« Gild myself with some moe ducats » : la femme et l’argent entre marché et domesticité dans Le Marchand de Venise

Abstract

“Lock up my doors”, Shylock tells Jessica before going out. The young woman, of course, immediately disobeys, steals part of her father’s fortune and elopes with a Christian. As Jessica crosses a boundary which is both a spatial and moral one, the opposition between the domestic and public spheres is made apparent. It exists at several levels in The Merchant of Venice: Jewish or Christian spaces, spaces that are permissible or forbidden for women. But there is more: the home is above all a place removed from the commercial world of the street, the canal and the Rialto – the world Jessica bursts into, her hands full of her father’s money. The play thus seems to build up these oppositions only to call them into question, as the permeability of the liminal spaces of the threshold and the window becomes obvious. What happens when domestic and commercial spaces encroach on one another?

Keywords

• Merchant of Venice
• liminal space
• domesticity
• marriage and money
• women and money