The Merchant of Venice

This play is dated 1598. Pocket, 214 pp. With Commentary. See p. 201: 'No power in Venice can alter a decree established.' Our comment: In this system there is no place for ethics, only for politically decided laws. Furthermore, once the trial has started Shylock cannot stop the procedure, not even if he drops all charges. Both defendant and plaintiff are the prisoners of the system. So the anonymous law wins on all fronts, even if this would cost a life. NOT JUSTICE is important but the persistence and the continuity of the SYSTEM that defines it. The man who made the law creates order not justice.