Writing About Literature

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Writing About Literature

• English 208
• Merchant of Venice Revisions

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Formulaic Writing The Mel-Con

• MEL stands for main idea, evidence, link
• MAIN IDEA Your claim or argument topic sentence
  that must echo thesis (focus)
• EVIDENCE This is how you prove your main idea
  (examples, facts, reasons, quotes) EVIDENCE
  NEEDS TO BE INTRODUCED in what I call subtopic
  sentences. These sentence cannot include
  specific plot elements (focus)
• LINK This explains what your evidence have
  proven about your main idea analyze the
  significance of the evidence, but DO NOT
  paraphrase.
• CON This is your conclusion (wrap up) it should
  reword your first claim or main idea.

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Example

• Shylocks actions concerning his daughter make it
  appear that he is a cruel, unfeeling father
  instead, Shylock is a victim of his daughter, and
  his vindictiveness is merely a natural response
  to her betrayal.
• A. Appearance of horrible father
• B. Reality of loving father driven to hateful
  acts

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Shylocks actions concerning his daughter
make it appear that he is a cruel, unfeeling
father instead, Shylock is a victim of his
daughter, and his vindictiveness is merely a
natural response to her betrayal. It is easy to
assume that Shylock is a heartless father based
on the way he supposedly responds to Jessicas
betrayal. According to Salerio and Solanio,
Shylock is an awful father who never truly
understands his daughter. They publicly insult
Shylock, telling him that he should have known
that his daughter was unhappy and ready to
escape. They tease him when they say, And
Shylock, for his own part, knew the bird was
fledged and then it is the complexion of them
all to leave the dam (III.i.___). In comparing
Jessica to a bird ready to leave the nest,
Solanio implies that Shylock does not care about
his daughter in that he does not recognize that
she is an independent young woman with her own
needs. Even though this scene occurs some time
after Shylock has learned of Jessicas betrayal,
Solanios suggestion does not seem too
unreasonable, especially since this scene follows
the one in which the audience learns of Shylocks
reaction to Jessicas elopement. Rather than
show concern for her welfare, he appears to be
more concerned about his loss of ducats and
jewels.
Appearance Reality STS Evidence Link Eviden
ce Link
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Even though the audience learns this second hand,
in Shylocks next appearance, he wishes his
daughter were dead. He tells Tubal, . .
. The curse never fell upon our nation
till now I never felt it till now. Two thousand
ducats in that, and other precious,
precious jewels. I would my daughter
were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear
would she were hearsd at my foot, and
the ducats in her coffin! No news of
them? Why, soand I know not whats spent in the
search. Why, thouloss upon loss! The
thief gone with so much, and so much to
find the thief and no satisfaction, no revenge
. . . (III.i.___). In this speech,
Shylock not only laments his lost money, but he
resents the money he has spent trying to find his
daughter. Clearly, only a heartless father would
hope for the death of his own child without
trying to understand why she acted as she did.
Yet, though it appears that Shylock is indeed
this heartless father, his actions prove
otherwise.
Evidence Link Reality STS
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In comparing Jessicas betrayal to the
Anti-Semitism the Jews have suffered throughout
history at the hands of the Christians, as he
does in the previous speech (. . .The curse
never fell upon our nation till now I never felt
it till now. . .), Shylock indicates how deeply
Jessica wounds him by eloping with a Christian
and stealing his means of supporting himself.
Although Jessica states that she knows it is a
heinous sin to be ashamed to be her fathers
daughter, she nonetheless feels this way for no
other reason than she says she is not like him
and hates their tedious home. And while this
may be true, Shylock clearly loves her, trusting
her with the keys to his house, trusting her with
the truth of why he has chosen to attend
Bassanios party, and worrying about her when he
hears about the masquerade. This love for her,
which is expressed in so many ways, makes her
betrayal more unimaginable to him, prompting him
to react as seemingly heartless as he does. Yet
even though he acts as though he does not care
about her, his actions in court prove otherwise.
When he hears both Bassanio and Gratiano offer to
give up their wives to save Antonio, Shylock says
in an aside These be Christian husbands! I have
a daughter / Would any of the stock of
Evidence Link Evidence Link Evidence
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of Barabbas / Had been her husband rather than a
Christian! (IV.i.___). Despite publicly
disowning her and wishing her dead, these tragic
words show that she is not really dead to him
nor has she stopped worrying about her. Clearly,
Shylocks apparent cruel responses to Jessicas
actions are not the actions of a despicable
father, but rather one whom is driven to respond
emotionally and irrationally to actions he can
neither control nor believe.
Evidence cont Link CON
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Assignment

• If you earned an A or B on the Merchant
  composition, you are exempt from this assignment.
  Congratulations!
• Otherwise, you must rewrite one of your body
  paragraphs. You must include your thesis and
  then the revised paragraph. Use track changes
  and label the parts of this paragraph, using
  MEL-Con terminology.
• Due date Wednesday, Feb. 1 (no late papers
  accepted)
• Worth one grade
• You may make an appointment to get help if you do
  not understand the comments on your paper.