Antonio (The Merchant of Venice) person … lie[s] all unlocked to your occasions" ("MoV" 1.1.146), seem to allude to a sexual dimension in Antonio's love for Bassanio. However, there is also evidence that the two shared a strictly fraternal, familial bond, as indicated by the line "Bassanio, your most noble kinsman …" ("MoV" 1.1.60) Other scholars maintain that all attempts to read Shakespeare's characters as gay or straight in terms of the modern understanding of the word are culturally and historically flawed. Alan Bray's book "Homosexuality in Renaissance England" argues that in the time period of "The Merchant of Venice's" composition, "homosexuality" did not refer
The Maori Merchant of Venice in which the Jew (Shylock) has a long memory of oppression, but revenge is not so sweet." Valerie Wayne, in "The Contemporary Pacific", underlined the apparent parallel drawn by the film between the oppression suffered by Shylock because of his Judaism and the sometimes violent subjugation of Māori by the colonial authorities in nineteenth century New Zealand. Reviewing "The Maori Merchant of Venice" for "Te Kete Ipurangi", Lana Simmons-Donaldson described it as "an educational, even motivational tool" for Māori language learners, and provided glowing praise: The film won the audience award for best feature at the Hawaii International Film Festival