Arden Student Skills: Language and Writing volumes offer a new type of study aid that combines lively critical insight with practical guidance on the writing skills you need to develop in order to engage fully with Shakespeare's texts. The books' core focus is on language: both understanding and enjoying Shakespeare's complex dramatic language, and expanding your own critical vocabulary, as you respond to his plays. Each guide in the series will empower you to read and write about Shakespeare with increased confidence and enthusiasm.

A notoriously disturbing play, The Merchant of Venice explores how the discourses of racial and religious prejudice and of business intertwine and shape how characters understand themselves and their relationships with one another. The intersections between religious, racial and economic language in The Merchant of Venice can be challenging to grasp, but in this guide Douglas Lanier showcases a range of approaches to understanding its language, all based on close reading and attention to Shakespeare's style. The volume will equip you to analyze Shakespeare's troubling portrayal of anti-Semitism for yourself and to articulate your views on The Merchant of Venice with greater insight and confidence.