Chapter 65
Ron waited for the girls to arrive. He was anxious to see them. It occurred to him that he had never had a favorite class before, and he wondered if it was healthy. Although he was active and happy in his other classes, he did not think about them the way that he thought about the Shakespeare class. He worried that he might be short changing his other classes.
His worry vanished when he saw them coming in. Many of them moved straight to the side board and began to write before they even put their books down and before the bell rang that announced the start of the class. They were using their hall time, their free time to talk to each other, to be in his room and write comments about the reading. It made him swell with pride as he watched them.
Samantha wrote, “Portia is cool. I like her.”
Donna wrote, “Jessica is going to be an unhappy girl. This thing with Lorenzo is doomed.”
Elena wrote, “The loan seems to be filled with hatred.”
Elizabeth wrote, “Portia is trapped because if she does not honor her father’s will, she will lose her own honor.”
Helen wrote, “These people give their religions a bad name.”
Ron watched the girls writing and tried hard to not notice the way that their young bottoms jiggled as they wrote so furiously. He looked down into his book. He did not want to look at them that way.
Connie wrote, “I think that Portia and Nerissa are true friends and I hope that nothing bad happens to them.”
Veronica wrote, “I think I know why Antonio is sad.”
Her comment startled Ron. It was a good place to start the class but if would diffuse some of their excitement over Portia. She had spun her spell on them and they were seeing themselves in her place. Shakespeare truly was an incredible genius, thought Ron. How could he conceive of this character? Then he realized that in a world ruled by a queen, it was be easier to think of women as strong.
“Ok,” said Ron. It seems like everyone has gotten through the first two acts. Does anyone have any questions about what is going on?”
Ron waited. No one raised a hand. He turned to Elena. “Summarize for me. What has happened?”
Elena smiled. “Well Bassanio and Portia are going to get to be together. You can just see that coming. But, Bassanio went to Shylock and they agreed on this weird loan, three thousand ducats for three months. Antonio guarantees the loan and Shylock says that he wants a pound of Antonio’s flesh if he can’t pay in time.”
Donna interrupted. “Is that legal?” I mean, can you make a loan for that kind of repayment?”
It was a good question, almost too good. If he really answered her now, he would blow the ending. “The laws were different back then and remember, people also sold themselves into slavery to gain passage to America. Such a thing would not be legal today, but back then it was a common practice.” He looked at Donna. His answer seemed to satisfy her. He turned his gaze back to Elena and the dark eyed girl continued.
“Shylock’s daughter Jessica and Lorenzo want to be together, but they have to sneak around. Oh, and I finally understand about Portia’s father’s game. If these guys make a wrong answer they have to agree on their honor to go away immediately and never marry. That makes the stakes a bit higher. So they have to really want Portia before they even ask to choose. I wish that they did not keep the answers in caskets though. That is very creepy.”
Ron smiled. “They aren’t caskets in the way that we think of the word. They just are small boxes, like jewelry boxes.”
“Oh, “said Elena. “Is there any reason that they can’t just say jewelry boxes?”
“Caskets does make it seem much more serious, doesn’t it?” said Ron. “Ok, how many of you agree with Donna and think that Jessica is making a mistake?”
Ron directed their eyes over to Donna’s comment on the side board. He made a yes and no divide on the chalkboard and had the strange thought that he did it by drawing a cross. That hadn’t occurred to him before. He polled the room quickly. The class was split. The class was split ten agreeing that Jessica was making a mistake and thirteen not agreeing. Ron turned to Donna, “OK, why do you think that she is making a mistake?”
“Because of the way that he talks to her,” said Donna. “He talks down to her all the time. Wait let me find it.” She looked into the book. Ron almost popped a shirt button with the swell of pride in his chest as she went to the text to back up her assertion. She got it. She was way ahead of the curve.
Donna read, “‘Most beautiful pagan, most sweet Jew! if a Christian did not play the knave and get thee, I am much deceived.’ Donna paused. “That’s not the best example, but I always get the feeling that he is talking down to her and treating her as if he is doing her some kind of great favor.”
Ron nodded, “OK.”
“I think that he really loves her and that he doesn’t care if she is a Jew or a Christian. I think that he really wants to be with her,” said Helen.
“Does anyone think that she should not go with Lorenzo other than for Donna’s reason?” said Ron.
Veronica raised her hand a little bit timidly, almost as if she was apologizing. “I think that what she does to her father is wrong. I don’t think that Shylock is a nice man but he is her father and she steals from him and she leaves him all alone. She betrays him.” Veronica was gaining strength as she talked. “And I think that it’s bad luck to start a marriage with a betrayal. And she is going to have no family for the rest of her life. These people will always think of her as the Jew’s daughter and if Lorenzo gets tired of her she will have nothing at all.”
Elizabeth shot back. “What does she have now? She’s stuck with a father who treats her like a piece of shit.” Elizabeth’s hand flew up to her mouth and her light skinned face reddened visibly. “I’m sorry, Mr. Tuck,” she said staring up at Ron. “I mean he treats her like crap.”
Ron smiled in a way that let her know that she was not in any trouble. Cursing carried a penalty of five demerits and for a moment Ron was the person in charge of discipline. The class was watching him intently. “I think that we all talk differently when we are not in class. The important thing to do is to understand the difference and Elizabeth corrected herself before anyone had to point it out to her.” He paused and hoped that what he said would sink in. “Now let’s get back to the important stuff. Samantha, why do you think that Portia is cool? And why did you start to like her?”
Samantha grinned. “She’s sarcastic when it comes to guys. She knows what you are like and she can see through your game.”
Ron smiled. “I don’t have any game.”
Like synchronized swimmers, the girls rolled their eyes at the same time. Ron saw it and began to laugh in spite of himself. “Why else do you like her?”
“She knows what’s important to her,” said Samantha.
“Let’s hold that thought,” said Ron. “Samantha, we are going to come back to that comment at the end of the play. If I forget, I want you to remind me.”
Samantha smiled as she basked in the glow of having made a positive contribution. She was thrilled knowing that one of her ideas was an idea that he wanted to save and revisit. It was just then that the bell rang. The class groaned. Ron smiled.
About an hour later, he met Sister Donna Maria in her office to review discipline. After they had settled and gone through a list of girls that were coming before the faculty council, she said, “It isn’t often that I get a complaint about you, Mr. Tuck, but I got one.”
Ron looked up. Her eyes were a watery, placid brown, like wet mold. “What is it, Sister?”
“Are you teaching the children about the Jewish faith?’
Ron laughed, “Not at all, Sister. We are reading The Merchant of Venice in my Shakespeare class.”
“But did you teach them that Christians persecuted Jewish people?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Why would you tell them that?”
“Well,” said Ron. “For one thing it is the truth and for another it is in the play.” Then he thought that this was going in a poor direction. He did not want her prying into the content of the plays. He was instantly and instinctively sure that she was not familiar with Shakespeare. When he had first proposed the idea, her comment had been something to the effect of ‘did he really think that the girls would have any interest in that.’ He decided to take a page out of Shakespeare’s book. “Sister, the Catholic Church is never mentioned. As you know, in England that had The Church of England. I will make sure that the girls understand that.”
Donna Maria smiled placidly. Then her smile turned to a frown. “I have also been informed that you allow the girls to curse in class. Now when I heard that, I didn’t believe it, but I think that since we are talking about it I might as well put all of my cards on the table.”
Ron looked down at the table like he was seeing the Old Maid card with her picture on it. “One time, one girl mistakenly used a crass word. It did not take the name of the Lord in vain or I would have been very upset.”
“What was the word?”
“She said, ‘shit’ and then she immediately apologized and corrected herself.”
Donna Maria sighed. “I guess that we can’t expect too much of these girls considering who they are and when they are from.”
Ron felt his face tighten. He truly did not like this woman and was seeing more and more why Bernadette considered her dangerous. “That’s true, Sister.”
“Who was the girl?” said Donna Maria.
Ron scratched the back of his head. “Gee, I can’t even remember.” Then he paused. “You did put me in charge of these kinds of offenses, Sister.”
“Yes,” said the principal thoughtfully but it is important that I also know who the rabble rousers are.”
Ron squinted as if he was trying to remember what he was really doing was trying to keep himself from saying what he thought, which was that she would consider anyone with a brain and an original thought a troublemaker.