Essay: Fate and Freedom in The Merchant of Venice
"Let me play the Fool. With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come." (Gratiano, 1.1.79-80) In Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice , different powers are at play, directing the fate of the characters. While many readers have focused on the thematic tension between Christianity and Judaism, the play's secondary plots involving Lancelot, Gratiano and Nerissa contain elements of the Elizabethan theological debates over Calvinist predestination. Lancelot's consultation with his conscience and "the devil" holds many parallels to Marlowe's Doctor Faustus , a play whose theological content was in Shakespeare's time and still is much debated. A secularized account of the Elizabethan discourse on free will and predestination, randomness, and fate is evident in the text: Antonio feels doomed to sadness, Portia feels tied to her father's will, and Lancelot feels bound to his master, but in fact, the three are able to assert control over their futures