How does Shakespeare still manage to engage modern responders?

Shakespeare is known all over the world for his famous plays and the timeless values his plays have had, and still have today. You would think that in result of his death all the work he put into his plays and poems would become pointless, yet his plays still captivate the attention of today’s modern audience, but how does he still manage to engage today’s responders?

Shakespeare wrote pure literature, timeless in other words. They never grow old and they never grow outdated. Shakespeare dealt with the basic human-ness of people with simple emotions of love, romance, comedy, loyalty, revenge, tragedy and so much more. These themes create a sense of reality to modern audiences because life today is still filled with things like love, romance, comedy, loyalty, revenge, tragedy etc. So people like us can relate with that and understand where Shakespeare was coming from, as these themes are as relevant today as they were 400 years ago.

The Merchant of Venice’s major themes centre around love, money, loans, revenge, prejudice and friendship, and are all intertwined throughout the play.

As throughout this play revenge is shown by Shylock wanting “a pound of flesh” off Antonio, in other words Shylock wanted to inflict physical harm against Antonio. An-other type of revenge is found during the play when both Portia and Nerissa both seek revenge on their husbands by punishing them for giving their rings away. Revenge is something that even today happens. Shylock is an interesting character which en-gages us into the plays.

People today still endure the same feelings the characters experience in Shake-speare’s plays. One of the major feelings experienced today is love and romance. Ro-mance and love being a major contribution towards majority of Shakespeare's plays, one of them being the merchant of venice. Love is shown by the consistent love streaming out of Portia towards Bassanio, a merchant who puts his friend’s life in dan-ger, just to be with the lovely Portia. Jessica and Lorenzo, a Jew and a Christian that fell in love and eloped to Belmont. Nerissa, a friend of Portia and the wife of Gratiano. Love played a big role in Shakespeare’s plays, as most of us can relate to love, thats why his plays engage us. Shakespeare manages to show us new aspects of love while engaging us into the play.

The theme of loyalty in the play comes out through the interactions of several sets of characters.  First, there is Bassanio, who is close friends with Antonio-their friendship survives stressful situations in the play.  Next, there is the relationship between Bas-sanio and his wife, Portia.  The third major character interaction which deals with the theme of loyalty is Jessica's relationship to her father, Shylock when she runs away to marry a Christian, Lorenzo.

In Act 2 scene 2, a different type of loyalty can be seen. Lancelot Gobbo decides to be-tray his Master, Shylock, and go to attain work from Bassanio. Shakespeare uses this character as a comic relief and throughout the play, Lancelot Gobbo is the comedy clown. “Well, my conscience says, ‘Lancelot, budge not.’ ‘Budge,’ says the fiend. ‘Budge not,’ says my conscience.” Lancelot’s reasoning is confused and digressive, but it ultimately brings him to the realisation that since the Jew is “a king of devil”, he should not serve him, although the conscience usually requires a man to give loyal service to his master. Lancelot speaks of Shylock as the devil’s “incarnation” and this shows the extent of his hatred for the selfish Jew.

Shakespeare shows us 2 different sides of loyalty, giving us an eye opener to more than just one thing. Shakespeare has his ways of engaging us and he does that by showing us the different sides of feelings.

Shakespeare not only focuses on love, loyalty and revenge, there is also a bit of com-edy in The Merchant of Venice. To the reader, The Merchant of Venice, may seem hor-rible and it be impossible to find the “comedy” at all.  Perhaps, Shakespeare may have been simply trying to make people laugh at the appalling injustice we cause one an-other because of the small differences among us. Or, perhaps, he may have at first wanted the viewers of The Merchant of Venice to feel that they, the Christians, had nothing in common with the Jew, Shylock. Shakespeare demonstrates that the Chris-tians were just as hungry for money and fortune as the Jew.  Perhaps this is a comedy after all.

But if you think about it, it’s kind of ironic that a Jew and a Christian, though they basi-cally hate each other, would still interact. “I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following; but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you."

Shakespeare is timeless for one reason only: No matter what generation reads his plays and poems, he is always challenging. Challenging the reader is the essence of literature and challenging the audience is the essence of drama. Shakespeare accom-plishes both. It is because of Shakespeare’s challenges that he still manages to en-gage modern responders to this day.