When I first read The Merchant of Venice, I had many mixed reactions. One of them, surprisingly enough, was that it was too short! How can this be? We all know that Shakespeare's plays are notoriously too long. Rereading it, I think this perception comes from several sources. One is the idea that the two plots, that of Portia and her suitors and that of Shylock and his money-grubbing ways, are only loosely held together by the title character, Antonio. The other reason is that when we finally get to the trial scene, the supposed climax of the play, we notice that the trial is only a very small part of the entire play. In my opinion it's not "what the show is about". Many people have suggested that the show should have ended after the trial, that the final scene served no purpose. I saw it more as a hastily put together conclusion to a disjointed article. We've talked about cut versions of literature as they come to the screen. It seems to me that this is a disjointed version of an idea that didn't work as well as the playwright had hoped. Reading even more closely, I may find I change my mind. Since it didn't seem to be about what I thought it should be about, I decided to try to figure out what it's really about. Based on my current understanding (subject to further enlightenment), comedy is (at least partially) about the commercialization of people. People can be bought or sold for "three thousand ducats, well" (Act I, scene 3, line 1), or "chests of gold, silver and lead" (I.ii.30). Everyone has a price. Everyone gets bought or sold at some point. Let's take a look at some of the main characters and see what price they demand. Antonio sells "a pound of his flesh" for "three thousand ducats" in Act I, scene 3. Bassanio sells his marriage vows to repay the lawyer/judge for defending Antonio (Act IV Scene 2). Grationo sells his vows, giving the ring that represented them, and at the same time his friendship to Bassanio. Portia sells herself as property in marriage