Journal 16: a little too much extra
I feel as if Act V is completely useless to this whole play. There is no reason for a final summation of all the proceedings of the play, it's way too much. It seems like Shakespeare was trying to give this play, which is not really a comedy, a nice happy ending even though it really isn't all that happy. The final message of the play is very apparent in Act IV, the presence of act V is to basically place a nice sugarcoat on the whole scenario. I feel that it's just a deterrent from the rest of the play and in general it leaves me feeling of dissatisfaction. The play only needs four acts and the fifth is just unwanted overkill. I don't need to know how their lives turned out happy and satisfying when I know that they have ruined Shylock's life. If anything this final act makes me angry, because it seems that there aren't really any lessons learned by this group, only the fact that they will always win, someway, somehow.
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I think it still works...
I actually thought that the last act was useful. The play could have been fine without it, but it ties up all of the loose ends of the play. Without it, the audience is left guessing at the end. You wouldn't have known how the whole ring business concludes, and they would have never found out that Portia was the one who saved Antonio. Besides, it wasn't that long, so I didn't mind reading it.
I felt that Act V was crap
I felt that Act V was crap myself but it was definitely what made the play a comedy by ending everything on a good note.
oaths
What about the emphasis Portia places on the importance of oaths? Can we tie this back to the courtroom scene where she works so hard to negate the oath binding Shylock and Antonia. Her insisting upon the importance of adhering to oaths would seem to be contradictory at the least. If so, what might we make of that? Bradley