Justice in The Tempest and The Merchant of VeniceIn Merchant of Venice and The Tempest, Shakespeare offers ideas of justice and mercy that are true in the two pieces. In order to see if the actions taken were just and/or merciful, definitions of these words must be put in place. If we were to assume that Shakespeare's definition of mercy was the one that Portia adopted in Act Four, Scene One, particularly lines 205 and 206, the definition of mercy must be viewed in a biblical sense. So, in order to judge whether something is merciful, we must look at whether it meets the New Testament conditions for mercy. However, the idea of ​​justice is quite different, for my definition of justice I will look to Charles Mill's definition, because, in plays, it applies most. Mill's argued that justice for Europeans meant "just us", implying different standards for white Christians than for any other race or religion. Now that we have firm definitions of what mercy and justice are in the context of Shakespeare's time, it is possible to see how each of them played a role in these ...