Justice is the concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion,

fairness, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics. According to most theories of
Justice John Rawls, for instance, claims that "Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of
systems of thought.":(1). Justice is a volatile concept in The Merchant of Venice, mostly because it is at
odds with the Christian values of mercy. As religion is such a pivotal issue in the play, the concept of
mercy is almost held in balance with justice. Because many of the characters seek justice in a variety of
forms. Shylock’s relationship to justice is the most difficult – he seeks justice through the law because
he’s not protected from any religious believes. As he refuses to be merciful, because no one has been
merciful to him, he ends up suffering. So the issue of injustice is brought to light through Shylock's
situation and the unfortunate turn of events that he faced generally all over the play and specifically
through the court scene.

Shylock is a man that has been mocked, spat at, and treated by Antonio in the worst ways. When
he is approached by Bassanio for the money, he sees his opportunity to take revenge upon Antonio, but
almost as a representative of the society at large and not Antonio as an individual. Revenge was the only
motive that let shylocks ask for justice and nothing else. Shylock gives a multitude of examples on how
mercy or jusctice has never been shown to him by the Christians. Shylock believes that he should follow
the Christians lead and seek revenge for being wronged just as a Christian would seek revenge if he had
wronged them. Shylock wants to get revenge on the Christians for making his life miserable and thus he
does not want to think of mercy towards a Christian. Shakespeare puts one of his most eloquent speeches
into the mouth of this "villain" illustrating his felling and how he was treated all over the play saying:

I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands,

organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same
food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases,
heal'd by the same means, warm'd and cool'd by the same winter
and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If
you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?
And if you wrong us, do we not revenge? If we are like you in the
rest, we will resemble you in that.

Shylock's 'trial' at the end of the play is a mockery of justice. Shylock asks for "justice" in his demand for
the pound of flesh, but Portia, acting as a judge when she has no real right to do so and no court of
justices could seriously would allow it (2), advises him that mercy is a higher value than justice, and that
he should show Antonio mercy. When Shylock refuses, Portia tricks him, telling him he may have only
the pound of flesh, no blood, which in effect renders his plea worthless. Thus, Portia holds him to the very
strict letter of the law that Shylock asks for:. She also holds him accountable to another law, that of, as an
alien (for Jews were not citizens), threatening the life of an Venetian citizen (4.1.363-370). His
punishment, decreed by Antonio, is to convert to Christianity and give up his money (in different ways).

To Shakespeare's audience this would be justice (indeed, such a conversion might to that audience save
Shylock's soul), but we might think how enormous this sentence is: Shylock loses his religion as well as
his livelihood, not to mention his daughter. He has already suffered humiliation for being a Jew, which
prompted his behavior to begin with. So, the mitigating circumstances are such that perhaps Antonio could
have shown a bit more of the mercy Portia spoke of in her famous speech.
The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. . . .
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings;
It is an attribute to God himself,
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this:
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy,
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.
(IV.i.179–197)

Deprived not only of the money due to him from Antonio, his own money is taken away and split between
Antonio and the state, and he is almost deprived of his life. All this as a punishment for seeking what was
legally and rightfully his. Portia did, of course, save her friend, but she also completely destroyed the life
(figuratively and almost literally) of someone else. Portia may have thought that, in defending Antonio’s
life, she did him the ultimate favor. However, her actions have other consequences. There was a reason for
Shylock’s disgust and hatred towards Antonio and his friends, and this surely cemented those feelings not
only in his mind but in the minds of all his circle. Her actions may have had beneficial repercussions for
Antonio, but they did not contribute to justice and social relations within Venice. Her deed was on a small
scale good, but seen in a larger context only contributed to the hatred and strife already present within the
society.

So when Shylock explicitly refuses to show mercy while the Christians, in sparing Shylock’s life in the
end, claim that they have. Yet, when they do, Shylock himself asks to be killed. He says that, having had
all of his possessions confiscated and his religious identity revoked (which would also make it impossible
for him to work as a money-lender, since Christians were not allowed to practice usury), he has nothing
left to live for. All in all justice was not applied, what was really applied was the poetic justice, The
rewarding of virtue and the punishment of vice, shylock did not have nether justice nor mercy in the whole
play starting from calling him as a "Jew" and never called him with his name and they the way he was
treated because of his religious believes; also the fact that the very people who berated Shylock for being
dishonest have had to resort to trickery in order to win.

To sum up, the Merchant of Venice is a realistic play because there is absolute justice in real life there is
always an injustices part. In life, things don’t wrap up neatly. Using covenants to explore different facets
of justice, Shakespeare does not seem to come to any conclusions, but would rather the audience members
explore their own beliefs. Shylock is detestable and sympathetic at the same time, and the justices system
cannot be relied upon to right society's wrongs. the merchant of Venice not only lives as the dramatic re-
tilling of more than one ancient and familiar story , but suggests themes which elsewhere in the relation of
reality and make believe which Shakespeare used to triumphantly in his later and greatest comedies were
to be more profoundly and coherently developed(3)

(1) www.wikipedia.com
(2) Shakespeare the merchant of Venice , john wilders
(3) Shakespeare the merchant of Venice , john wilders