Intro to The Merchant of Venice

How do mercy, justice, and prejudice intersect?

 D E F I N I T I O N S

Mercy
- An act of forgiveness

Justice
- Fair treatment or punishment for an act

Prejudice
- Preconceived opinion that is not based on experience or reason

From my own common knowledge, I know that mercy and justice can be interpreted in law or philosophy.

I also know that prejudice can heavily intersect with justice since there might be some stigma towards people that might be getting justice. Even in law, there can be many prejudices towards people that are some certain way whether it be ethnicity, gender, race, religion and much more. This might intersect in a way where the person who is some certain way might get more punishment due to the prejudice that surrounds them.

For prejudice and mercy, I think they could intersect in a way that there might be prejudice surrounding the person that affects them, making others feel bad for them. That way, maybe they would be given more mercy than others due to the prejudice that makes other people feel some sort of sympathy for them.

For mercy and justice, I think they could intersect as complete opposites. The more mercy a person gets, the lesser justice and punishment they get. They both exist at opposite ends of the spectrum.


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