Jessica Noble and Worthy?During the research for this article I reviewed numerous essays, evaluations and comments regarding The Merchant of Venice. One essay used the terms "noble" and "worthy" in relation to Jessica. The author stated that "sometimes what [the characters in the play] 'sell themselves' for is worthy and shows them to be noble (Jessica for example)". The author goes on to say that Shylock's reasons for selling out "seem ignoble." These statements really gave me pause, so I went to my trusty dictionary to look up “noble” and “worthy.” Noble--1. a: possess exceptional qualities.2: of high birth or high rank.3. a: possess very high or excellent qualities or properties. Worthy-1. a: have value. Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (10th edition) The most common connotation of "noble", in my opinion, is a combination of the first and third lists. While Jessica certainly fits the second listed meaning of "noble" and the meaning of "worthy" (at least financially), I have seen no evidence that she was such an exceptional person or that she "possessed very high or excellent qualities" in the context of this game. He may very well be a wonderful person, but I saw nothing that would lead me to that conclusion in the play itself. Let's look at the facts. Jessica robs her father of all the jewels and money she can carry with her to marry Lorenzo. He put his religion aside like it was old hat. The only exceptional quality I see is that he can do all this without the slightest remorse. Jessica tells us that "Shylock's house is hell," but I saw no evidence of this in the play (II.iii.2). It's true that Shylock didn't know what to mourn more, his daughter or his ducats, but does that make that house hell? Since we haven't seen what life was like in the house, we can only take Jessica's word for it. I, for one, am not very comfortable with her word as she has already proven herself to be a thief and a liar. How do we know that she isn't just an incredibly ungrateful daughter, blinded by love (for she herself said that love is a blinding force - II.vi.36)? Frankly, Shakespeare hasn't given us much to work with as far as that goes