21. Courtroom Bamboozle 1: A Pound of Flesh

Justice: A long and winding road...

(A Rajasthani village street)

I could have used the word ‘trick’ instead of bamboozle, but the work ‘trick’ sounded so small, far too tiny a word to impress upon the mind that sense of mesmerizing stupidity that takes place in the best courtroom arenas.

When I think of the many great trials that have been immortalized by writers I limit myself to a choice of two: “The Merchant of Venice” and “A Passage to India”. These two renown trials seem to illustrate quite perfectly how easy and hence extremely dangerous it is, to win or lose all, by one simple detail. A drop of blood... that was the critical detail in “The Merchant of Venice”. Shylock who lent Antonio a large sum of money against a bond of a pound of his flesh should he fail to return it on the appointed day, which is exactly what occurs, and Shylock comes to claim, from Antonio’s breast, the due pound of flesh. Let’s face it, if Antonio had not been able to cough up what was owing, Shylock was simply claiming what was justly his and agreed upon- so why the fuss? Everyone cries out, “it isn’t fair,” but Shylock in claiming his pound of flesh is only doing what is legally permitted, so where is the miscarriage in justice in all this? And this is where it gets exciting because there are two kinds of justice- the common sense one and the legal one, or rather the bamboozled one. Since it is common sense that if one owes you something you always allow a margin of time before dropping down the axe. But not so with Shylock, because Shylock had no mercy in him, Shylock rejoiced in being the artifice to conjure up evil at his command and couldn’t wait to get his hand on the knife, twist and turn it inside Antonio’s breast and get his ‘rightful’ pound of flesh, which in the end was only a piece of carcass, completely useless as it was not even edible, I should think.

For those who get a kick out of reducing other people to misery or find it pleasing to do such things as piercing dogs eyes with a knitting needle to enhance their career in begging, might back up Shylock all the way. The more common among us might think that Antonio’s breast should be spared and that if it isn’t, even though technically speaking, everything is above board and legal, nevertheless consider the execution of the bond a great miscarriage of justice. It is to prevent this type of ‘miscarriage of justice’, which in effect has nothing illegal about it at all, that lawyers were invented.

It is thanks to Portia, in her capacity as a lawyer that she points out to the court that Shylock has every right to his pound of flesh, but only to a pound of flesh not a fraction more not a fraction less. But most importantly, it has to be only flesh… not a single drop of blood may be spilt because as agreed up, he may only take flesh. Even though Antonio’s breast is left intact, for which we all rejoice, technically speaking, justice has not been made since Shylock has not had neither his money nor his pound of flesh and all we can say is, ‘It serves him right!’