Jews vs Christians. oh, god.

I believe that this is one of the more entertaining plays. There is so much going on at one time. at first, when reading the play, you just sit and wonder how a play can continue to have 5 acts when it seems it could end on the third. This is one of Shakespeare’s best works in my opinion (from what I’ve read anyway). Bassanio’s character is my personal favorite. Being one of the more real characters in the play. He’s a very laid back character; especially for all the things that have gone wrong in his life. But he is also very wise. In the movie, when he was giving his speech about which chest he will choose, I just sat there in awe. For such a simple character to give such an elaborate speech just blew my mind. I barely even understood half of it.

I also like the relationship of him with his friend Gratiano. They seem to be like fric-n-frac. Like a buddy-buddy type relationship, which I can easily relate to because those are the friendships that I value most. Even though he seems to like his friend, although not with much respect. When Gratiano informed Bassanio that he was going to get married as well, Bassanio laughed like, “what is going to marry you?” kind of way. But they stuck together no matter what obstacles they faced throughout the play.

One of my favorite scenes in the play was when Gratiano and Bassanio were being confronted about how they gave away their rings to random men. When Portia and Narissa were drilling Gratiano about how he gave away his ring all he could say in defense, was that Bassanio gave his away too! Of course, no REAL friend would ever want to take the sole blame for something; he must bring his friend into it also. Bassanio, knowing that he was in trouble, was like, “screw it, ya you got me…” this play has too many facts to just talk about just one! The movie is also very well done in my opinion of capturing everything that had happened in the play.