This page was created on March 19, 2005
This page was last updated on March 19, 2005

—Overview
—Photos
—About this Film
—Spiritual Connections

The key issue in this film becomes not the possibility of anti-Semitism, but the relationship of justice and mercy. These represent two seemingly mutually exclusive concepts. How can one be both just and merciful at the same time? (And yet we affirm both in relationship to God.) Shylock demands justice. He demands that the letter of the law be carried out. To be sure, he does so because he wants revenge more than for respect for the law, but his points are all well taken. Without the rule of law in his case, the whole system of law and justice is undermined.

When the final twist comes, and Shylock must seek the mercy he withheld, we discover that the mercy the Christians show him is more severe than the judgment he sought. In this, the film reminds me a bit of Dogville. Like Dogville it makes us think about the ways that justice (and the revenge that is tied to it) and mercy (or law and grace) are interrelated. One cannot really be understood or appreciated without the other.

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