The Cop Out Ending:

I can not explain how angry this ending makes me. The law only seems to take in true affect when it is in the benefit of the Christians. For example, when Gratiano says "Therefore thou must be hanged at the state's charge" 4.1.381. So before when the situation was playing into the hands of Shylock the law is unjust and corrupted, but when it plays to the hand of the Christians and Antonio it becomes noble and righteous again. Shakespeare portrays Antonio in a situation that is basically him against the world so of course one hopes for the underdog, or the character harboring our sympathy to win, but it gets to a point where his only choice is the cop out. Shylock puts himself on the line for what he thinks is right, and is by the stating of the covenant, but is ripped apart by the masses. The play gets to a point where Shylock is not even fighting for the covenant or the money, but for himself and his own pride not only as a Jewish person, but a person just as the mass of Christians. He is holding on because in a his time of disparity when everything has been taken from him, but his pride he fights to have a morsel of control and pride in his life. It is highlighted that the mob hath no empathy, yet is trying to force it upon others in an uppity manor. When Portia then makes Shylock beg for forgiveness when she turns the tables on him, stripping him of the dignity he still possesed. The cop out ending heightened the idea of if you can only save anything save yourself. It is this makes a statement about how if minorities can come together and fight as one they fight alone at risk to the persecution of the majority. In a way saying you can not send one man up against an army, so Shylock could be symbolizing a movement for equality and unity.

But overall loved the book! :)

TMOV Ending

I did not particularly enjoy the ending of TMOV. I enjoyed the book, however I thought the ending was full of conflicting ideas. In Act IV, Scene 1, the Duke states that everyone expects a "gentle" answer, meaning that people expect Shylock to act like a Christian, who would give mercy to Antonio. As the trial continues, none of the Christians are willing to be merciful to Shylock. They call him out on his beliefs and use his words against him. Although they treat him to an alternate penalty, that is what they consider just and right. Mercy would be to let him take the money and leave. I think the ending is either to show hypocrisy, or just plain contradiction.

I also did not enjoy Act V. Though the two wives show mercy, they have just proven that their husbands would give away the symbol of their love, a part of the bond. Although both women are the ones that they give the rings to, I still think it is strange. If the women were serious about their binding through the ring, they should have kept to it. Both the husbands and the wives show little respect to what was supposed to be an "all powerful" love contract.

Shakespeare's Cop Out Ending

Despite The Merchant of Venice being a play that was way ahead of its time, the play closes in a way that leaves little to be desired. After Act IV closes I expected to see some sort of general interaction with Shylock, but I was saddened to learn that his appearances ended in the conclusion of the court scene in Act IV. I think Shakespeare copped out by doing this because it was too radical; he knew if he had made a definite choice about Shylock's fate his audience might not take it well. The Merchant of Venice has many satirical undertones that not all of his readers may have initially have seen, but with the addition of a just or merciful ending for Shylock, the readers would have picked up on the social commentaries and become enraged about the book. Although the ending is not at all ideal, Shakespeare wraps the play up in a way that would please his initial audience. I believe that Shakespeare was not concerned with the way he would end his play; his message was strong enough that no conclusion was the best decision. He wanted to make his readers think about the play and its connections to the world and, through an ending that does not satisfy the readers, he succeeds in his goal.

Cop out ending?

The conclusion of Shakespeare's play, The Merchant of Venice, can be viewed as a cop out.  In my opinion, the ending was a cop out because Shylock, the truthful character that is ridiculed and has all his posessions taken from him loses in his situation.  The greedy, stupid, and wasteful Christians end up gaining wealth in the end.  Usually Shakespeare doesn't shy away from killing off major characters, but the evasion of Antonio's death was almost awkward.  I think it seems awkward to me because in many stories the mistreated (Shylock) get their revenge and the hateful characters (Antonio) get what was coming to them.


However, this was not the case.  I think that the way the story ended may have not seemed like such a cop out in Shakespeare's time because I don't think people would have ever expected the Jew to triumph over the Christians. Shakespeare clearly shows the hypocracy of the Christians, so having them utterly defeated may be too extensive. So for this time period the ending may not have been a cop out.

TMOV Cop Out Ending

The ending of a play serves the purpose to conclude the overall message the author wishes to convey as well as tie up each string designated to the plot or characters. I believe that Shakespeare did create a cop out ending of his play The Merchant of Venice for the following reasons:

1. After the court scene, we no longer learn anything of Shylock. We are not sure of his actions, emotions, or physical state following his sentencing. He seems to simply slide out of focus and no explanation is provided. Lorenzo and Jessica receive a message regarding their place in his will but nothing else is mentioned. There is no sense of closure of to Shylock. This lack of information shows that he simply lives within the pages and provides no realistic continuation of his life for us to interpret. This can also be seen in Antonio where we find his wealth returned but do not see any self change created by the events he endured.

2. The subplot of the wedding rings is left unfinished. Bassanio and Gratiano finally learn of their wives deception after being chastised and do nothing about it. They lack the humanizing characteristics of anger or other various emotions after the moral battle Portia and Nerissa led them into. This was very upsetting to me and I felt that justice, a large influence throughout the play, had not been achieved.

3. Finally, I felt that this ending was incredibly rushed. I was surprised to see that the final act only consisted of 1 scene. Shakespeare crowded each plot and their corresponding characters together in attempt to conclude and tie all of the plots together. This however did not allow for natural development or a flowing plot line but rather an abrupt cop out ending.

Cop Out Ending Maddie Kness

After Act 4, felt horrible that Shylock's life was spiraling quickly in a downward direction. He had lost his daughter, his religion, his honor, and most of his fortune. I think Shakespeare's interesting choice not to include Shylock in the novel anymore gave for a questionable ending regarding his life. No one knows whether he was eventually happy, whether he stayed unhappy. Also, when going back to Jessica and Lorenzo in Belmont, Act 5 just began to pick up pace. In one moment Portia and Nerissa where upset at Gratiano and Bassanio, then the woman were asking for forgiveness, and then everyone was happy and talking about their new found future. The ending was very abrupt and I did not agree with it nor did I like it. It was I think almost in a way embarrassing for Shakespeare to end this great play. He also ruined it with all the couplets and rhymes he added in at the end as well. He just shoved a happy ending into one Act and I feel like it would have almost been better if he had just ended the play with the court scene.

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.