The interpretation of the Adam and Eve story during that time period also effectively stifled any early attempts at a women’s rights movement, because it decried women as being the cause of sin in the world.

	


          It is evident from Bassanio’s speech in Act 3 Scene 2 that Law and religion are two professions easily tainted by silver and gold: gold, both in the literal and the metaphorical sense. In religion, golden symbols can be mistook for idols, and also religious people often wear articles made of or adorned with silver and gold. Also, lawyers often speak with a gilded tongue, and can be bribed to sway one way or the other. Bassanio’s two examples reveal his reasoning by illustrating his impressions of the silver and gold caskets. Bassanio realizes that just as lawyers and priests can be lead astray by money, so are Portia’s suitors being deceived by the silver and gold caskets. Bassanio deduces that since it is human nature to be attracted by bright, shiny things, the gold and silver caskets must be traps for greedy or non-intelligent suitors.
          The fact that this speech follows Shylock’s money hungry tirade in 3.1 reinforces the idea that men are easily swayed by outwardly attractive things. In 3.1, Antonio is feared to have lost some money to the wiles of a tumultuous sea, while Shylock bemoans the money he has lost because he daughter Jessica ran away. In both of these cases, the men’s fates are being controlled by the amount of money they have. Antonio’s fate is doom if it turns out that he has really lost all his fortunes in the sea; likewise, Shylock’s reputation is doom if his daughter never returns, and spends up all the money she stole. Antonio had fooled himself into believing that his money would see him through and allow him to pay off his loan to Shylock. Shylock fooled himself into believing that his docile, beautiful daughter would not disgrace his family by running off.
          Lorenzo’s speech in 3.5.37 reinforces the idea of gilded words that Bassanio refers to in his speech in 3.2 (“…what plea so tainted an corrupt/But, being seasoned with a gracious voice,/Obscures the show of evil…”). Interestingly enough, both Lorenzo’s and Bassanio’s speeches reinforce different aspects of Shylock’s speech that might seem questionable to the reader. The first aspect, as expressed by Bassanio’s speech in 3.2, is the easy way in which men are led astray for the sake of money (“…The seeming truth which cunning times put on/To entrap the wisest…”) While saying his speech, Shylock tries to pretend like he cares about his daughter. But at times it seems like he misses his gold more than his daughter, especially evidenced by the fact that he uses the word “ducat” five times during the course of his speech, and uses the word “daughter” only four times. 