Eventually, Shylock agrees to lend the money to Basanio, interest free, on one condition – if the money is not repaid within three months Shylock will be entitled to a pound of Antonio’s flesh from the part of his body which pleases Shylock the most. This is the main storyline of the play.
As I have said, Shylock is not portrayed as a villain in this scene; the audience is more likely to feel sorry for him because of the way Antonio treated him (this is all mentioned in Shylock’s speech). Shylock’s use of language in this scene is calm yet bitter. He is especially bitter during his speech when he lets us know what Antonio had done to him in the past week. He is most calm and pleasant at the start of the scene, when he is thinking over Basanio’s request. As the scene goes on, he is reminded of what happened to him in the past and you can sense the bitterness in his voice. By the end of the scene you can get the impression that he is ready to kill Antonio. This is when he draws up the bond.
Shylock’s character develops with the scene from being, at the start, an innocent and vulnerable man who we (in modern times) feel sorry for, although the Elizabethans would have seen him as an evil murderous Jew; whilst we feel sorry for him, the Elizabethan audience would have hissed at Shylock and praised Antonio for what he did to Shylock. His character develops slowly until he becomes a bitter, hateful man until at the end of the scene the change in his character is more apparent. Shakespeare’s presentation of Shylock’s character has not been typical of the way he is presented in the play as a whole until this point. It is only from the point in his speech where Shylock recollects Antonio’s wrongs that his character changes into the dangerous and obsessive villain that is typical of the rest of the play, although Shylock sees himself as the tragic hero.
People are most likely to feel sorry for him in the middle of this scene, during his speech, because you can almost relate to the pain he is feeling. People are least likely to feel sorry for him when at first Antonio walks in and he starts saying “how like a fawning publican he looks. I Hate him” as Antonio is a Christian and a popular character. Shylock is also unpopular when he proposes his bond.
I think that the way Shylock was presented in this scene was fairly typical of the way he is presented as a whole only when he is the villain. However, I also think that he is at his “most gentle” in this scene. As the play moves on Shylock’s hatred grows and grows until at the end of the play he feels so much loathing towards Antonio that the conclusion of the trial devastates him so much that he must leave the court. It is sad that a man should feel so much hatred towards another human being; although the story is only a play and the characters fictional, I feel the hatred was real.
