Cop Out Ending

One side of the argument about the ending in The Merchant of Venice is that Shakespeare made it a cop-out ending. The cop-out could be proved because of the fact that Shylock was excluded from the final act which created questions about what happened to him and how he acted after the court scene. The ending could be shown as not including details about how the rest of the characters lived after the court scene also.
The other side is that the ending created by Shakespeare was not a cop-out. This could be proven by the three main plots in the play. The bond, elopement, and casket plots were all concluded and had detailed events that happened in order to resolve the conflict that was involved in each plot.  The events that concluded each lot were the court scene, the marriage of Bassanio and Portia, and the successful elopement of Jessica and Lorenzo.
I thought that Shakespeare did create a cop-out ending because it did not continue to explain important aspects of the play. In Act Five I wanted to learn more about the situation surrounding Shylock and his punishments. I felt sorry for him because he had so many problems occurring at one time due to his daughter leaving him and the result of the court scene and I wanted to see how he would deal with them. Shakespeare did not mention Shylock in the fifth act which made the ending for Shylock's story seem abrupt. I also understand that the plots were resolved but I think Shakespeare needed to add more detail to what happened after these events took place and how each of the characters dealt with their new lives. Even though I thought the ending was not perfect, I enjoyed reading this play.