Othello and the Merchant of Venice Comaprison

Both ‘The Merchant of Venice’ and ‘Othello’ are set in Venice. In Shakespeare’s time, Venice was the most important trading centre in the world. Goods from the Far East were traded in Venice and with them came some new ideas and discoveries. The great explorer Marco Polo was Venetian and he had opened up trade routes with many new countries. To the English, living on an island and frequently cut off by war, the land we know as Italy held great fascination. Italy was seen as a fashion centre and, largely because of its Roman history, as a centre of culture. At this time in England, only the wealthy had baths, and even then, only perhaps once a year, and it was considered normal to be stitched into your clothes for the winter. Compared to England, Italy was a sophisticated and rather mysterious place. I think Shakespeare chose to set both plays in Venice because it left more to the imagination, he wasn’t restricted to what he wrote because, due to the lack of travel available, nobody actually knew what Venice was like.
In both plays there are several instances in which the ‘Moor’, Othello, and the Jew, Shylock are marginalised and are often the victims of prejudice and outright racism. This occurs through the use and power of language and references, for example when Antonio calls Shylock a ‘misbeliever’. What is interesting about this ‘racism’ against these characters   is that they aren’t represented in either text as fitting the negative stereotypes which other characters wish to put them in. Both Othello and Shylock are presented as sympathetic and although they have several character flaws that some of the white and Christian characters wish to put down to their race (Jewish as greedy and heartless, ‘a cut throat hound’ and Moors as savage and cruel, as shown when Iago refers to him as ‘the devil’). Shakespeare does not completely rely on stereotypes to draw two very colourful characters. Although Shylock is money-hungry, greedy and sometimes heartless, he is...