"So be the will of a living daughter curbed / by the will of her dead father." Gee, that's rough...

Fathers and daughters share a very special bond, one that is not easily broken. Shakespeare does a great job demonstrating the unique bond shared between a dad and his daughter in The Merchant of Venice, as well as his other works. The major difference, however, is the way Shakespeare portrays more in each relationship. Each pairing can be viewed differently based on the perspective: either the father or daughter. In The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare provides two examples: Portia & her father and Jessica & Shylock.

Because of Portia’s unique situation, it is hard to completely understand how she and her father communicated. While Portia, in her opening scene, complains about her father’s sentencing, Nerissa “sees things in a more positive light” (Lucking 359). Nerissa states that Portia’s father was “ever virtuous, and holy men at their death have good inspirations” (I. II. 21-22). The lines provide examples of how Portia’s father was merely trying to do what he felt was best for his daughter (as many fathers would do), but his plan did not work to her liking. Portia would have liked the decision to choose her husband, but because of her father’s will, she “cannot choose one nor refuse none” (I. II. 20).

During the rest of the play, little is said about Portia’s father; however, from what is displayed within the second scene, the audience gathers that Portia’s father was simply trying to protect her. His intentions were good, but the results did not work in Portia’s favor. Or did they? She still was able to marry a man she had some feelings for Bassanio, a man “worthy of thy praise” (I. II. 88). This father/daughter relationship is complicated because, by Portia’s father leaving behind his will, he takes away Portia’s. As Patricia Green states, “respecting the good judgment of parents” (64) becomes an important theme in this complex relationship. Perhaps Portia’s father is criticized for being too loving; that is one way to look at it.

On the opposite spectrum are Jessica and her father, Shylock. These two have a relationship that is also hard to follow, and even harder to classify. As Anita Sherman puts it, “Shylock’s single-minded pursuit of the bond, like an onslaught of tunnel vision, makes sense if construed as a symptom of strategy of a large-scale avoidance—avoidance of the knowledge that with Jessica gone, his whole world has fallen away” (278). Shylock is portrayed as the villain in the story, and as a neglecting father to Jessica. Even after the audience discovers Jessica’s departure from her father, Shylock is reluctant to act. Jessica claims that she is “a daughter to his [Shylock’s] blood…not to his manners” (II. III. 17-18).

Where does Jessica stand on all this, then? Jessica wishes to leave her father’s Jewish ways for that of her husband-to-be, Lorenzo. Once she successfully escapes her father’s house, she swears to “become a Christian” (II. III. 20), a task she thinks would come about quite easily. She sees as an escape from two different prisons—metaphorically. Jessica even goes as far as to say she is a “Jew’s daughter” (III. V. 24-25) showing that her relationship with Shylock is based more on titles than affection. The relationship between this father/daughter pair is never truly resolved in the play. In fact, as far as can be told, the two only share one scene—Act 2, Scene 5—which comes after Jessica has revealed she plans to escape. In this scene, Shylock had a chance to express his emotions for his daughter, and instead, he references the Christian way. Jessica ends the scene and her relations with her father in two important lines: “…if my fortune be not crossed, I have a father, you a daughter, lost” (II. VI. 55-56).

Father/daughter relationships in The Merchant of Venice are hard to define. On one side, there is a relationship where the daughter is ruled by her dead father’s good intentions; on the other side, a daughter who wants to escape her father’s way of life. Both pairs show how extreme the emotions can get, and neither demonstrates the typical loving relationship, perhaps because there is no typical father/daughter relationship. Shakespeare does a great job showing off every side of the story about what people would expect, which makes the story that much better.

Works Cited

Adelman, Janet. “Her Father’s Blood: Race, Conversion, and Nation in The Merchant of Venice.” Representations. (2003 Winter): 4-30.

Green, Patricia. “The Merchant of Venice: A Tragicomedy.” Lesson Plan. Houston Teachers Institute, Houston.

Lucking, David. “Standing for Sacrifice: The Casket and Trial Scenes in the Merchant of Venice.” University of Toronto Quarterly. (1989 March 1): 355-375. Academic Search Premier. Web. 31 Oct. 2010.

Shakespeare, William. “The Merchant of Venice.” David Bevington, Ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 25-119. Print.

Sherman, Anita. “Disowning Knowledge of Jessica, or Shylock’s Skepticism.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 (2004 Spring): 277-295. JSTOR. Web. 31 Oct. 2010.