Merchant of Venice
Prejudice: The Merchant of Venice has been labeled an anti-Semetic play by some critics, but this is far from the only way to look at it. The character of Shylock seems, outwardly, to be the villain of the play. He sets up a plan to exact a pound of flesh from Antonio, who, outwardly, seems like a good Christian. The story, however, is much deeper than this. Shakespeare gives reasons for Shylock's actions-if they are acts of hatred, it is not unfounded hatred. Instead, it is clear that the Antonio has given Shylock ample reason to seek revenge. Further, many of the Christian characters exhibit the same behaviors which they persecute Shylock for. Upon examination of Shylock's motives and the actions of the Christians in the play, it is not Shylock's Jewishness which is being criticized, but the hypocrisy shown by the Christian characters. The normal first reaction to Shylock's character is that he is cruel and evil because of his un-Christian hatred for Antonio. However, it is actually Antonio who shows an unfounded hatred. As Anne Barton points out in the introduction, "Treated as something inhuman, a 'dog' or a 'cur,' Shylock not unnaturally responds...with tooth and claw" (The Riverside Shakespeare, page285). Shylock
When we again consider the last two lines cited above, with their union of faith and flesh, a final thematic cluster is completed. His statement suggests that revenge is a human trait, not a Jewish one. When the abuse of the Jew as usurer is combined with the Christian religious bias against Jewry that marked Elizabethan England, this leads to a natural result in the demonization of the Jew. Even his love interest in Portia seems strongly tied to her wealth. We, of course, know this, for Shylock (like Shakespeare's Iago, Richard the III, and other villains), has already apprised us of his hard-heartedness, hateful materialism. In this sense, Lorenzo, a Christian, has taken flesh from Shylock. In the first scene in which he appears, Shylock responds to Bassanio's request for a loan with the rhetorical questions, "What should I say to you? Should I not say/`Hath a dog money? Is it possible/A cur can lend three thousand ducats?'" (I, iii. They ask that Shylock, "Forgive a moi'ty of the principal/ Glancing an eye of pity on his losses" (4. This famous diatribe comes right after Shylock's assertion that he and Jessica are of the same flesh and blood, and Salerio's rejoinder that "There is more difference between thy flesh and hers than between jet and ivory, more between your bloods than there is between red wine and Rhenish" (III, i. Instead, it instills in his character tendencies and desires which are no different from Christian beliefs and desires. Shakespeare incorporates a plot twist which further illustrates the hypocricy which Shylock is talking about. If a Christian wrongA Jew, what should his sufferance be by Chris-tian example? Why revenge.
Common topics in this essay:
Act IV,
Antonio Christians,
Act III,
Jewish Shylock,
Bassanio Commend,
Richard III,
Revenge Christian,
Bassanio Portia,
Merchant Venice,
Christians Shakespeare,
christian characters,
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trial scene,
eye pity losses,
prince morocco,
revenge christian,
seek revenge,
antonio shylock,
human trait,
unfounded hatred,
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Acceptance Essays
