A new film adaptatn of Shakpeare's The Merchant of Venice rais the ntroversial qutn of whether the tle character was gay.
Contents:
- IS THERE ANY EVINCE FOR A GAY RELATNSHIP THE MERCHANT OF VENICE?
- WAS THE MERCHANT OF VENICE GAY?
- STAGE REVIEW: ‘THE MERCHANT OF VENICE’ TAK A GAY PATH TO TRAGEDY
- STAGE REVIEW: ‘THE MERCHANT OF VENICE’ TAK A GAY PATH TO TRAGEDY
- IS THERE ANY EVINCE FOR A GAY RELATNSHIP THE MERCHANT OF VENICE?
IS THERE ANY EVINCE FOR A GAY RELATNSHIP THE MERCHANT OF VENICE?
The RSC webse has a 1965 productn wh "the unmistakeable suggtn of a homosexual dimensn to the relatnship between Bassan and Anton". It uld be showg them as gay or bisexual, or uld jt be showg the difference male iendships across different plac and tim. More direct discsn of queerns - or jt bg the bullet and showg the characters as gay - seems to start the late 1970s, gog by Joseph Pequey's The Two Antons and Same-Sex Love Twelfth Night and The Merchant of Venice (PDF).
A new film adaptatn of Shakpeare's The Merchant of Venice rais the ntroversial qutn of whether the tle character was gay.
WAS THE MERCHANT OF VENICE GAY?
"He's not sayg they're gay or they're straight, he's leavg up to his actors. I didn't want to be a homosexual love bee that's an easy optn.
"Obvly you n emphasise one thg or another, " he Herman Gallob says Shakpeare scholars have not generally nsired a homosexual motivatn for is the thor of Me and Shakpeare: Adventur wh the says he would attribute the kiss to "directorial licence". One of the tertg issu the play, the Merchant of Venice wrten by Shakpeare that still has been discsg till now the twentieth one century is whether the relatnship between Anton and Bassan is homosexualy or is jt a ep timacy of male iendship.
This say will foc on the aspect which will support the prupposn that is the relatnship between Anton and Bassan is homosexualy and also foc on the aspect that will support the prupposn that is the relatnship between Anton and Bassan is jt a ep timacy of male iendship and at last I will ntemplate all of the aspects and suggt the ncln of the prupposn.
STAGE REVIEW: ‘THE MERCHANT OF VENICE’ TAK A GAY PATH TO TRAGEDY
There are numero aspects which will support the prupposn that is the relatnship between Anton and Bassan is homosexualy such as the plot which shows tentn, actn, feelg and nflict of Anton and Bassan, the siary between Anton and Portia about their sacrifice for Bassan, spicn, and jealoy of Portia toward the relatnship between her hband, Bassan and his close iend Anton and the last is the difference between the relatnship of Anton and Bassan vers Anton and other iends which will emphasize the homosexualy of Anton and Bassan.
You will see that the plot of the Merchant of Venice allows the rear to see Anton’s actn and feelg as a homosexual person bee his feelg and actn toward Bassan seem to be more profound than jt a iend as n be seen that at first we see that Anton is sad bee his beloved iend love someone else and even though Bassan make him hurt Anton is still willg to do anythg orr to help Bassan even he has to risk his life by borrowg the money om Shylock, his enemy. This speech also shows Anton’s jealoy as n be seen om his sire that he wants Bassan to tell his wife, Portia that he too lov Bassan and n give everythg to him cludg his life and if is not bee Anton’s jealoy and homosexual love, then why he wants Portia to know that he also lov her hband too. Moreover, Portia’s jealoy and spicn are also one of the numero aspects which n support homosexualy between Anton and Bassan.
STAGE REVIEW: ‘THE MERCHANT OF VENICE’ TAK A GAY PATH TO TRAGEDY
At last, the rear n see that Portia’s jealoy and spicn prented through the trial scene and rg scene n nicely support the prumptn about the relatnship between Anton and Bassan that they are not jt male iend relatnship but is more like a homosexual relatnship.
Even though The Merchant of Venice has numero the aspects which support the homosexualy the relatnship between Anton and Bassan but there also has the aspects ditg that the relatnship between Anton and Bassan is jt a ep timacy of male iendship. Acrdg to numero rearchers that I had been read om the ter, a lot of them suggt that there is no such a thg as homosexualy or a gay Elizabethan.
IS THERE ANY EVINCE FOR A GAY RELATNSHIP THE MERCHANT OF VENICE?
For example, Columbia Universy Prs wrote: “the morn image of ‘the homosexual’ nnot be applied to the early morn perd when homosexual behavr was viewed terms of the sexual act and not an dividual’s broar inty. Moreover, Sara Martín, UAB’s Queeryg Anton: Michael Radford’s The Merchant of Venice (2004) and the Problem of Heterosexism suggts that “as Smh ntends the myth of batants and ras “the tenncy of human mal to be aggrsive towards other mal and, at the same time, to form strong bonds wh them” This sentially allowed men to form strong bonds which might clu gay sex but needn’t be homosexual.
Smh wr, “The qutn nontg a young man at sexual matury Shakpeare’s day was not, am I heterosexual or am I homosexual, but where do my greater emotnal loyalti lie, wh other men or wh women. The exampl nvey the ncept of homosexualy Renaissance England that the word ‘homosexualy’ Renaissance England and the morn world do not have the same meang bee homosexualy ntemporary meang emphasiz more on sexualy and eroticism but Elizabethan meang emphasiz more on an emotnal bond. Howard wr Shakpeare Studi: “ializ the male bonds that form ndns of war and tense opposnaly” and enurag tent form of male bondg, so this mak the ep timate relatnship between Anton and Bassan is not that strange Elizabethan perd and remds that we should be aware that the morn people’s ey we may clearly see that Bassan and Anton are homosexual but the Elizabethan era, still do not have the clear le that n separate homosexual relatnship om the profoundly male-male relatnship, so maybe we nnot assume Shakpeare’s tentn about the relatnship between Anton and Bassan is homosexual or heterosexual.
However, my nsiratn as a morn stunt, I would prefer to nclu the relatnship between Anton and Bassan as a homosexual romantic bee though Elizabethan era, the ncept of homosexualy and gay were not vented yet, do not mean that there is no male who has a romantic relatnship wh another male and bee there are more aspects which support the prupposn that Anton and Bassan are homosexual than the aspects ditg that they are jt iend. Homosexual Dire Shakpeare’s England: A Cultural Poetics. The homoerotic unrtone of Anton and Bassan’s relatnship is easily discsed by analyzg the ditn and claratns of love by Anton bee he do not have a heterosexual romantic relatnship to unteract agast his love for Bassan.