The Merchant of Venice The Merchant of Venice has a lot going on, so you’ll have to excuse how long this post is. Don’t worry though, the next one up is The Merry Wives of Windsor and there’s almost nothing going on in that. Also, given the sensitivity of the material, I did actually have to do some research into this one. There is a theory called moral self-licensing that suggests doing a good thing gives a person psychological leeway to commit future infractions. This might explain why after having made it through a Midsummer Night's Dream without a single antisemitic comment Shakespeare then felt he had free rein to give us five full acts of hate crime. Now, it ought to be said that whilst lots of people feel TMV is antisemitic. Some disagree and say that a few sympathetic moments redeem the play. It is also worth noting that Hitler wasn't one of them. He loved it and thought it was the tops. Here is a review of how TMV was used as Nazi propaganda that