A Cop Out Ending?

A Cop out Ending

It could be argued both ways that William Shakespeare did and did not use a cop out ending  in his play A Merchant of Venice. Many may thing that Shakespeare did go the way of a cop out ending because of his conclusion of the bond. Shakespeare in act 4.1 stripped Shylock of his bond, pride, and religion leaving him with nothing and letting Antonio go free. In the final act he also has Antonio’s merchant ships return restoring him of his wealth. This could be seen as a cop out because instead of taking another stand on religious prejudice and having Shylock, the Jew, get his bond fairly he let the audience have what they wanted, which was the Christians emerging on top. On the other hand Shakespeare ending  could be very true to his character. He always restored the natural order of things at the end of his plays, and the natural order of Christians dominating Jews was restored at the end of The Merchant of Venice. He also wraps up all the different story lines he has going in the book, with Portia forgiving Bassanio for giving away the ring, Antonio’s ships returning, and Lorenzo and Jessica becoming Shylocks heir.

I personally like the ending for all plots are brought fully to close, even though I truly sympathize for Shylock and wish he has been able to keep his religion and sense of self. 

MOV Cop Out Ending

The ending to Shakespeare's A Merchant of Venice could percieved as either a satisfactory conclusion or a "cop out". On one hand, it should be taken into consideration that at the time it would not have been politically "acceptable", even in literature, for a Jew like Shylock to be victorious in his bond being fullfilled, especially if it meant a wealthy and respected Christian merchant would lose his life.
While this social standard does justify Shakespeare's decision to spare Antonio and leave Shylock with next to nothing to his name, I feel that Shakespeare ultimately deprived the audience of a satisfying ending. It is a commonly attributed technique of Shakespeare's to restore the natural order of things within his novels, and I feel that because Shylock was so mistreated and abused by these wealthy and prejudice Christians and yet was still denied his bond, the natural order in a sense was never restored.
Shakespeare took a risk by merely including a Jew in his novel, so why not carry out his effort to change society and the world? Why not allow the minority and the oppressed to rise up and overcome their oppressor for once? It is because of this unfullfilled attempt to change society that I feel the ending to Shakespeare's A Merchant of Venice was a "cop out".

Cop-out Ending to The Merchant of Venice

I felt as though the ending to The Merchant of Venice was not completely a cop-out.  I thought that it answered questions about Portia and Nerissa and how they dealt with the fact that their husbands gave away their rings.  I thought that this was necessary to show Portia and Nerissa’s true emotions because there were many unanswered questions after the court scene such as if they would forgive their husbands or not.  I am glad that Shakespeare included act five in the play because the answer of whether or not the wives would forgive their husbands was different from my idea of what would happen.

Although it showed how all the characters reacted after the court scene, it could be considered a cop-out ending.  Shakespeare did not include Shylock at all in the last act which caused many unanswered questions to how he reacted after the court scene and how he dealt with all his loss.  Throughout the play, there are examples where Shakespeare could be persuading the audience to give up their prejudice against Jews, but in the last act no one shows any mercy or compassion to Shylock.  By not appearing in the last act, Shylock is depicted as less than a Christian which could give a counterexample to this fact.  I personally thought that the ending to The Merchant of Venice was not entirely a cop-out, but it could have included Shylock’s character to provide answers to questions about his reaction and for Shakespeare to further his point on whether he is against prejudice to Jews or not.