Understanding Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice by Robert A. Albano - HTML preview

Actually, Janus was a god of time who could look both backward into the past and forward into the future; and that is the reason why the Romans depicted him with two faces. However, Renaissance poets and later writers frequently used the two-faced image to indicate the duality of man’s nature, to indicate that man has qualities that are often in opposition to oneanother.

Act I, Scene 1: The Metaphor of the Stage

Salerio and Solanio leave Antonio; andthenAntonio begins speaking with twootherfriends,BassanioandGraziano.      ImmediatelynoticingAntonio’s sad expression, GrazianocommentsthatAntonio worries too much about his business–thathe has “too much respect upon the world” –andthatworry has changed him in a negative way(lines74-76).Grazianoisalighter,comiccharacterintheplay. Through Graziano, Shakespearesuggeststhatpeopleshouldnotalwaysbesoseriousbutshouldrather take life in stride: they should take lifeeasily.

Picking up on Graziano’s use of theword

world, Antonio responds with the following:

I hold the world but as the world, Graziano – A stage where every man must play a part, And mine a sad one. (77-79)