Mitt Romney In The Mittchant (Merchant) of Venice: A Political Look At William Shakespeare's Play

Is it possible that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a Mormon, could have spoken the same words as the Jewish merchant Shylock in William Shakespeare’s play, The Merchant of Venice?


I thought it would be interesting to project Mitt Romney into Shakespeare’s Shylock character in Act III's well-known defense passage. Shylock was a Jew, and Mitt Romney is a Mormon, yet the underlying sentiment is similar.


The following passage is from Act III, Scene 1, of The Merchant of Venice. I have added the word "Mormon" wherever the word "Jew" appears, and the words "an evangelical Christian" next to the words "a Christian." Read the exquisite words of William Shakespeare about the importance of religious tolerance.


ACT III
Scene 1


Venice. A street


SHYLOCK


"I am a Jew (Mormon). Hath not a Jew (Mormon) eyes?

Hath not a Jew (Mormon) hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions, fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian (an evangelical Christian) is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh?

If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?" 1


1 The Merchant of Venice

by William Shakespeare

Image: File:Charles Buchel Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Shakespeare's Shylock.jpg

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Related Links


http://www.wsu.edu/

~delahoyd/shakespeare/

merchant3.html

http://www.pbs.org/

wgbh/masterpiece/

merchant/ntof_shylock.html - Click this link to view the video clip of Shylock's defense, courtesy of OnlineClassics.com, from The Television Film.http://encarta.msn.com/

text_761562101__1/

Shakespeare.html http://www.mittromney.com/

http://www.mittromney.com/

Ann-Romney/index 


http://www.evangelicalsformitt.org/ 


http://www.mittreport.com/

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This post is a Reprint (very slightly revised) from my Townhall.com Conservative Wordsmith Weblog. The original date of this publication was January 26, 2008. 

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