Write a note on the dramatic importance of the Lorenzo-Jessica sub-plot, showing its relationship with the other stories in the play.

 

SELECT UNIVERSITY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q1. Write a note on the dramatic importance of the Lorenzo-Jessica sub-plot, showing its relationship with the other stories in the play.

Or

Sum up the Lorenzo-Jessica story in your own words.

Or

Is there any significance of the Lorenzo-Jessica story?

Answer: - Jessica is most unlike her father, Shylock. Her own words to herself,

               ‘Alack what heinous sin is it mine
               To be ashamed to be my father’s child;
               But though I am a daughter to his blood
               I am not to his manners’.

               Jessica is impulsive, reckless, unfilial, treacherous and even cruel. Of course, every young woman when confined always within the four walls of her house, and when she is not allowed to have any communication with the outer world, and when particularly she has no mother, no sister, no brother and none except a poor old father, who is hated by everybody in the world for many of his evil qualities is bound to go mad, not to speak of being impulsive or reckless like Jessica. But then, when we consider the father’s condition for how lonely Shylock is without his wife or without any of his children except Jessica, we feel that it is most cruel on the part of his daughter to steal away from home without his knowledge and permission. Being a Jewish girl, Jessica must be a paragon of beauty; otherwise a Christian like Lorenzo would not have fallen in love with her and eloped with her.

               Lorenzo remarks-----

               ‘She is wise, if I can judge of her,
               And fair she is, if that mine eyes be true,
               And true she is, as she hath, proved.’

               Reveal her personal; charm and sweetness of soul. Even Portia who is far above Jessica in rank and culture, is enamored of her; otherwise, she could not have entrusted the care of her house in her hands during her absence from Belmont.

               One thing is very striking about Jessica that when we know that Jessica is the daughter of such miserly, orthodox, communal minded, malicious, and cruel person as Shylock, how could she be so sweet, loving, romantic, liberal, poetic in spirit? We know also in what kind of narrow, foul, filthy atmosphere Jessica has been brought up and yet how can she be so beautiful, cheerful, gay, so fond of beauty and music, so good and gentle. Of course, such anomalies occur in nature sometimes. For example, lovely flowers blossom out of cow-dung, sweet vegetable out up from the night soil, and many saints are also born of most wicked parents.

The Lorenzo-Jessica Story

               Jessica, the daughter of the Jew Shylock, falls in love with a Christian young man by the name of Lorenzo who is one of Antonio’s and Bassanio’s friends. Shylock knows nothing about her love affairs because Jessica has been keeping it a close secret. She knows that her father hates the Christian young man. At the same time, she feels a dislike of her father for various reasons. Shylock is a suspicious kind of man who is also very puritanical, therefore imposes all kinds of restrictions on his daughter. Besides he has never given any sign of any deep love for affection for her. Finding no other way opened to her Jessica forms a plot to elope from home in order to marry Lorenzo. She disguises herself as a boy on the night when a marked procession of the Christians is to pass through the street in which Shylock’s house is situated. She informs Lorenzo by a letter sent to him through Launcelot Gobbo, that she would be slipping out of her father’s house in order to join him in the marked procession. Everything goes well; and slipping out of the house she joins Lorenzo though at this time she is feeling ashamed of her boy’s disguise. Before coming out of the house, she throws a couple of bags full of money and precious stones. The two lovers soon afterwards leave Venice in a gondola, and later go to Belmont to join Bassasnio and Gratiano who are already there. At Belmont they are entrusted by Portia with the charge of her house and property because she herself is going away on a secret mission of her own in Nerissa’s company. Towards the end of the play there is a beautiful moonlight scene of the famous love-stories of ancient mythology, connecting those stories with the beautiful moonlight night and with their own love-affairs.

Its relation with the other stories

               The Lorenzo-Jessica story is closely connected with the Bond story and the caskets story. As already pointed out, Lorenzo is a friend of Bassasnio, Gratiano and Antonio while Jessica is the daughter of the Jew, Shylock. Antonio is the hero of the Bond story. Bassanio is the hero of the casket story; and Shylock is the villain of the Bond Story. Besides, Portia becomes quite fond of these lovers, and entrusts them with the charge of her property during her absence from Belmont. The inter-linking of the three strands is therefore obvious.

The dramatic Importance of the Story

               The Lorenzo-Jessica story has a great dramatic importance in the play. In the first place, Jessica brings into bold relief Shylock’s miserliness, his suspicious nature, his unfatherly attitude towards his won daughter, his mean stinginess, and his unusual; greed for money. Lorenzo on the other hand, brings out Shylock’s bitter feelings against the Christian community in general. Shylock’s revenge against Antonio is intensified by the behaviour of Jessica and Lorenzo, which indirectly further intensifies the tragic tension created by the bond in the trial scene.

               Then again, the news of the loss of Antonio’s ships in the sea is being conveyed slowly by either Lorenzo or Jessica whom some messenger comes to meet at Belmont. We notice how in the eighth scene of the second Act the news of Antonio’s loss is discussed by Solanio and Salarino, who again in the first scene of the third Act continue to discuss further and thus help the audience to remain in touch with the news. Of course, it is only at the end of the Caskets story that we come to know of the disaster of Antonio from his letter to Bassasnio. We have been told throughout the play that Shylock is extremely avaricious, and that is why, it appears rather most improbably and strange when we find Shylock refusing of ten times the amount of the original loan in the open court and insisting on the penalty of the bind, namely, a pound of flesh from Antonio’s breast. This strangeness of Shylock’s attitude towards money is made possible by the Lorenzo-Jessica story because it is Jessica’s elopement with a Christian that intensifies his revengeful spirit of Shylock is further aggravated by the fact that Jessica not only elopes with a Christian but also robs her father of all his gold and jewels with the help of a Christian, i.e., Lorenzo.

               Last of all, both Lorenzo and Jessica serve as a foil to Bassanio and Portia. Had there been no Lorenzo-Jessica story, much of the romance in the play would have been lost, although the casket-story is a purely romantic story, and it should be considered as sufficient for the purpose of contributing the element of romance to the play. But then, is not the elopement more romantic than the choice of marriage by the caskets? Is not the escape of Jessica from her father’s house and even the robbery of the jewels a much more thrilling adventure of romance than the choice of the caskets by the various suitors of Portia? Then again, could such a beautiful scene of music and love be possible at the end of the play without Lorenzo and Jessica? As a matter of fact, the caskets story in spite of its music and other elements of romance could not sufficiently counter balance the tragic atmosphere of the play, particularly at the Trail scene.