My solution to the Merchant of Venice dilemma

Disclaimer: I have not read Merchant of Venice but I have heard of it and read about it.

My understanding of the premise is that Shylock lets Antonio borrow his ships under the condition that Antonio must give Shylock a "pound of flesh" if he can not return the ships. The ships are lost at sea. From what I've heard, what happens next is a judge tries convince Shylock to forgive Antonio's debt for money, the Judge offers large amounts of money but Shylock out of his furry against Antonio declines the offers and says something along the lines of, "the law says I can only take a pound of flesh." (this phrase here is the cornerstone of my argument but it is also the reason for my disclaimer) The judge then traps Shylock with what is called a quibble, the judge says the agreement allows Shylock a pound of flesh but not any blood. I think what happens next is Shylock tries to accept some of the money offers but the judge says something like, "you said that the law said that you could only accept a pound of flesh."

Shylock's downfall was not that he was holding a grudge, but that he did not pick his choice of words carefully. If not mistaken what he said was "I can only accept a pound of flesh," what he should of said was "your offer is not big enough," or even "I will only accept of pound of flesh."Although I think his poor word choice was the product of his lust for revenge, so I guess this book still does teach not to hold a grudge but not in the way it thinks.

This is a solution to how a pound of flesh could've been drawn without any blood being spilt.

1. Put Antonio in the sun.
2. Wait for Antonio's sunburns to recover.
3. Once his skin is starting to be flakey; lightly tear it off.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 as necessary.

Even if a little blood was spilt would that necessarily be illegal, I think the Judge's ruling was that the smallest amount of blood would've screwed Shylock, but I think that is unreasonable, after-all how bad is a paper-cut.