Discuss if Shylock in the play is victim or a villain!

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ENGLISH COURSEWORK

Discuss if Shylock in the play is victim or a villain!

Introduction

William Shakespeare was born in 1564 and died in 1616. He was born in Stratford-Upon-Avon. He was educated at Stratford grammar school. Shakespeare was a poet who wrote plays, so he always tried to write his verse or prose in ways that would have the greatest dramatic impact. This is the reason why his language isn’t like everyday speech.

     Shakespeare’s “The merchant of Venice” was written and first performed in about 1597 and was performed at the theatre in London, this means that the structure of the grammar, the vocabulary and the style of dialogue have changed considerably compared to the present. The words that cause us the most problems are those that have changed such as:

  1. Cozen as in cheat.
  2. Peize as in slow down
  3. Eche as in add to

All this creates a difficulty with regard to understanding the meaning of the play and makes it hard not to use the storyline.

    In Shakespeare’s time, people were more prepared to listen to longer speeches than we are now. We not only have less patience to listen but we require information quickly and visually.

    The globe theatre also known as Shakespeare globe theatre was not only the famous playhouse of all time, but also the playhouse where Shakespeare performed many of his greatest play.

Do I think Shylock is a victim or a villain?

    The play is set in Venice, a place in Italy. The whole play is about hate, love, justice and mercy. Antonio and shylock because of the conflict between a Christian towards a Jew play the reason why it is about hate. Shylock hates Christians because he tells us in the play that Antonio insulted him, spat on him and called him names because he was a Jew. He also hates him because Antonio is a Christian. Then conflict between the two men arises when they do a little dealing business. Antonio borrows money from shylock because of his best friend bassanio. Shylock reminds him of all the nasty things he did to him but agrees to give it him and warns him that if the money is not paid on time then he will cut his pound of flesh off. Antonio was sure that his ships would arrive so he agreed. Shakespeare creates tension when the ships have sunk and the day for paying the money is overview.

    I think Shakespeare wrote this play because at his time, the Elizabethans hated the Jews because of their religion and they also used to believe that Jews stole babies and drank blood etc. to make his play popular, Shakespeare did nor write good things about the Jews because this could have offended the Elizabethans and in this way no body would have seen his play.

     Besides hate, Shakespeare also created love to make his audience happy. There is love strong love between Antonio and bassanio, Jessica and Lorenzo, gratiano and nerrissa.

      Shakespeare also creates justice and mercy in the play because shylock wants justice in the court while Antonio and the other people in the court wants mercy from shylock. This is because shylock wants the pound of flesh from Antonio while all the Christians do not want shylock to take the flesh so they ask for mercy.

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    The play is set in Venice because I think that during the time he wrote the play, there was a conflict between Christians and the Jews so if he had set the play in England then he would have had been in trouble, so it was best for him to set it somewhere different.

In the play, Antonio asks for some money from shylock for his friend bassanio who is in deep love with a fair girl called Portia. Despite all the horrible things Antonio has said and done to shylock, he actually comes to ask for ...

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