Part 1 of Essay
Shakespeare uses similar comic elements to effect similar outcomes in his works. Many of his plays utilize trickery and disguise to accomplish similar endings. Trickery plays a major role in The Merchant of Venice and drives most of the action, while mistaken identity, specifically Portia's disguise as the "learned attor ....

Part 2 of Essay
.... Antonio has, "neither the money, nor commodity/to raise a present sum" but urges Bassanio to go through Venice to try to secure a loan using Antonio's bond as credit (Shakespeare, Merchant 1.1 178-179). One of the resident money-lenders of Venice is an individual called Shylock, a person of Jewish descent. The practice of usury was traditionally banned by the Christian church. This allowed many Jews, because their belief system contained no objection to profitable money-lending, to become the de fact ....