. Print.