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[seekingferret]

I have written another Merchant of Venice fic in my Jessica Goldberg Variations series. Warning: Take the warnings seriously. This is a really problematic fic in terms of its approach to nonconsensual sex. And I definitely welcome criticism and commentary on that plot point.

Variation 5 (543 words) by seekingferret
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Merchant of Venice - Shakespeare
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Relationships: Jessica/Lorenzo, Jessica/Original Male Character
Characters: Jessica (Merchant of Venice), Original Male Character(s), Shylock (Merchant of Venice)
Series: Part 6 of The Jessica Goldberg Variations
Summary:

The one where she doesn't run away.

Comments

[cahn]

Okay, this fic and my reaction to it was really interesting. I didn't at all react to it as nonconsensual sex, and on examination, I suppose it's because my parents had a quasi-arranged marriage where my mom wasn't particularly excited about it. (In her case, not because there was anyone else in the picture, but because she was nineteen and not ready to get tied down in general.) It wasn't quite as forced as Jessica's, in the sense that my mom could conceivably have backed out, but reading between the lines (so to speak) I get the sense there was a fair amount of familial pressure involved (my dad being from the US and having a good job and in general being a Good Catch), so... maybe not all that different from Jessica. (That is, I imagine that there are ways Jessica could have gotten out of the marriage, but that would have resulted in so much damage that it was easier to go along with it.) So was that non-con/rape? Are arranged marriages non-con in general? I think I'd come down more on the side of dubious consent, in the sense that the participants wouldn't think of it as non-con, but of course it's not really full informed consent. (Of course a lot of this may have to do with what Jessica's bridegroom thinks of any of this, which we aren't given in the fic.)

The other half of this, though, is that if it were me, after that (and presuming this is part of a pattern of managing her life), I can't imagine ever forgiving/accepting my father to the extent that I'd ever turn to him again or let him know any of my fears and needs again. So there's that. Although on the other hand, a) I live in a rather more egalitarian world, and b) I happen to have a husband I can share my fears and needs with, and if Jessica is sharing them with her father, maybe that says something about the state of her marriage?

Anyway, I enjoyed all of these variations :) (I also especially liked the one right before this one... I'm a sucker for the examination of filial relationships :) )

[seekingferret]

I think there are different flavors of arranged marriage that have different amounts of consent issues involved. I think marriages where the child doesn't have any particular objection to being married, but doesn't have a say in the specifics of who they're married to, are less problematic than marriages where the child doesn't want to be married at all, for example. And there are various forms of 'arranged marriage' where the child ultimately does get some sort of say in who they marry, either covertly or overtly. (I passed this link about an Indian arranged marriage to sanguinity last week because of her deal with grrlpup about learning calculus before getting married, but it's also illustrative as a story about an institution of arranged marriage where the bride ultimately did have some say in the matter.) And I think there are a lot of gradations to this, and as we look at arranged marriage as an institution that goes back millennia and has been practiced in different ways by different cultures, it's hard to make one blanket judgement.

But I do think that there is sex in this story that is unambiguously nonconsensual.

And I think it's hard to come to terms with the way this story steers from that toward a happy ending of sorts. But to engage in more specifics, I think the only reason I was comfortable writing the story as I did is because of the other variations I've already written that show all sorts of other ways that Jessica/Lorenzo could have gone. I think we have to recognize that

1)Jessica and Shylock's relationship is the close one of a father and daughter who have lost together and who have been bound together by the experience. My favorite Merchant, the F. Murray Abraham production, introduces Jessica in a scene with no dialogue where she's lighting the Shabbat candles and making their quiet house ready to spend the Sabbath together alone with her father. It suggests beautifully that since Leah died, that has been their weekly ritual, for years.

2)Shylock is a pretty terrible person whose priorities have been totally scrambled by the combination of his personal losses and the insults of Christians. The cruelty of his deal with Antonio is one example, but it's equally demonstrated by one of the most heartbreaking lines in Merchant, when Shylock mourns his daughter's elopement by crying "My daughter, my ducats," as if they were equivalent.

3)The Jessica/Lorenzo relationship is not a balanced one. Jessica is clearly more intelligent and more savvy than Lorenzo, on the one hand. And on the other, Jessica is being asked to give up a whole lot more of herself to make their relationship work. Lorenzo will be able to keep his faith, his family, his friends, whereas Jessica will have to give all of that up for Lorenzo. And because Jessica is smart, it seems impossible to me that she doesn't know this.

So the subtext of this version of the story as I read it is that Shylock did a hard and terrible thing in order to protect his daughter. And Jessica understands because she is herself a little bit hard and terrible.

[cahn]

Yeah. I agree that she understands that, and of course there's no question that she loves him (I love the bit of the fic that talks about him singing to her child). And yet they are terrible to each other, and she knows that. (I think I really love your Variation 4 because it presents a different side of both of them being kind of terrible, but still loving each other.)

But mostly, my reaction to this comment was, you got to see the F. Murry Abraham production?! SO JEALOUS. :)

[seekingferret]

(I think I really love your Variation 4 because it presents a different side of both of them being kind of terrible, but still loving each other.)

Because of the mind state I was in when I wrote it, I can't really fairly judge that fic in any way. But I do know that both Variation 4 and Variation 5 are stories that couldn't work if not for the earlier Variations, and that's making me really excited for the 24 variations I have left. This is a really cool project for me. Because of its structure, when I finish a ficlet, I can set the project aside indefinitely and return to it whenever I want.