Portrayal of Gender in the Play: The Merchant of Venice and its Effects on Students’ Perceptions of Gender Roles

Abstract

The study on 'The portrayal of gender in The Merchant of Venice and its effects on students' perceptions of gender roles' was carried out with the aim to understand how the play influenced students' opinions about gender roles. Although there is numerous research that has investigated gender stereotypes in the play, there is limited research done on the effect of the play on students. Adopting the constructivist paradigm, the data was collected using semi-structured interviews with 12 students and four teachers. According to the study, the play contains a significant amount of gender stereotypes that have both positive and negative effects on students' perceptions of gender roles. While the students learn about the ill effects of gender disparity and the role of women, they shared their discontentment about the portrayal of women as a weaker gender resulting in male students denying to take up the roles of female characters. The study confirms that teachers have a significant role to instill a sense of gender equality among the students, thus recommending that teachers employ a variety of activities in the class while teaching the play to enhance the perception of gender equality.