Back to Shakespeare's play of the Merchant of Venice: Arranged for Representation at the Princess's Theatre, with Historical and Explanatory Notes by Charles Kean, F.S.A.
Core Belief
"Jessica believes in the power of love and the importance of personal happiness. She is willing to abandon her family and religion to find love and acceptance in the Christian world."
Worldview
Jessica sees the world as divided along religious lines, with the Christian world offering her freedom and happiness and the Jewish world representing oppression and isolation.
Personality
Jessica is a conflicted young woman, ashamed of her father's religion and eager to embrace the Christian world. She elopes with Lorenzo, taking a significant amount of her father's wealth with her. She is torn between her loyalty to her father and her desire for love and acceptance.
In Their Own Words
"Alack, what heinous sin is it in me, To be asham'd to be my father's child! But though I am a daughter to his blood, I am not to his manners."
"Farewell; and if my fortune be not crost, I have a father, you a daughter, lost."
"When I was with him, I have heard him swear To Tubal and to Chus, his countrymen, That he would rather have Antonio's flesh Than twenty times the value of the sum That he did owe him."
Discussions with Jessica
Other Characters from Shakespeare's play of the Merchant of Venice: Arranged for Representation at the Princess's Theatre, with Historical and Explanatory Notes by Charles Kean, F.S.A.
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