Merchant Of Venice :: Free Merchant of Venice Essays

The Storytellers in The Merchant of Venice     In this play both characters have a bigger role than star might imagine. Salerio and Solanio be the storytellers in The Merchant of Venice. They fill in important information that the audition needs to full understand the play.      First, the 2 names differ by only a few letters, they are so close that integrity might confuse the two and think that they are the alike person. I feel that this is Shakespeares intention in this play. He makes the two similar so that they are non very important to the biz of the play. At the same time they are two different people, not just a narrator. I feel that Shakespeare does this so that he can have the two characters speaking to each other. It is through their, Salerio and Solanio, interactions that the auditory modality learns important information to the plot of the play.     At the opening of the play three characters are on st age, Antonio, Salerio, and Solanio. by dint of the dialogue, Salerio informs the reference of Antonios places "Your mind is tossing on the ocean/There where your argosies i.e., great merchant ships with portly i.e., stately sail (I.i. 8-9). While in the same scene Solanio helps the audience establish that Antonio has no major love interest "Why because you are in love," to which Antonio replies, "Fie, fie" (I.i. 46-47). Through their conversations, the two have given the audience a basis for the play that Antonio is a merchant and that he is not concerned about being in love.      An entire scene (viii) in Act II is given completely to a conversation mingled with Solanio and Salerio. Here they tell of many events that have happened Bassanios ship setting remove and Gratiano going with him Shylocks reaction to Jessica and his ducats being gone a Venetian ship that is wrecked in the English Channel and also the parting amongst Antonio an d Bassanio. Here, through the conversation of Solanio and Salerio the audience is told what has happened. Thus they have only one way to obtain the information. They all have the same thoughts about what has happened since they did not see the scenes and were only told about them.      Solanio and Salerio are the storytellers in the play nevertheless they are only used for about two thirds of the play. The scene that both one of them is in is scene ii of Act III.