ABSTRACT
The readers learn from S. Greenblatt that William Shakespeare lifted the whole plot of The Merchant of Venice from the Italian Ser Giovanni’s Il Pecoronep, published in Milan in 1558. Ambivalence makes possible a more nuanced and interesting character than the portrayal of a hateful man. Jessica is the only character in Shakespeare’s works to be ashamed of her father and to betray him. In all other plays the daughter is portrayed as loving. What sets the play in motion is the masochistic homosexual love of Antonio for Bassanio. The love is masochistic because Antonio is paying to make it possible for Bassanio to have a heterosexual relationship that will remove him further from a homosexual relationship with him. In the end, The Merchant of Venice represents an attempt to deal with the sadistic and masochistic part of Shakespeare’s unconscious. In the play Portia triumphs over Antonio, Shakespeare’s depression, as well as over homosexuality.
