Manipulation in The Merchant of Venice
Freedom is a right that is usually in hot pursuit by most creatures of this world, and humans are not an exception to this. Restricting what people can and cannot do is mandatory to maintain a stable and functional society, but those same boundaries could be the same enablers for them to achieve what may otherwise be prohibited. Humans are exceptional at twisting and turning rules and laws to suit them and their goals regardless of the legality or the morality of their action. Perhaps this is most cleanly portrayed in The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare, which tells of the conflict of a Christian merchant, Antonio, and a Jewish moneylender, Shylock. Both parties of Antonio and Shylock use manipulation extensively to achieve their goals, and the play portrays the moral and malicious impacts of manipulation brilliantly.
Manipulation is often used to achieve goals, which would otherwise not be possible. Sometimes one may want something desperately, but the law forbids it. Such was the case when Shylock wanted to kill Antonio. He desired revenge against his Christian persecutors, but the law would not allow him to have it. However, he was able to use the law to his advantage to enable him to enact his vengeance. When Antonio came asking for money, Shylock agreed but under the condition that if Antonio fails to pay him back in time, he would take one pound of his flesh. Later indeed, Antonio was unable to pay back Shylock, and the moneylender was entitled to take a pound of Antonio's flesh by the law, which he chose to take from near his heart, which would mean his certain death, which was exactly Shylock's goal from the beginning. This twisting of the law is not locked to the realm of fiction only. Every day, skilled outlaws and criminals use their laws to their advantage to achieve what they want. It could be seen as an inherent flaw of the way humans wrote their laws, since there is nothing that could technically challenge such malicious acts, except maybe… manipulation itself.
The legal system is usually seen as a rigid body that would determine all cases fairly without impacts from the outside. However, the legal system is actually quite a flexible one, with a large room for interpretation. This is crucial as it can allow people to actually defend themselves efficiently in court if they've been falsely accused. Yet, this can go the other way around; it can be used to alter the outcome of an otherwise completely legal judgment. For example, during Antonio and Shylock's case, Shylock was legally allowed to take a pound of Antonio's flesh. However, Antonio's company did not want him to die. As such, two of his company's members, Nerissa and Portia, disguised themselves as a doctor and his apprentice, and attended the case as an advisor. They interpreted Shylock's deal with Antonio quite literally, insisting that he could only take one exact pound of Antonio's flesh, without any blood leaking out or taking Antonio's life, since that was not mentioned in the deal. Soon Shylock gave up on his revenge, but Nerissa and Portia pointed out that since he was attempting murder on Antonio, he himself was guilty. The two women turned a completely legal and favorable outcome for Shylock to one that would destroy Shylock's life forever. This is an instance of manipulation being used for moral reasons, as it was immoral for Shylock to take Antonio's life for revenge (which included him refusing to be paid back up to six times the original sum of money he was supposed to get). This does put into question, how much morality should be valued when compared to legality? To this day, humanity yet to find a balance.
The laws and standards set by human are not the only thing prone to being manipulated. Perhaps the most crucial subject of manipulation, is humans themselves. Human emotion and thinking can easily be swayed in various ways for multiple reasons, usually for controlling people's behaviors. An instance of such emotional manipulation is when Nerissa and Portia lied to their respective husbands about stealing their wedding rings, and placed the blame on their husbands. They told them that they would only forgive them if they swear absolute loyalty to them and take care of their new marriage and never lose them (which were in fact the stolen rings). This was not an entirely malicious act, as it did end up strengthening the relationship between the two couples. Yet it still serves as a powerful example as to how controlling emotions of another person can essentially give one full control over them, especially if the person in question is emotionally attached to the manipulator. Most cases of this kind of manipulation are immoral, yet there are always genuinely just and noble reasons for resorting to it.
Manipulation is a powerful tool in humanity's arsenal. It can be a method of correcting the wrongdoings of others, and it could itself be the bane of the people with its dangerous, and sometimes unexpected, impacts on society. Maybe one day, humanity will be able to live in such a way that manipulation may become an obsolete tactic, but in the present, Manipulation is needed in our world, but it isn't a must to resort to it; it is a choice, just as is the case with almost everything else in the world. The choice always exists, and sometimes the choice requires such desperate measures for the greater good.
References:
“Modern the Merchant of Venice.” No Sweat Shakespeare, 16 Feb. 2020, nosweatshakespeare.com/plays/modern-the-merchant-of-venice.