Abstract

The intention of this brief article is to demonstrate, through the Machiavellian and Shakespearean analyzes, mediated by the latter's work, “The Merchant of Venice”, the contrast between the classical republican conception and the modern political ideal of freedom. We will take as a gauge the ideas of social belonging (religion, social recognition); legal constitution of rights (individual freedom), trying to understand how these aspects are constructed in the representations of the city of Venice by the two authors. For this undertaking, it will be necessary to understand the Machiavellian understanding of the political and social structures that founded and sustained the Venice of his time. Then understand the scenario in which Shakespeare sees the Venice of his era, analyzing his work mentioned. Finally, we will try to demonstrate how one can extract from this intricate approximation subsidies to think the contrast between the traces of a classic republican thought and the incipient points of a modern conception of individual freedom.