The Merchant of Venice you wrong us, shall we not revenge?" Those who see the speech as sympathetic point out that Shylock says he learned the desire for revenge from the Christian characters: "If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction." Even if Shakespeare did not intend the play to be read this way, the fact that it retains its power on stage for audiences who may perceive its central conflicts in radically different terms is an
The Father (Strindberg play) her way to oppose injustice, and the play also demonstrates how factors can lead one to become fiercely determined. At the time the play was written, Strindberg's marriage was deteriorating with his wife Siri von Essen, and situations in the play could have very loosely resembled situations occurring in his failing marriage. Different religions, Methodist, Baptist, and an occult spiritualism, exist in the household and vie for Bertha's acceptance. There are also references in the play to Greek Mythology and Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice" and "Hamlet". Strindberg was aware of the literary discussions regarding what constituted naturalism in drama, and