Inside the movie the Merchant of Venice we could see the story of a young princess who lived in Belmontt. Her name was Portia. Before the death of her father, -The king-, his last order was the creation of three different caskets. One made of gold, another of silver and the last one made of lead. One of these have inside the portrait of Portia . Those who really wanted her hand must travel to Belmontt and choose one of this caskets. If someone choose the casket, with her the portrait inside, is able to marry with the princess. However a young man, Bassanio, wanted to prove his lucky with these famous caskets. But he wasn’t the only one who attempted. Moreover, before him, the prince of Morocco and the prince of Aragon tried. But here we will turn our attention to the story of the prince of Morocco and the prince of Aragon only.
For the sake of completeness, it is necessary to say that all the caskets had an inscription. When a prince was triying to choose the best one, he had to read the message that the casket offered him. The gold casket had written: “ Who chooses me will gain what any man desires.” Then the silver casket said: “ Who chooses me shall gain as much as he deserves.” Finally, the casket made of lead said: “Who chooses me must give and hazard all he has.”
Both, the prince of Morocco and the prince of Aragon read the statements. The prince of Morocco chose the the gold casket. This prince chose it because he thought that the desire of any man was to get married with the princess. But, the only thing that he found inside was a little skull with a paper inside one eye. The paper said to him that “his pretension was cold.” Then, it was the turn of the prince of Aragon. First he read the lead casket. The prince making fun of the situation saying to everybody that the princess was not so beautiful to give and hazard all that he has. So, he decided to open the silver casket because he assume that he deserves to be the owner of the princess. For his misfortune he fail. Inside he found a blinking pupet. He was very angry. He felt as an idiot in front of his servants. He started to yell and ask if he deserves so little. Finally, he left the castle with some wisdom words: “ With one fools head came to wood, but I go away with two.”
It would be reasonable to suppose that these caskets had a deep meaning. Not a explicit one. Take account to the fact that every casket had a text in order to guide the candidates. Every casket reflected the real intentions of these candidates. What they had in mind. These casket represented three aspects that the men want in life: Power “gold,” respect “silver,” and love “lead”. Why I’m saying this?, because is reflected in the Prince’s choices. For example, the prince of Morocco was plenty of servants and he came to the princess with a haughty discourse and he chose the gold casket. He wanted to win a trophy marriying with this famous and beautiful princess. On the other hand, the prince of Aragon chose the silver one. He was very petulant. He thought that he deserves the best because he was the best. But he was wrong.
The inescapable conclusion which emerges fom what I have said is that once more shakespeare is teaching us values and the predictable behave of human being. It was a very good film with a good plot and it catched my attention.
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