Merchant of Venice Essay: The Importance of the Law -- Merchant of Ven

The Importance of the rectitude in The Merchant of Venice The link between Shakespe are and the law is not new scholars have long realized that the well-grounded discourse can lead to a better understanding of Shakespeares works. Yet, that the converse is also true the study of Shakespeare can lead to a deeper understanding of the rudimentary nature of law. A bend like The Merchant of Venice has a great deal to offer in the course of such a reading. The action of the play is concerned with contract law, but issues of standing, moiety, precedent, and conveyance are also raised. At the most fundamental level, though, the trial scene in Act IV illustrates the difference of opinion between equity and the strict construction of the law. Equity, in the legal sense, is justice according to principles of fairness and not strictly according to formulated law (Gilbert 103). This definition, art object easily understandable, presents us with a problematic - even dangerous - structure o f opposition. Law and fairness are set at extreme ends of some continuum of justice, and are exclusive. The definition implies that one can have justice according to fairness, or justice according to formulated law. Yet if law is not inherently fair, if in that respect is need for a concept of equity, how can the law be said to be fulfilling its purpose? And if fairness is not to be found within the bound of formulated law, from whence does it come? This is not a new argument, of course the conflict between law and equity was recognized even in medieval England. From earliest childhood, we are indoctrinated with a sense of justice, of fairness, of right and wrong. Every schoolyard echoes with cries of No fair cheating We seem to know inst... ...s of Shakespeare. 4th ed. New York Longman-Addison Wesley Longman, 1997. Gilbert Law Dictionary. Chicago Harcourt Brace, 1997. Homer. The Iliad. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York Penguin, 1990. Keeton, George W. Shakespeares sub judice and Political Background. New York Barnes & Noble, 1967. Kornstein, Daniel J. Kill All the Lawyers? Shakespeares Legal Appeal. Princeton Princeton UP, 1994. The Merchant of Venice. British Broadcasting Corp. Prod. Jonathan Miller. Dir. Jack Gold. Time-Life Video, 1980. Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. Bevington 178-215. ---. The Merry Wives of Windsor. Bevington 252-87. Ward, Ian. Shakespeare and the Legal Imagination. Law in Context. London Butterworths, 1999. White, Edward J. Commentaries on the Law in Shakespeare. St. Louis F.H. Thomas Law Book Co., 1911.