23 min
And They All Lived Happily Ever After? Will: What Is He Good For?
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- Performing Arts
In the last episode, we felt pretty confident saying that Shakespeare believed that a good marriage was one of true partnership filled with respect, trust, communication, and most importantly love. However, in Elizabethan England, the act of getting married was still predominantly a business transaction. While courtship mattered to a degree, you married for three reasons: increased social status, monetary gain, or occasionally love.
But could a transactional marriage lead to a true happily ever after? Or was happiness only found by those madly in love?
In this episode, we take a look at two of the marriages in The Merchant of Venice and explore how running away for love doesn’t always guarantee a happy ending - and how marrying by business transaction sometimes can (even if it means coercing fate to get the right mate).
In the last episode, we felt pretty confident saying that Shakespeare believed that a good marriage was one of true partnership filled with respect, trust, communication, and most importantly love. However, in Elizabethan England, the act of getting married was still predominantly a business transaction. While courtship mattered to a degree, you married for three reasons: increased social status, monetary gain, or occasionally love.
But could a transactional marriage lead to a true happily ever after? Or was happiness only found by those madly in love?
In this episode, we take a look at two of the marriages in The Merchant of Venice and explore how running away for love doesn’t always guarantee a happy ending - and how marrying by business transaction sometimes can (even if it means coercing fate to get the right mate).
23 min