Shylock also suffers at the hands of his daughter; Jessica does not respect her father because he is treating her cruelly and like a child. He doesn’t let her do what she wants or see who she pleases, she is not allowed to socialise with basically anyone and this makes her really frustrated and upset. We sympathise with Shylock’s agony when he discovers she has eloped, but we also sympathise for Jessica because her father controls what she does until she eloped and before she left she had no freedom. This is a good reason to feel sorry for Jessica. Jessica has run off with Lorenzo because she hated her father because of all that she had suffered in his presence of him, so she also felt the need to get back at him and to annoy him. She needs to get money to marry Lorenzo, so she steals a ring that is so precious to Shylock because his wife gave it to him before she died. This made Shylock very upset and angry; he says “My daughter is my flesh and blood”. We especially sympathise with Shylock when we see him mocked in the street for his suffering. Salerio and Solanio torment Shylock all the time, because of how his daughter has eloped with a Christian. The fact that Jessica’s husband is a Christian angers Shylock and causes him to be a victim in a way because after all, the last thing he wanted was for his daughter to marry someone who is not a Jew. We see Shylock as the victim here because he has everyone against him because his daughter stole some of his jewels and she ran away and eloped with a Christian.
During the trail scene, it also becomes clear that Shylock will be victimised because of his faith. The law in Venice was biased in favour of the Christians, for example if an alien tries to take the life of a Christian he can be killed, so legally as a Jew, the laws are not equal as if he is an alien to Venice. There are also examples of prejudice during the trail we can see this when Portia says “if it be proved against an alien… the offender’s life lies in the mercy of the duke only”. I also think Shylock was made a victim because they don’t refer to him by his name but by his religion. They call him “Jew” whenever they refer to him this shows us that they disrespect him. At the final judgment, Shylock is not only punished, he is humiliated and ruined, Portia puts Shylock in a tight spot when she says that if Shylock sheds one drop of blood or he takes more than one pound of flesh then all his good will be confiscated and he will die. “Take thy bond doth give thee here no jot of blood. The words expressly are a pound of flesh. Take thy then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh, but in the cutting it, if thou dost shed one drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods are by the laws of Venice confiscate unto the state of Venice”. This is saying that Shylock has to take the bond but in the process of doing so if he were to shed one drop of blood, his lands and good will be taken away from him by the government in Venice. Portia also makes matters even more worse for him when she brings up the fact that he cannot take the bond because he denied it in front of the court,. He cannot escape without a penalty because he tried to harm a Christian and forces him to not have any choice but to take whatever is offered to him as punishment and he does accept. We feel very sorry for Shylock here because we can see that although he is trying to leave the bond, he knows it’s impossible to fulfil what he wants without consequences. Shylock is suffering alot because Portia keeps making matters worse although she knows she has defeated him, she still wants to humiliate him even more. Shakespeare heaps further humiliation on Shylock by ensuring it is a woman who causes his downfall. In the time of Shakespeare they thought women to be less educated than men and were thought to be not as clever and not as powerful as men. The fact a woman causes his downfall and ruins his life and that fact that she brings him down on his knees, is a lot of humiliation for Shylock and this would have made the audience think Shylock a fool. Therefore there are many good reasons for us to think of Shylock as a victim in this play. I think that Antonio victimises him the most by making him convert to Christianity. That is probably the biggest part in the play that makes him a victim.
However much we see Shylock suffer in the Merchant of Venice, we also witness the suffering that he wishes to cause. From his opening scene, we realise the strong feelings of hatred that he harbours “To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge”. This quote shows us the Shylock has been planning revenge for a long time. “The villainy you teach me I will execute.” This quote indicates that Shylock will do anything back that Antonio does to him. “I’ll plague him; I’ll torture him: I am glad of it”. This quote shows us that Shylock has suffered a lot at the hands of Antonio that he will do anything to have revenge on him. He purposefully schemes to arrange the bond with Antonio. The deal is that Antonio has to pay Shylock three thousand ducats in three months or Shylock can have one pound of Antonio’s flesh from wherever he pleases. We can see from his repetition of “well” that Shylock is thinking very hard to plot the worse thing that he can do to Antonio. We undoubtedly see Shylock as a villain here because it is a very gruesome form of revenge, and his attitude towards the Christians is no different from their attitude towards him “I hate him for he is a Christian” and “if I can catch him upon the hip/ I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.” This quote tell us that if he gets the chance of having revenge on Antonio he will go to any lengths to do so, because he has hated him for a long time.
We also see Shylock as a villain in the way he treats Jessica, his only daughter. He shows her no love as he says “Hear you me, Jessica, Let not the sound of shallow foppery enter/ my sober house.” He keeps Jessica a virtual prisoner in their home and seems more concerned about the loss of his money and his jewellery, rather than the loss of his daughter, when she runs away he says “My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter!” This shows us that he values his money more than his daughter and he wants his money back. This shows us that he is a Villain for not caring about his daughter and gives us the impression that he deserved all the grief that came from his daughter.
During the trial scene, despite Portia imploring Shylock to show Antonio mercy, he is adamant about gaining his revenge, “A pound of flesh, to be by him cut off nearest the merchant’s heart. Be merciful: take thrice thy money; bid me tear the bond”. And Shylock replies by saying, “by my soul I swear there is no power in the tongue of man to alter me. I stay here on my bond”. This demonstrates to us that he is desperate for revenge and is not willing to listen to anyone to change his mind. During the scene Shylock is even shown to be sharpening his knife, this gives the audience he impression that he just wants to get on with it and all he cares about is harming Antonio, we know this when Bassanio says “why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly?”. This quote has the meaning why do you sharpen your knife willingly. He is even willing to forgo money for the sake of his revenge; this shows us that although Bassanio offers three times the amount of money that was requested Shylock refuses it and wants his bond with Antonio. This gives us the impression that It was never about the money in the first place but all that he wanted was the hope to hurt and get revenge on Antonio. “ For thy three thousand ducats here is six” and Shylock replies in saying “ if every ducat in six thousand ducats were in six parts, and every part a ducat, I would not draw them; I would have my bond”. It is in this complete lack of compassion for human life than we see Shylocks real villainous character.
There is much evidence in The Merchant of Venice to show that Shylock is both a victim and villain in this play. I believe that in the beginning of the play Shylock is an equal villain and victim: he is a villain towards his daughter and when he writes the bond, but he is a victim when it comes to the Christian people and the running away of his daughter. But near the end of the play we see a lot of his villainous side and the side that wants to cause harm to human life. He is mostly a villain until the end of the play when the judge places the penalty and the “Jew” accepts it. This makes Shylock a victim especially the fact that he had to become Christian. All in all I feel that Shylock in this play was a victim and villain equally but if I was living in Shakespearian time I would have probably considered Shylock to be a villain because I would have a different point of view. In those times it was ordinary to consider Jews to be villains because of their religion. I think that the two main villainous parts of Shylock’s behaviour were, the idea and continuation of trying to fulfil the bond and the treatment of his daughter. I think the two main features of Shylock being a victim is the fact that he was made to become Christian and all of the mocking and name calling that he experienced just because of his religion and because he was a money lender that charged interest.
